Social Media: Attention & Engagement

From the young to old, most of us are on at least one form of social media. Whether it’s using social media to stay in contact with loved ones, or building a brand and networking with others, joining groups of like-minded people for interaction and information sharing, or establishing business connections, we all use social media to further our interest.

Capturing Attention:
Relies upon the interest of the consumer or the person using he social media platform. The Internet of Things (IoT) captures the information of the consumer, based on searches and inquiries that the consumer has performed in the past. These items will begin to appear on various social media sites being used by the consumer as ads to capture their attention as click bait. “Today, marketers have identified a tremendous opportunity to promote their products as almost every person is connected to the internet and is active on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc” (Kumbhar, 2017).
Ordinary people may not have the ability to use the algorithms that are used by the IoT, which can be a challenge, but people generally capture the attention of their audience by understanding the consumer, and delivering graphic and literary media that engages the consumer on the levels of their interest. Capturing the attention of the consumer can be challenging when the content being displayed is of poor quality, or when the marketing strategy is subpar.
How do we avoid or correct some of these challenges and what are some of the important factors for capturing one’s attention on social media?
Authenticity is a start. “Connecting with your audience helps to humanize your brand and build real, authentic relationships” (Peters, 2016). Create a social media marketing strategy and goals, understand why we’re on social media, know what’s needed to succeed, and how success will be measured. Build your own brand ambassadors by encouraging others to share your content on social media.


Maintaining Engagement:
Is reliant upon keeping the audience interested in whatever is being communicated. The use of various media, music, sounds, and images all play a role in keeping people engaged in what’s being promoted. Communication needs to be maintained both ways to understand the consumer or target audience. “People are more likely to recommend a business that engages with them on social media compared to a company that has no social media presence. That being said, many companies overlook proper social media engagement and miss a major business opportunity” (Torr, 2014).
Struggles with maintaining engagement generally stem from a lack of understanding and communicating with the target audience. Kuba Rogalski, one of the most viewed writers in social media suggests that understanding the audience makes it easier to prepare an engaging post. Rogalski also suggests that posts should be made frequently so that the brand is not forgotten. “Pay attention to social listening — chances are people talk about your brand in places other than comment sections of your brand’s social media accounts; use tools like Brand24 or TweetDeck to find the mentions of your brand” (Rogalski, 2016).
Knowing when is the best time to respond to our audience is also an important factor of maintaining engagement. Back your image and create value with your audience by engaging in two-way conversation. If you are taking the time to post, take the time to engage and respond to your audience (Torr, 2014).
References:
Kumbhar, S. (2017, March 27). How the Internet of Things is changing social media marketing — IoT Now — How to run an IoT enabled business. Retrieved from https://www.iot-now.com/2017/03/27/60020-internet-things-changing-social-media-marketing/
Peters, B. (2016, April 21). Solving the 10 Most Common Social Media Marketing Challenges. Retrieved from https://blog.bufferapp.com/solving-the-10-most-common-social-media-marketing-challenges
Rogalski, K. (2016, August 16). Error 429 (Too Many Requests) — Quora. Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/What-are-your-Best-steps-in-maintaining-social-engagement