Help! My posts aren't getting any engagement!

Most of us have struggled to keep customer engagement consistent across our social media channels. But why is that? What makes for the kind of post that people want to like, share, and comment on – and what puts them off from wanting to join in the conversation?

Why your posts might be turning people off

Your content could be missing the mark for many reasons. Here are just a few of the things you could be doing to self-sabotage your own social media strategy:

• You’re not sharing things your audience cares about
• Your content is littered with typos, and is generally difficult to read and understand
• You’re not using photos, graphics and videos to make your posts stand out
• Your content is alienating certain demographics, or followers within certain age groups
• You’re posting, then leaving. In other words, your followers aren’t getting anything back from you!

How to increase your social media engagement

• Get to know your audience – and create the kind of content they want to consume

It sounds so simple, but it’s an important step that many would-be social media marketers skip as they rush to start building their digital presence. Go back to basics, and ask yourself: what do my ideal customers and my dream connections want to see from me? What excites them, entertains them, and makes them think? Social listening can help you come up with hot topics, too. I’ve gone into more detail about this here.

• Mix up your posts with copy, images and videos

Text-based posts just don’t catch the eye in the same way as more visual content. (In fact, images are processed 600,000 times faster than words, so if you want to stand out from a crowded feed, they’re your friends.)

To turn heads and keep your feed looking pretty, you need to be sharing a mixture of posts that cater for everybody’s attention span and level of comprehension.

• Tag everybody you mention

If you’ve collaborated with somebody on a blog, tag them in the post that shares the link. If you’ve spent the morning catching up with a lovely client (and they’re happy for you to shout about it), drop them a reference. Adding somebody else to your social media post makes sure that their followers can see your content, as long as the user approves the mention. It’s an especially important tactic if you’re working with a social media influencer, as cross-referencing his or her account will help to widen your network and build a bigger following.

• Post at the right times

There are certain times of the day when users on specific social media platforms are the most active. For example, content shared in the middle of the day – and especially on Wednesdays – tends to perform better on Facebook, while you’ll get more from your Instagram audience early in the morning and after the lunchtime rush.

Be mindful, however, that these ideal times will vary depending on whether you’re marketing yourself to other businesses or directly to consumers. Business users are more likely to interact with posts during actual business hours, but B2C content will normally get more of a response on the weekends.

• Go Live!

Most of my clients HATE doing Lives. I used to loathe it, too. But once you’ve got over your fear of talking into the camera, and you start to see the positive impact that live, off-the-cuff content can have on your engagement levels, you’ll be itching to record as much as you can! You can also stream more formal events, like talks, presentations and seminars, to give other users insights into your events.

• Share other people’s valuable content

Whether it’s sharing a funny meme (business-related, of course!) or retweeting the results of an industry report, it’s perfectly fine to share other people’s stuff from around the web and curate your own collection of interesting content. Just don’t try to pass it off as your own!

• Track your posts’ success and work with the trends

Most of the major platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn included – offer reporting dashboards so you can see how many likes, shares and comments each of your posts has received. Monitor which posts tend to get the most engagement and create more of the content that’s getting you noticed.

Need help putting together a fool proof social media engagement strategy?

There’s a lot you can do to boost your social profile and get more interactions online – but let’s be honest, you’ve got a business to run. I can take over the development and management of your social media engagement plan to make sure everything you’re sharing is on point, on brand, and guaranteed to get your followers’ fingers tappin’. Drop me a message now and let’s see how we can work together!