You might be thinking; what does it mean to foster social media engagement? I went to the experts at Hootsuite to get their take on growing your social media engagement.
Fostering social engagement is to nurture and increase the amount of interaction of your social sites. Social engagement is measured in comments, likes, and shares that you received on a social post. Whether it be on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, the more interaction you get, the better.
Like most people, you probably want a large following on your social platforms, and that's good! But it's best to start with a smaller, more engaged audience, according to Hootsuite. You really want to strive for quality and not quantity, especially when just starting.
Getting others to engage might seem simple enough, but in this day and age, with so many individuals and companies vying for viewers, it's a little harder. Here are some tips to get you started.
1. Analyze your engagement
Go to your social media platforms and take a look at how many followers you have, how many comments you accumulate on average, along with the average amount of shares and likes (or reactions if you're thinking about Facebook). That's the easy part. According to Hootsuite, you have to keep up with this tracking regularly. This means seeing and noting when numbers increase and sometimes decrease. If they decrease, look at what didn't work and re-evaluate.
2. Know your audience
There's a good chance you know who your audience is even before truly establishing one. Since you're trying to sell cosmetics, it might be safe to say that your audience is primarily females. Don't sell yourself short. Some men enjoy the luxury of makeup and faux eyelashes. My advice to you would be to make your content as inviting and open as possible. Show them you're open to anyone buying Tori Belle Cosmetics and make them feel like family.
3. Be Responsive
If someone comments on something you've posted, try to respond to them as soon as you can. Especially if they have a question, make sure you answer it. It goes beyond just that. If they comment "I love those lashes!" You could respond with a good old fashioned thank you and tell them how they can purchase them. Make sure to like comments too. It just shows that you're paying attention. You'll likely get negative comments as well. Don't ignore them! Be polite and sincere, according to SocialPilot. It's a case-by-case basis on how to respond, but likely it's just a matter of acknowledging them to show them you are, in fact seeing their feedback. After responding to negative comments, hide them. Using the hide feature minimizes the number of people who see the negative comment.
4. Hashtags
You fear them. You love them. You need them. They're especially important when utilizing Instagram and Twitter, but should be used on all platforms. You use hashtags to categorize content and make it more deliverable. When you use a hashtag, your post will appear on the page for the same hashtag. Example being, #lashes will take you here.
You can use up to 30 hashtags on an Instagram post, but keep in mind you don't have to max out your hashtag usage. There's no right number per se, according to Hootsuite, but the consensus is that starting with about 11 hashtags is a good start. Sometimes you don't want hashtags in your caption for various reasons. If that's the case, hide them in your comments! Most importantly, make sure your hashtags are relevant to the Tori Belle brand and always include #toribelle, #toribellecosmetics, and #magneticlashes.
5. Don't be afraid to be creative!
Don't push the same content all the time. Think of new and innovative ways to get people involved on your social pages. Here are a few ideas from Hootsuite to get you started:
Ask Questions - when you ask questions, you're showing users that you want them to comment and interact with you.
Polls - ask a question like, "What's your favorite Magnetic Lash?" This will not only give you insight into what they like, but it will also show that you care what they're actually liking and not liking.
Encourage your audience to ask questions - have an "Ask me Anything" session, and this will really get the conversation rolling.
Spotlight Customers (with their permission of course) - Monthly, put one of your customers in the spotlight. Show them showing off their awesome lashes!
Now that you have some information on how to increase engagement on social media, try it out! It might surprise you at how well this works!
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