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For Better Social Media Results, Focus on Engagement

January 10, 2019 By Carol Stephen Leave a Comment

For Better Social Media Results, Focus on Engagement

If there’s one thing that most social media managers agree upon, it’s that engagement should be a very high priority for all your social media. People focus on follower count, which for many people is an almost useless metric. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t have some followers, because without any followers you’re pretty much just singing to yourself in the shower. By the way, did you know that I wrote a book with Eric Lofholm on Social Media Engagement that you can find on Amazon?

What Is Engagement?

Everyone says you should have more engagement, but what is engagement on social media exactly? Engagement is the fine art of online conversation. Talking to others. If you’re just yourself on social media, then you’re talking as yourself. If you’re posting on behalf of a brand, then engagement means talking in your brand’s voice. SproutSocial has a fine article on why you should care about social media engagement. Look carefully at their pie chart, which shows that customers now want to use social media to connect with brands.

What Does Engagement Look Like?

Engagement looks like a conversation. So if you’re posting on Facebook, it should look like people are commenting on your posts, and then you’re commenting back. You’re listening and then answering. Back and forth, back and forth. Like that. At first, engagement may feel a little awkward if you’re not used to it. But after a while, you may notice that conversations follow a certain pattern. There’s the greeting, then maybe a question or two or thirty, and then another greeting. It will get easier, I promise.

How to Get Past the Awkward Stage?

Just like any other new skill, getting past the awkward stage can happen pretty quickly if you just keep at it. I’ve found that “Hello” works pretty well, though. Also: “Hi!” Or if you’re a cat, “Hai!” And here’s where the art of small talk kicks in. If you’ve ever been to a cocktail party and had to talk to someone, it’s the same thing. You’re going to feel awkward. The good news is, most everyone feels awkward. If, after these excellent suggestions, you still don’t feel up to a conversation, you might want to read How to Deal with Awkward Online Conversations.

How Do I Get More Engagement?

At first, you may need to make a lot of comments on other people’s posts. Keep track of who writes back or shares your posts, too! Some people will never comment back or share your posts, however. That might be ok if what you’re posting of theirs adds value to your audience. And some huge accounts may never reply to you. Just keep at it. And notice those accounts with lots of engagement already–you may learn some tips and tricks simply from watching what other people do!

My Secret: a 3 x 5 Card

One thing that helps me is a simple 3″ x 5″ card. At the beginning of each month, whatever I can fit on this card becomes my little cheat sheet. Remember in High School Chemistry, when you were allowed to have anything you could fit onto a 3″ x 5″ card as a cheat sheet for tests? No? Well, that’s what got me through organic chemistry. And, it turns out to be very helpful for social media management, too!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Engagement, how to engage on social media, Social Media, social media results, social media results with engagement

The Best Social Media Managers Are Like Octopi

November 16, 2017 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

The Best Social Media Managers Are Like Octopi

What the heck, you’re thinking to yourself: doesn’t she mean octopuses? Well, no, although I’ve seen a lot of people use that word. And why an octopus? Because they have eight arms, they’re exceedingly clever, and they can do a million things at once. Octopi are the original multitaskers!

Flexibility

Your social media manager (“SMM”) needs to have the flexibility of an octopus. They sometimes have to be able to squeeze their entire body through a small keyhole in a locked door. Metaphorically, that is.

Shifting Focus

Your SMM needs to be able to move from research, to writing headlines, to engagement within the space of a few moments. She needs to be able to do all of this and remember all of it. By the way, here’s a post about writing headlines that you might like: Headline Writing: 10 Reasons it’s a Pain in the Asterisk.

Big Picture

Having an idea of where your company is headed is one of the tasks an SMM needs to always have in mind. Without a destination…aww, you know that saying already, don’t you? Thought so.

Small Picture

There are a lot of details in social media. Engaging with people requires diligence to those details. Everyone wants to feel appreciated! And you never know who’s behind an account! Speaking of which, here’s a post about appreciation and paying it forward that might interest you.

Engagement

Speaking of engagement, that’s of utmost importance to you and your account. So your SMM needs to be friendly and engaged on your company’s behalf. That means she needs to know what to say when, and to whom. And that engagement matters more than follower growth, as outlined in this article: How to Sell the Importance of Engagement Over Fan Growth on Social Media.

Fast Moving

Social media moves quickly. You can practically watch the trending topics as they change from one to the next! And if there’s an emergency, you want your SMM to be on top of it. If you’d like to learn how to use trending topics, you might like to read more: How to Use Trending Topics for Your Business: Twitter.

Good Humor

Have grace and a sense of humor are critical. Sometimes people just need someone to listen to them so they feel that they were heard.

Photo by eriwst

Intelligence

On top of everything else, your SMM needs to be intelligent, able to compile reports when needed, and have the willingness to show you possible strategies and new tools as well. So she needs to be able to show you new platforms or strategies for your accounts.

Photo by Wibble_Roisin

Need An Octopus?

I have space for a new client, so please let me know if you want someone to work with your business!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Engagement, multitasking, Social Media, social media manager, social media managers are like octopi, traits a social media manager needs

How to Best Work with a Social Media Manager

June 22, 2017 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

How to Best Work with a Social Media Manager

Maximize Your Time

How can you maximize your time so I can do my best work and get you the best return on your social media investment? Here are some ideas for you.

Know Your Audience

Is your audience young? Do they like sports? Are they in the manufacturing sector? Having a very narrow idea of who your audience is will speed up my work. And please don’t tell me that everyone is your audience! Unless you sell air or water, and even then, what kind of air or water do you sell? And here’s Rebranding for Startups, in case you missed it!

Speak to Your Audience

So if you have a forty-something mom who likes to drink too much coffee, I can taylor posts so that we’re talking to her. And the more specific you can be about who that person is, the better the social engagement will be. I can write blog posts or headlines for social posts. Chris Lema suggests that you understand not just who your audience is, but what their journey is.

Photo by felipe.cabrera

Tell Me Your Audience’s Journey

Not everyone will buy from you when they first meet you. Some people will leave, come back, drive you crazy with questions, and so on. Bigger purchases usually require more questions, more visits to your website or social media, and more touch points.

Photo by garryknight

Engage, Engage, Engage

It’s never simply about posting and going, or scheduling. Getting onto your social accounts every day is important. And guess what? You’re running your company! So while you’re busy running your company, I can be busy running your accounts for you. By the way, here’s an entire series I wrote on engagement. Take a look!

Scheduling

I can schedule ahead of time for you, and if you have your own scheduler, I can use it so you can see what’s coming down the pipeline. Would you like that? Some business owners don’t want anything to do with their social, just a monthly report.

What Does Your Business Stand for?

You may have hobbies or charities that work with your business. For instance, my friend Beth Staub’s business, Adventure Auto Glass, donates to animal organizations when you do business with them. Or you may be a manufacturer who believes that Made in the USA is the way to go.

What Do You Look For?

What traits do you look for in a social media manager? Leave me a comment and thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: audience, Engagement, time management, what a social media manager does

Social Media with No Safety Net: Being Unafraid to Fail

January 26, 2017 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Social Media with No Safety Net: Being Unafraid to Fail

Old Familiar Ways

So many people use the all-familiar pattern of headline, link, and hashtag on their social media posts. But what about the age-old art of conversation? Wouldn’t it be more fun to just talk to people for a change? The good news is that you can! The bad news is that it will take more work.

Being Unafraid to Engage

In case you don’t know how to get started, you could always read my post with multiple parts on How to Engage on Social Media: the Complete Guide. There are sections for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

The Lost Art of Hello!

The important thing is to get out there and say hello! As in something along the lines of:

“Hello, I like your profile picture!”
“Hello, what’s the weather like where you are?”
“Hello, how are you today?”

If the person doesn’t answer back, maybe they’re not used to people engaging, or maybe (shudder) they’re a robot.

Photo by gabia party

Failure to Try

There are so many quotes on failure, but here is one of my favorites:

“Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.” – J.K. Rowling

If that doesn’t ring your chimes, here are 30 Powerful Quotes on Failure–you’re sure to find one you like.

But I digress.

Photo by Ryan Harvey

Begin Chatting

There are several ways to begin talking. Set yourself a modest goal. Say hello to 3 people a day. You might notice others having conversations–you could always step into a conversation that others are having. “Excuse me, but I couldn’t help overhearing…” you might begin. Would that be difficult? No, I didn’t think so!

Photo by The U.S. Army

Get an Introduction

If there’s someone you’d really like to get to know, you could use the old-fashioned idea of an introduction. This works very well on LinkedIn, as outlined in 4 Great Ways to Break the Ice on Social Media.

Photo by quinn.anya

Blog Comments

If you really, really want to get to know someone, read their blog and comment! Quite often they will answer you and reciprocate. Leave me a comment and see what happens! And thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Engagement, failure, greetings, Social Media

How to Engage on Social Media: LinkedIn

January 5, 2017 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

How to Engage on Social Media: LinkedIn

This is part five of How to Engage on Social Media: The Complete Guide. The other parts are here:

Photo by poolski

Why LinkedIn?

A quarter of online adults use LinkedIn, a proportion that is unchanged from the 28% of online adults who did so in September 2014, according to the Pew Research Center. With over 3 million using company pages, having a solid presence there makes sense. With its focus on business, is it any wonder that LinkedIn has the most mature users, with the highest net worth?

Photo by hyku

LinkedIn Basics

If you need some basics for how to use LinkedIn, you might want to read:

Photo by Castles, Capes & Clones

Business to Business

For B2B companies, LinkedIn is a giant. Take a look at this infographic from Social Media Today on Why LinkedIn Matters. If you want a more active presence on LinkedIn, it’s a great article. I particularly like the part about what platforms LinkedIn users don’t use. 83% don’t use Pinterest. So if you’re doing B2B, you want to be on LinkedIn, and probably not so much on Pinterest. After all, 94% of B2B marketers distribute content on LinkedIn, with many of them making purchasing decisions on LinkedIn.

Photo by Lucy Maude Ellis

Not Just for Job Seekers

LinkedIn has had to overcome its reputation as merely a place for job seekers, and those looking for gigs. To do that, it has begun to offer users the ability to publish. Bloggers who share on LinkedIn receive over four times as many leads to their home page than publishing on Facebook or Twitter! If you use stats to make decisions, that should be pretty convincing.

The Sleeping Giant

LinkedIn is like the shy guest at the party whom you later discover is the CEO of a major corporation. She may not want to talk to anyone, so if you decide to engage with her, you’ll be doing both of you a great favor.

How to Engage

There are many ways to engage on LinkedIn. Here are four:

Give recommendations. Be generous and reach out to people first! Don’t wait to receive and then react. Like other forms of social media, your generosity will be rewarded.
Write testimonials (to those you’ve done business with). Say what you liked about the business.
Comment on others’ posts. Start a discussion on an article or post and see where it leads, like you would on Facebook or Twitter.
Share others’ posts. Once you comment on an article, share it. Don’t forget to tag that person so they’ll realize you’ve shared!
Offer introductions. This is my favorite part of social media. Connecting people you know to others you know. Like you’d do in person, you can say something like “Sharon, do you know Ellie? I think you two have a lot in common!” or words to that effect.

Photo by faulancr

Groups

Groups can be a great way to start a conversation since by being in a group you already have something in common with everyone else in that group. So you might be in U.C. Berkeley’s alumni group, where you can ask people where they’re working now, or what project they’re excited about. Or a group for marketers where you can post or answer questions for those in your area.

Company Pages

Company pages are a way to brand your company, share the pain points of your audience, and offer unique ways to fix your potential clients’ problems. Speak directly to your ideal client when you’re on LinkedIn and offer solutions. Social Media Examiner has an excellent article on ways to improve your company page, by the way. I couldn’t say it any better.

Are You Linked In?

How do you use LinkedIn? Or would you like to start using LinkedIn? Leave me a comment! And thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Engagement, LinkedIn, Social Media

How to Engage on Social Media: Facebook

December 29, 2016 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

How to Engage on Social Media: Facebook

This is part of my series How to Engage on Social Media: The Complete Guide. The other parts are here:

Why Facebook?

Love it or hate it, Facebook is big and impossible to ignore. It’s not the elephant or the room, it’s the elephant AND the room! At over one billion users, Facebook is the most popular platform for social media marketers. Forbes has some of the top ten reasons to be on Facebook. Many people dislike the platform, since it has become “pay to play,” but you can’t deny that your audience is there.

“Fully 72% of online American adults use Facebook, a proportion unchanged from September 2014.”

~ Pew Research Center

Photo by The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

Popular with Everyone

In addition, “82% of online adults ages 18 to 29 use Facebook, along with 79% of those ages 30 to 49, 64% of those ages 50 to 64 and 48% of those 65 and older.” (Pew Research Center). So it’s the perfect place to engage with others.

Engagement

There are so many ways to engage on Facebook now. There’s live video, there are the usual likes and comments, and you can share posts and tag people or companies. There are ways to send messages either privately or publicly. Here’s one way to proceed–decide which level you’d like to be at, with Level One being the easiest, and Level Five, the most difficult.

Photo by familymwr

Engagement: Level One

Simply read and “like” other people’s posts. This is the most basic level. If you’re engaging on behalf of a company or brand, choose where you spend your time engaging. Then make the rounds daily, just the way you might visit favorite relatives during the holidays.

Engagement: Level Two

The next level of engagement is to comment on others’ posts. Again, be careful where you spend your time. Choose those who are engaging! By the way, if you make a mistake while commenting, you can go back and edit your comments later.

Tip: Use a timer so you don’t get lost down a rabbit hole, distracted by endless cute videos of cats and puppies. Although that could be your reward once you get done!

Engagement: Level Three

Know your brand’s voice, and use it exclusively when you post. So, rather than posting with a generic headline, try writing a few different headlines until something comes to mind. Or, alternately, comment upon the content or the headline when you post. PostPlanner has an excellent article about using your brand’s voice to boost your engagement.

Photo by ivva

Engagement: Level Four

Consider the Five Ws and the H when you post: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.

Who is your audience? Your ideal customer is the middle of your bull’s eye.
What issues bother them? Do a survey to find out.
When are they online? Check your page’s analytics to see.
Where do you want them to go once they’ve engaged with you?
Why do they need the content you’re posting?
How will the content you post help solve a problem?

In case you still don’t know why online relationships are important, Justine Pretorious answers that question: “Online Relationships — Are They Important?

Engagement: Level Five

Experiment and vary the types and amount of posts you make. So, for instance, do a newsy post in the morning, a more meaty post at lunch time, and a light-hearted post around dinner time. You might also post differently depending upon the day of the week. Having a strategy and then mixing it up is important–then keep track of what is working. Some social media managers post ten or more times per day. Others only post once or twice per week.

Which Engagement Level Are You?

Are you a six? Or are you closer to a two? Let me know in the comments! And thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Engagement, engagement levels, Facebook, Five Ws

How to Engage on Social Media: Pinterest

December 22, 2016 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

How to Engage on Social Media: Pinterest

This blog post is part of my series on how how to How to Engage on Social Media: The Complete Guide. You might want to see the previous two parts:

More parts will be added on a weekly basis.

Pinterest a Rising Star

Pinterest is a rising star, and like certain other social media platforms, underutilized. If your audience includes women, then you need to be on Pinterest! Some 31% of adult Internet users use Pinterest, according to the Pew Research Center.

Photo by State Library of New South Wales collection

Can You Be Social on Pinterest?

The people at Pinterest claim that Pinterest is not a social media platform. In some ways, they’re right. But it is still possible to engage, to share, to comment, and to like posts. There is no live video (yet!), but that could be on its way. I’d definitely agree with Justin Horvath that Pinterest is Social Media’s Best Kept Secret.

Social Discovery

Pinterest is certainly a place for discovery. Say for instance you need a pair of shoes. But that’s all you know. Would you go to Google and search for shoes? No! Instead go to Pinterest, because you’ll automagically get visual search cues to guide you: green shoes, camo sneakers, velvety green heels, and more.

How to Engage?

When you’re tooling around Pinterest, like and comment on people’s pins (I know they’re supposed to be called saves, but pins sounds so much better.) Make sure that you tag the person whose post you’re commenting on! Hover over the person’s name and get their handle. For instance, mine is @YourSoMeWorks. Now, make sure to say something a little out of the ordinary. Put a little thought into it.

Use Direct Messaging Sparingly

If you already know someone, use direct messaging. Or if it’s really important. Otherwise, direct messaging can seem spammy, like a direct message on Twitter when you don’t even know someone. It’s a good way to get unfollowed!

Photo by nokia32

Send Pins and Boards

If you see something that a friend would like, by all means send it their way! Pinterest explains how to send either a pin or a board in a short post. You can engage with people that way as well.

Group Boards

Another way to engage on Pinterest is to either join or have your own group board. Engage with the other pinners on the group board, making sure to tag them when you do.

Are You Engaging on Pinterest?

Why or why not? Leave me a comment and I promise to write you back! And thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Engagement, Pinterest, Social Media

How to Engage on Social Media: Instagram

December 15, 2016 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

How to Engage on Social Media: Instagram

This is part of my series on How to Engage on Social Media: The Complete Guide. Last week’s post was about engagement on Twitter.

Photo by zoonabar

Instagram is Serious Business

Some people think that Instagram is all pretty pictures–which it is–partly. But Instagram is also a serious business, with 28% of adult Internet users on board. People mostly use Instagram on their smart phones, unlike certain other platforms, and with more and more people moving to using smart phones, Instagram can only become more popular.

Photo by ajay_suresh

Why Use Instagram?

Instagram has the highest engagement rate between brands and customers of any platform, according to Forrester.
If someone follows you, they will see your posts, unlike Facebook, which has become “pay to play”
People are becoming more image-centric, and Instagram is the land of images
More people are on their phones and Instagram lives on your phone
People are more engaged on Instagram
Great for local businesses, since you can target using hashtags (see below)
Instagram is simple and fun!

Photo by Elizabeth Yu Xiaoou

Hashtags

There are so many ways to use hashtags on Instagram. I like to bury my hashtags in the first and second comments of a post. There are quite a few ways to use hashtags:

Location-based hashtags. Any city, state, country, highway, or area can be turned into a hashtag. Search the people nearby and see which hashtags they’re using. For instance, #SantaCruzMountains is a favorite of mine for finding people near where I live.
Topic hashtags. Use the topic of your post as a hashtag. If you’re an SEO, expert, for instance, you could do #SEO or #SearchEngineOptimization.
Hashtags that work across industries. For example, #tbt or Throwback Thursday works for any brand.
Self-deprecating hashtags. These are my favorite! Use a hashtag to make a comment about your own post or yourself. #facepalm and #sosnarky, for instance.

Once you use a hashtag, click through and see who else is using it and like or comment on other posts. Be assertive and don’t wait for people to come to you! Go see who else is out there and be friendly. Do a Google search on hashtags in your industry and then experiment.

Photo by Leo Hidalgo (@yompyz)

Tag Others

If your business has a company outing or if you’re with someone else who has an Instagram account, upload a photo and tag that other business or person. This is a great way to get a conversation going. And you can use it in conjunction with another idea, such as Throwback Thursday, to double your interaction! For courtesy’s sake, you might want to ask before posting a picture of someone else.

Interact!

Comment on other posts, and tag the owner, especially if the account has many followers. Often people don’t check their own comments, so tagging ensures that they see your comment. Anything, such as “I love this picture.” “This reminds me of…” “I love that park, too!” can be good conversation starters. Often one word, such as “Beautiful!” works, too.

Photo by Mainstream901

Captivating Captions

At the very least, tell us where a picture was taken. Often, I skip by posts with no captions. Something about a picture with no caption makes me think it’s fake. Do you think so, too? But a wonderful image with a great caption? That can be very powerful. And some of the best Instagrammers use Instagram to tell a story. For instance, @thecuratedfeast uses Instagram to educate. Their posts are packed with information about food history.

Photo by BLMOregon

Regramming

If you really appreciate one of your followers, use their photo, especially if they’re a big fan of your product. One of my favorite accounts is Cutco Cutlery, and they often ask people to use the #shareyourslice hashtag for a chance to be featured. Could you do something like that?

Photo by Cydcor

Contests

Contests are an exciting ways to get your followers engaged. You might ask them to like your own or another account, tag someone who might like that account, for a chance to win a book or a trip! The @Whole30 people are very good at generating engagement this way.

Photo by BLMOregon

Who Do You Find Engaging?

Leave me a message in the comments! I promise to engage with you!

Photo by Trinetty Skytower

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Engagement, hashtag, image-centric, Instagram, Social Media

How to Engage on Social Media: Twitter

December 8, 2016 By Carol Stephen 9 Comments

How to engage on social media: Twitter

There is a bias in the business world against Twitter that I don’t comprehend. To me it is the friendliest and easiest place to engage in of all the platforms. Of course, that’s once you understand a few things about Twitter. The blog post you’re reading right now is part of How to Engage on Social Media: The Complete Guide.

Create Moments

Creating Moments on Twitter

Creating Moments

A relatively new addition to Twitter is called Moments. You can create your own Moments or look at other people’s moments. Anyone can create a moment. From Twitter Home ==>>Go to Moments ==>> Click Create Moments (upper right corner). Upload your own photos or add tweets — I called mine San Francisco Lights. Choose your tweets or photos, choose a cover and title and publish! It took me about 15 minutes.

The Number One Mistake People Make on Twitter

Don’t start your tweet with the “@” sign if you want everyone to see it. Add a “.” in front of the “@” sign so that everyone can see it. Yes, that issue’s been around forever. If you need to know more, head over to Gary Vee’s slideshare (it’s only a minute, trust me!).

Leave Some Space

Don’t use up all 140 characters. Use something like 100-130 if you want retweets. Your real estate is limited.

Add images for more retweets.

Add Images for more Retweets

Images and videos are gaining momentum on Twitter. In fact, you’ll get 313% more engagement if you tweet with images, according to Twitter. So do use images for more engagement.

Audience

According to Pew Research

Some 23% of online adults currently use Twitter, a statistically significant increase compared with the 18% who did so in August 2013. Twitter is particularly popular among those under 50 and the college-educated.

Is that your demographic? If so, then you’re in the right place.

The Language

Twitter is the land of hashtags (not too many–one or two is fine!), and abbreviations. Also, emojis are popular on Twitter. Here are some abbreviations.

@ sign = a user’s name. For instance, I’m @Carol_Stephen on Twitter.

RT = Retweet. Means you’re repeating something and giving credit to that person as well.

OH = Overhead.

MT = Modified tweet. Sometimes you have to remove/change a tweet and this is how you alert people that you’ve changed it.

# = hashtag. Hashtags help you organize your tweets. For instance, #cheese will organize tweets about cheese.

Hashtags

Don’t be afraid to use hashtags, especially if the hashtag can help others see the content of a tweet. A hashtag helps others to identify a tweet. For instance, if you’re tweeting about an article on autism, you could add #asd (autism spectrum disorder) to the tweet. If you’re tweeting about an event, you can add the hashtag event, such as #wcoc (WordCamp Orange County). Some brands have their own hashtags. For instance, the San Francisco Giants use #sfgiants and if you tag your tweet that way, you may be featured or retweeted by the Giants!

Emojis

If you’re on mobile, which most people are now, you have access to many emojis. Hearts and smiley faces can let people know the feeling behind a tweet, in case there’s any doubt–or if you want to add more sentiment.

Formality

Twitter is one of the most easygoing, informal of all platforms. Think of it as a backyard bbq. It’s easy to talk to people, and there’s a laidback feeling to it.

Getting colder Carol @Carol_Stephen but still great. Best wishes to you

— Toyota Equipment (@ToyotaEquipment) December 4, 2016

How to Engage?

Say hello to people. If you’re just getting started, this is the easiest way to begin. Above is one real example. You can start with asking about the weather, telling people to have a nice weekend, and so on. Notice that my tweet begins with the “@” sign. So only those who follow both @ToyotaEquipment and myself will see that tweet. @ToyotaEquipment’s reply to me starts with text, so that tweet is more public. See the difference?

Here are a few other ideas:

Ask a new follower a question about their profile.
Ask someone you’re connected with for advice for a topic they’re an expert at.
Comment on someone else’s tweet and retweet it.
Tell others to follow someone whose account you enjoy.
Introduce two people who have something in common.

Lists

Once you have found a few people who like to engage, you can add them to a list. Here’s a post about using lists on Twitter. For instance, you could create a list called Engagers or Friendly People.

Sharing

How much of your personal life will you share on Twitter? It’s a good idea to decide beforehand. My rules are to avoid sex, politics, and disasters. And when I’ve broken my own rules, I’ve had to pay. For instance, during the divisive election recently, I wrote about politics and lost followers. If you have to talk about something divisive, you may want to set up a separate account for that. As a business, I’d avoid those topics, though.

Tagging

Just because you can tag, doesn’t mean you should tag. If a conversation doesn’t really involve someone else, for the love of all that is holy, please remove them! It’s like being on a long bench of people and everyone between you and the person you’re talking to has to listen. Don’t force everyone to listen. On the other hand, if the people are actively involved in a conversation, then yes, keep adding them!

How Do You Engage on Twitter?

Leave me a comment! And of course send me a tweet!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Conversation, engage, Engagement, Social Media, Twitter, Twitter moments

How to Engage on Social Media: the Complete Guide

December 1, 2016 By Carol Stephen 7 Comments

How to Engage on Social Media: the Complete Guide

Recently, I co-taught a class with Alyson Harrold of the Spectrum Group at University of California, Berkeley Extension. What surprised me was that so many of the students said they didn’t know how to engage. Hence, this series on how to engage online.

What is Engagement?

As the folks from Sprout Social outline, it’s smart to break engagement down into several tangible steps. You could call them baby steps. What you want is a channel where you can talk to potential customers and they can communicate with you. By the way, here’s an article about Tweeting for Engagement: Links Versus Text that’s an easy way to share and engage on Twitter.

Why Should Your Business Care?

Engagement is the gold standard of social media. It’s how you get closer to people making a purchase from you or doing business with you. If your potential clients don’t know, like, and trust you, they won’t want to do business with you.

Audience

Each platform has a different audience. How do you engage them? They’re somewhat different. For instance, LinkedIn is the most formal of the social media platforms. LinkedIn is the land of full sentences, and no hashtags. Twitter, on the other hand, is filled with abbreviations and hashtags. Here’s my Twitter: Top Ten Terms and Power Tips to get you started.

Platforms

Each platform has a different culture, and needs different content. Here are some of the top platforms, which will be updated as I write each piece:

The Language, the Hashtags, and Particulars of Engagement

The language is different on each platform. There’s a continuum of formal to informal in language, which includes whether to use hashtags. There are other things to do and to avoid, as well. For instance, can you reshare your content? What is evergreen and what isn’t? You don’t want to share too little or too much and each platform has its own conventions.

Social Sharing

When is it a good idea? When is it not a good idea? Also, it’s a good idea to know how much you’ll share of your personal life on social media. There are things you may not want to share, such as details of your children’s lives. Religion and politics can be tricky, too. But if your brand is about religion and politics, that’s a different story!

Tagging

Should you always tag people? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. On Instagram, it’s a great idea. You can tag on Facebook and Twitter, too. But should you always tag? No! We all have that one friend who’s always tagging you because they think you collect salt and pepper shakers. After awhile, it can be annoying. Don’t be that guy! Or gal.

Connecting the Dots

Using analytics and common sense to see what’s working and what’s not is your best strategy with social media. Analytics don’t tell the whole story, but they can tell a lot. Sometimes analytics just proves a theory that you have.

What Else?

If there’s something else you’d like to see covered, let me know in the comments! Thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: analytics, audience, engage, Engagement, Language, Social Media, social media platforms, tagging