by Michelle Hummel
Engagement has been the buzzword in the digital marketing landscape for nearly a decade and with good reason. While there are many technical definitions, at its core, engagement is just another word for conversation. Basically, it’s what puts the social in social media, and now in the time of physical distancing, engagement is more important than ever.
A recent article in The New York Times, “The Virus Changed the Way We Internet,” cites sources showing Facebook traffic is up 27 percent since February 29, when Covid-19 was being first being recognized as a serious matter. Even though the country is re-opening, most people are more comfortable virtually interacting instead of physically. Any business can benefit from this by engaging with your current and potential customers.
Content Is King
Before enacting an engagement strategy, the first step is a content plan. Think of content as the media in social media. Your business needs to post well-planned and well-executed content every day. Not only does this help your customers know what’s going with your business, but the potential customers you plan to engage with will check out your pages before speaking with you.
A well-planned content strategy includes a mix of information about your products, highlighting the human element of your business, giving inspiration and posting thought-provoking ideas. Think for a moment about the last show you watched on television. Ads were placed in between the content – not the other way around. Your social media content strategy needs to flow the same way.
Now let’s consider the well-executed part of your strategy. Every post needs an accompanying image taken in good lighting at a minimum, if not professionally taken, or from a stock service. The text needs to be free of grammatical errors and misspellings and needs to consider the many ways it could be interpreted, as well as its tone and timing. If your content misses the mark, your business could quickly go viral in a negative way.
Inbound Engagement
This is simply business gold. Inbound engagement is when customers reach out to you directly. Whether they’re commenting on a post or asking direct questions, it’s important to respond promptly – and take it up a step. If a customer comments with an emoji, give them two back. If they leave a positive comment, thank them and ask them a question back. You could also show your sense of humor by thanking them and including an appropriate gif. The more customers engage with your page, the more the social media platforms’ algorithms will continue delivering posts to them, allowing your business to stay top of mind.
Outbound Engagement
After you’re experienced with inbound engagement, it’s time to extend your circle. Think of outbound engagement as dating for a moment. If a stranger approaches you and immediately asks for a date, you’d probably turn them down. However, if you get to know someone first, you’re more likely to agree to the date when they do ask. Social media works the same way. Start by building a lead list of potential customers. This isn’t possible for B2C customers on Facebook, but it works there for B2B. B2C and B2B outbound engagement works on all other social media platforms. Once you have your lead list, build the relationship by liking one or two of their posts. Another week leave a comment or retweet them. Another week ask a question about their post. Now that you’ve built the relationship, go ahead and take it to the next level by DMing them one of your blogs you’d think they’d be interested in and asking for their feedback.
Engagement is time-consuming, but its benefits will increase your bottom line by attracting new customers and reinforcing your brand loyalty with current customers, especially in this time of physical distancing.