So, you’re creating a social media account and want to know how to be as effective as possible at building an audience.
A lot easier said than done, right? Creating and maintaining a presence on social media is difficult enough, but separating yourself from every other Facebook page is another task in itself. With so much information streaming across your timeline at every second of the day, you need to find a way to make yourself as unique as possible, in order to get your message across.
Being unique is key. You don’t want to simply blend in with every other brand you’re competing with, who are all promoting essentially the same products with the same things to say. It’s a tired, repetitive mantra, and you need to find a way to not be like anybody else.
You have to find a middle ground between being over the top and annoying, and blending in and constantly putting out cookie-cutter posts that’s going to be forgotten instantly. If you can find that level where you’re equal parts funny, creative, interesting, and thought-provoking, you’ll be a social media master in no time.
We came up with four simple methods and solution you can use to build and maintain an audience that will want to keep coming back for more of your posts:
Put yourself in the position of your audience (Have perspective)
Whenever you’re making a post intended for a specific group, don’t say what you want to say, say what your audience wants to hear.
Perspective is one of the most integral parts of managing a Facebook page. When you post, you need to write with a thorough knowledge of the subject and write posts that are going to capture the attention and intrigue of the intended audience.
Put yourself in the shoes of the reader when you make a post. When you make it, think if the post would interest you to the point of engaging if you were on the other side of the screen with the interests of your audience.
Or even imagine when you’re on Facebook and scrolling through your news feed. What is it about the pages you like that want to make you engage you further?
If you’re performing social media for a company, you have to be a representative of that company, their interests, and the interests of their fans. If you do work for an engineering company, think about what an engineer would engage with. Maybe they’d like to read about the innovative steps engineers have made, so that they can keep up with the latest technology.
Content is extremely important, but what’s even more important is how to make the content engaging, which brings me to my next point.
Ask questions that will engage your audience
People like to be entertained, and they like to be given information that’s going to make them think. Whether they’re working and want a momentary distraction from their day, or they’re at home and want something to engage them in their down time, people want to read posts that’s going to ask something from them.
Anybody could hop on a social media account and post a link to an article that’s going to interest the intended audience, but what then? Sure you sent out an article and it may interest the reader, but your job isn’t just to inform, it’s to engage; make the reader comment and like the post, and, hopefully, return for future posts.
Always go the extra mile. Remember perspective, and think, “Is this something that would make me engage if I were on the other side of that screen?”
So don’t just post an article that’s going to make someone think, make the entire post make that person think. Ask questions that the reader may not have thought of until you brought it up, or make a statement that will make the reader say, “That’s a really good point. I’m glad this social media account brought it up so that I can further ponder it.”
Engagement is vital when managing a social media account, and there’s no way of engagement more effective than making an interest post, whether it’s a link to a video or a visually appealing picture, and accompanying it with a question that’s actually relevant and thought-inducing, that’s going to peak the interests of your audience.
Capture attention immediately
In today’s age of constant, concise news streaming at you every second, it’s easy to get distracted and move on to the next available interesting video, picture, or joke.
The best way to engage the attention of your audience is to capture it immediately and not let go. Start every post with a bold statement that’s going to widen the eyes and drop the jaws of someone who’s going to come across it.
If you have a post featuring a video, drag out an interesting quote that’s going to compel someone to watch. Anybody can post a link to a video on a social media platform, but going the extra mile by actually watch the video and pulling a quote that’s going to cause a stir is much more effective.
According to TrackMaven 88% of interactions occur in posts with pictures, with an average of 2.35 interactions per hour. Compare that to posts without pictures, which only features 1.71 interactions per hour.
Just put yourself in the shoes of your audience. There are plenty of videos streaming across your timeline. But which video is going to get your attention? The one that’s simply a link? Or the one that has a controversial quote as a lead?
The same goes for any type of post, whether it has a video or a link or a picture. You need a lead that comes with a promise and a guarantee that this post is going to be fulfilling and worth reading or watching all the way.
Consistently update
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across a blog or Facebook account and was interested, only to find that a post hasn’t been made in a few weeks.
It’s a complete turn off from the view of the audience to see a social media account have no supervision and not consistently engage with their audience or even update. People are interested in what you have to say, otherwise the company you’re doing social media work for wouldn’t be successful.
I’m not saying to badger your audience with posts multiple times per day about anything. Just be sensible with what you post, have a theme, and post them at times when you think your audience may be going through their Facebook timeline.
There’s perspective making another appearance. Think when you scroll through your timeline. It’s probably either right when you get into work (just to get those few minutes of personal time before going into work mode), during lunch, and probably right after work (to recap what you’ve missed during work).
Recent statistics from TrackMaven say that 62.7% of posts are made in the workday (from 8am-5pm) resulting in an average of 2.24 interactions per hour. Posting after hours (from 5pm-1am) only features 28.5% posts, but results in 2.49 interactions per hour.
Weekends are also important. Just because the average work week is typically Monday through Friday doesn’t mean that you have to stop working. Most people are home on the weekends and they want something to engage them in conversation.
According to TrackMaven, “Sunday experienced the most engagement, with an average of 2.72 interactions per post. Comparatively, the average high Monday through Friday with was 2.27 interactions per post. So, posting on Sundays was 25 percent more effective than posting on Wednesdays, for example.”
You see it all around you. People love to be on their phones, and they’re not always sending personal text messages. They’re also on Facebook or Twitter or any other social media platform, waiting for the next update that will intrigue them for a few minutes, or maybe even an hour if you post something that intriguing and worthy of looking into.
But you’ll never get to that point if you don’t first make updates that are going to let your audience know there’s a face behind the account that’s waiting to answer your questions and engage in conversation.
