3 simple ways to drive engagement on social media

We live in a blessed time. Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter have finally allowed for the scaling of one-to-one relationships online. The problem is that few are taking the amazing opportunity to create long-term quality relations with their followers and fans.

Things are improving but most are still committing “crimes” when it comes to online engagement with their followers. This post will cover three easy to understand guidelines which everyone can adapt to improve overall engagement with their followers, which will in turn bring more traffic, strengthen the brand and drive higher profits.

1. Leave no engagement left behind
I learnt this simple mantra from the famous Gary Vaynerchuk who himself successfully scales his personal brand with close to 1 million Twitter followers. Companies with large marketing budgets have no excuse for not answering an email, replying to a comment on Facebook or thanking one of their followers for retweeting one of their tweets. No excuse.

We are all living in the thank you economy and your response rate online is now a metric which can be used to drive profits and increase your competitiveness within your market.

2. Say thank you
Saying thank you to a loyal customer or a follower who is raving about your brand is one of the easiest and most effective things you can do to strengthen your brands relationship with that fan. Developing the habit of thanking your fans is a great way to increase engagement and drive conversation around your brand but make sure that you are sincere and don’t overdo it. I personally thank each of my twitter followers for following me but I like to spend some time to read over the person’s profile and use “the thank you” tweet to engage more deeply with the person.

3. Reach out and create conversation
If you are fortunate enough to have millions of fans around your successful brand then your fans are most likely creating a lot of conversation around your brand on their own. For most this simply isn’t the case and at times even the most powerful brands have a lack of engagement and conversation around their products or service.

A great way to encourage conversation and increase engagement among your followers is to reach out directly to them and start a conversation. On Twitter this is much easier because you can tweet directly to one of your followers and ask them for some feedback or a recommendation but Facebook can still be used effectively to drive conversation. Posting questions and polls on your Facebook page is the best way to drive up engagement among your fans but make sure you answer each comment, remember, “no engagement left behind“.

I would love to hear other simple tactics which you use to drive engagement with your fans and followers. Help us all become better marketers by sharing these tactics in the comments section below.