With mobile dominating the digital marketing landscape, it's more important than ever to use a variety of strategies to increase your audience engagement on social media. Without a social media strategy, you run the risk of being out of touch with your target audience and failing your social media campaigns.
In 2019, brands are looking to improve their social media strategies to help drive their social media engagement metrics. That said, here are five engagement strategies you can use in your campaigns to boost engagement this year.
- Brand personas. A brand persona is a personality that your brand possesses. Depending on your target audience, your brand connects with certain groups of people. It's important that you create a personality that resonates not only with your target audience but also with the audience of the social media channel you're using. For instance, you want a brand persona that's more outgoing and creative on Instagram whereas you might want to be more professional and to-the-point on LinkedIn. Ultimately, you want a brand persona that your audience can engage with on each social media platform.
- Engage in conversations. A crucial strategy to have on social media is to engage with your users while pushing your agenda at the same time. Social media users aren't likely to engage with posts that are a call to action or promotional. Engage with your users by asking for feedback, reviews, creating polls, or asking questions. You want to find the right balance between useful content and promotional posts if you want high audience engagement.
- Use your channel as customer service. As we mentioned above, it's a good idea to ask your social media users questions and to ask for feedback. It's also worth considering using your social media for customer service. When a user asks a question related to your brand, you want to take your time to reply. This is because other social media users are following closely when you make that reply. This will help to protect your brand's reputation and improve social media engagement metrics.
- Use social media plugins. There are many different social media plugins that you can use online to increase engagement with your target audience. Social media plugins make it possible for online users to share posts and content from your brand's website directly to their own social media pages. This is especially beneficial for new users and potential consumers who may visit your website from another user's shared link.
- Use live video. Video marketing has increased in popularity in the last year, and it's taken a turn toward live video. Live video increases engagement more than images or posts because it's faster content and gives users a sense of immediacy. Live videos and streaming also give your brand a direct interaction with your social media users in real time.
Your social media engagement metrics are an important way to measure how your strategies are getting your target audience involved with your brand. By following the social media strategies above, you can boost your engagement and your brand identity in 2019.