These days it feels like everyone’s buzzing about “social media engagement strategies,” and for a good reason. It’s no longer enough to just show up online; you need to stand out, get people talking, and build a loyal community around your brand.

But with so many different social media platforms and an endless stream of content, crafting successful social media engagement strategies that actually move the needle can feel impossible. Trust me, I’ve been there.

Pinpointing Your Social Media Platforms

Before diving headfirst into content creation, you have to figure out where your audience is. That means understanding your target audience like the back of your hand.

Understanding Your Target Audience

Think about their demographics – age, location, interests – but don’t stop there. Consider their online behavior. What social media sites are they using? What kind of content gets their attention?

Once you know who you’re talking to, you can pick the right platforms. Don’t try to be everywhere at once; focus on the media platforms that align with your audience and business goals.

Crafting a Winning Social Media Engagement Strategies Playbook

With the right platforms in your corner, you can focus on crafting a social media strategy, specifically, building a strong social media presence. This will propel your brand forward and foster a sense of connection between your business and its audience.

Creating Scroll-Stopping Content

Your content should grab their attention. High-quality visuals are key. Think eye-catching graphics and videos because a blurry picture just won’t cut it.

Use strong calls to action to boost social media engagement and encourage interaction. Never underestimate the power of storytelling. Share customer experiences or behind-the-scenes glimpses to make your brand relatable and increase social media engagement.

Timing is Everything

Consistently posting high-quality content is crucial for keeping your audience engaged and your brand top-of-mind. However, just as vital is the timing of those posts.

To maximize the effectiveness of your social media engagement strategies, you must consider when your target audience is most active online. By aligning your posting schedule with their peak engagement times, you ensure that your content has the best chance of being seen, read, and interacted with.

This involves researching the optimal posting times for each social media platform you utilize.

Embracing User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is king. Encourage your audience to create and share content related to your brand. It could be testimonials, product reviews, or even just them using your products creatively.

This not only provides you with valuable social proof but also makes your audience feel like they’re part of the brand story.

Community is Key

Social media isn’t just about broadcasting your message; it’s about building a community around your brand.

Responding and Engaging

Engage with your followers, respond to comments, and use direct messages promptly. Participate in relevant conversations. Show them that you’re listening and you value their input.

Host live Q&A sessions or webinars to create a more personal connection with your audience. Live video is a great way to grow your audience.

Analyzing Your Social Media Engagement Strategies

Keep track of your progress by setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for your social media efforts.

Do you want to increase social media engagement, drive traffic to your website, or generate leads? Your goals will shape your social media engagement strategies and guide your actions. Regularly monitoring and evaluating your progress ensures that your efforts align with your overall marketing objectives.

Don’t just post and forget about it – Track your social media performance and make adjustments along the way. Look at things like engagement level, reach, and website clicks to see what’s working and what needs tweaking. Your social media engagement rate will give you a good idea if your social media strategy is working.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that successful social media engagement strategies take effort and strategy. This is about crafting authentic connections.

By taking a strategic approach, consistently analyzing your performance, and being adaptable, you can turn those likes, comments, and shares into genuine, meaningful connections. That’s how you turn your audience into loyal brand advocates who are truly invested in what you do.

The post Top Social Media Engagement Strategies for Business Growth appeared first on Platform Creator.

Social Media platform popularity continues to change.

In 2017, 86% of Facebook users and 71% of YouTube users were 18-29 years old; where only 7% of Instagram users were 60 years and up.

For years Facebook has been in top 3 but according to researchers, things could soon change, especially from the business perspective. In February 2018, there are 164.58 million users on Facebook and 105 million on Facebook messenger.

According to this article about Generation Z (people born between 1995-2010) are straying away from Facebook and by the time these teens are of age they will potentially kill Facebook. Gen Z tends to use Snapchat and Instagram rather than older Millennials who use Facebook.

There’s conflicting information out there. One article states that Millennials and Generation Z aren’t using Facebook as often anymore; that they prefer Snapchat and Instagram. While another says Facebook is the most popular among this age group followed by YouTube and Instagram then Twitter then Snapchat. These two graphs from 2017 and 2018, show statistics listing Facebook still as number 1.

With the current reform of Facebook underway, users who previously stopped using it are contemplating returning to the platform.

Here are some responses from a few Generation Y/Millennials:

“I feel that Facebook is just as popular as it was 5 years ago. It’s the easiest way to keep up with all my classmates over the years and relatives across the states. I personally only use Facebook and Instagram, and I don’t really see the hype about Twitter. it’s hard to keep up with anyone. Things change so much over time, MySpace used to be the big thing and then Facebook came along.

Kids nowadays are all about messenger and Snapchat. They don’t seem to get into posting on sites where everyone can see what they are doing. They send things to individual people and have conversations online. By the time my kids become teenagers, there will probably be a new social site that will take over Facebook. Just as Facebook took over MySpace.” -Christy S.

“Facebook was a huge part of my high school and college life. I used it to keep up with friends and acquaintances. But just like graduating from high school, you slowly realize you only spoke or hung out with specific people because you saw them every day. I also realized that many status updates from some were just bragging or complaining about unimportant, little things.

The advertisements and news articles that constantly were on my newsfeed made it infuriating to use. And many of them were not censored. I should not have to worry about scrolling through Facebook and seeing a LIVE birth of a human child! I don’t understand how that was allowed or snuck through the posting policy. The ads and articles were the last straw for me.

From there I moved to Snapchat to only talk to close friends. I don’t use snapchat anymore either. Here’s where I began using Twitter which is now my main source of social media interaction. I can follow friends, entertainers, gaming companies, all in the same place and I can manage what I want to see easily. Instagram is a similar platform, but I don’t like posting pictures often so I haven’t tried it just yet.

I heard Facebook is redesigning itself in some way, so I may take a look at it again, but I will definitely have to purge my friends list first.

Now, will Gen Z kill Facebook? I don’t think they’ll kill it, they just won’t use it. Facebook will still exist regardless of the new generation. Facebook has become a platform for young adults, adults and the older generation, like grandparents, to keep in touch with family and friends. Kids these days just want entertainment, so they will go elsewhere for it.” -Olivia B.

Social media trends will always be changing and unpredictable. It’s hard to measure what will become popular among younger audiences especially those who are not even teens yet. What viewers that young want is entertainment, not too much text and something moving on the screen like a gif or video. Facebook will survive, at least for a little while longer, but only with the adults and young adults 30+.

What do you think the top social media platforms will be in 2025?

Sources:

• http://www.businessinsider.com/generation-z-things-gen-z-are-killing-facebook-ralph-lauren-2018-5
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/248074/most-popular-us-social-networking-apps-ranked-by-audience/
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/305245/us-social-network-penetration-age-group/

The post Current Social Media Trends appeared first on Platform Creator.

Hey website admins, ever seen this message: ‘Hello web admin, I noticed that your on-page SEO is missing some details. On-page SEO means more now than ever since the new Google update. Your keyword must appear in the title and URL. And you must have a keyword density of 3-5% and spread all H1, H2, H3 tags, etc.’?

While SEO is important and many of these suggestions will help optimize your blog website, I will show you how to become a platform creator without worrying about the technical aspects of SEO like meta tags or keyword density.

Consistency (this is one of the hard but key ways to grow your blog)

This past Saturday I met with a friend who has a successful marriage counseling business that has grown almost all from engaging potential clients online. Kevin’s business received around 3,000 Facebook likes the first year. While Kevin had several practical examples that led to him and his wife’s success, two primary early keys were consistency in social media posting and following the principals in Jeff Walker’s book, Launch.  Marriage Works  to date has over 410,000 likes on Facebook and has several online products and seminars. Kevin does not pay attention to the technical aspects of SEO, but he posts at least 5 – 7 times a week. While Kevin now employs many online tools and is continually honing his skills, their initial success was due to keeping consistent with posting engaging content. Boy, I really need to take his advice.

Build Your Network (another hard way to grow your blog)

Along with keeping fresh content on your blog, twitter feed, and / or social media pages, here are a few ways to build your network. Building your network can take some time. So, along with persistence, a bit of perseverance can help you build your online platform.

• Join a LinkedIn Group and engage with them. Don’t just push info out, but support and comment on others’ posts and be sure to include your link and / or blog URL in your signature line.
• Include links from your site to other experts. This is a great way to create relationships with people like you who could use additional traffic to their site. The hope is that eventually, others will link their posts to yours. (See post on how to be a thought leader.)
• Comment on other blogs with compelling questions. This is an excellent way to get noticed. I remember listening to Ray Edward’s podcasts and how generous he was to allow commenters to mention their blog websites. What a great way to connect with an interesting platform creator like Ray Edwards, but also get traffic from his followers.

Guest Post (Last hard way to grow your blog)

While not everyone may invite you to guest post initially, if you are diligent about connecting with likeminded people online, you can also ask them to guest post on your blog. Hopefully, they too will ask you to guest post on their blog or you can offer them that opportunity. This may take time, especially before you are asked to guest post on a blogger’s site in whom can help you gain real traction, but it’s a great way to get your name out there. The better your content, the more often you will be asked to guest post. Keep at it.

Cross Promote Your Blog (This is a fairly easy way to grow your blog)

Get a short link of your post from WordPress or Bitly or Bufferapp and post on Twitter and a LinkedIn Group. Also, consider putting internal links from keywords in your posts to other posts. You can use other social media sites and encourage your current network to share with others.

Re-purpose Older Posts (Easy way to grow your blog)

You can re-purpose older posts, updating the content slightly and just perfecting a few of the sentences to reflect current topics. By updating the content with relevant information, you can gain renewed exposure to older posts.

Do you have any practical ways to grow your Blog without attention to the technical aspects of SEO?

The post Five Ways to Grow Your Blog without SEO appeared first on Platform Creator.

Let’s start with the number of social media sites that you choose to use. An abandoned social media site isn’t good for your image, so you don’t want to take on more than your team can handle. You want to use at least two different social media sites. Four is probably the maximum for most companies. Faceboook, Twitter, and Instagram are three of the best sites that you can use for branding right now.

Content is one of the most time consuming parts of social media. To build trust in and respect for your brand, content needs to be accurate, unique, and engaging. Avoid posting all the same pictures to Instagram and Facebook and making all your tweets your status updates on Facebook. You also want to maintain the same tone (professional, fun, excited, etc.) on all of your accounts. You can’t be super serious on Facebook, type in all caps on Twitter, and then use teenage abbreviations in your Instagram comments. You don’t want to have brand confusion for people who follow you on all three sites.

Another important use of social media is to market your business in real time. Oreos became the talk of the Internet when they capitalized on the Superbowl power outage with a relevant ad posted to Twitter. You can even try using current news stories to promote conversation. Just be careful to consider the way a breaking story may develop so that you keep your brand out of anything potentially controversial. You can’t post something on the Internet, take it down when things go wrong, and hope that no one took a screenshot.

Finally, you have to respond to comments properly. Some antagonistic comments just need to be ignored. Some are legitimate complaints and require a prompt response. This is an opportunity to show consumers, in general, how your company handles concerns. Deleting negative posts and comments is counterproductive to branding your company in a proper way. Be sure to reward your biggest supporters, and provide incentives for people to like, +1, favorite, or retweet your content.

The right use of social media can be great for the reputation of your business and helpful in building your online platform.

Additional Source: http://www.inta.org/Programs/Pages/branding2013.aspx

The post How to Use Social Media to Build Your Online Brand appeared first on Platform Creator.