Many social media marketers are generally confused about what the term “Engagement rate” means. Engagement rate refers to the number of people engaging with your content on social media measured against the number of people who could be engaging with your content.
Since most businesses such as yours typically market on different social networks, the engagement rates on different social networks may vary. For example, your Facebook and LinkedIn engagement rates may be polar opposites, but your engagement rate on social media on the whole may be low.
However, irrespective of the social media platform, it’s a struggle to keep engagement rates as high as you want them to be. Here are a few reasons why your engagement rate on social media may be low.
1. Your content isn’t striking enough
Let’s face it. Creating humorous, engaging and fun content consistently for a brand is a serious challenge. Few marketers wake up everyday with ideas brimming in their minds. Most marketers have to create process to fuel their imagination and creativity. Do you have a process? Are you consistently creating exciting and new content?
Traditionally, marketers were accustomed to working on content in specific time intervals as campaigns. Today, there’s no off button. Top quality content has to be delivered post after post, every single day. If your brand produces radio silence, you will lose market to other brands that are constantly engaging audiences everyday.
Apps to curate or create striking content
- DrumUp – Setup keywords and RSS feeds on DrumUp to curate content that your audience will appreciate or get ideas for new pieces of content.
- RelayThat – Create branded templates for the visuals you typically use, so you can quickly put together stunning images for your social media posts.
2. You aren’t customizing content for different audience segments
Most brands have an audience made up of different types of people. While they may share common interests, they can have varying passions and concerns. It’s critical for marketers to understand what resonates with each audience segment so they can devise a way to deliver it to them.
One example of this principle in play is when a brand creates different content for people in different locations around the world. If your brand caters to a global audience, you have to create culture and location specific content so your diverse audience base can relate to it. Creating content for mass appeal works, but in a limited fashion. It’s always a better idea to customize everything you create, even if it means changing a few references for relevance.
Apps to customize content for audience segments
- When creating Google or Facebook ads, you can create different audience segments or “ad sets” to show specific ad versions to specific audience sets.
- When building your website, you can consider customizing your homepage or landing page to the website visitor, like Neil Patel does.
3. Your timing is off
Brands are built by business-minded individuals who typically function from 9-5. However, sticking to this time schedule can limit your views and reach on social networks. To catch a larger chunk of your audience, you have to understand how they function and how they spend their time on social media.
Understanding audience browsing behavior and content inclinations is a big part of increasing your engagement rate on social media. You can access these insights in a number of ways, including by observing when your engagement rate on social media is highest. You could use A/B testing to publish the same social media post at different times and measure engagement.
Apps to optimize time of publishing on social media
- Prime – If your primary social network for audience engagement is Instagram, this app can calculate and tell you the exact time intervals during which you should post on the social network.
4. You’re expecting people to discover you
There are several well-establish Twitterati and Instagrammers out there with impressive follower-to-following ratios and you assume that you can get there simply by posting content consistently. That’s not nearly enough. Building an engaged following is a grind. Every follower you acquire has to be relevant and active.
Instead of publishing content, sitting back and waiting for people to discover you, it’s essential for you to put your brand out there. Uncover PR and collaboration opportunities. Work with the right influencers. Reach out to your own customers and enthusiasts in your field who seem to be passionate. Extend your reach to an active network of people and coax them into becoming your followers.
Apps to help your audience discover your brand
- BrandWatch – Setup keywords related to your industry using this app to find interesting conversations that you can join to increase reach and engagement for your brand.
- Buzzsumo – Search for top shared posts in your niche and interact with the community sharing those posts.
Learn more about Buzzsumo in the video from Ms. Ileane.
5. Your product or service isn’t engaging
It’s a hard truth to swallow, but when it comes down to it, many brands are just not engaging enough for social media. You could take this as a challenge and figure out the best way to present your brand on social networks. Some businesses have brands that are engaging on their own and have nothing to do with their products. These brands are built on the values or essence that the businesses want their products to embody.
You can raise awareness for your brand simply by being entertaining on Facebook. The goal is such a circumstance is to get your audience to notice your brand and start asking questions about it. To do that, you have to create an adequately intriguing concept or eye-catching content.
Apps to create an engaging brand on social media
- Rocketium – You can turn blog posts into engaging videos using Rocketium and publish them on your social media pages.
- Survey Anyplace – You can create fun, branded quizzes to engage your audience on social media using Survey Anyplace.
Many social media marketers struggle with keeping their engagement rate on social media high. By addressing the issues listed in this post, you can get a headstart on growing your social media engagement.