5 Ways to Make Social Media Engagement Easy

As a small, independent business owner, you’ve been told you’re missing a trick if you don’t get your business on social media. It’s FREE marketing, people cry. You’ll get loads of new customers with minimum of effort, you hear. You take the plunge, set up your account, post some content and…not much happens.

What’s missing? The ‘social’ bit. Engaging with people who comment on your posts and getting out there - liking, sharing and commenting on other people’s accounts - is just as important as the content you share.

Investing time in social media engagement is where it really matters. This is the bit that resonates with real people, makes connections feel real and helps build trust, which you’ll need in order for them to buy your product or service; or indeed, recommend you.

It goes without saying that keeping on top of comments, shares and mentions on your own posts is super important. But where you’re going to make the most impact is by taking charge and doing some proactive engagement of your own.

If the purpose of putting your business on social media is to attract new business, then here are Queen Bees tops tips to making that engagement efficient and effective.

1. Pick a Time and Stick to It

Be realistic about how much time you can devote to social media engagement each week. Even if it is just 20 minutes, it will make a difference! Once you’ve decided how much time you can genuinely take away from your day-to-day business to complete this task, put it in your diary. You’ll be less likely to forget/ignore it/or prioritise something else if you treat it like a client meeting. After all, it is a form of networking.

2. Make a List

You know we love a list! Before you embark on your first engagement session, take some time to get organised. The last thing you want to do with your precious, allocated time get lost in the scroll or take a scatter gun approach that fails to get you results.

Start by making a list of your ideal clients or customers and their social media handles. It can help to categorise them if there are lots. Separate them into types of businesses or their location or even their characteristics. But, and this is an important caveat, be realistic. If you’ve only got 20 minutes don’t list 100 accounts – be as targeted as possible and really drill down to the types of people you want to work with or who you want to buy from you.

*Bee Smart Tip* You build engagement lists directly in Twitter with Twitter Lists or use Collections in Instagram, but equally, it can be just as effective in a Word document, on a notes app, or even on a piece of paper – whatever works for you!

3. Don’t Tackle it All at Once

A manageable task is a bitesize task. Don’t tackle the whole list in one uber-long session! If you’ve got a reasonable amount of time put aside for your engagement, then try and break it up throughout the week to keep the conversations flowing.

If you’re wondering what to say or how to engage (which can often be the hardest part!) Here’s our second *Bee Smart Tip*

Go direct to your intended account. Select a recent post where you feel you can add an interesting comment. This is about building relationships so don’t go in for the hard sell, look at it like a conversation - they’ve shared something that’s important to them, so make your comment relevant and thoughtful. Don’t be afraid to reference what you do, but keep it a natural part of the conversation. If you want to start a conversation then make it relevant, relatable and consider asking a question yourself. If they reply, it’s essential that you reply back or acknowledge the post.

4. Comment or Like?

Easy, peasy, always choose a comment over a like. Why? It’s way more personal and memorable. There’s nothing wrong with liking people’s posts but it is unlikely to get you noticed. When we’re working on behalf of clients, we find it’s best to focus our energies on tactics that get bigger and better results, and based on our experience, commenting gets you noticed quicker.

5. Caring is Sharing

Are you ready to hear the ultimate social media engagement gesture? It’s on a similar scale to inviting someone over for dinner…so not an invite you throw open to just anyone! It’s sharing a post on your own feed or story. Now it has to be a post that is relevant to your followers, you don’t want to annoy people with irrelevant content. However, this is about THE most complimentary thing you can do on social media and it’s the best way to get you noticed by the person/business you are targeting – it just has to be the right decision for your business.

We hope that these tips help you to make the move from passive poster to social media networking guru. And remember, the most important thing is consistency. This has to be a task you perform regularly, no matter how limited the time you allocate to social media engagement is. If you keep engaging frequently and authentically with the same people, over time you will develop a real and meaningful relationship, that may just translate into a buzz for your business.

If this speaks to you, but you’re wondering where on earth you’re going to find the time, get in touch. At Queen Bee we love to help clients build their brand and achieve their dreams on social.