Engagement is a necessary component when it comes to any social platform. It not only helps foster and encourage the growth of a community, it signals that the content you’re putting out is meaningful to those who are consuming it; and ultimately, this is feeding the platform’s algorithm.
While each social media platform can vary in its nuisances, i.e., what type of content performs best or what style and what type of audience lives there, there are general rules we can follow across platforms when it comes to creating more engagement on the posts you share.
We’re sharing four key tips when it comes to engagement below. These are simple things you can do daily to help boost the engagement on any content you share.
Be Social
The inherent nature of a social media platform is to, you guessed it, socialize. This means you should interact not only with your followers, but those who don’t follow you, whenever you share a new post.
When it comes to engaging with your followers, this is relatively easy - scroll your own timeline and ensure you’re leaving thoughtful comments and likes across your online community.
As far as engaging with those who don’t already follow you, the best way to do this is either via the explore or For You pages, or else, searching under hashtags that fit your niche. Spread the love by leaving meaningful comments and likes based on the content. If you do this on multiple posts for any given individual, they will likely take notice of your own profile, and visit in return, thus helping encourage your profile engagement.
Add a Call to Action
In order to encourage your community to engage with your content, it’s a good idea to end your caption with a question - this allows them to reply in your comment section, which then allows you to reply in return, essentially doubling the return on your engagement. Create a conversation in the comments alone if you can, by going back-and-forth with your replies.
Use Appropriate Hashtags
Hashtags allow potential followers to find you based on how you categorize your own content - it allows you to not only define your content in a way that helps you find your own community, but allows you to reach more people in the process, which can certainly help with engagements.
Add hashtags to your post that pertain to your niche, your community, and your content.
Choose anywhere from 4-15 that fall under these categories as you think about: what is your content, what’s in your content, and what’s your community? Experiment with different hashtags for each post rather than repeating the same ones each time, and assess what does well.
Use Optimal Post Times
Of course, posting when everyone’s online always helps ensure the most people possible will view your content and thus increase your chances of engagement.
Check when your audience is active using your analytics, and ensure you post during those times. Alongside simply posting though, ensure you are setting
aside time to engage with your community following any post you share, as this will help boost potential return engagements on your most recent post - keep in mind, if you haven’t share a new post recently, return engagements will likely occur on whatever you’re most recent post is, as fellow users will likely gravitate towards the top of your feed.
