Armed with knowledge about social media, now it’s time to start looking at audience engagement. After all, a profile can be filled with attractive images and compelling captions and still not get engagement. Why is that?
One of the big reasons is how humans have started consuming media in the past twenty years. There is so much out there to absorb, so we kind of started glossing over things. This is especially true if we don’t know how to respond to something.
The easy way to solve this is to tell people what to do. Now, this does not mean army style orders here. This is just giving them a cue on how to respond. Referred to as calls to action, these short requests for a specific action can dramatically increase engagement.
One of the more common calls to action is connecting people to other social media profiles or hop on the email list. Both of these options build the social connection and increase how many times people see a given business each week, which builds trust.
Another frequently used call to action is to ask a question. This directs their thoughts and can start genuine conversations. Now, asking any old question won’t do a whole lot. The question should relate to the message in the post since people hate things that come out of left field. Used correctly, engagement increases, and occasional ideal client research happens.
A less familiar option is to have the audience do a quick assignment and provide free feedback. For example, say you work with people looking to improve their social media presence. The call to action might be “send me your current social media plan for a free audit” or “write it down and book a free consultation for a limited time.” This one does double duty, allowing your most engaged followers the opportunity to know you better and ideal client research.
There are more call to action options than those three, however, it really depends on the niche as to which will work better. The important thing is that a call to action ends up on every post in some form or fashion. That will help engagement in a genuine manner.