So, you’ve written the blog post. You’ve hyperlinked to all of the right influencers. You even shared the post on your social media. Now, it’s time to sit back and relax with a cold beverage, right? Wrong. Creating the content is only the first hurdle in an epic adventure to cull in new customers. The next step may be challenging, but read on for our advice on fostering engagement via social media.
Did you know that demographics and generations aside, we spend an average of two hours a day on social media? That’s looking at an audience of everyone from an 80-year-old grandmother to a new tween with his or her first mobile phone. This is a focus group that ranged from the most rural areas of the backcountry, to the hustle and bustle of metropolitan areas like London or New York City. So, your key market runs the spectrum, and their needs and preferences are changing constantly. This is why it’s even more valuable to keep the following tips in mind:
Get the whole company involved
Social engagement is one of those elements that can reach across the entire business. You’ll want your service and support teams to be checking on bugs, you’ll want your community managers searching for the best brand advocates in the industry, the buck does not stop with just the marketing or communications teams.
Leverage your employees
This is similar but separate of the above tip. If your employees believe in your brand, they’ll share authentic – and hopefully very positive – content. Ensure that you’re integrating your brand or product into your office culture so that your employees feel more inclined to sing your praises.
Optimize your CTA’s
For those unfamiliar, a CTA is a Call to Action. It refers to buttons that encourage visitors to repost or share blog posts on their own social media platforms. Make sure that these buttons are prominent, creating the best user experience possible. If they’re buried at the bottom of your Web page, your visitors will be far less incentivized to tweet, post or share.
Play around with timing
The best time for you to share content will vary widely from industry to industry, from location to location. The same is true for cadence, or how often you post. We recommend that you try posting at different times of day and on different days of the week to gauge when your posts receive the best possible ROI.
And a little pro tip:
Set up alerts for variations of your company or product name
Not all of us can be spelling geniuses. If your company name is Apple, set up alerts for Bapple, Bpple, Aple, Applee. All are just a keystroke away from the correct name, and at the other end may be a huge influencer who is sending a lot of traffic (if, incorrectly) your way.
We hope these tips kick start your social engagement strategy. Questions? Let the Yarra Web team know. We’d love to hear from you.