At the urging of your business partners, you signed your business up for the most popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and even went so far as to create a LinkedIn profile for yourself. Upon joining, you expected the growth to be slow – a few fans, a few followers here or there. Fast forward 90 days later though and your accounts have stayed consistently flat. No grand splash. What to do?
Like most businesses who joined a social network, expecting a social networking gold rush complete with lots of fans and followers, that’s not the case. In fact, most businesses will start off and remain flat – not because it doesn’t work – it does.
The typical problem with most businesses who join a social network is that they’re expecting overnight growth. This is something that doesn’t just happen overnight. Growth through social media is something you have to work at – just ask anyone who joined a social network. For example, I didn’t start out with 27,000+ Facebook fans. It was (and still is) something that I have to work at each and every day.
So how can you fix the low social media engagement that you’re experiencing? The wrong answer is to give up. Instead, try these 5 ways to fix low social media engagement.
Promote your accounts
Just because your business is on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest will not guarantee that you’ll instantly gain new fans or followers. It helps, but you have to remember that connecting with customers doesn’t just happen online. Encourage your employees to let customers know when they are checking out that your business is on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest among others. Also be sure to tell your customers what they will be getting by becoming a fan. Are there exclusive coupon codes that you will post on your Facebook Page for just fans? A sneak peek at upcoming products?
By using this simple word of mouth marketing technique,
Ask your employees
Low numbers on your social networks don’t encourage others to join. In fact, they often discourage people to join. To help boost your numbers, encourage your employees to become a product of the product by liking your Facebook Page, following you on Twitter or re-pinning your pinboards. Not only will your accounts not look like a ghost town anymore, but you’ll help boost employee morale by making them feel like they’re a part of your business and its success.
Ask your friends
One area most businesses forget to look when launching their social networking accounts are there friends. I often hear the excuse that they don’t want to bombard their friends. Personally, I look to my friends first once I have put my business on a social network. Not only do they know what I’m doing, but they often want to help because they know that they can call on me to do the same when they launch their business.
One way to do this is to “share” the link to your Facebook Page with friends (screenshot from Facebook Page). Keep in mind, you don’t want to share your page too much. I recommend sharing it once a month with your friends.
Post more photos
Businesses who post photos as opposed to just plain text are more likely to grow their engagement with fans. To improve your low levels of engagement, be sure to post photos often. Make sure they’re not blurry either because it will defeat the purpose of creating engaging content if fans cannot make out what the photo is.
What to post? Consider posting photos of the layout of your business, new products that you just received (and haven’t put out yet) or even close-ups of a product – make it a guessing game for fans. Be sure to avoid posting personal photos unless they’re related to your business.
Ask your fans
The main goal with having a social media presence for your business is to make it exciting for fans. You’re probably surprised that I didn’t say to make money. Yes, social media can help your business generate income, but like growing your social media presence, it doesn’t happen overnight. Where you are really successful with social media is when you can actively engage with your fans to where they become passionate about your products – so much so that they want to know about new products and special offers and are willing to share your status updates, blog posts and messages with their friends without you having to ask them.
While these are just 5 ways to fix your low social media engagement numbers, be sure to consider tapping these 10 everyday places to find more fans, followers and subscribers as well.