Want to get people engaging with your social media content? Social media engagements will often not lead to sales – but they can still be beneficial in boosting your influence and reputability, improving brand awareness and building a community around your business. This in turn can lead to more business.
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But just how do you get people liking, sharing and replying to your posts? There are many social media marketing strategies you can use. Some will get engagements, but not always the right type of engagements. To help encourage interaction on social media the right way, here are just some of the important do’s and don’ts to consider.
Do's on Generating Social Media Engagement
Do use images
Posts that include images have a 650% higher engagement rate than text only posts. Such images could be photos, illustrations, cartoons or graphs. Try to include images with the majority of your posts so that you’re getting more engagement.
The more eye-catching the image, the more likely you are to get people interacting. With photos, ensure that they are high quality.
Don’t ignore the text
You can’t communicate everything through images alone. The accompanying text needs to be informative but equally engaging. Keep it snappy and use emotionally provocative words that grab people’s attention.
Questions are particularly great for encouraging interactions, as are shocking stats. It’s worth noting that text can be overlaid onto images. Adverts, memes, infographics and motivational posters are all examples of content that includes words on images.
Do try video
Video posts generate even more engagements than image posts. While social media platforms like TikTok are entirely video-based, videos are also popular on the likes of Facebook and X (Twitter). Such videos could be promotional or informational, and could come in the form of live-action videos or animations.
While DIY vlog styles can be effective, it’s worth hiring a video production company when producing most types of video content. This will ensure that your videos are high quality.
Do stay on brand
It can be tempting to jump on hot button topics just to get engagements, but if they don’t have anything to do with your business, you should consider whether they’re worthwhile. It’s important to try to keep a brand identity and try to keep content related to your industry or target consumers in some way.
Do consider timing
When you post can be just as important as what you post. Try to work out exactly what is the peak time for your target audience to be using social media and post during these times.
B2C companies typically get more engagements when posting out of 9 to 5 weekday hours, while B2B companies may get more engagements when posting within 9 to 5 weekday hours. But if you have an international audience or target businesses/consumers that don’t strictly work 9 to 5, these peak times may be different.
Don'ts on Generating Social Media Engagement
Don’t rely on audio
Many social media users have videos automatically set to mute or are using devices without the volume on. Therefore you cannot rely on audio to get a message across or grab people’s attention on social media.
Captions are often necessary if people are talking and visuals should be used to grab people’s attention rather than sounds. That said, don’t ignore sound entirely. It can also be a plus factor in generating social media engagement.
Don’t spam hashtags
Hashtags can be a useful tool in generating social media engagement – helping consumers search for your posts, but you shouldn’t go too crazy with them, as this can make your content look spammy. On X, you shouldn’t really be using any more than two hashtags per post.
TikTok’s character limit means that you shouldn’t really use more than 3 or 5 hashtags. On LinkedIn, you can add up to 10 hashtags, but 3 is recommended. On Instagram, you can add up to 30 hashtags, but 3 to 5 is recommended.
Don’t rely on controversy
Controversial posts can often get engagements. But you can also risk turning consumers against you if you take side on certain issues like politics or religion. Getting into brand wars can also be risky. Some companies do pull it off. But there’s a chance it could backfire horribly, so you should be cautious of doing anything too polarising.
