How to build an engaged social media audience (5 Ways)

Are you interested in using social media channels like Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube to grow your business and connect with more customers?

If you answered yes, you're in the right place!

Believe it or not, the average person spends around 2.5 hours on social media sites every day. Business leaders and marketers across all industries are keenly aware of this fact and have branched from content and email marketing to the wonderful world of social media.

The amazing thing about social media is it can directly impact every other part of your business. For instance, you can improve website traffic, build your email list, and learn more about your customers with the right social media marketing strategy.

Today, I will show you 6 tips we use to keep our customers engaged across multiple social channels.

Are you ready? Great! Let's dive in.

Leverage the Power of Live Video

Turning blog posts into videos will surely drive engagement, but it's not the only way to use video on social media.

Live video events are an extremely popular and effective way to increase engagement. You can attract a broad audience to your social channels with this strategy. People are always interested in learning about products and brands that capture their attention.

There are plenty of options to choose from too! Here are a few types of live events we've hosted in the post:

• Educational webinars
• Ask me anything events
• Product demonstrations
• Collaboration events with other businesses
• Brand announcements

Live events give you a unique and exciting real-time opportunity to engage with your audience. Plus, 65% of people say they vividly remember content they watched 3 days after seeing it, which is a sharp uptick from traditional blog posts. This statistic means people will likely think about your company after the event has concluded.

If you impress them with your product or personality, you can expect these same people to return to your social media page to engage with your brand.

The best way to maximize your live event traffic is to get people to sign up long before the day you hit the live button. You can secure early signups by creating posts on your various accounts, sending emails, and adding an event calendar to your website.

Over 80% of marketers say video content has helped them boost sales, traffic, and engagement. You can follow this path by scheduling and broadcasting live video events to social media.

Host a Viral Giveaway

Have you ever participated in a giveaway? If so, you understand the excitement of building up entries and eagerly awaiting the day the company announces the winner. You'll be happy to know that it's easier than ever before to create a viral contest for your audience and boost engagement.

The key to running an engaging giveaway is to choose a prize that appeals to your audience. For instance, we host a quarterly contest where we give 5 annual licenses to our social media followers.

People who subscribe to our channel are interested in our brand and industry, so the appeal is there.

Here's where it gets interesting.

We use specific rules when creating our giveaways designed to drive engagement. One of our most popular entry methods is to share the post on the original social media site and other platforms.

When people share your event with their friends, family, and co-workers, there's a good chance that at least one of their followers would benefit from your product. As a result, a few social shares can lead to countless engagement opportunities.

I suggest hosting a contest that lasts anywhere from 2 weeks to 1 month. You want to give people plenty of time to participate, but you don't want to wait so long that people forget that they entered.

If you want more sales from your contest, send participants who didn't win an exclusive discount that they can use on your site. There's a good chance this will drive more interactions and lead to a portion of your giveaway participants becoming customers.

Share User Mentions

Odds are, quite a few of your subscribers will mention your brand on their profile. By sharing these interactions on your account, you can keep these users engaged while building social proof and attracting new subscribers.

The best example that comes to mind is user reviews and feedback. Most of us have tagged a brand after a positive experience to thank them for their service. These small but meaningful comments can help you build social proof and show that you appreciate your customers.

Social proof is the concept that people are more willing to engage with businesses trusted and respected by other shoppers. When you consider that 79% of people won't engage with a brand until they read reviews, it's easy to see how sharing social mentions can help you connect with new customers.

Research suggests that close to 45% of people turn to social media sites when they want to research a new product to buy. If your profile is packed with helpful content and praise from existing customers, you can tilt the odds in your favor and attract more people to your business.

Respond to Comments

The last tip I want to discuss ties together all of the other ideas presented here.

Responding to comments is an underutilized strategy that can result in people visiting your social media profile daily.

People will leave comments on the things you post. Instead of letting their thoughts, concerns, or compliments disappear into the void, step in and respond.

Depending on the size of your business and your audience, you may not be able to respond to everyone. But you should still try to connect to as many people as possible in the comments section of your posts.

People are far more likely to continue interacting with your brand if the conversation goes two ways. A simple 'thank you can sometimes be enough to convince subscribers to become customers and first-time visitors to follow your social media.

Final Thoughts

There's a good reason 78% of business leaders who use social media perform better than their peers; the former group is using one of the most advanced and flexible marketing strategies we've seen in modern history.

Social media is jam-packed with people with various interests, goals, and pain points. Use these platforms to connect with your target audience strategically, and sales, engagement, and traffic will follow.