Key Tactics for Boosting Your Social Media Presence

Using social media to gain engagement from the audience is the most beneficial way for the business to get authentic reach. Whatever you post on social media it should get engagement which is a proof of its success. The success here does not mean only the positive response but any kind of response that would help to improve the ad campaign. 

Recently, Zomato launched a campaign called “Pure Veg Mode” and “Pure Veg Fleet” for Indians who are pure vegetarian. The purpose of the drive was to ensure that the pure vegetarians in India which comprises 38% of its total population. 

The fleet ensured that the delivery partners delivering pure vegetarian food would wear green t-shirts and carry the food in green boxes and not in the red ones (the standard boxes). But the green colour made a havoc on social media creating a backlash for the campaign. 

People on social media engaged with this campaign by commenting and backlashing the decision of wearing green because it may arise religious and political issues for the delivery partners affecting their safety. 

The engagement compelled the CEO of Zomato to take back the decision of wearing green colour t-shirts to deliver pure vegetarian food and he updated the changes through a tweet. Therefore, the changes were made in the campaign accordingly. 

The above example sounds more like a failure but for the long run it is a win-win situation for the organisation. By making the necessary changes the organisation not only took the backlash with grace but also showed respect towards the point of view of their audience. 

If people would not have engaged with the campaign there would have been no necessary changes in the practical application of the campaign. 

What is Audience Engagement?

When your audience interacts with you via social media platforms through various metrics, it’s called audience engagement. Engagement is measured through likes, comments and shares, reposts or retweets. These three are the most common and popular metrics to measure engagement. 

Apart from these digital marketers and social media experts pay attention to the follower count, tags, click-throughs, audience growth and mentions. One other metric that Instagram popularised is the count of ‘saved’ content. 

Audiences have their ways to engage with content. Some might leave it at a like, some might find it fascinating enough to save the post. Others may believe the post needs to be shared and some find it worthy to tag or mention you in stories. 

No matter the way, engagement in any form is good for you. Engagement through likes, comments, shares and saved posts are the new ‘word-of-mouth’ for the active audience online. 

How to engage your audience?

Engagement is good for any business’ growth but how does one ensure to gain a reasonable engagement. It is the work of social media experts to ensure that the posts on social media platforms are capable enough to engage the target audience. This is how you start:

Define your target audience:

The aim of your business is to attract the target audience so they can help grow your sales. Random posting will not help you get the reach that your business needs. It will also be a waste of your time, resources, efforts and creativity if the message is not delivered to the right set of audience. 

Define your target audience so you can tailor the content according to their needs and interests. Targeting only the people who might be interested in your product will help you get a sense of direction to create content for social media. Instead of random posting, focusing on specific people to target will utilise your time, efforts, and resources in the right way. 

Create Compelling Content:

Content is one of the crucial elements of social media posting. Again, random posting is npt going to get you anywhere. If your business is education based who cater to the students of high school you must create content that is useful to them.

You can’t go on posting about how to use a specific product when your focus should be on posting about how the product is useful for a highschool student. You have to keep in mind the purpose of the message. 

The other thing a digital marketer needs to keep in mind is to create simple and brief content that smartly delivers the message. Compelling content is all about how it holds the attention of the target audience. 

The attention span has been limited to a few seconds; that is why a social media expert’s responsibilities include to create content that catches the eyes of the target audience within a few seconds. 

Compelling content includes harmonised elements that are satisfying to the eyes. 

You can include text, imagery, colours etc to give your audience a treat for their eyes. Creating compelling content that is capable of holding the eyes of your target audience will ensure you engagement. 

Remember, even a click counts!

Optimal Use of Visuals and Texts:

Visuals and text of the post holds meaning. When catering to the specific sets of audience you have to play around visuals and texts. The better the placement and use of both these essential elements the better your content will be. 

Optimal use of visuals and text will help you create an appealing post that would bring engagement from your audience. 

If a visual is enough to deliver the message you should avoid using texts. Usually combining both elements fits best with the marketing strategy especially for businesses who are yet trying to make a place in the vast digital realm. 

Balance both elements by optimal use of white space and by following other designing principles. Keep your text as brief as possible to convey a clear message. People are likely to engage with your content if it’s short. 

Avoid clutter of text and images, otherwise your audience would likely scroll through your content without giving it much thought. Even if your post successfully gains the click, you might end up confusing your audience with a cluster of elements. Keep the use of such elements minimal to attain visual hierarchy. 

Use hashtags:

“Hashtags are overrated!”

No, they are not. The use of hashtags are not bringing you your desired engagement because you are not using the right hashtags. Use hashtags that do not linger away from your business. 

For instance, if you run a business of digital marketing and in your posts you use hashtags that have no relevance to your business, it will be of no use. In fact, irrelevant hashtags will end up confusing your audience and the algorithm of the social media channels. 

Focus on getting feedback:

Getting feedback can be a motivating factor for your business. Engaging your audience in the comment section could be a great way to get their attention and feedback. Feedback can be in the form of comments, reviews, story mentions etc. 

You can hit two birds with one stone by telling them to comment on your posts. Not only do you drive engagement on your posts by asking your audience to comment but also maintain a personal customer relationship with them. 

Feedback will help you by making improvements in your ongoing campaigns and jot down points that you might want to avoid in your upcoming campaigns. Asking for feedback can also help you build credibility. 

Conclusion:

Keeping in mind a few points can help you boost your visibility on social media platforms by engaging more audiences. Your ultimate goal of reaching a larger audience to increase conversion rates depends on how you engage your audience. 

Focus on what you are posting and how to enhance its presentation. People are always fascinated by the face, so use this psychology to your best and create social media posts that compel people to take desirable actions of liking, commenting or sharing the post.