What might not be as obvious for small business owners and entrepreneurs is how to effectively engage with their social media audience at the right place, the right time, and with the right message. This is generally not something that most business owners are familiar with, so this article will point out a few tips on managing and engaging with your social media audience.
More likely than not, your business has multiple generations of customers on social media, and they vary greatly as to how they use social media to make decisions. While social media is one of the most popular ways to connect with existing and potential customers, using it effectively is not always easy to do.
Certain social media platforms appeal to one demographic while others appeal to an entirely different age or group. In other words, not all social media channels are right for every small business because each one is trying to reach a different type of audience. This is why it is so important to properly target your audiences smartly and effectively within your marketing budget.
So what is the importance of audience engagement on social media?
Having a strong social media presence is great, but it’s the audience engagement that is the true test of your online success. Likes, comments, follows and shares of your content are all indicators that your messages are resonating with an audience. Interacting directly with your audience on social media also boosts your overall online reputation.
In addition to getting your campaigns in front of a larger amount of people via individual interactions, audience engagement on social media is also crucial for your company to broaden your reach on the platforms themselves. Social media algorithms favor content that creates meaningful engagement when prioritizing what their users see in their feeds. If your Facebook or Instagram posts attract more attention, it is more likely that even more people will see them the next time you post.
4 Tactics to Boost Your Customer Engagement
Delivering the right content to the right people at the right time is challenging. This is why having a content management strategy is so important . So is creating and delivering content frequently across multiple platforms to provide a positive experience for your audience.
Here are 4 tactics to boost your customer engagement:
Know Your Social Media Audience –
Knowing who you are trying to talk to is essential to creating successful marketing campaigns and engaging with customers on social media. You should work with your digital marketing professional to find out the demographics of your customers to properly target them and allocate your marketing dollars on the right platforms to reach them.Respond Quickly
A fast response matters to customers and shows that you care about them and what they have to say. So many small businesses spend so much time and money to get engagement and then never respond to their customer questions or concerns. Not meeting customer expectations on this front can be severely damaging to your online social presence.Maintain Your Brand Voice
Brand voice is the selection of words, as well as the attitudes and values of your brand that is displayed to your target audiences on social platforms. In simple terms, it is how your company’s brand showcases your businesses’ personality to different groups of individuals and how it is perceived by those audiences.Post Frequently and Consistently
The only way your business will build long-term customer engagement on social media is to get your message out frequently and consistently. There is no “magic formula” to tell you how frequently you should post on social channels (although a plethora of articles claim differently). My advice is to post relevant, value-added content as much as possible for your business. As a minimum, I would recommend a few times a week. Keep in mind that repeating good content is ok as long as you don’t “over post” your message to the point of annoying your audience.
In conclusion, successfully engaging with your audience on social media is not an easy task. It requires the right strategy, a strong understanding of your audience, the right content output at the right time and most of all…..patience.