Launch Your Business: Steps to Make Your Launch a Success

What drives social media engagement?

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Social media engagement is not only helpful to drive people to your website or blog, but it is also highly encouraged.  Why? Because even though social media platforms are fun to use and easy to share content on, at the end of the day, that platform doesn't belong to you.

Let's say that one day Facebook decides to pull the plug.  Now what?  How are you going to speak to your followers?  You can't.  The point of social media for small business owners is to generate leads.

You always want to bring people to you.  How do you do this? By putting out content on social media platforms. See where I am going with this?

If your social media engagement is low...

Now, if you are posting and sharing information but have no engagement, then the algorithms will not help you.  Your audience won't see much of you in their feeds because your content is buried under all of the other content others are putting out.

But don't freak out, because there are a lot of things you can do about this.  Also, don't give up.

Before you focus on social media engagement ...

Now, we don't have to make this all very complicated.  All it takes is a little research and a little planning.

Before you do any type of marketing and advertising, you need to understand who you are targeting.

  • Find your niche
  • Find your audience
  • Find your voice

Once you pass those three steps you are ready for social media.  The goal of the social media game is:

  • lead generation
  • lead generation
  • lead generation

Email addresses are gold.  Because once you have people that are actually interested enough in what you have to say on your email list, you can provide them with even more helpful information.  They will start seeing you as a trustworthy leader in your niche.

Who do you buy from?  Someone, you don't know much about? Or someone you trust?  I'm sure you have heard of know, like and trust, right?  Well, connecting with your audience through emails is a great way to show them just how much they can know you, like you, and trust you.

Yes, this is going to take time, but you are building relationships with people. In the end, you can end up with repeat customers which is the best type of relationship.  Because when they fall in love with you and your business, they will tell everyone they know about you!

Are you ready to drive engagement?

Use great visuals and graphics.

The visual content is what will stop individuals from scrolling through the unlimited parade of their feed and checking out your post. If you do not have an image that is specific to your business, use some stock pictures from a free site like Canva, Pixabay, or Unsplash.

 

Write excellent copy.

Pictures are what will attract your audience's attention. But the words will get them to engage.  Pay attention to your grammar. Get Grammarly to help you with spelling, and punctuation.  Also, make sure what you write makes sense to your audience.

 

Don't make it all about you.

Do not promote your organization and products 100% of the time.  Post about subjects in your market.  You can also repost products from other individuals. This helps you build your trustworthiness and engagement with a broader audience.  I like to follow the 80/20 rule.  80 percent of my content is to educate, inspire, and entertain. The 20 percent is to promote my business.

 

Use hashtags judiciously.

On some platforms, hashtags tell people what classification your post falls into. This can draw in more engagement from people taking a look at what's new.

 

Be brief.

Don't make your posts too long. Readers will get tired and move on.  Keep your sentences short. Find and use synonyms for longer words to shorten your content.  As you know, we only have a few seconds of our audience's time, so make it count.

 

Post at essential times.

This varies by platform, but your post will get in front of a big audience if you plan when to post. You can do a fast Google search to see what days and times are best for the social media platforms you're using. Also, keep in mind your audience. If you are targeting people who work all night and sleep in the daytime, you may not want to only post in the daytime.

 

Involve the readers.

Post engaging questions into your post that will generate discussion and response.  If you have people taking a few minutes to post their answers and opinions - you did it!  You know your post has actually been a success.

 

Be consistent.

In today's socially linked world, it's not overkill to post, post, and post again. Individuals may need to see something a minimum of a dozen times prior to even clicking it. So don't be scared to keep trying, and don't give up.  I am not talking about posting the same thing over and over repeatedly.  But space things out. Here is something you can use so you never run out of ideas!

 

Consider the advantages and disadvantages of auto-posting.

You may think that auto-posting saves you energy and time, and that is true but don't forget to keep being human.  Post when inspiration strikes!  You'll see a lot more engagement when you are being you.

 

Remember who you are talking to.

Different social media platforms are tailored to different users. While you might be fine tossing up images of your weekend on Instagram, that tactic could backfire on LinkedIn.

Driving your social media engagement will take time.

You will have to put some time and effort into this. If you are in the position to outsource some of the work, do it!  This will save you a ton of headaches and stress.

If graphic design is not your thing, go to Fiverr and outsource this!  Or if you want to do it yourself, you can go to Canva and use many of the gorgeous templates.

Setting social media pages isn't your forte? Outsource it!  You get the point.  Even though this is going to be a little extra work, it is very worth it in the end.

Leave a comment if you have any questions! And let me know if this blog post helped you at all.

 

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Insight: Body & Mind

I write about empowering women to achieve their professional and personal goals. With years of experience, I am passionate about providing insights and guidance to help you become the best version of yourself.

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