The engagement is the degree of commitment and identification that customers feel with your brand. Getting it is the unmistakable sign that you are doing things right: your customers are so proud to consume your product or service that they want to tell the rest of the world. We could say that it is the equivalent to word of mouth of traditional marketing, since it gives visibility to your brand, encourages recommendations, increases your credibility and improves your reputation.
When it comes to social media, having a community of active followers and involved with your brand requires much more than a unilateral strategy of messages that say good morning and good night. Do you want to improve the engagement of your brand in your social channels? We tell you five aspects that you must take into account and in which creativity is key.
1. Listen, watch and get ready
Enabling a social profile on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or LinkedIn and expecting the interactions to rain down from the minute one is like running a half marathon without having previously trained and pretending to be among the first runners. Brands need to prepare their presence on social networks in the same way that an athlete needs to train to participate in a test. This digital training goes through:
Listen carefully to what users of social media say to know what content they demand, what they need, what helps them and what they like.
Analyse in detail the communities of other competing and related brands to know what content they like, provoke reactions or are shared.
Study the tone, formats, hashtags, and other aspects that have the most viral publications and that are trends in social networks.
Prepare your presence so that when you appear on the digital stage, followers will find complete, attractive profiles, with quality photographs and with all the information of interest to users.
Here, creativity plays a very important role. You must create original social profiles, with very careful images for your profile photos and cover that capture the attention of users and present a different aesthetic that gives rise to a firm, coherent and easily recognisable digital identity. You must do the same with the photographs, videos and other content that you publish, which must follow a certain aesthetic, be original and draw the attention of your community.
2. Follow other brands, companies, and related influencers
Your social profiles cannot be with 0 followed in the dialer. Follow the profiles of other brands, other companies, influencers or people interested in the nature of your product or service will help you create community, to inspire you watching how others are doing and see the reactions of their followers.
It is not about espionage, but about integrating yourself into a community in which your brand is likely to be welcomed as another is more willing to share content and add value. Surely if your brand is dedicated, for example, to the sale of accessories for children created with organic materials, follow brands/people related to the world of children (clothes, nurseries, toys, paediatricians).
3. Start conversations and interact with your community
Social networks allow brands and users to converse. So the first thing you have to do is start conversations that interest you. How? For example, be creative and publish posts whose headline is posed in the form of a question. It is a good tactic, especially if that question is frequently raised by the consumers of your product or service.
If also in that publication you advance the answer in the form of a post, infographic, video tutorial - most likely you will find the participation of your followers, who will have identified with the question and will appreciate the answer. It is important that you try to respond to all the comments, showing an active, close, informal interaction but with respect, gratitude and empathy. Followers will thank you and connect with your brand and get involved in your community.
4. Publish contents that add value
As we said at the beginning of this post, a brand cannot just say good morning and good night to his followers. You can do it, when your community is sufficiently broad, active and committed to expecting an answer for it, and always, combining these publications with others of greater value.
Until then, you will have to earn the trust and digital loyalty of users by publishing content that will add value. Content that they find useful to solve their problem, that excites them or that makes them laugh. Content that makes them feel proud to be part of your community of followers and want to continue being there actively. Here, creativity is again key: offer them something original, surprising and with magic so they stick to your articles or posts.
5. Include calls to action
Use persuasion to create an active community that does what you would like them to do on your social profiles. Ask questions, launch surveys, invite them to visit a link, organise a contest or show them any action that leads them to be more participatory (for example, to visit your website or your blog or buy a products/service). Contests, polls, games - lend themselves much more to interaction, especially if they are original and have a simple dynamic. Do not forget that your posts include creative and direct calls to action (link to your website, reservation numbers, and special offers).
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