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The Expert Panel was initially published at Forbes.
Our founder and managing partner, Terry Tateossian, gives her take on the subject as well. You could read her opinion under number 3. Find The Right Content For Your Target Audience
Here comes the full article:
There is no guarantee that a business’s social media posts will gain traction when they get posted. However, a company should at least be able to drive the engagement of some of its followers. A problem arises when engagement on all social channels is low or non-existent. If businesses continue to create and post content that doesn’t achieve their marketing goals, then their social media campaign is merely wasting marketing money.
For small businesses especially, each dollar they spend should give them returns. To help, we asked 12 members of Forbes Agency Council for advice on how companies can drive engagement of the content they post to make more efficient use of their social media marketing budget.
Table of Contents
1. Reevaluate Your Audience
To address engagement you must first understand your audience, why they followed you and the value they hope to gain. For example, if they followed you based your “how-to” content, but now you post about “work pets,” there’s a disconnect that needs to be addressed before they’ll consider engaging. Engagement increases once you know what they expect and the role your brand plays in their lives. – Kevin Smith, Mighty Roar
2. Focus On One Platform At A Time
If you’re focusing on too many platforms at one time, you’re not really giving the dedicated attention each platform requires. My suggestion would be to concentrate on your largest platform and nurture it with consistent, meaningful daily content. – Raoul Davis, The Ascendant Group
3. Find The Right Content For Your Target Audience
It’s essential that social marketers leverage the metrics of their posts, considering the time and day of posts per social channel. Sometimes traditional marketing language, which perhaps worked on other forms of media, doesn’t stick to social audiences. A target audience must be fixed, and experimentation with language, scheduling and imagery may be the best way to find and gather engagement. – Terry Tateossian, Socialfix Media
4. Add Value Rather Than Noise
Many brands are obsessed with the idea of frequency to a fault. The fact of the matter is that not all content is created equal. If you have nothing to say, ask a question instead, or use a call to action to encourage engagement. I often tell my clients to think of content posts as invitations to converse and share, not tiny billboards that you throw out on the channel with pre-planned frequency. – David Harrison, EVINS
5. Interact With Other People’s Content
One of the biggest mistakes people make on social is posting content but not responding to other people’s content. Social media thrives on interaction. You have to like, share and comment on other posts to encourage people to do the same on yours. Also, if you do customer service, you have to respond as quickly and as personally as possible. – Christine Wetzler, Pietryla PR
6. Invest In A Paid Strategy
More content doesn’t mean more engagement. Most channels have different cadences that work better and those change by industry. However, the real key is investing in a paid strategy. Organic content will support your channel but social marketing in 2019 requires a targeted, always-on, paid strategy to keep pushing your message to the right audience. – Cj Roberts, Pandemic Labs
7. Start A Dialogue With Your Followers
Whenever clients come to me complaining about lack of engagement on their social media channels, I ask, “Well, did you ask them anything?” How can you expect to get a reaction if you’re not entering a dialogue with your followers. Start by asking simple questions. Last I checked, to get engaged, someone has to pop the question. Same is true for social media engagement. – Danica Kombol, Everywhere Agency
8. Plan Out Content Topics That Will Spark A Response
Lots of times, we’re guilty of making content to fill a content calendar and not making content that adds value to the customer. Start by creating a pipeline of content topics that have the goal of adding value to your customer in the form of getting engagement or getting a response. – Jim Huffman, Growthhit
9. Consider The Context Of Relationship
While it’s important that content is remarkable and share-worthy, the success in how far it spreads and the level of engagement is impacted more by the context of relationship and trust the audience has with the source sharing it. Humans are the medium. Finding and building relationships with the right influencers, advocates and communities to co-create and share your content is the solution. – Amanda Hite, Be The Change Revolutions
10. Focus On Quality Over Quantity
If you’re getting low engagement, focus on quality over quantity. Think to yourself, “Would I pay to promote this?” If not, don’t write it! Also, stay in touch with Google Trends, trending topics in the news and AdWords data to know what your customers are searching for and talking about to make sure your content is relevant. – Corbett Drummey, Popular Pays
11. Promote Your Content
You may post valuable content every day, but most of your audience won’t see it due to the algorithms. Business profiles are less favored by social channels and that’s a fact. If you want to reach more people, promote your content. There are many ways you can do it. – Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS
12. Learn From The Past
One of the greatest things about using the web for marketing is the ability to learn from the past. When trying to increase engagement, look at which posts have garnered the most (and least) engagement in the past. Do more of what has worked and less of what hasn’t. For example, if you find that photos with people in them resonate better with your audience, make sure you include people in photos. – Nancy Marshall, Marshall Communications
