Over the past few years, “engagement” has become a buzzword in the social media world. There’s a good reason, though. Social media is…well, it’s “social.” To be social is to spend time in community, interacting and engaging. You can’t be social if you don’t talk to people, am I right?
It doesn’t matter what platform you’re on, SOCIAL means that if you want to see your numbers grow you’ll have to get out there and engage.
A few weeks back, I talked about this in the #ThinkSocial Instagram Rockstars group. To succeed on Social Media, you’ve got to follow a couple of rules:
- Rule #1 is consistency
- Rule #2 is engagement
Consistency is vital to growing any social media platform, but without a conversation, back and forth with other people, you aren’t building relationships. And relationships are what is going to drive future sales and long-term business success!
Engagement is much more than just getting likes. It’s carrying on that conversation in a meaningful way so that people come back to engage with you.
Commenting back and forth to keep that conversation going does more than just build relationships, though. It’s way more than that! Good engagement on your posts shows social media algorithms that they are important posts and that people are interested in what you have to say.
When you get more comments, you have a better chance of landing on the Explore Tab, or even just of getting your posts seen more often.
Think About Your Front Door
Everyone has a front door. Think about what’s on the other side. When you’re standing inside your house, the rest of the world is on the other side. In order to reach the rest of the world, you need to open the door and go outside, right? You also have to open up the door to let people come into your home.
Your front door is like all the posts and photos you share consistently to the world outside. But to get people to come through your door, you need to interact with them. Comment back, engage with them! You have to GO OUT the front door!
If you’re just posting like crazy, but not interacting…you’re not getting there.
Not Everyone Wants to Walk Through Your Front Door
There are a lot of people out there who just aren’t your tribe. And that’s okay. That’s why we talk so much about you ideal clients. You need to figure out who your ideal client is, get into her head, and answer her questions.
Is she a Target Mom? A Pier One Mom? A Nordstrom Mom?
Once you know who your ideal clients are, you need to go where they are (Facebook? Instagram? Blogs?) and start speaking her language.
Instead of just saying “Hello,” say, “Oh my gosh, it’s so awesome that your kid hit a home run! Isn’t it the best feeling ever? I bet his expression was priceless!”
Your ultimate goal is to relate and connect. Some call it stalking – I don’t! You don’t want just any random stranger coming up and knocking on your door. You need to find some way to relate and that requires checking people out!
Spend 15 minutes per day, going out and finding people to genuinely comment and react with.
The Best Time to Do This
IMPORTANT – Do this RIGHT after you post! 15 minutes of engaging with someone else’s posts will get them back to come back to your posts!
This works like magic. You’ll feel like you have a secret superpower when you suddenly start finding that the people you’ve been looking for start showing up at your front door.
Need some more inspiration? This week in the #ThinkSocial Society, we’re going DEEP into the topic of engagement with examples and in-depth how-to’s. Join today for 50% off your first month and find more than just tips and tricks. You’ll experience community with a like-minded tribe of consultants and entrepreneurs. See you there!
