Why Social Media Engagement is So Important

March 23, 2022
11:00 am

Posted by Jordan Confer

If you’re trying to nail down which social media metric is the most important to focus on and track, allow us to provide a recommendation. Tracking metrics like impressions, website traffic, and new followers are great but engagements provide you the most valuable information and intel to maximize your brand’s social media platforms. Let’s dive into why we believe social media engagement is so important for the growth of your brand.

5 Reasons Social Media Engagement Is Important

Engagement Builds a Strong Relationship With Your Audience

If you want to earn a relationship with your audience, engagement is the way to go. Impressions are useful to know, but they only tell you how many people saw your content – not if they reacted to it or enjoyed it. Engagement is a better insight as to whether or not people are actually resonating with what you’re posting.

Assuming they are resonating and enjoying your content, you’re able to build a relationship with your shoppers. Social media allows us to respond to people, answer questions, and hear stories the same way we would with a friend. Engagement bridges the gap between the shopper and the brand.

Engagement Increases Credibility

Have you ever seen an influencer or brand with a ton of likes or followers but zero engagement? Spoiler alert: they might be purchasing bots to create those results. (Boo!) Having organic engagement on your posts increases the credibility of your brand.

It can also increase credibility just by showing a new follower that your brand is active and responsive to shoppers. Answering questions and providing great customer service shows a new follower or new customer that your brand is committed to providing a great product and experience.

Engagement Proves Purchase Intent

In marketing, there are very few opportunities to provide black and white, quantitative results that prove our efforts lead to sales. Social media engagement can help provide that information! In several of the monthly reports that we create for our social media clients, we include screenshots from users commenting their intent to purchase. Whether they’re asking “where can I buy this product?” or sharing a picture of their shopping cart or family dinner, you’re able to prove to your internal team or external customers that your efforts lead to sales.

Engagement Increases Visibility

Have you ever seen a status on your Facebook feed that says something similar to “Jordan Confer likes Ocean Mist Farms?” That’s because engagement is typically elevated and shared across the platform. When more people engage with your content or page, the more likely others are to see it. I.e. engagement yields more engagement!

Engagement Provides Practical Intel

Tracking engagements regularly can provide valuable insights for your brand. One, by tracking engagements you can gather whether or not your content is resonating with your audience. If you see an uptick in engagements, great – keep doing what you’re doing! If you see engagements start to decline, reevaluate your content and messaging. What are you doing differently or what could you be doing differently to increase this metric? Side note, if you don’t know where to start or could use some help – give us a call.

Two, you can track what type of content is resonating best with your followers and use that to create content in the future. For example, with the social media accounts we manage on behalf of our clients, we were seeing a boost in engagements when we posted pictures from the fields. To capitalize on this opportunity, we made an effort not only to include more field photography going forward but question “why” do consumers like this content in the first place. We know that the majority of people care about where their food is coming from and that the brand is committed to sustainability. This opened the door for not only more field photography but also content that highlights the faces behind the brand. This is just one example of how a seemingly small engagement insight led to a change in strategy that provided great results for the brands we work with.

We hope we’ve convinced you to place a greater focus on social media engagement. Dive in, see what the data shows, and then put it in place to elevate your brand. If it is already important to you but you don’t know how to maximize it, give us a call. We’d love to provide a customized assessment of what you’re currently doing and provide recommendations to see your engagement increase.