Engagement. It’s the currency of social media and digital marketing. Everything you create online is aimed at drawing eyeballs from those that you deem your “ideal customers”, in hopes of getting them to engage with you, find value in what you bring to the table, consider you as a thought leader in your space and eventually start doing business with you.
I know when I write about social media platforms, I’ve noted that you have to take into account the contextual framework that each platform works in. So in other words, you have to craft your content differently for each platform to make sure it will get eyeballs and drive engagement.
That said, there are some general principles you can follow that will help boost your engagement, so today I wanted to share 3 tips to get you on your way.
#1: Exclusivity is not a bad thing
Intrigue gets people to experience FOMO (Fear of missing out). Exclusivity is a fantastic way to drive FOMO and get more people to engage with your content. Make your social media properties feel like exclusive clubs where your followers are getting something that isn’t available anywhere else. When people feel special, they’re more likely to show up and engage.
Gary Vaynerchuk is excellent at driving FOMO and creating mass engagement in his audiences. For instance, he calls all his followers “Vayner Nation”. In addition to that, at one point he started a club within that club called the “60-second club”. His community refers to themselves as part of Vayner Nation, and his hardcore fans were all over trying to get rewarded by Gary for liking and commenting on his posts, in the first minute they went live.
So as you can see, what Gary did was find a creative way to not only drive FOMO, but amplify it, drawing even more engagement to every single social media post he put online.
#2: Sometimes it’s okay to trigger your audience
I know in today’s media landscape, the term “trigger” doesn’t really elicit a positive connotation, but when it comes to driving engagement with your social media content, sometimes triggering your audience is the path of least resistance.
When I say triggers, I’m not talking about persona type things like pain points or product/service related things such as value propositions. I’m talking about literally tapping into specific things your audience likes and doesn’t like. By doing that, you’ll get them to jump into the conversation.
For instance, maybe you are a Real Estate agent and you just published a new blog post about the hottest trends in interior paint for Summer 2019. When you make your social post promoting this content, don’t just show a pretty living room and simply put the name of the article title as the ad copy.
Instead, maybe find a photo of a kitchen with a terrible paint color that will make people stop in their tracks. Then, for ad copy, try something like, “If somebody held a gun to your head and told you that you have to paint your kitchen tonight, what color would you pick?”
The photo stops people in their tracks, the premise in the ad copy is a little bit of a crazy one, and you asked a question. People are bound to jump into this conversation to give their input.
#3: Be a conversationalist
One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to getting engagement is they stop a potential conversation before it has a chance to get started. When someone comments on your content saying, “Great video!” or “Great article!”, what do you tend to say?
“Thank you.”
But, what if instead you say, “Thank you! What did you find most valuable in it?”
Don’t cut the conversation off with a closed-end response. Instead, encourage the conversation. Engage with people so they’ll be more likely to engage with you in the future. They’ll get the feeling that you really care and value their input/feedback. This is a great way to start ongoing conversations and built rapport.
As I’ve said time and time again, on the Internet, engagement is currency. To win in this attention economy, you have to work on your engagement skills. If you’re beating your head against the wall because you’re creating content people want, but still not getting comments or interaction, try these tricks and let me know how it works.
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