If You Build It, They Will Come…….

…..but how do you get them to stay?

Growing a Social Media audience is not just as simple as “if you build it they will come”. It is not as easy as creating an account, posting something every now and then, and sitting back while the follows rack up. Sure you may get a few people following, those who know you and already trust your brand, but a “set it and forget it” mentality won’t help you grow your audience, and may cause others to lose interest.

We hear and read a lot about engagement and how important it is for Social Media. Engaging your audience in conversation, addressing their concerns, seeking their opinion, all this interaction helps to make them feel valued by your brand and hopefully, in turn, they will use your product or services and encourage other to do so. An engaged audience is a highly valuable tool in your social media marketing kit.

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Engagement Builds Trust, Trust Builds an Audience

A brand that is known as engaging, helpful, quick to reply and consistent in their voice, will be seen as one that is trustworthy. Trust is an essential element in growing an audience. Whether someone is looking for a service, a product or advice, the more trust someone feels with a brand, the more likely they are to stick around and the more likely you are to see your audience grow.

Now, it is easy to zero in and on focus on how you and your audience are engaging with each other. We tend to speak of “how many likes a post has” “who is commenting”, and “response time to queries”. These are all important insights to look into, however you also need to remember that your engagement with others businesses, people etc. plays a role in building your brand. As much as you are watching your audience, your audience will be watching you.

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Stay True to You, and to Your Audience

Who you follow, how and what you comment on, and what you share with your audience are key contributors to the image of your brand. Ensuring that your engagement, outside of that with your own audience, stays true to your voice, is just as important as your response time to a question. Make sure you truly want to align yourself with that other brand or person before making a comment, or sharing that post.

The simplest thing to remember is that social media engagement is a two-way street. If you expect your audience to like, follow, share and comment, you have to a) give them something worth commenting on or sharing and b) make sure that your are responding promptly, asking inquiring questions and staying true to the brand that they have decided is worth taking a seat and sticking around for.