The follower count was once the most important social media metrics for brands and marketers. But due to the massive increase in fake followers, it is no longer reliable. So how do you measure your social media authority? The answer is ‘engagement’. 

The follower count only shows how many users follow you, on the other hand, engagement shows how many users actually interact with your brand. However, keeping your followers engaged and encouraging them to engage with you is not easy. But if you manage to keep them engaged, they will become your fans and eventually, your customers. 

In this article, we will discuss why engagement is important, how to increase engagement rate, and how to grow your followers. Let’s get right into it. 

Why is Engagement Important?

You can build stronger ties with your customers by engaging with them on social media. Your social media interactions provide you with an opportunity to get to know your customers and create a personal connection with them. 

Building consumer loyalty is another benefit. Customers will become more loyal to you if you assist them whenever they need it, develop a bond with them, and provide an exceptional customer experience. 

As a result, you’ll see an increase in sales as well. Customers are more likely to buy from your brand if you are active on social media and reply to customer remarks. Your sales will increase even if you receive bad comments on your page if you respond nicely and rectify the issue. 

What is Social Media Engagement Rate?

Using the engagement rate, content creators and brands can measure the level of engagement in their content or campaigns. To put it another way, the engagement rate is a measure of the amount of interaction that a user’s material generates with their followers.

Formula to calculate engagement rate 

Total Engagement= The total number of user interactions 

Total Followers= The no of users that follow your social media profile

Proven Tips to Help You Increase Social Media Engagement Rate 

Now that you know why engagement rate is important, let’s check out some effective ways to increase the social media engagement rate.

•  Post content that resonates

Social media platforms are excellent tools to promote your brand, but they are also highly competitive. So, it’s best to stick with posting content that your audience likes to engage with. It can be a video, a funny meme or graphic, a Twitter poll, or a social media photo that encourages your users to share while also tagging other users. Although, make sure that your content is engaging and relatable. Go through your previous posts and find out what users want the most and what they don’t engage with or anger them.

• Engage with your followers 

Posting engaging content is crucial, but so is engaging with your followers. Whenever a user leaves a comment on your posts, it allows you to engage with them and establish a connection. Even if the comments are negative, you must engage with them. It will allow you to regain their trust.

• Encourage your followers to engage 

Adding a call-to-action at the end of your posts can also help you increase engagement. There are several ways you may encourage visitors to engage with your content. You can increase the likelihood that someone will share your post if you explicitly request them to.

• Create a group/forum for discussions 

Increased participation in social media groups and forums is an excellent way to spread the message. Because users can post questions at any time, groups are more engaging than postings, although pages are more restricted. Users can interact with one another by forming a group. They will be able to network with people in their industry. You must also participate in the group and strengthen your relationships with others. You’ll need to keep a watch on what people submit if you want to keep spammers out of the group. However, maintaining the group’s relevance in the community is also crucial.

• Leverage social media contests and giveaways

Social media contests are an effective way to not just increase engagement but also your follower count. One of the most used social media contest tactics is, asking users to follow, like, and retweet a certain post to enter the contest. The contest prize is disclosed before starting the contest along with the criteria to win. Once the contest winner is decided, you will have to give the prize. Also, make sure to disclose the winner on your preferred social media platform and ask him to share the same when he receives the prize.  

• Use visual elements in your posts

Social media posts with just text look bland and fail to draw attention. But adding images to your social media posts can help you change that. Social media posts with images tend to draw 150% more engagement compared to those without images. Just make sure that the images are engaging and are relevant to the content posted along with it. 

• Use emojis

Emojis/emoticons are now the preferred way to express emotions. A simple smiley face can help you effectively express your emotions, something that cannot be done with just words. It can be really useful on social media platforms like Twitter, where there are 280-character limits. Emojis can also increase engagement, although not all emojis are created equal. A smiley face is estimated to increase engagement by 25%, whereas a grimacing emoji can boost engagement by nearly 140%. 

• Post multiple times a day 

Social media users have a really short attention span. So, if want to stay on their minds, you should post multiple times a day. On social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you should post 2-3 times a day. On TikTok, you should at least 1-3, although some users even post 10 times a day. As for fact-paced social media platforms like Twitter, you must post between 5-8 times per day. Some brands even post 12-15 times per day on Twitter to stay on the users’ timelines. 

• Post about relevant content topics 

While images, emojis, and the number of times you post matter, the most important thing is that you about relevant content topics. If you are already active on social media, go through your previous posts to identify content topics that your target audience engages with the most. If you have just started, make a list of your competitors and check out their social media profiles to identify relevant content topics. Use the most engaging content topics to create an engaging content strategy that increases engagement. 

• Interact with your fans 

Engaging with your target audience is important, but it’s more important to engage with your fans. Your fans are the users that have stayed loyal to your brand and engaging with them can make them feel appreciated. Brands like Netflix and dbrand regularly engage and joke around with their fans. These interactions also encourage other users to interact with you. 

• Host live Twitter chats 

Hosting live Twitter chats is another effective way to increase social media engagement. Live chats allow your fans to engage with you in real-time. It also gives you an opportunity to show the human side of your brand and connect with your audience on a personal level. You can also initiate giveaways to further entice users to engage with your brand. Although, make sure that you have already prepared a hashtag before starting the live chat. If you have enough tweets with the hashtag, it can go viral and increase your brand’s visibility. 

• Use short-video content format 

Short-video formats are now more popular than ever among social media users. The social media platform TikTok has prospered especially of this format. Other platforms like Instagram have also implemented the platform and others are in the process of doing so. As these videos provide offer a short but don’t take much of their time they are highly consumed by users. Start leveraging short videos to increase social media engagement. 

• Ask questions

If you are running out of ideas to fill the gaps in your content strategy, try asking questions. Ask your users relevant but with a bit of humor to encourage them to engage. You can also ask your audience questions like the content they would like you to post. If you use Twitter, you can create polls with options that the target audience can choose from. Furthermore, you can also ask questions about your products. If you have a product that does well in a specific region but is unsure about its demand in the new market, just ask the audience themselves. It will help you gauge the consumers’ opinion and demand for the same. 

• Increase response times

While social media is an excellent tool for marketing, it can also be used as a great customer support mechanism. Consumers now frequently use social media platforms to express their opinions. Not all of them are positive, and if the negative ones are not addressed at the right time, they can escalate into a social media crisis. You never know what might go viral on social media. So, it is of utmost importance to 

• Show your brand’s human side

For consumers, it’s more enticing to interact if they think that there is a real person at the other end. So, bring out the human side of your brand rather than acting like a bot. Many brands even encourage their social media teams to sign off their posts. 

• Remove fake and inactive followers

Fake social media accounts follow multiple accounts to seem genuine. So, even if you haven’t bought fake followers, you might have some in your follower base. Moreover, if you let these followers accumulate over time, they can become a sizeable portion of your follower base. While these fake accounts do increase your follower base, there is no other benefit than that. Although, there are many negatives. 

The first and foremost is the decline in engagement rate as they do not interact with your posts. The same goes for inactive followers. Also, if your followers identify them before you do, they could easily be mistaken for bought followers for inflating follower count. Such scenarios can tremendously hurt your brand’s reputation. So, it’s best to weed out fake and inactive followers before they grow too much. 

If you have a couple of thousand followers, manually analyzing your followers and identifying fake accounts is manageable. Although, if you have hundreds of thousands if not millions of followers, you should consider using a social media follower tracker like FollowerAudit. It can automatically analyze and detect fake and inactive Twitter followers with ease. You can also monitor your Twitter follower growth in real-time and identify authentic influencers with an engaging follower base to promote your brand. 

Closing Thoughts 

So, what steps have you taken so far to increase your social media engagement rate? The above-mentioned are some of the best, tried, and tested tactics that can help you increase engagement. Also, make sure to use a social media analytics tool to measure the impact of your implemented strategies. 

Author Bio

Shivam Singh: Content Writer and Editor at Algodom Media LLP

Shivam Singh is a passionate and enthusiastic content writer. He enjoys writing content about social media and marketing in general. He is passionate about providing valuable information for the readers. For his hobbies, he either spends his time listening to music or polishing his skills in landscape photography.(@shivam_s1ngh)