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7 Tips for Increasing Social Media Engagement

7 Tips for Increasing Social Media Engagement

This is a guest contribution from Kristie McCollum.

When it comes to creating your social media strategy, it’s always good to keep things fresh and evolving. There are a few things you can do to keep your marketing content engaging even as trends change.

Whether you are just starting a blog or have been blogging for years and traffic and engagement (or even sales) have reached a halt, it’s time for you to transform your social media marketing strategy.

Why is social media marketing important for a blogger?

As a new or seasoned blogger, it’s important for you to create a community around your blog. Your community is going to be made up of loyal readers, people who share your content, and those who purchase products or services consistently.

Social media is the bridge that connects your audience with your content.

Having a solid social media marketing strategy is going to not only increase traffic and engagement, but it will also increase your income.

Check out the following ways to transforming your social media marketing strategy if you are ready to:

  • Increase your blog traffic
  • See better engagement across social media and on your blog
  • Build a supportive and loyal community of readers and buyers

1. Set Defined Goals

Before you can even begin mapping out your social media marketing strategy, you have to set clear and well defined goals. You need to know exactly where you are and where you want to go.

Think of your goals as your GPS. Document your starting place and where you want to end. For example, I am starting with a group of 100 people in my Facebook group and I’d like to have 1,000 by the end of the year. Having defined goals will eliminate the guesswork and you’ll also have to opportunity to see just how much you’ve grown over time.

2. Deliver Content Wisely

Your audience’s problems are not only key to your content marketing strategy but also your social media strategy.

You have to not only provide great content, but provide great content in a way that your audience can best receive it. If your target audience is young male body builders, you may best reach them with live videos or short video clips that they can watch while at the gym versus long wordy posts.

Ensuring that what you are creating is received in the best way possible by your audience is going to increase engagement greatly.

3. Ask Questions

Such a simple thing is often overlooked. Simply asking questions at the end of social media posts can really increase engagement and even shares. Many of the post that do well for me are concluded with a question.

You can even do things to get your audience more involved: for example, asking them to tag a friend or share their favorites, or top things related to your post topic.

4. Share Content from Top Influencers

This can really help increase engagement. You should already be sharing 80% of others’ content, but many people are not sure what to share or whose content to share.

Try taking a look at some of the content of the top influencers within your niche. By sharing their content, you are showing your audience that they can trust you because you are willing to reach outside of your own work to connect them to useful content. When your audience feels that they can trust what you share, they begin to trust you and your brand and will be more willing to interact and engage with your content.

5. Focus on What Works For You

Just because you see others doing well on Facebook, doesn’t mean Facebook is for you or your blog.

Be sure to check your analytics and take note of which social media platforms are driving the most engaging traffic. I get a lot of traffic from Facebook because of the promotional groups I participate in. This isn’t engaging traffic.

Wherever you are getting organic traffic, that’s where you should focus your efforts. Every platform isn’t designed for every blog or blogger. Go where your audience is. My audience is made up of moms so Pinterest is a great platform to focus my efforts on. Focus on what works best for you, not on what others say you should focus on.

6. Be Transparent

It’s okay to be open with your audience. You don’t have to give everything away, but you should share some personal moments from time to time with your audience.

Social media allows us to connect with our audience in a more personable way. Use it to make sure you are creating that connection. Post a photo of your dog lying next to you while you work, share a story about a time you failed in your business, things like that not only connect us, but humanize our brands.

When your audience gets to learn more about the real you, they will want to engage and connect with you more.

7. Always Link to a Product

Whether it’s paid or free, you should always be sending your audience to some sort of product or service.

You want to give value in your posts and videos but always send them to get more. Every interaction is an opportunity. Many of us are afraid to promote ourselves, but if this is your livelihood, then you have to do more.

Link to opt-ins or paid products or services in your bios, on Pinterest, on live videos, within Facebook groups, on Twitter, everywhere. Remember, social media is a bridge. Use that bridge to get your audience to your blog, business, products, and services.

Social media is ever-changing. But you can always do these things to help you stay relevant and keep your audience engaged with your content.

Be sure to be social and actively respond and connect with your audience. Many people lose support by failing to respond to messages or comments. Even a simple, “thank you for sharing” goes a long way.

Whatever challenges you face in the world of social media marketing, remember to focus on what works best for you and what will allow you to best connect with your audience.

Kristie is a work at home mom of three and serves mompreneurs as a social media and brand strategist. You can connect with Kristie at The Official CEO Mom or follow her on Twitter.

About Guest Blogger
This post was written by a guest contributor. Please see their details in the post above.
Comments
  1. What a valuable blog post Kristie!

    I think Social Media is one important channel to expand the awareness of whatever it is you want to build!

    Social media is the bridge that acts as a shortcut between you and your customers / audience. You can connect faster and better. And people can share with each other a lot faster and so on. If you are not using social media as part of your marketing strategies you are missing out!

    Thanks for sharing this awesome post!

    Keep up the great work!

    Cheers ! :)

  2. Hi Kristie,

    Asking questions is a surefire way to increase engagement fast.

    I just asked a question earlier today; nice chats related to that post. I dig asking questions a few times weekly. Probing for reader problems. Or maybe I ask my friends who needs a guest post for their blog as I am happy to churn ’em out. If you ask, folks on social will answer. Just ask persistently to see optimal results. Sometimes people may not respond for a few days or even weeks when you are a new blogger, but they will respond eventually in a major league way.

    Excellent advice on #7! Flies in the face of common knowledge ;) that you should not sell on social. No way. Please sell on social. Lead in to the sale. People want free help. People want premium help. Do not be shy. At all. Because I used to be shy – following advice of folks who feared selling on social – and ran into all types of problems with generating blogging profits. It is only money, anyway. Not asking folks to hand over their first born to access your course or to hire you. Just dough. If you ask folks freely on social to buy your stuff or to hire you, they will, over time. Keep adding value and keep on asking to boost engagement and your blogging income.

    Thanks for sharing :)

    Ryan

  3. Focusing on what works for you is critical. Testing different strategy and working out what your audience engages with is the most effective technique. Great post!

  4. Great Post Kristie,

    Social Media Platforms Bring more organic traffic to websites , I am currently Working on Social Engagement on Social platforms like Facebook , twitter, Google plus communities to stay connected and to constantly update about my blogs to viewers & in this way i also get backlinks for my website https://appsdiscover.com/ .

  5. Hi Kristie,

    Great tips for people who are trying to get a better handle on social media. There’s always so much to learn and do, it seems impossible.

    Social media has definitely helped me grow my blog faster than relying on SEO. While it’s still a work in progress, it is amazing at how powerful social media can be.

    When I first started using social media, I had no clue what I was doing. I was trying to be everywhere on every platform. I ended up burning myself out.

    I finally figured out which social platforms are worth my time. Now I focus on 1-2 platforms and am focused on learning as much as I can about those 2. It definitely takes some time, but I have accomplished so much more than trying to be everywhere.

    Totally agree with you about always offering your services or products. I do this on my blog posts and my email auto-responders. After all, you definitely want to give people a chance to buy your products and services.

    Now, I just need to start paying better attention to my analytics. I have to admit when it comes to using social media analytics, I am not that great.

    Have a great one :)

    Susan

    • Definitely agree. No need to try to be everywhere and everything to everyone! Focusing on those 1-2 platforms and giving mega value is better than providing little value in a lot of places.

      Noting your stats can be super helpful. It will allow you see what your audience wants more of, what times they engage more and what platforms bring you the most traffic. Your social media goes hand in hand with your SEO so keep doing both!

  6. Hi Kristie

    How important do you think the posting schedule is in social media?

    • Extremely. You have to be mindful of your audience. People are always on their social media and you need to be on their feeds. Check your analytics to determine when your audience interacts the most. It’s those times that you want to be most active.

  7. Amy @ Life Zemplified says: 05/21/2017 at 4:36 am

    Thanks for this list Kristie! Happy to say I’m doing many of these but I can definitely make some improvements. I agree it’s about finding what works best for you. Thanks for sharing.

  8. Amazing post, Kristie!

    I really loved the idea of focusing on what works best for you. Everyone has a different audience, own style of writing, unique marketing strategy and effective techniques so the best strategy is one that actually works best for you.

    While using social media, trying different things make improvements. I agree with your last tip of linking to products (free or paid). Yes, people do look for resources to get benefit. Social media is the fastest term for building connections and establishing relationships.

    Arfa :)

  9. Hi, Kristie!

    You’ve explained the social media engagement in the best way possible. Hats off!

    I know we all talk about social media and how to cash in on it — but at the end of the day, it requires a plan of action, and this blog post can help people build that plan of action.

    In fact, this blog post gave me an idea of a blog post for my blog.

    Thank you so much!

  10. Ashok says: 05/22/2017 at 4:19 am

    Very Valuable Content. Social media is a great practice to get lots of traffic and visibility to blog.
    Thanks for this post.

  11. shawn martin says: 05/22/2017 at 3:31 pm

    Social media is a very most valuable part of digital marketing field, and social media is to connected to the people and share and update to new tech. and Mobile Queue Management and mobile tech is great helpful to connect to digital marketing to people. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/317e9ef8338c84118e43a68a765bf2c36fbbdd1e25fd9f39014169d156fc5d45.jpg

  12. Such good advice – I have found asking questions has a huge impact but for ages I just made a statement and wondered why I got no interaction!

  13. We really forget and don’t consider these tiny details and things which can have an impact on our blog and audience engagement.

  14. WOW, this was really helpful and simple things to implement. Thank you!

  15. It’s better to specialize than to be a jack-of-all-trades. A highly-focused social media and content marketing strategy intended to build a strong brand has a better chance for success than a broad strategy that attempts to be all things to all people.

  16. We are struggling to find online tools that help to create comparative charts in an easy and informative manner. We have so many fabric choices to cover and pictorials definitely drive visual engagement – any recommendations? This looks like the right place to find some true wisdom :)

  17. Hello Kristie!

    I like how precise you explain each detail in this article.“Boring” is possibly one of the worst insults a person or a brand can be associated with these days and I would not want to be that “boring”. In relation to your article, how do I overcome these tips without being labeled as “boring”? Looking forward for your response, I’d appreciate it :)

    All in all, Fantastic article! I’d love to read more of your posts!

    Keep it up!

    – Jessica

  18. Social media marketing is a highly valued element of any marketing strategy. It changed the world of SEO and online marketing.

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