Are You Asking Your Social Media Fans To Do Too Much?

Getting engagements from your social media fans is easier said than done. With 1.3 million pieces of content on Facebook shared every minute, it’s harder than ever to stand out from the crowd. The first step is to stop your fan from scrolling through their feed, but then are you sealing the deal by getting your fan to engage? The answer is probably not, as the average engagement rate on Facebook is only .25%. If you’re above that, congrats! If you’re right around it or below it, you may be making one simple mistake – asking your fans to do too much.

Let’s be frank: ain’t nobody got time to navigate a complicated social media post. It’s imperative to think of time spent engaging when you’re creating content and copy. Are you driving clicks to a website? Trying to gain more engagements? After you define your objective, ensure that you’re making it as simple as possible for your users to take that action with the post. See below for a few quick tips on how to do just that!

Comments for Engagements

If the primary engagement goal is to get comments, then there are a few must-dos to ensure you’re actually getting fans to reply.  Questions shouldn’t be difficult to answer or require a long explanation. If you can’t think of the answer instantly off the top of your head, it’s not right for most social media posts.

Be sure to consider adding in multiple choice options, true or false, or “gut reaction” questions. To set yourself up for success, you need to do the heavy thinking for them.

Link Clicks

Getting a user to click through from a social media site is no easy task. If your goal is to get link clicks to a website, there a few must-dos and don’t-dos. First you have to format your post correctly. On Facebook, opt for a link formatted post, a carousel, or the new product ad post. For Twitter, your best bet is a Twitter website card. This will ensure the link is the main attraction in your post. If it’s simply just a part of the copy, your fans are more likely to miss it.

The second is to keep your creative and copy simple. Keep the copy short and sweet, and make sure that you’re driving them to the link in the copy as well. “Click to learn more” or “Check out the link to sign up!” will get their attention back on the link. Don’t distract your audience away from the link by adding a question or a huge block of text.

Contests & Sweepstakes

Contests and sweepstakes are the perfect chance to expand your reach, gain new fans, and increase brand advocacy. But, how do you make sure it’s a success? Once you start your content planning stage, it’s imperative to keep the barrier to entry low. If the user has to follow the page, upload a video, do a dance, sing the ABCs backwards, and stand on one foot … you’re going to turn some users off.

Keep the task simple enough to gain the most amount of entries. For example, a simple question for a comment-to-win is going to ensure a high number of comments. If you’re asking users to upload photos or videos, make sure you’re keeping it to content that they’d already have on hand – such as their favorite vacation photo, or their favorite family photo. That way the hard part (finding and uploading the photo) is easier to achieve.

With these few simple changes, you should start to see those increased engagement rates in no time. For more content tips and tricks, be sure to check back on our blog!



Ignite Social Media