For example, in offline media, such as billboards, quantifying how many people are impacted by the ad is not trivial. However, an estimate can be made based on how many cars pass by the highway where the billboard is installed. But what is the engagement with this content? Or rather, how many people in that car impacted by that billboard talk to others about what they saw? Metrifying this is an impossible task.
Fortunately, online is much easier, and I need to understand the impact of an ad. Engagement in Digital Marketing is when a user performs some interaction about some content on a social network. That response could be a like, a click, a comment, forwarding that content to a third party, saving the content to view later, or sharing the content.
To calculate the engagement rate, the reach of the content or the number of followers the profile has is used as a basis.
The greater the engagement, the more digital relevance your content presents. Like everything on social media, there is no formula to increase engagement. However, there are good practices that can strengthen your relationship with followers and generate more engagement.
Vanity Metrics On Social Media
Vanity metrics, as the name implies, aim to use numbers to give the best version of a fact without considering the context.
An example of vanity metrics is measuring the number of clicks on a sponsored link without measuring CAC ( Customer Acquisition Cost ) and the amount invested. Measuring the number of clicks on a video on Youtube without considering the number of people who watched the video until the end of the number of minutes watched.
When we talk about engagement, many people immediately associate it with likes on Instagram content. It is essential to understand that although likes are part of the engagement calculation, they should not be interpreted alone. Nowadays, people enjoy content without reading it to the end, without actually engaging. It is an almost automatic movement. And it’s no use celebrating that content received 100 likes if, proportionally, in terms of reach, very few users interacted.
The danger with vanity metrics is being myopic about social media and glossing over the sad truth: your content isn’t engaging with users.
Also Read: What Engagement Means: How To Involve The Public
But How Vital Is Engagement Today?
Engagement is a metric that shows how much your content impacts users’ lives. Therefore, as we said earlier, a life alone does not mean much. But when you have a community involved with your content, you can be relevant, influence, sell and talk to your audience.
Also, the greater your engagement, the greater your reach. We know social media algorithms will distribute your content according to its success when posted.
In social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, engagement is essential since the likes and comments made by friends/connections appear in the users’ feed/timeline. In this way, the content is amplified and gains a greater reach with each as it receives.
That is, more than ever; engagement is essential for your brand to be relevant on social media.
Six Ways To Increase Your Engagement On Social Media
The important thing is to consider that the vast majority of people are on social networks to be entertained or distracted. So how do you create content that is connected to your brand strategy, that sells your product or service creatively, and is relevant to your audience?
1. Create Relevant Content
Understand your persona and what interests your audience. Then create relevant content. You can’t just offer products, talk about yourself, and be purely commercial. Think about how to give tips, offer free rich content, exchange experiences, and generate value for those who are seeing your post.
2. Create A Content Calendar
As always, planning is the key to success. Understand the pillars of content that you can address in your networks and create an editorial calendar that includes these posts. This calendar must balance the most different types of content: videos, simple posts, carousels, etc.
3. Create Connections And Conversations
When you create a conversation, you make your brand more human. This encourages people to respond and engage.
Creating this connection goes far beyond the famous CTA at the end of the post caption. Engagement comes from a genuine desire to engage.
And the algorithm itself wants these conversations to happen so much that the number of comments is the most relevant to increase the post’s reach. So be sure to reply to comments, tag people, and invite more people to this conversation.
4. Take Advantage Of The Trends
Almost every week, there is a new trend. These are opportunities for your brand to speak in the particular language of the moment. Dialoguing with viral content humanely is one of the ways your brand can explore to increase engagement.
But be careful; timing is a fundamental factor in determining if you are surfing the trend or if your brand is being cringed.
5. Be Authentic And Creative
How many content creators are there today on social media? Countless. Every second more and more content is created. It is necessary to know how to differentiate, to be authentic. And creativity is a way for you to get your audience’s attention.
And for you to be more creative, you have to surround yourself with creativity. Start following creative accounts, look for good references, see what is being produced and be successful abroad.
6. Track Your Metrics
Repeat what went right; stop doing what went wrong. Analyzing your metrics is essential to understanding your content and engagement. The greater the volume of publications, the more basis for analyzing and understanding patterns. The idea is to experiment, A/B test and post increasingly relevant content.
Also Read: Engagement Is Everything For An Influencer
