Engaging Your Audience: Strategies for Increasing Social Media Interaction

So, you have a good social media presence, but the problem is you're struggling to see meaningful engagement or interaction. You've got a good number of followers, and you post regularly, so why is there little to no engagement on your posts? Why is your content not resonating?

It might be that your approach to engaging the audience is wrong or lacks something important. While posting regularly and having a large following is important, that is not the end. The real magic happens when your audience sees and feels the need to interact and engage, which you are not giving to them. 

The Challenge Faced

Without engagement or interaction, social media is just an empty platform. Basically, engagement is the new likes. With many new posts, videos, images, ads, and other forms of content being released every day, capturing your audience's attention to form interaction is a big struggle.

While social media algorithms can certainly play a role in limiting organic engagement reach, there’s one crucial factor you need to consider as the root of the problem - Your outdated approaches, old-school tactics, and traditional methods that no longer inspire your audience to take action. 

So, how can you turn things around and increase your social media interaction? What do you post differently from your competitors? How do you go about posting or engaging? What content would ignite the spirit of engagement?

Continue reading to learn how to engage your audience with the right strategies. 

Seven Tips to Engage Your Audience on Social Media

1. Be Truly Social

This is very important; after all, it does take two to tango. Engaging goes hand-in-hand with socializing. You can’t expect people to talk to you if you dot not talk to them. Social media is all about building relationships and connections. It's more than just broadcasting your message and hoping for likes—it's about putting yourself out there socially. 

Although many say too much socializing on social media is bad, in this case, too much social media socializing is what you need. The more you socialize, the more your audience will feel drawn to interact with you, leading to higher audience engagement.

2. Create Compelling and Engaging-Worthy Content

Creating compelling content is a key aspect of social media engagement strategy because it is one of the best ways to capture your audience's attention and keep them hooked on you.

Here are tips for creating compelling social media content:

• Have catchy headlines

• Use lots of visual elements, such as images, gifs, etc.

• Add videos to your content

• Avoid jargons

• Use trendy keywords and action words.

Traditional content is slowly losing its touch and impact on audiences who now prefer interactive content. Interactive content is one of the most effective ways to increase audience engagement, as it focuses more on users’ participation rather than passive consumption. It is something no one can help but look at twice or interact with. If content creation is not your forte, consider outsourcing to a marketing service agency to help with your social media management.

3. Ask Questions and Encourage Responses

This simple action can lead to an influx of engagement. Whether it's a poll, survey, or a simple thought-provoking, argumentative, or funny question, encourage your audience to participate. You could turn it into a reward game, where the five best answers get a reward. This makes your audience feel valued and that their opinions matter. 

However, don't stop there. Many people make the mistake of ending the conversation after asking the question. Don't do that. Keep the conversation and connection going. Respond to comments/answers with a follow-up question or your thoughts on their response instead of replying with the generic "thank you." 

This approach shows that you value and are interested in their input and you took the time to talk to them. This keeps the engagement flowing, leading to more comments and interactions.

4. Leverage ManyChat for Personalized Engagement

ManyChat is one of the innovative tools used in engagement strategies to enhance social media interaction. ManyChas automates personalized interactions with your audience. With ManyChats, you can ask your audience to comment or send you a message with a certain word or phrase. 

For instance, if you are promoting a particular course, webinar, product, or service, you can ask your audience to comment "I'm in!" on your post. ManyChat will send them the information you have regarding that comment to their DM. This strategy not only helps you spread your service or offer, grow your email list, and increase connection but also proves you to be responsive, reliable, and engaging.

5. Use Your IG Stories to Tell a Story

You might be wondering why Instagram, right? Well, Instagram stories are not just for random, fun updates—they're a powerful storytelling tool. The best way to use your IG stories to tell a story is to create themes. You can create themes for different days of the week (or according to your preference) to build a consistent narrative that keeps your audience coming back for more.

For instance, on Mondays, you could have a theme called "CEO Mondays," where you could share your business tips in certain niches, and on Tuesdays, "Taco Tuesday," where you showcase what you will be making for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. These themes can be about your brand and business or about yourself and your lifestyle. The main goal is to use your stories to build a personal connection.

6. Utilize Engagement Tools

Aside from posting on IG stories, utilize the engagement tools present in IG stories. These include question boxes, polls, and "this or that" quizzes, all designed to encourage interaction. These tools are simple to use but can significantly increase engagement by inviting your audience to participate in a fun way. These interactions do two things: Keep your audience engaged and give you valuable insights into their preferences.

How to Get Effective and Fast Results

While the strategies mentioned above can help you increase your social media interaction, they have to be uniquely implemented for you. Many people are already following these strategies, so you’ll want yours to have a distinct feel or approach. This is where Ruth Sherrill Marketing Services comes in. 

We offer various social media engagement strategies, from interactive content development and influencer marketing collaboration to social media contests and campaigns. These services are designed to not only boost your engagement but also to tailor the experience specifically to your brand’s voice and audience. 

Each of these services, when implemented, produces results that are seen within weeks, completely changing the dynamics of your engagement with your audience.

Conclusion

Engagement is a two-way thing. If you want to increase your social media interaction, then you need to up your game and implement the six strategies mentioned above. At Ruth Sherill Marketing Services, helping businesses with their social media presence and engagement is our forte. 

We aim to see businesses thrive online. What better way to enhance the view of your business than through your social media platforms? 

To breathe a new life into your social media engagement, get in touch with us. You can also follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok.