Beginners Guide: Social Media Engagement

Capturing Attention in Social Media
Capturing attention in social media can be problematic when there is such an information overload. How do you gain the attention of readers and keep them engaged long enough to read what there is to say? This can pose a problem for social media and mass media alike. Engagement on social media or more specific, audience engagement is a marketing process to where current or even future prospects go through the action of submitting an email address or clicking a link on the page (York, 2016). Basically, any function that keeps a person on a social media platform in the form of a like, view, share, or click is considered engagement, and the more the better it is (York, 2016).
Though it is never as simple as a click, like, share, or re-post. There is a finesse behind the lure of engagement, and with that finesse there are challenges. Capturing engagement alone in its self is a colossal challenge and for over 51% of brands real time engagement is the biggest problem (De Beule, 2015). Social media never sleeps, its awake always, always going and going. The problem with that is customers are always connected, which means they demand swift and easy resolutions, on the fly, to any potential crisis (De Beule, 2015). For social media users, it is said that they expect responses within an hour, making time of the essence (De Beule, 2015). So, what does that mean for brands that don’t reply in a fashionable timely manner?? Loss of audience engagement? Perhaps. For those brands who do manage to reply when demanded, well they just created the prefect foundation for loyal factions and audience engagement (De Beule, 2015).

Maintaining Engagement in Social Media
To dive further in, once engagement is obtained it must be kept. Now how does that happen? There are strategies, tips, and tricks that can be utilized to keep that attention and engagement that was worked so hard for. First and foremost, structure and share worthiness of content is BIG and it has a great deal to do with the amount of traffic that is attracted along with the engagement received (Khan, 2016). Making structure and share ability worth considering.
Aside from the share ability, high conversion words play into structure. These words or certain keywords help generate more engagement than other basic words by enticing more clicks and providing that much needed exposure (Khan, 2016) It is the effective intelligent use of the high conversion words that drive updates to receive more visibility and increases audience engagement (Khan, 2016). Lastly, the good old pound sign as it used to be known as before it was converted into the infamous hashtag is another strategy for obtaining engagement on social media (Khan, 2016). Hashtags are used across several social media platforms on posts and updates. The use of hashtags expands the reach beyond immediate followers in return increasing new audiences, more traffic and conversions (Khan, 2016).
Securing social media engagement is the one imperative factor that can make or break that long-term relationships that brands and channels want to keep (York, 2017). Social media engagement is exactly that, a long-term relationship. Â Like all relationships, they take time and a little TLC. Social media engagement is about the use of the varying platforms such as Facebook to build an experience (York, 2017). Once customers have decided to engage and stay engaged, trust has been built resulting in the beginning of that long-term relationship goal (York, 2017). That goal is important to the success securing engagement.
To explain further, after the relationship has begun it must be maintained as well. A few ways to maintain engagement on social media is to use current topic and trends, be receptive with the audience, and to start the initial conversation (York, 2017). Using current topics and trends helps with maintaining engagement by bringing in new traffic and promoting events in real time (York, 2017). Being receptive brings back the earlier mentioned topic of time sensitivity. Consumers demand timely responses, being timely shows alertness and attentiveness which creates positive interactions and then loyalty (York, 2017). Lastly, starting the initial conversation is opening the door to social media engagement. Someone must initiate to get things going, and sometimes it should be the brand (York, 2017). What this entails is creating content that the audience actually wants, such as industry knowledge and being dynamic with inquiries (York, 2017). Users will quickly follow and engage when they see that there is an actual person behind the brand leading to trust (York, 2017). After all long-term relationships are built upon the solid foundations of trust and engagement, and that is what captivates social media engagement (York, 2017).
References
De Beule, S. (2015). Why Real-Time Engagement Is the Biggest Social Media Challenge for Brands. [online] Social Media Today. Available at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/2015-02-18/why-real-time-engagement-biggest-social-media-challenge-brands [Accessed 23 Aug. 2017].
Khan, J. (2016). 7 Effective Ways To Increase Your Social Media Traffic and Conversions. [online] Social Media Explorer. Available at: http://socialmediaexplorer.com/content-sections/tools-and-tips/7-effective-ways-to-increase-your-social-media-traffic-and-conversions/ [Accessed 23 Aug. 2017].
York, A. (2016). How to Get a More Engaged Audience With Your Social Media Content. [online] Sprout Social. Available at: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/engaged-audience/ [Accessed 23 Aug. 2017].
York, A. (2017). What Is Social Media Engagement & Why Should I Care?. [online] Sprout Social. Available at: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/what-is-social-media-engagement/ [Accessed 23 Aug. 2017].
