5 Tips for Increasing Your Engagement
When we hear the word “engagement” in a business setting what often comes to mind is the way in which the employer and employee connect with one another. What is also important to note is that engagement is a critical part of how businesses connect with clients outside of their immediate team. The term is used frequently and is critical to driving success, both now and in the future.
Every January, I set a yearly theme for the JMG PR team, and from there, we take our goals a step further with a sub-theme each quarter. For 2021 the overall theme is “Accelerate,” and in the first quarter, we focused on “building.” The year 2020 was a struggle for everyone but this year we see and feel the change as our country has begun to find its new normal.
Now, as we enter into Q2, our focus is on “engagement,” especially within our three pillars. Clients, media relations, and team relations are where we hone in our focus when it comes to connectivity. In order to be successful in communicating, we must also establish relationships with media personnel, along with being successful in our level of engagement with them.
That rings true for our engagement with both our clients and our team members. At JMG PR, we are completely transparent and the level of connection we have both inside and outside of the office is what allows us to be successful in achieving results. Our clients come to us with the goal of establishing themselves as leaders within their respective fields and together we make that happen.
If you asked yourself, “what is public relations,” you’ll see that it is essentially the art of managing how information about an individual or company is communicated to the public. It may be our job to orchestrate the way in which this is accomplished, but it’s always a collaborative effort. Engagement is part of our overall theme for the second quarter, but I strongly believe it should be part of every company’s makeup all year long.
From an employee standpoint, it fosters trust, integrity, and a sense of commitment and communication between leaders and members of a team. On the outside, increasing engagement with your target audience will create more value for both you and your viewers/followers.
With readers spending an average of 15 seconds actively on a social media page before moving on to the next, you’re going to need to grab their attention and grab it fast. Valuable audience engagement is all about quality over quantity.
To help give you a better understanding of how you can increase audience engagement, I’m sharing some of my favorite tips of the trade.
Know Your Audience
Having a clear understanding of “who” your audience is and what it is they want, will allow you to tailor content that interests them. Write about the latest development in your industry, share practical and useful tips in relation to your product or service, answer questions, and provide insight into something your followers are interested in. Once you have their attention you’ll increase the potential for successful engagement.
Be Consistent
Now that you’ve gotten the audience’s attention, you have to work on keeping it. And the way to do that is through consistency. Sharing content on a regular basis is necessary, think regularity over quantity. It’s ok to share information two to three times a week, but if you post every day of the week, then drop off the radar you’re doing yourself and your followers a disservice.
An audience isn’t likely to keep coming back if they think you have nothing new to say. But if you’re consistent in your delivery your readers will return to consume it. Think of it like this, a conversation needs at least two people, so if you’re looking to increase engagement with your followers, it can’t be a one-sided conversation. Reliability is the most important factor.
A helpful tip is to create a content calendar that maps out the topics or ideas you’d like to cover over a period of time. You can take this a step further and load the content (whether written or visual) onto your social media and decide exactly when you want to publish.
Choose the Right Time
Find out when your followers are online, what days are they most active? Knowing this information and publishing during those specific time frames will increase the chances of interaction. Avoid holidays, any natural disasters, and times of breaking news.
Keep it Short and Sweet
Keep content short and concise. Followers don’t spend a lot of time reading those longer posts, rather, they prefer you get right to the point. Keep in mind, although you don’t want your posts to be lengthy, they must contain elements that encourage the audience to interact. The content you create should be informative, educational, or entertaining.
Increase Interaction
The goal of social media is to increase interaction and have more engagement with your audience. Just because an account has thousands of followers doesn’t automatically guarantee engagement. For some brands, their rate of engagement is low despite a large number of followers, a clear indication of a lack of connection between the business and their community.
So how do you increase interaction? Many posts that fail to connect are the ones that talk only about their products or services and not about the “life” of the brand. Mix the two, share posts that are promotional as well as ones that show a more personal side. Create interaction with your audience, ask questions that will provoke a response. Attach an image or a GIF alongside it to make the post more visually appealing. Images are a great way to catch a viewer’s eye.
Another way to get an audience involved is by creating a contest. Not only will they like your post, but they’re also likely going to share it, comment on it, and if they’re not following you already, they’ll likely click that follow button in order to participate in the next one.
Keep in mind, the internet is a saturated market and it can become overwhelming. That’s why it is so important to do the research within your area of expertise and find the gaps in which you can fill with beneficial insights and content. The deeper you go, the more you have to offer your audience, and the more likely they are to come back to your site as a trusted source.
At JMG PR, we put into practice all of these tips and more. We’d love to hear some of the ways in which you’ve found successful engagement with your audience. Drop us a line, we’d love to hear from you.