Introduction
By the time you’ve finished reading this sentence:
- 1100+ photos and videos have been posted on Instagram
- 85,000+ comments have been posted on Facebook
- 116666666+ messages would have been sent in the meta apps (Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram)
With more than half of the world being online and using social media, a lot happens in the digital world every second.
For business owners, it’s the best time to leverage this buzz and drive engagement to their social media channels.
Boosting engagement in social media is not any different from other marketing strategies; it requires patience, industry knowledge, and perseverance to understand your target audience’s wants and needs. So, with the right strategy, you can widen your target audience, drive engagement, and ultimately hit your KPIs
Through this blog, let’s take a look at 9 social media strategies you can use to grow engagement and reap success. But before that, let’s take a look at…
What Is Social Media Engagement?
In simple terms, social media engagement is the metric that is used to track interactions of users on various content formats in different social media platforms. The metric is calculated based on interactions such as likes, comments, shares, followers, click-throughs, and mentions.
According to Statista, the social media platform with the most engagement is TikTok, with an average engagement per post of 2.65% in 2023, followed by Instagram, which has 0.7%.
Engagement is typically calculated by taking all actions in a post into consideration. This gives rise to two types of engagements, which are post-level engagements and account-level engagements.
Post-level engagements are interactions such as likes, shares, and follows in social media posts.
Account-level engagements are interactions such as direct messages, website visits, mentions, and more.
Why Does Engagement Matter in Social Media?
Social media has to be social. If there’s no engagements, then social media is just…media. So brands that encourage interactions in their social space will bring an increase in engagement and ultimately, more sales.
Furthermore, engagement is a key indicator in understanding how well your social media post performed and whether it resonated with the audience or not. So, the higher the engagement rate, the more popular and easier it is to gain more followers and build the brand.
For instance, if your post on Instagram gains good engagement, it will appear on the explore/ for you page on Instagram and will be organically found by your target audience.
More engagement means more eyes on the content, increased brand awareness, increased follow count, and ultimately, generate more revenue.
9 Strategies to Drive Social Media Engagement
Growing social media engagement organically is not an easy task. However, it is a task that is worth doing because the interactions we get from an organically grown audience are the brand’s greatest assets and play a crucial role in aiding the brand in reaching its business goals.
Here are 9 social media tactics to drive engagement in 2024…
Post Interactive Content
In today’s market, content is king. But this has led to the internet being flooded with useless content, filled with plagiarism and irrelevant information. This is where interactive content comes into play.
Interactive content is the format of content that is immersive and dynamic, which offers buyers the opportunity to participate and engage with brands that they like. Through interactive content, buyers get to grasp information faster and at the same time, businesses can bring more interaction and engagement into their posts.
Here are a few reasons why Interactive content is an impeccable strategy to drive more engagement-
- According to Outgrow, Interactive content brings in 2 times more engagement than static content
- 51% of B2B buyers mention that interactive content is very helpful when dealing with business problems.
- Interactive content creates 5 times more views than static content.
Benefits of Interactive Content
- Makes Lead Gen Easier
Brands that used interactive content have reported that their lead-generation process has become much easier than when they were using static content. Interactive content such as polls, quizzes, and surveys offer buyers real value and, in most cases, are willing to offer their contact info in return.
- Higher Conversion Rates
With interactive content bringing in 52.6% more engagement than static content, interactive content has established itself as a powerful marketing tool with the ability to convert prospects to leads and leads to long-term buyers.
A new study has shown that interactive content converts 70% of the leads, which is twice as much as static content can convert. A higher conversion rate for interactive content stems from the fact that it requires engagement from the buyers, and users who are engaged tend to have a higher chance to convert.
The Quizzical Case of Buzzfeed- Case Study
Buzzfeed is a brand that has perfectly adopted the interactive content strategy. Buzzfeed is a media and entertainment company that was founded in 2006 and brings in a revenue of a 437 Million dollars.
Buzzfeed adopted interactive content through quizzes. Since 2008, they’ve been religiously posting quizzes that are informative, entertaining, and topics that are popular in today’s world.
Well, this strategy has worked wonders for Buzzfeed, bringing in more than 96.1 Million visitors to their website and 50.6 Million devices visiting their website
By ensuring that the quizzes are easily sharable and entertaining, they’ve seamlessly tapped into the interests of their target audience, collected valuable information and insights, and ultimately, drove success.
The Power of Storytelling
Who doesn’t love a good story? It warms your heart and keeps lingering in your mind long after you’ve read it. That is the power a good story holds over the human mind.
Storytelling is arguably the best and most effective methods to convey information rather than hard facts or stats. In fact, modern studies have shown that readers remember stories 22x times more than stats or facts. Even though the art of storytelling has evolved drastically over time, it still remains one of the most effective ways to connect with your audience.
In modern-day content strategies, storytelling is used to improve brand awareness and build a loyal customer base. Storytelling is the crux of every content strategy and is used by both B2B and B2C businesses to build strong bonds with their audience.
In 2024, the storytelling market has seen a growth of 46%, and led to an increase of over 6.6k in search volume over the time period of 5 years.
Furthermore, a recent study that had two thousand UK adults showed that 15% of the audience would purchase the product immediately if they loved a brand’s story.
By leveraging the power of storytelling, your target audience can learn about your brand, the foundation on which it’s built, and what your brand stands for. Stay authentic in your words, humanize the brand, and foster a connection with your audience.
Nike Finding Greatness Through Storytelling
Nike is a world-leading sports apparel brand that has strategically leveraged the power of storytelling to retain its audience and generate engagement.
Back in 2012, Nike lost the Olympic sponsorship deal to Adidas. So, to compete with Adidas, the creative team was handed the task of creating an ad campaign that would generate a “buzz” for Nike in social media during the Olympics. And the result? It was the inception of arguably one of the best storytelling ad campaigns of all time.
The Find Your Greatness Ad Campaign.
The Find Your Greatness ads talked about the marvels of the human body, its accomplishments, and the spirit of kindness, bravery, compassion, and athletic feats.
To make sure the ad feels authentic and hits home for the audience rather than using Olympians, Nike showcased ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
In the ad, young athletes are showing off their skills on the basketball court and soccer field. But the ad doesn’t stop there. The athletes are also shown to be living a normal life, working jobs, pushing themselves in schools, and learning from their parents. Through storytelling, Nike conveyed that being an athlete is not just about winning medals; rather, it is about having the ambition to achieve the goals that you set in life.
The Find Your Greatness ad campaign went viral on all digital platforms and social media, generating
- more than $506 million in revenue growth
- Increased Nike+ membership by 55%
- Gained twice (57,000) as many followers as Adidas (12,000)
In a survey conducted during the 2012 Olympics, 37% of people recognized Nike as the Olympic sponsor compared to 24% for Adidas, who were the actual sponsors Olympics.
Overall, Nike’s strategy to leverage the power of honest storytelling brought immense success to the brand and exponentially grew their engagement.
Using Visual and Videos: Visual Marketing
Like the saying a picture is worth a thousand words, images have a deep impact on the human mind. We remember only 10% of what we hear after 3 days, but what we see sticks with us for a long time. This is the strategy visual marketing offers. The process of writing content for marketing began as just texts to amplify information. But now, the process as evolved so much and now falls in the category of visual content.
Visual marketing involves using images to convey messages to the target audience. The content is created using a method that captures the attention of the audience and enhances understanding through the visual channels.
Recent studies have shown that visual content gets 94% more views than text-only content. So, planning a content strategy without involving visual content will bear no fruit for your business goals.
Here are a few stats and facts that prove why visual marketing should be in your 2024 social media plan to increase engagements:
- 95% of B2B customers evaluate a company based on visual content.
- 89% of consumers would like brands to improve and increase their video content.
- The human brain comprehends visual content 60,000 times faster than written content.
The bottom line is that visual content works. By adding images, graphs, and videos to your content, you can increase the amount of traffic you get and increase the engagement that comes to your brand.
The Parisian Love by Google
Google got the gold opportunity to premier an ad during the Super Bowl XLIV. The target of the creative team was to develop an emotional brand storytelling platform that reflected the product. This concept gave birth to the Parisian love ad.
The concept of Parisian love was to showcase their product, the search engine, through a series of visuals. The visuals were entirely in search words and results and talked about a man studying in Paris, trying to impress a French girl, working out a long-distance relationship, and relocating permanently to start a family.
The ad was a huge success and turned out to be a real tearjerker. It is also considered as one of the best advertisement campaigns of the 21st Century by Ad Age, and Time magazine listed it as one of the 19 best Superbowl ads of all time.
From a marketing perspective, the ad was a mammoth success, bringing in crucial leads and engagements that exceeded googles expectation.
- ComScore gave the ad a score of 51, which places it in the top percentile of all Superbowl ads.
- The video gained over 7 million views
- It was rated the top choice of 60 commercials by marketing professors at Michigan.
Google strategically used the power of visual marketing to create a beautiful ad that not only stole the hearts of its viewers but also generated tremendous engagement.
Content that’s Share-Worthy
No one wants to read boring and repetitive content. But ever since the introduction of Artificial Intelligence, the internet has been choking with generated repetitive content.
This is a boon in disguise for brands.
High-quality content is still the king of the market, with 92% of marketers believing that high-quality content drives long-term ROI and engagement.
Content comes in many formats. The format you must choose solely depends on your target audience, their age, location, attention span, and interests.
One quick tip would be to keep your audience in the loop. Once you’ve generated post ideas based on your target audience, you can ask your readers to drop comments on what they would like to see. Not only are you creating rapport with your readers but also generating engagements and giving you an idea of what format of content can generate excitement in your audience.
Content is all about stirring emotions in your audience. So as you create content, ask yourself if this content makes you feel anything or if it is worth sharing. If not, then trim and edit it until your gut feeling says ok.
Up Your Copywriting Skills
To understand the importance of copywriting in your engagement-growing campaign, take a look at the following instance:
“If generating engagement can be compared to fishing, then your fishing rod is the content that you create, and the bait is copywriting. ”
Your copy/headlines have a huge impact on bringing buyers to your content. Your headlines determine whether the audience will read your content or not. A study has shown that traffic can vary as much as 500% simply because of the headline!
Even if you have content that is perfect and backed with thorough research and proof, none of it will matter until and unless the reader gets hooked to your headline.
With some sources saying 80% of the readers not making it past the headlines, your copywriting game should be at the very best level to ensure you can generate engagement in your posts.
Your headline should be created in such a way that it gives an overview of the content. Put yourself in the shoes of the audience while writing the headline and ask yourself if it were you, would you read and click on the headlines.
If your answer was no, you might have to rethink the entry strategy and redesign the headline. Instead of using overused words, use power words like shaking up, vibrant, mind-blowing, etc., that can easily grab the attention of readers and hook them onto your content.
And don’t forget that practice makes a man perfect. So take it slow, relax, use Occam’s razor solution, and create headlines that generate engagement for you.
Respond and Build a Rapport with your Buyers
When a buyer leaves a comment or a review regarding your brand, they are essentially opening a line of communication with you. Communicating with your buyers has a huge impact on brand visibility, as responding creates engagement which in turn introduces your brand to a new set of audience.
Whether it is a positive or negative review be sure to respond to it with grace and professionalism.
Be thankful while responding to positive reviews, and be humble and solution-oriented when you respond to negative ones.
Always keep in mind that almost 57% of shoppers expect the brand to reply to their reviews, so make sure that you reply to the comments as soon as possible. Don’t get disheartened by negative reviews. With the right strategy and replying as quickly as possible, you can stop the issue from growing out of control.
So if you plan to promote your brand via social media, responding to comments is a step you cannot skip.
Give Meme Marketing a Shot
Contrary to popular belief, meme marketing is not just a B2C strategy but also very impactful for B2B businesses.
Memes or trolls can be defined as art or concepts created based on trending topics in the internet that evokes humorous emotions. When it comes to Meme Marketing, experts at Hubspot believe, “Meme marketing is the use of memes to promote your brand narrative. It’s a fun, low-effort way to connect with your audience and increase your engagement rate, as memes are highly shareable.”
With the global meme industry expected to be valued at $6.1 billion by 2025 and having 10 times more reach than conventional graphs and charts, memes are a gold mine for B2B businesses if they are placed strategically.
Memes are one of the best strategies to grow your brand in this new age industry. Why? Because, memes are:
- Easy to make
- Do not require an investment
- Is a golden ticket to go viral and go viral quickly.
Making memes might feel like a walk in the park, but it isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Here are a few pointers every aspiring meme maker should keep in mind while making memes for their B2B audience.
- Know Your Industry & it’s Pain Points
Humor is not an easy emotion to evoke. So before you start making memes, make sure you have a firm grasp of the workings of the industry you’re trying to target. Understand the problems that your industry is facing right now, and channel that pain point into memes that pack a laugh.
In this particular instance, the creator talks about what makes an email marketing campaign successful through both a humorous and an educational tone.
- Know your Target Audience
To whom you’re targeting your memes is arguably one of the most important steps a meme maker must follow. Just because a meme works for you does not mean it works for your audience. So before making your meme, ensure that you have a thorough understating of
- Your audience
- Their pain points
- And Humor level.
Before launching a meme on your social media, experiment with different formats and track the engagement each format of the meme generates. Using this learning, create memes with the format with the most engagement and ensure that your meme marketing campaign is a success.
- Understand the Difference between Being Humorous and Being Offensive.
When it comes to memes, you’re walking on a thin line between being humorous and being offensive. So once you’ve understood your audience, make sure you learn what works and what does not with your target audience. Ensure you do not offend or poke fun at any particular individual or group.
Conclusion
Meme marketing is a cheap and hassle-free method to boost your brand to reach its right audience. By ensuring the steps mentioned above are executed perfectly, you are building a strong rapport with your customers and also driving engagement for your brand through the roof!
With 95 million posts being posted per day on Instagram, standing out amongst the crowd might feel like an impossible task. Each and every step you take in your social media campaign plays a crucial role in how your engagement might look after the campaign.
One underrated tactic that a majority of marketers forget to include is adding hashtags to posts. Hashtags (#) is a method of tagging social media content. By using relevant hashtags, users can see a collection of posts related to the hashtag just by clicking on it.
For instance, if you own a Database-providing organization, #Database is a good hashtag to start with.
Why use Hashtags?
Hashtags play a crucial role in bringing your content to the eyes of a wider audience and improving the user experience. Modern studies have shown that tweets with relevant hashtags bring 2x more engagement than tweets without any hashtags.
Furthermore, when it comes to Instagram, posts with 11+ relevant hashtags have the highest interaction with a whopping 79.5% increase.
In fact, a study has shown that having hashtags as a part of social media engagement strategies can boost your engagement by 21%!
How to Perfectly Include Hashtags in Your Social Media Posts
The general rules that you must follow while using hashtags are:
- Hashtags should be just a word (for instance, #nike)
- Hashtags should not have spaces (for instance, #blacklivesmatter)
- Hashtags should not contain any form of special characters
Using hashtags in your posts is a relatively simple process and requires only your attention. A rule of thumb would be to use only hashtags that are relevant to your business. One of the biggest mistakes seen while using hashtags is that, while posting content, marketers use hashtags that are not related to the topic of the post.
Using a hashtag that is unrelated to your post can have a decrementing effect on your post as viewers would get confused with the unrelated hashtag and post.
Another good practice your business can use is to include hashtags of beliefs that align with your business.
For instance, using hashtags like #womanempowerment, #humanrights, and #stopasianhate can bring engagement to your socials, as long as your brand aligns with the beliefs.
The Life-Changing #ALSIcebucketChallenge- Case Study
ALS, which is an acronym for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that causes the progressive death of nerve cells situated in the brain and spinal cords.
10 years ago, ALS patients had no cure, no funding, or no hope…until 2014
In the summer of 2014, 2 young men with ALS, Pat Quinn, and Pete Frates, started the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge with the sole purpose of raising awareness of ALS and generating funds to help end ALS.
The ALS ice bucket challenge involved participants pouring ice water over their heads and filming them doing it, sharing it on social media, and challenging other users to do the same challenge. Participants could also opt for any ALS organization to donate to.
The Result
The challenge took the internet by storm, generating more than $115 million dollars in the US and $220 million worldwide for ALS. This money paved the way to new horizons, helping organizations discover new treatments for ALS and FDA approving 2 new medications: Radicava in 2017 and Qalsody in 2023.
How Hashtags played their part
The hashtag #ALSIceBucketChallenge played a critical role in the successful funding of ALS prevention. On Facebook, over 2.4 million videos were shared on the network, and 28 million people interacted with the challenge through likes, shares, comments, and posts!
According to their website ALSA.Org. visitor traffic saw a mind-staggering growth of 7,775% and 1.1 trillion visits for July and August of 2014.
In a 30-day period, stats show that the hashtag is still active, with the challenge being mentioned 250-plus times over the internet and has more than 185,000+ interactions.
Using Emojis
From being a casual texting accessory to becoming an important part of human communication, emojis have become a staple in internet conversations and businesses alike. With 10 billion emojis floating around the internet and 92% of the population using them on a day-to-day basis, emojis as an engagement-boosting tool are a must-have in your social media strategy.
Over the past few years, emojis have been used as an important tool for several marketing funnels, such as email marketing, social media marketing, etc.
Here are 3 important stats showcasing the importance of emojis in a B2B setup
- In a survey containing 1000 American workers, it was revealed that 76% of the participants use emojis in professional conversation.
- 78% of people say that using emojis makes you more likable
- 51% of people will likely interact with brands if they use emojis
Before bombarding your posts and mail with emojis, here are a few thing you must keep in mind while using emojis.
- Keep your Audience in Mind
Like any other engagement growth tactic, understanding your audience plays a pivotal role while using memes.
If your target audience primarily consist of younger generation users, then using emojis are the best way to go
If the target audience is primarily the older generation, then refrain from using too many emojis, as 15% of the age 45+ believe that emoji usage is inappropriate.
- Don’t Falter your Professionalism
Emojis are only effective when used in the right context. If used in an incorrect situation, emojis can come off as awkward, incorrect, and offensive. So stick to the context when using emojis, and try to choose safe, classic emojis that are neutral and can be understood no matter the situation.
Remember, when used strategically, emojis can become powerful tools that will aid you in boosting engagement and reaching a wider audience. So start small, experiment, and keep an eye on how your audience reacts and responds. Make sure to use neutral classic emojis so that your audience is comfortable.
Dominos Slicing Success with Emojis- Case Study
Domino’s Pizza leveraged the full potential of emoji marketing through a simple tweet that asked its audience to tweet the pizza emoji to order their favorite pizza. And it came as no surprise when this campaign took the internet by storm, increasing the online sales of their pizzas by 50%.
Dominos proved to the world how emoji marketing, when done strategically, can become a crucial tactic to grow your brand and increase your engagement.
Final Thoughts
With half the world’s population existing in social media, leveraging it to generate engagement is the best way to go. But like any other marketing channel, there are a few things you must keep in mind to ensure guaranteed success.
- Make sure that the content you put out in unique, provides value to your audience and meets their preferences
- Understand your audience so that you can create the best form of content
By creating quality content and choosing the right tactics (based on your needs) from the one’s mentioned above, not only can you drive engagement, but also read a wider audience and ultimately generate revenue and success for your brand.
