10 techniques to increase your engagement

Knowing tricks and techniques to increase engagement has become mandatory for smart marketers. In fact, even though content engagement has been reduced by 50% in the last three years, according to Buzzsumo, 92% of professionals still consider that social networks are fundamental for their business.

So much so, that new techniques are being worked on to increase engagement that results in positive results. But why? Mainly because a good strategy in social networks can provide certain advantages to your business. Benefits that other channels do not generate so quickly.

• It is essential to apply techniques to increase engagement because it builds relationships between customers and the brand.
• Strengthen brand loyalty
• Increase word of mouth
• And because it is a much more powerful conversion tool than advertising

So what has caused the fall in content engagement? There are certain factors to consider. Among them, the changes in the Facebook feed, the change of Instagram algorithm, the reluctance of brands to participate in real dialogues, and the misconception that merely being in networks is enough.

However, appearing on social networks is not enough. You cannot throw a lot of publications without any order or strategy and expect something to happen. The current audiences are not as sensitized by the amount of content shared by the brand.

That’s why you need to find techniques to increase engagement and encourage interaction instead of passively waiting for something to happen. The key here is commitment: two-way, meaningful, and high-value conversations. It is, essentially, the “social” part of social networks. And that’s where you should emphasize.

The best techniques to increase engagement

90% of marketers believe that social media marketing is essential to their overall marketing strategy. In fact, 78% of them admit that it has been the most effective marketing channel for their business.

Most brands take advantage of social networks to promote their products and services. However, many underestimate the value of commitment. If you are in social networks, one of your most significant objectives should be to increase engagement.

1.- Be active: respond to comments and messages

The most important key to the techniques for increasing engagement is to establish meaningful long-term relationships with your audience. In fact, the viral contents are not going to help you strengthen those relationships. What audiences want is an open conversation,  an interaction that makes the difference.

The problem that companies face is that, while 65% of brands have launched marketing strategies in social networks, their participation efforts are reduced to one way. That is, networks are used as a megaphone, instead of the walkie-talkie for which they are designed.

If a brand continuously responds to users’ doubts, the user’s perception will be transformed into the idea that the brand really cares a lot about it. Therefore, one of the best techniques to increase engagement is to participate in conversations with your community actively.

If done well, this can lead to a cascading effect. That is, you will increase the organic reach and visibility of your publication in the feeds. And this, in turn, leads to higher participation rates and so on.

Respond quickly and consistently to as many comments as possible, and never use “copy and paste” responses. Be original with each comment and customize the answers.

2.- Use wit and humor

Users use social networks to learn about news and entertainment. They do not expect brands to burden them by selling their products also in these scenarios. In fact, such an action could trigger the loss of followers.

On the other hand, another technique to increase engagement that precisely responds to this question is to use humor regularly. In this way, you will entertain your followers and increase engagement in networks. You can throw witty word games related to your industry. And even launch images accompanied by humorous subtitles.

For example, look at the Chipotle brand, which does a great job of infusing humor into its tweets. Its tweets are not too promotional or speak directly about its products. Instead, they use humor as a weapon.

3.- Create original and impressive visual content

There are tons of statistics and studies that support the power of visual content. Buzzsumo has shown that including visual elements to a Facebook publication results in a 2.3 times greater participation rate. While tweets with images can generate more than 150% retweets compared to text-only updates.

However, if your reaction to these statistics is to publish more images, then you do not understand the situation. Images cannot be hyperlinked, so most editors solve this by placing their URL in the title.

In fact, this turns out to be half as effective as posting a link with an attractive preview image. Unfortunately, Facebook recently removed the feature that allows pages to modify previews of links. Which means that everything that appears as a preview image, page title, and description is obtained directly from the metadata of the page.

However, to solve this, you can try using a service like ShareKit to control and customize what is shown when you share a link in networks. The additional benefit is that if you share the same publication or page several times (like your homepage, for example), you can customize each one with different images each time. So, the preview will not always look the same.

On the other hand, the techniques to increase engagement call to create shocking and different contents. You can look at Samsung, which uses its original images to promote your product. As you can see in the picture, the brand has created a unique graphic to promote its event #UnboxYourPhone.

4.- Create more video content

The graphics and original images are part of the best techniques to increase engagement in social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. But on visual platforms like Instagram, you’re already publishing eye-catching images to attract your followers.

So, how can you increase the commitment here, too? What changes can you make? The key is to create and publish a higher number of videos. While you post images regularly, the videos bring a refreshing change to your usual content.

For example, GoPro uses Instagram to publish shocking images that are taken with their cameras regularly. However, in addition to regular photos, they also post videos from time to time. In fact, these tend to get more likes than images.

And if you check his profile, you will notice that many of his photo publications have an average of between 100,000 and 300,000 likes.

On the other hand, its video publications generate more than 400,000 views. Although many of them reach half a million. This suggests that posting attractive videos is one of the best techniques to increase Instagram engagement.

Although this does not mean that the other channels do not accept this type of content well. However, you should bear in mind that each social network is specialized in one type of format.

5.- Program your publications at the right time

Your followers are not online all the time. Therefore, if you post something while most of them are inactive, you will lose opportunities. Hence, one of the techniques to increase engagement in networks is to find the best moments to publish content. The goal is for your audience to see your posts, comment, and share them.

The best times to post may differ according to many factors, such as the time zone and demographics. But it will also be different depending on the channels you are using.

Therefore, you may have to perform some tests to see which schedules work best on each platform, and how often should you do it.

According to a CoSchedule analysis, Facebook posts tend to generate more engagement between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm on weekends. As for tweets, your best bet to increase commitment on Twitter is to post them between 12 and 3 in the afternoon during the work week.

On the other hand, Instagram users participate throughout the week, and the most active hours are 8-9 in the morning. This information shows that you will need to create different calendars with different publication schedules to increase the commitment of social networks in each platform.

6.- Use the hashtags that are a trend

Depending on how you use them, hashtags can significantly increase engagement in social networks. This resource will help you to involve people who are not yet following you but who are part of your potential audience.

And this is because when you use relevant hashtags for each category, you increase the chances of users finding your content.

7.- Organize contests and raffles

Another technique to increase engagement is organizing competitions and raffles. This technique drives commitment mainly because users can receive something in return. Therefore, they are encouraged to act.

However, they do not feel compelled to do so. Voluntarily, they strengthen the ties with the brand and the content of the brand.

And depending on how you run the contest, you could also increase the amount of content generated by the user for your brand. For example, by requiring participants to share their photos with a single brand hashtag, more UGC will be created.

8.- Publish current and relevant content

And, for that, there’s nothing like being aware of your 2019 marketing calendar. Consider taking advantage of current affairs and emphasizing national or important calendar days.

And you do not have to stick to conventional calendar holidays such as Valentine’s Day or Christmas since other dates such as Star Wars Day or National Puppy Day have much more potential to generate engagement with your content.

9.- Create live videos

Have you ever wondered after spending a lot of time on an image, why does not that content generate as much engagement as you expected? Live streaming platforms such as Facebook Live, and Instagram Live are an optimal way to build a lasting connection with your audience. So, you should take advantage of its potential.

With the ability to reach 1.71 billion monthly active users on Facebook Live, there is absolutely no good reason to avoid using live videos to promote your business. In fact, it is one of the best techniques to increase engagement.

10.- Enrich your content with influencer marketing

Many of the techniques to increase engagement fall directly on the figure of the influencers. This is because these profiles have a lot to contribute:

• Commitment and scope
• Authority
• They know how they have to do it

However, in Antevenio we help you reach your target audience thanks to authentic content generated by quality influencers. Do you want to increase your engagement? Put yourself in our hands.