Getting More Engagement From Your Followers

One question I get asked a lot is how to get more engagement on your blog or from your social media followers. When Viv wrote about social media not just being about the numbers she shared that it’s the engagement that counts. After all if you have a million followers but if no-one replies or engages with you, then what is the point?

Here are my tips on how you can increase engagement, based on things that have worked for me.

1.Let it happen organically

Grow your social media followers and blog audience by posting relevant content and not by forcing or begging. I believe that my readers are more engaged because they found me, liked what they read and were able to decide for themselves whether they wanted to get involved or not. Gimmicks and contests may increase your follower count quickly but the resulting followers won’t care about what you have to say or sell so they are less likely to comment or respond.

2. Be yourself

If you want to connect meaningfully with others, you need to be yourself. People can sense if you are putting on an act or trying to be something you’re not. Be genuine and people will feel more comfortable interacting with you. Decide what it is you stand for and stick to it. Don’t be swayed by what other people are doing or telling you you should do to become a success. We’re all different. Being original and following your own path is the best way to encourage the right people to connect with you.

3. ASK your audience to engage with you.

I used to joke that my husband doesn’t respond to hints or suggestions at all. It took me a while but now f I want him to do something I spell it out! It’s the same for blog readers. Ask us to engage with you. Subtle hints or hoping for comments are not going to work. People don’t want to misread a situation so unless you are specific we won’t try to second guess what you want us to do, instead we’ll just read and go. If you ask our opinion or ask us to add to the conversation then we are more likely to do so.

4. Monitor and assess what’s working

I like to monitor results so I know what works best for my marketing clients and for my own business. If you try a new method or technique keep an eye on how many people responded. This is easy to do. With Twitter, see how many @ mentions you get to a question, tweet or link. You can also check how many people have retweeted you. I have set up saved search terms in Hootsuite for Noisette Academy, Noisette Marketing (even noisettemarketing) so if someone Tweets a link to my site without mentioning my twitter handle I still see it. This is not only great for monitoring who is talking about the blog or business but also for saying Thank You!

Facebook: It’s easy to look at the number of likes and comments to determine interaction levels but also Facebook Page Insights can help a great deal. This will show you the times people are interacting most with your page and you can tweak the timing of your posts to respond to that.

Blog: Again look out for comments, but also find out who is sharing your posts. I like to use Google Analytics and Pinterest to see who is sharing my blog posts, then I look at the comments they have received after writing about The Academy. Sometimes a post that initially seems like it received little in the way of comments, has been shared hundreds of times and has been commented on elsewhere. It s very insightful to see referals from sites that mentioned you and you can build a realtionship with the bloggers that like what you are posting.

5. Always say thank you.

One of the best ways to encourage people to continue leaving comments or retweeting your posts is to say thank you when they do it. It shows that you value the reader taking the time to join in the conversation and it also helps encourage others to do the same because they will see that you are actively engaged with your readers. I usually reply to comments directly on the relevant post but sometimes I’ll also email a thank you.

The ultimate aim for increasing engagement is to build relationships. If you grow your audience naturally, ask and encourage us to contribute, then thank us when we do, you will find your audience will start engaging with you more.

Do you have any tips to add that you have found works for you?