How Brands Can Increase Organic Social Media Engagement With Fans

Wondering how brands can increase organic social media engagement when fans are interacting online more than ever? According to Statista, there are over 3 billion people worldwide who use social media. Moreover, diving deeper, 90.4% are millennials, 77.5% belong to Generation X and 48% classify as baby boomers. With that, regardless of your brand’s particular audience, each person in these categories spends an average of over two hours on social networks each day. Moreover, that presents a lot of opportunity to turn these social media users into forever brand ambassadors.

Now, learn a few helpful tips to increase organic social media engagement during a time when fans are interacting more than ever before.

Understand Your Audience & the Content They Want to Digest

If a fan is following your brand page, it’s very likely that the person enjoys something about your product or service. So, instead of flooding your social networks with hard-sell promotional posts about your offerings, try shifting content to include a mixture of lifestyle posts. In addition, keep these lifestyle posts relevant to your industry and audience interests. With that, trendy graphics, GIFs and memes are great for capturing audience attention, when appropriate. Moreover, sharing industry news will improve your status as a thought leader in your area of expertise. Also, when in doubt, err on the side of keeping captions short, clean and easy to digest. Studies show that short-form content is more likely to catch an audience’s attention compared to long, blocky text.

Also, branch out and reach fans in other places on social media rather than solely relying on your brand page. Join groups and contribute to discussions about topics that directly relate to your brand. However, always aim to keep content non-promotional in these environments. Your goal is to attract fans by showing how your industry expertise can add value to their everyday lives.

Furthermore, if your brand has a physical location that fans can visit, creating a successful listing on Google My Business is a great way to share posts about ongoing sales and promotions. Therefore, utilizing this social media platform helps your brand rank higher in local organic search results and gives you more opportunity to showcase lifestyle content on priority channels.

Frequently Engage With Your Fans in Meaningful Ways

Once you adjust your content to your audience’s interests, it’s likely that more fans will directly comment on your posts. So, use this opportunity to humanize your brand. For instance, respond directly with unique, personalized messages and show your brand's emotion. With that, refrain from robotic language and even consider incorporating an emoji or two for an extra flair.

As you turn fans into true brand ambassadors, user-generated content (UGC) is likely to also increase. Frequently, fans tag brands in personal photos that feature the product or service. Incorporate on-brand UGC into your social media strategy, when appropriate. Consider tagging the fan page for photo credit and an additional personalized touch. Also, according to Stackla, fans are 2.4 times more likely to view user-generated content as authentic compared to brand curated content.

Use Tags to Expand Your Visibility

Due to social media algorithms, it can be challenging to increase organic reach and impressions without strategic tags. Therefore, when sharing lifestyle content, like news articles, always tag relevant parties mentioned in the piece. These can include news outlets, writers, other brands and beyond. Once tagged, these pages are more likely to share your post with their audience. Social media shares expand your reach to new prospective fans just waiting to fall in love with your product or service.

Using hashtags is another great way to expand your digital footprint. When brands use hashtags in post captions, they become a part of a larger discussion on social media. The post becomes visible to everyone who searches the hashtag, boosting your brand’s visibility and perception as a thought leader on the topic. Also, try brainstorming a personalized hashtag that is relevant to your specific brand. Then, incorporate that hashtag into your organic social media campaigns, encouraging fans to use that same hashtag in their online discussions about your brand.

Looking for some additional help with your organic or paid social media strategy? Get in touch with our team to learn more about how we can expand your digital footprint and increase your brand’s social media engagement.

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