What is the engagement rate? And why is it important?
Engagement rate determines the percentage of the user’s followers who saves, shares, comments, and likes on an average post. People who engage in the content rather than mindlessly scrolling and liking photos through their feed are more likely to buy products. This is why companies ask social media influencers for their engagement rate over their average likes. For big companies to take you seriously you need a high amount of followers along with a high engagement rate. Small businesses should also work on increasing their engagement rates because engagement rates and sales are interlinked.
How can I increase my engagement rate?
1. Have a clear niche audience.
Who are you trying to reach and how do you stand out from your competitors? A niche audience needs to be narrow enough to have a clear understanding of what type of content to make. Some niches for beauty gurus are; high-end makeup for women with dark skin notes, vegan-friendly fashion, or fashion tips for college students. Having a clear niche audience will make you stand out, and the ideal audience will come, therefore increasing your engagement rates. Otherwise, people will not stay.
2. Engage with other creators who have the same niche
Commenting and liking on posts with those who have similar niches is a free advertisement, and they are more likely to comment back on your post. The return rate is much higher, with accounts that have a low amount of followers. You can interact with accounts who already commented on social media influencers’ posts who have similar niches. Since those people already have a history of commenting, they are more likely to engage with your content compared to those who only like photos.
3. Make purposeful content
The content you create should lead you closer to your goal. Is your goal to sell a product, drive traffic to your website or YouTube channel, etc.? While creating content ask yourself if it is educational, encouraging, or entertaining in any way? People will follow and stay if they feel like they are getting something out of the relationship.
4. Write engaging captions
DO NOT ONLY USE EMOJIS. Emojis are great to draw attention and show emotions, but this alone is not enough to get people to engage. Write a story about body positivity along with a selfie. Challenge your followers to try out your recipe. In your caption, viewers should feel like they are taking something valuable, this causes them to share, save, and comment on your post. There is no shame in asking viewers questions, encouraging people to tag a friend, or sharing the post.
5. Reply to comments
Get people to respond to your post. Make sure to respond promptly to keep the conversation going. There is no way of checking on how much comments are from you, therefore always reply and prolong the conversation. As your account grows responding to comments may be difficult, however, you should always take some time to show you are listening.
6. Use hashtags
Unless you already have a huge following most people do not know you, therefore using hashtags is an easy way to drive in traffic. Many people do not like using many hashtags in their captions and opt to post it in their comments which is fine if you post it right after.
7. Use all the features the platforms provide
Social media platforms’ algorithms favor content that uses new features. If you are on Instagram use their reels and IG TV features besides their most common features. Take advantage of being able to post ten pictures and/or videos at a time. When people scroll through all ten of the pictures the post will rank higher on people’s feed-in comparison to a post that only has one picture. Therefore take advantage of all the features a platform offers.
8. Be consistent
All of this work will go down the drain if people forget about you. Set up a schedule on when to post. You may schedule every Monday and Thursday at 5:00 pm to post. You can consider buying publishing tools to automatically post for you. Posting consistently, allows people to become familiar with your brand, and eventually, one of your posts might make you instantly famous.
9. Track and learn what content did well and why
The more content you create the better you will become. You will start to understand what type of post gets the most engagement and how often you should post. After a while, you will get better, although you will always need to adapt as people and the media changes.