How to optimize your social media engagement

It has been a constant battle for marketers to understand how they can better engage with their audience on social media. A good engagement takes more than just creating good content. It is important to, first, understand the roles of different social media platforms, as each platform has its own purpose, and sets of users. Once you have well understood the use of different platforms, the type of users engaged in it, the next step is to build a relationship with your audience through your contents.

Why is social media engagement important for your business?

Figure 1. Number of social network users worldwide from 2010 to 2023 by  Statista (2020)

Based on the statistics above, more and more people are getting onto the social media bandwagon. According to the analysis done by Kepios, as of 2020, there are more than 3.8 billion social media users worldwide, representing 49% of the world’s total population. Based on the statistics by Statista 2020, Facebook has about 2.45 billion monthly active users, 2 billion on YouTube, 1 billion on Instagram, 675 million on LinkedIn and 340 million on Twitter.

The numbers on the data shows how important it is for companies to leverage live engagement on social media platforms as part of their marketing strategies. It is time for marketers to identify the most popular social media platforms that are relevant to your business, as it will help you to maximize your brand reach, as well as helping you to engage with the right people.

Optimize user engagement on social media

Tips #1: Prioritize authentic content

Authentic content is about honesty. It helps a brand and their targeted audience to be able to relate and understand one another. It is important for user engagement because it represents you, your brand and your company. Having authentic content shows a high level of credibility and it shows that you are an expert in your field, which is an effective way to market to your prospective customers. Not to mention that authentic and personalized content helps you refine your audience focus by targeting people who are more likely to engage with your content as it informs the readers about a particular need that they have, which directly places your brands in the top spot of their purchasing decisions.

To create authentic contents, you need to:

• Find your voice: Be consistent in your writing. Find the right tone that best represents you and your company and stick to it.
• Identify your target audience: Narrow down your audience and focus on feeding them with relevant and insightful information. Find out what their interests are and what they will likely respond to.
• Engage with your audience: Always remember to interact with your audience. For instance, thank them for their feedback, reply to their inquiry and remember to sound more human. An honest interaction will make the conversation more memorable and increase your brand authenticity.
• Believe in your content: The key to write authentic content is to write based on your experience and knowledge so trust yourself and trust your expertise.

Tips #2: Put emphasis on video

From transportation to lifestyle industry, you can see that video has been widely used as a means of marketing. Creating a video content is very effective these days and its popularity is in line with the rise of social media. Therefore, it does not matter what industry your business is in, or what type of business you are, video marketing provides marketers with an interesting, up-to-date and highly shareable content to reach their targeted audiences.

The big question is, can video really increase your engagement? According to the survey done by Wyzowl on video marketing statistics 2020:

• “87% of video marketers say video has increased traffic to their website”
• “95% of video marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service”
• “80% of video marketers say video has directly helped increase sales”

Video in general is entertaining, but the main reason why video marketing is becoming more desirable for businesses is because it helps to deliver a message in a more effective manner within a shorter amount of time. The visual and audio aspect of it also help the audience to better understand the message that the marketer is trying to deliver. However, it is also important to remember that your video contents need to meet your audiences’ expectations, by reflecting your products or services that your audiences are interested in.

Tips #3: Focus on micro or nano influencer

Is influencer marketing still “a thing”? The short answer to that is yes. But as important it is to identify who your audience is, finding the right influencer to represent your brand, is very important as well. Influencer marketing is basically collaborating with an influencer to market a certain product or services in order to improve brand recognition. Nano influencers, is part of an influencer tiers, which refers to influencers with between 1,000 to 10,000 followers on their social media.

Collaborating with nano influencers is highly beneficial because:

• Higher engagement rate: Due to the smaller number of followers compared to other influencers that are higher in the influencer tiers, nano influencers are able to have a stronger connection with their followers. As stated by the State of Influencer Marketing 2019 report, the engagement rate of mega influencers (more than one million followers) is 1.97%, while the rate for nano influencers is 5.60%. Since nano influencers tend to have better personal relationships with their followers, the interactions between both sides are very active.
• Authentic endorsement: Nano influencers tend to have a strong influence within a niche community. Which is why the brands or services that the nano influencers represent are deemed to be more authentic due to their ability to connect and relate with their followers day-to-day lives. Once a follower is able to relate with a nano influencer, it makes them more relatable and approachable. This genuine interaction is a great opportunity to build relationships and nurture trust, not just between the nano influencers and the followers, but also with the brands.
• Cost-effective: Nano influencers do not rely on influencer marketing as their main source of income, and they are not considered as “professional influencers”. Since they are not approached by a lot of brands, most nano-influencers agree to promote a product or services for a nominal fee and even in exchange for a product. According to a survey done by SocialPubli, only 44% of nano influencers prefer monetary compensations, while the rest are happy with just a gifted collaboration.

Have you been struggling to optimize your social media engagement? Or maybe you are not sure where to start? Let the experts at Digital Plant help you to level up your social media engagement by contacting us.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nufikha Hamidon

As a Digital Marketing Specialist at Digital Plant; focusing on web publishing related activities, Nufikha’s day-to-day roles include overseeing web publishing activities such as web pages creation, migration of digital contents, ensuring healthy and good relationships between her team and the stakeholders.

Before joining Digital Plant, Nufikha worked as a Social Media Coordinator for a Malaysian company, where she instantly fell in love with Digital Marketing. She then continued her social media journey by volunteering remotely for a social enterprise based in Cambodia, where she helps the company to expand its target audiences and create brand awareness through social media.