Cool Ideas to Grow Engagement with Your Audience on Social Media

There are millions of entrepreneurs fighting for audience attention and trying to expand their reach using social media accounts. If you’re just one of these hopefuls, why should anyone take note of your activity? The online audience has choices, and they don’t necessarily have a good reason to flock to your postings. You must give them a reason to remain interested in you. You have to proactively engage them.

Benefits of Social Media Audience Engagement

Everybody has come across unengaging content while scrolling through social media feeds. We move right past and barely see it. If we notice such a post at all, it may be to mark the sender as someone who has nothing to say to us. If you want people to click links, share your content, buy what you have to offer and recommend you to their friends, you need to take steps to engage the audience. You want them not to merely view your content but actually get involved with it.

An involved audience generates buzz. They click, they like, they share, they comment and they ask questions. They develop an interest in your offerings and potentially become your customers. An engaging social media presence boosts your image. It builds relationships. It gets people talking about you in a positive way. It means more exposure for your brand, and it ultimately drives increased sales.

Here are eight practical ways to grow your social media audience engagement.

1. Establish a Consistent Brand Across Platforms

Every interaction with your audience should reinforce who you are and what your brand is. Your profile information should be the same on every platform. Your handles should be the same or similar. Use a professional-looking photo of yourself, properly sized for each app where you post.

A great way to stand out while remaining consistent is with a logo. A good logo provides credibility, tells the world what your brand stands for and builds loyalty. Wherever people see the logo – on social media, on your website, with your email signature, on a business card – they’ll be reminded of you.

You don’t need to hire a graphic designer or spend a lot of money to have an effective logo. There are a number of AI based online logo makers that will create a logo based on your name, your line of business and some preferences. They offer you suggested samples to customize and download, and most are low cost or even free.

2. Post Regularly and Make Each Post Count

Some people say you should post every day. That’s a good idea only if you have something new and interesting to say on a daily basis. If your audience finds your posts repetitive or unhelpful, they’ll start to tune out.

Interestingly, there is a best time of day to post. It varies by platform, but generally the most favorable times are early afternoon and between 6:00 and 9:00 in the evening. Early mornings are the weakest. Friday tends to be the best day of the week. For LinkedIn, any time during working hours is good.

Some people maintain a regular schedule of certain times and days for certain platforms. This helps in planning out content aimed at the audience of each app. You should post material that’s appropriate for the demographic of each platform. For example, many boomers favor Facebook, but a younger audience is more likely to be found on TikTok.

3. Drive Traffic Across Platforms

If you’re gaining followers on one platform but not seeing growth on another, maybe it’s because your X followers don’t know that you’re also on Instagram. Leverage your most effective channels to build traffic on the others. Include links from one to the other. They shouldn’t be in every post, but make them frequent enough that regular followers can’t miss them. Link to your website as well, and keep testing your links to ensure they continue to work.

4. Make a Splash with Color

For the channels that support it, color makes a post stand out from the ones above and below it. To be most effective, though, don’t use color in a slapdash manner. Choose a consistent color scheme in your posts and blogs. That way it becomes part of your brand and provides recognition and credibility just like your logos and your other branding elements.

If you don’t know where to start, there are several online AI tools to help you choose a color scheme. Khroma, for example, learns your preferences and suggests color pairings that you can adopt or modify. Colormind and AI Colors are other tools to help you select the palette that can work best for you. AI Colors will generate a color palette based on a text prompt.

5. Create “How To” Videos

“How To” videos are one of the most popular items on the internet. If you want to know how to do a simple task, or even a moderately complex one, there’s probably a YouTube or other video that demonstrates it. Everybody appreciates the people who take the time to show how something is done, especially when they do it well.

Your video could be a step-by-step explanation on how to use your product, but it doesn’t have to be directly related to something you offer. More than promoting your products or services, a “How To” should be designed to help your audience in some way. It should be useful for followers, and it’s a vehicle for you to demonstrate expertise, gain favor with your audience and strengthen relationships.

6. Interact with Your Audience

Social media posts provide the opportunity for readers to comment, but the most engaging posts actively encourage responses. They ask questions and urge people to say what they think. Posters who are on the ball promptly reply to comments and make an effort to get two-way (or multi-way) conversations going. Surveys and polls are other options. Facebook, X and other media make it easy to create a poll and get same-day responses.

Another fun social media audience engagement technique is the AMA (ask me anything) session. It has become a hit on Reddit, but it works on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms as well. It takes some confidence to field any question social media throws at you. However, it’s not only an opportunity to educate everyone about your offering. It also can make you seem more human, approachable and likable.

7. Livestream Yourself

Posted content tells the world a lot about who you are and what you have to offer, but there’s nothing like presenting yourself live and in person on a platform such as Facebook or Instagram. Studies suggest that people are much more likely to continue watching a video that’s live as opposed to one that was previously recorded.

You can set any agenda for a livestream session. You may demonstrate a product. You might host a Q&A around a specific topic or even throw it open to an AMA. You can provide immediate responses to comments and questions and work effectively toward building profitable relationships. It’s an unmatched opportunity to meet and talk with potential customers.

Using an online teleprompter could be a game-changer in ensuring your live presentation is seamless and engaging. So, it should be: Posted content tells the world a lot about who you are and what you have to offer, but there’s nothing like presenting yourself live and in person on a platform such as Facebook or Instagram. Using an online teleprompter could be a game-changer in ensuring your live presentation is seamless and engaging. Studies suggest that people are much more likely to continue watching a video that’s live as opposed to one that was previously recorded.

8. Invite Your Audience Behind the Scenes

Audiences are more likely to look at you favorably and engage with you when you let yourself be seen as a real and genuine person. One way to do that is to give them a peek at what goes on in the background. If you have a team collaborating with you, post some videos of them working to provide your product or service. It’s also good to show the team in some lighter moments, discussing, for example, their hobbies, interests and leisure time plans.

If yours is more of a one-person operation, you might post some clips showing the home or other place where you work. If you live with a dog or cat, interacting with your pet is a friendly look that puts you in a favorable light.

Yes, You Can Boost Your Social Media Audience Engagement

While social media is relatively new, the basic skills and techniques to engage with people are not. Be friendly, be approachable and put yourself out there. Present a professional image. Find ways to distinguish yourself from the competition. Be customer-oriented, and be prompt to respond to comments and questions. Solicit as much feedback as possible. Don’t be afraid to let the audience see that you are human.

You’re competing with a lot of other entrepreneurs for a slice of your audience’s attention. If you approach the task in a methodical way, planning and putting into practice some of these techniques, your presence on social networks will be more likely to invite social media audience engagement and allow you to make the most of it.