WHAT IS YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT SCORE?
No, I’m not talking about the wedding kind but your social media engagement score! Whether you’re looking to increase brand awareness or drive sales, it’s important to keep an eye on likes and followers but also do the math and work out your average engagement rate.
To calculate, use the below formula or if you’re using a scheduling platform jump into the analytics or insights and check out engagement. You’ll also find Post Engagements in Facebook Insights too.
ENGAGEMENT = (LIKES + COMMENTS)/FOLLOWERS
WHAT IS A GOOD ENGAGEMENT SCORE?
Iconosquare recently analysed more than 30,200 Instagram profiles across 110 business categories and found, the average:
- Global Instagram engagement rate is 4.7%
- Global reach rate: 34.37%
- Global engagement on reach: 11.95%
- Number of media posted per day: 0.72
In saying that, everyone’s results are going to vary based on your audience and the content you are producing. However, if you need help to increase your engagement, see below tips and tricks:
TIPS AND TRICKS TO INCREASE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT
1. CONTENT
Review your posts over a period of time and see which are getting the most traction and focus on increasing this type of content.
If you missed on my personal LinkedIn feed recently, check out Next Academy’s Bob Low talking to Mobile Monkey CEO, Larry King about his Unicorn Marketing concept.
I love the unicorn and donkey analogy! Not only does it have a humour to it, but it sings true in businesses large and small.
While not labouring over for days, it is important to monitor campaign data and results, and analyse campaigns to enable you to take action and shift your focus to create similar content or leverage channels that are having a greater impact. Drop or pivot on those pieces or channels that are not providing results.
On my channels, I see increases in engagement on blog articles and tips and tricks. For clients, I see increases when the team, clients or passengers are profiled, or social and environmental issues are promoted to create awareness and demonstrate the impact in our global community.
Every business is going to be different, but if you look at your content over the last month, I’m sure you’ll see the engagement spikes.
2. POST DAY AND TIME
In your analytics or insights, look at your followers’ online activity and pinpoint which days and times see the highest activity and test posting your content on these days or times.
If your audience is active on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays between 6 and 7am, schedule content during these times so you can target the largest possible audience viewing and, in turn content engagement.
There is no rule that says you can’t post content on other days or times but have a play with what works best for you and your audience.
3. HASHTAGS
While you’re sneaking around in the insights, also check out the hashtag analysis, review the hashtags you are using and see which are getting the greatest impressions and reach. Streamline and focus on these.
Also review hashtag variations, for example, singular or plural variations and emoji versions too. Look at other content that is appearing using the same hashtags and make a call on whether it is the right fit. Bear in the mind, a smaller hashtag audience is not to be discounted and could have greater concentration.
Have a quick peak at industry leaders and similar companies to see which hashtags they are using. I’m not saying they have the formula right, but if they have a large following or high levels of post engagement, you might be able to add and test some new hashtags and see if any result in new followers and increased engagement.
4. LOCATION TAGGING AND HASHTAGS
Add your location to all or as many posts as possible so your photos or content show up in a location search.
To search a location on Instagram, tap the Search icon, click Places and enter location (or business) name.
If relevant, use location hashtags too. This could be a focus area or specialisation, a store or industry location. Examples of location hashtags include:
- City hashtags: #BondiBeach #London
- Location hashtags: #CentennialParklands or #SydneyHarbourBridge
- Industry hashtags: #AntarcticaTravel #NoosaRealEstate
- Generic small business hashtags: #shoplocal or #eatlocal
According to SproutSocial, posts tagged with a location result in a 79 per cent higher engagement than ones who don’t.
You will notice when you use Google Search you will get a drop-down option “near me” which can be hugely beneficial for local businesses. It’s also a great search engine optimisation (SEO) tip too as people’s search criteria becomes more specific e.g. houses for sales in Noosa, or pilates in Bondi Junction.
5. PHOTO TAGGING
Tag people or businesses in your photos that are included or relevant for the post and also as an acknowledgement or credit for their goods or services. This is a great way to increase your audience and engagement as family, friends or colleagues will love seeing photos or video from your latest holiday, a work expedition or dining at a new restaurant.
This is also great for cross promotion for both goods and services. Collaborate with other goods or service providers and tag businesses when posting.
This is becoming increasing popular with Shopping on Instagram and can also be done in a normal post too. If you’re a wedding photographer, tag a venue, restaurant or make-up artist. If you are promoting swimwear, tag the model, photography venue, clothing and apparel supplier, deck chair supplier and so on.
Use in moderation and where relevant seek approvals.
6. INSTAGRAM STORIES
If you haven’t already, start to incorporate stories in your content plan. Once published, monitor and respond. A number of brands will also republish your story on their channel which is another way to increase exposure.
I posted a thank you to a friend tagging the product brand and both my friend and the brand shared on their Insta stories.
Kite Creative and Co_Insta Stories.png
7. TWO-WAY ENGAGEMENT
It’s great you’re putting content out there and taking the time to keep an eye on analytics, but don’t forget engagement is two-way. Make sure if someone comments, you take the time to like or reply as it could lead to increased engagements by that individual or others and a possible sale.
The more you engage, the more your audience and customers are likely to continue to engage!
Photo by Jose Martinez on Unsplash
