5 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Engagement

Alright, you may have read my post, 5 Ways to Grow Your Instagram. But, if you are a blogger, Instagram may not be the forum of social media that drives lots of traffic. Or, it may be hit or miss on your traffic. I’ve created a general guideline that works for all social media platforms to help you get more likes, comments, shares, views, and so on. Here are my 5 ways to improve your social media engagement:

Watch Your Analytics

What type of posts work? What time? What day of the week? What isn’t working for you? Adjust your posting, and get rid of what doesn’t work. I will also say that what works for another person on social media, may not work for you. I’ve tried to do research on “the best time to post on social media” before. What I’ve found is that someone may say that their audience or the average person is on Instagram at 3 P.M. on Wednesday’s, but this doesn’t mean that is the best time for YOU to post on Instagram. For example, depending on your audiences location or age, they may not be using social media at that time. Reminder- Best posting times could also vary if it is a holiday.

Just to give you a view of what analytics look like on different social media platforms, below are analytics from Instagram and Facebook. What this information tells me is that what I’ve posted, the hashtags I’ve used, and/or the time I’ve posted brought traffic and engagement. Review analytics for all of your posts to see what works and doesn’t (hashtags or content, for example), and review your average analytics (best time of day or day of week to post, for example).

Post Often

Remember, quality over quantity, but activity is still important! Posting often was one of the points in my previous blog post, and it applies to all social media. You don’t want to be forgotten by followers, or unfollowed for lack of content. New posts are more opportunities to receive engagement. The more engagement you receive, the more likely you are to be shown to other people. My rule of thumb, is to at least post once a day on each platform. It’s also important to figure out which platforms need posts more often. For example, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram Stories need more posts for me, however once a day on Instagram suffices. If you find that you can’t get on your social media accounts enough throughout the day to post, find a scheduler that works best for you! For example, I use Tailwind to schedule Pins.

Cross-Promote

Did you know you can automatically share posts from Instagram to Facebook and Twitter? Did you know that you can share Tweets to Facebook? Did you know you can share posts from Instagram on Pinterest?

While there are millions of people on Facebook and millions of people on Instagram, that doesn’t mean every person is on both. Each form of social media has its own demographics, which means different people, different times of activity, different algorithms, and different types of engagement. So, cross-promoting is a way to get your posts recognized by different demographics. This will also help people see your posts more, if they are on both forms of social media.

Giveaways

Who doesn’t love free stuff?! Even if there is a huge chance of not winning, I know I love to at least enter giveaways! So many people have that “what if it is me?” mindset, that they’ll do whatever they can to win a giveaway. So, create a giveaway that incorporates engaging tasks, such as follow ___ account, follow my account, like this photo and tag two friends for a bonus entry. This will boost engagement by followers, likes and comments! Don’t forget to use attention grabbing words at the beginning of the post: “GIVEAWAY ALERT” or “CONTEST ALERT”!

The 5 “W’s”

In each of your relevant accounts, try to describe these as best as possible: Who you or your company is, what you do, where you’re located, when you originated and why. Why? Because, chances are, unless your Target, no one is going to know who you are. If someone is stumbling across your account, they aren’t going to know anything about you or your business. So tell them. You are given account descriptions or “about me’s” for a reason. This makes you personable or relatable. For example, on The Twins In Tow Facebook Page, I tell the story of how I started blogging. On Pinterest, it says that I’m a mom, wife, and blogger who posts content on style, food, travel, etc. This also targets a specific audience, aka an audience that will like what you share, thus giving more engagement!