Engagement on social media is a critical pillar of effective digital marketing. When your posts gather little to no interactions, the consequences can be tangible: decreased visibility, reduced conversions, and a potential dent in your brand’s reputation.
But, when you achieve high engagement through social media brand building, your brand stands out and grows, builds stronger connections, and often enjoys a more substantial return on investment.
In this blog post, we’ll explore why your engagement might be on the lower end and provide you with seven proven best practices to boost those interactions. You’ll also learn from the best—with examples from Wendy’s, Netflix, Glossier, and Grubhub and how they maximize social media engagement.
*Note: The brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
Understanding social media engagement
At its core, social media engagement refers to interactions on your online content. It encompasses everything from likes, shares, and comments to retweets, mentions, and even direct messages.
Each time a user interacts with your content, that’s a nod of acknowledgment, signaling they’ve noticed and resonated with what you’ve put out there. Influencers often thrive due to their high levels of engagement, which leads to trust and a strong follower base.
Now, why is engagement so vital in the realm of social media marketing? Because it:
- Gives your brand a visibility boost: Social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, have algorithms that prioritize content with higher engagement. When your content gets more interactions, it has a higher likelihood of appearing in more people’s feeds. Think of it as a digital thumbs-up from the platform itself.
- Establishes trust with your audience: Consistent engagement is a testament to your brand’s credibility. When people engage, they’re essentially vouching for your content, making others more likely to trust and interact with your brand.
- Acts as a feedback loop: Engagement acts as real-time feedback. Comments, shares, or even reactions can offer insights into what your audience likes or expects, helping you refine your future marketing strategy.
- Enhances connection-building: Every like, comment, or share bridges your brand and your target audience. It’s a two-way conversation, ensuring you’re not just broadcasting but also building relationships.
In essence, social media engagement isn’t just about numbers—it reflects your brand’s pulse in the digital space.
How to measure social media engagement
Gauging social media engagement isn’t as elusive as it might seem. In fact, there are concrete metrics and methods you can lean on.
First, it’s essential to understand that social media engagement can be viewed through various lenses: likes, comments, shares, mentions, clicks, and even how long someone viewed your Instagram story or TikTok video.
Together, all of these metrics form your engagement rate—which we’ll explore in depth below.
What is engagement rate?
Engagement rate is a neat metric that offers a snapshot of how actively your audience interacts with your content. You may also choose to look at a submetric, “engagement rate by reach,” which considers your content interactions relative to the number of people who saw it.
So whether you’re a blossoming brand with a few hundred followers or a giant with a few million, your engagement rate offers a consistent measure of your content’s impact.
How to calculate engagement rate
Engagement rate = (Total Followers or Post Views / Total Engagement) × 100
By consistently monitoring and analyzing this rate, you’ll have a clear barometer for how your content is performing. This helps ensure you’re always in tune with your audience’s preferences and adjust your social media strategy accordingly.
Other social media engagement metrics to track
While there are tons of engagement metrics to measure, pinpointing the right ones can be the difference between a thriving social presence and one that’s just coasting along.
Let’s zero in on a handful of metrics that truly matter when gauging your engagement levels, which you can track using a tool like Google Analytics alongside your social media platforms’ native analytics dashboards. You can measure these during the process of improving your engagement to see how much your social media strategies are actually paying off.
Keep in mind that these are just a few examples, and depending on your unique objectives, some may be more useful than others.
- Engagement rate: This represents the number of interactions (likes, shares, comments) relative to your total number of followers. A high engagement rate typically indicates that your content resonates well with your audience.
- Click-through rate (CTR): Of the people who saw your post, how many clicked on your link? This metric is a direct reflection of the effectiveness of your call-to-action and the relevancy of your linked content.
- Brand mentions: Counting how often your brand is mentioned across social platforms can give insights into its visibility and the volume of conversations happening around it.
- Share of voice (SOV): Beyond just your brand, SOV looks at how your brand’s mentions compare to your competitors. Are you leading the conversation in your industry, or is there room to grow?
- Audience growth rate: This is the rate at which your follower count is increasing. A steady growth rate suggests your brand consistently attracts new attention and interest.
- Conversion rate: This is how often someone who engages with your content clicks through to a product or service and takes an action. This can include signing up for an email newsletter, buying a product, or other goals.
Reasons why your social media engagement might be low
Before we jump into our best practices, let’s play detective and pinpoint some culprits that might be causing your social media engagement to take a nosedive.
Like any relationship, the bond between a brand and its audience needs understanding, consistency, and attention. Fumbling in these areas can lead to an engagement slowdown. Let’s tackle a few of the most common missteps:
Irrelevant content
Sharing content that doesn’t resonate with your audience or deviates from their expectations can decrease engagement.
Your followers are on your page because they like your brand’s voice, values, or offerings. Drifting away from that core identity or not staying current with the evolving interests of your audience can cause them to scroll past your posts without a second glance.
Inconsistent posting
If you’re not posting consistently to your social media accounts, you’re essentially fading away from your audience’s radar. Inconsistent posting lowers your visibility and affects the trust and anticipation your audience has built around your brand.
It’s crucial to find a rhythm and stick to it, ensuring you’re always present and relevant in your followers’ feeds.
Ignoring your audience
Engaging on social media isn’t a one-way street. If your followers are commenting, sharing, or asking questions, and all they get is radio silence from your end, it can be discouraging.
Every comment, message, or mention is an opportunity to foster a deeper connection. By ignoring or not actively engaging with your audience, you miss out on strengthening relationships, gathering feedback, and building brand loyalty.
Remember, in social media management, silence isn’t golden—it’s a missed opportunity.
Low-quality content
In today’s digital age, people have become connoisseurs of content. They’re bombarded with visuals, articles, videos, and the like from dawn to dusk. So, when they encounter low-quality content, they’re quick to bypass it.
Low-resolution images, poorly written articles, or unprofessional videos can be instant turn-offs. Quality acts as a marker of your brand’s dedication and professionalism. When followers sense a drop in the quality of your content, it could lead to a decline in trust and, consequently, engagement.
Always aim to offer value, whether it’s through crisp visuals, insightful articles, or entertaining videos. Quality over quantity is the mantra here.
Inadequate engagement initiatives
It’s a simple formula: If you want engagement, sometimes you need to actively seek it. Just posting content and waiting for the magic to happen won’t always cut it.
If you’re not integrating polls, quizzes, Q&A sessions, contests, or interactive hashtags, you might miss out on a vast pool of potential engagement. Using these initiatives to build a robust social media engagement strategy encourages your followers to interact, voice their opinions, or simply participate in a brand-led conversation.
Lack of personalization
In a sea of generic content, personalized messages stand out. If your posts, campaigns, or responses feel tailored for the masses and lack a personal touch, your audience might feel disconnected.
People are more likely to engage with content that resonates with their interests, needs, or even current events in their region. Using data analytics, understanding demographics, and segmenting your audience can help craft content that feels more “for them.” When followers feel seen and understood, they’re more likely to interact.
Examples of brands with excellent social media marketing and engagement
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel when creating a social media strategy that gets engagement. Looking at what the social media experts are doing can offer some ideas about what works today.
So, let’s look at a few top players and how they excel at driving engagement with social media.
Wendy’s
Wendy’s social media accounts have become synonymous with clever, sarcastic social media postings. They don’t take themselves too seriously—adding hints of pop culture, sarcasm, and memes to connect to customers.
You can see this as an example in their “National Roast Day.” They poke fun at other brands and volunteers during the day—bringing them viral exposure on Twitter/X.
Netflix
Netflix takes advantage of social media to promote content and build anticipation for upcoming releases. They do this in many ways, from video content like trailers to engaging with fans to create memeable content about their shows and movies.
One of the ways Netflix is doing this that’s unique to them is the “Choose Your Own Adventure” concept. These interactive experiences mimic the concept of choose-your-own-adventure stories. Viewers can make choices that influence the story and see branching narratives based on their decisions.
Glossier
Glossier has made social media one of its primary marketing channels to promote its skincare products. It relies heavily on its customers to show how the product impacted their lives, showcase its quality, and build a community around the brand.
One of the best examples of Glossier doing this is how they encourage customers to use hashtags (#GlossierIRL) to demonstrate the product in use. This brings real customers to the forefront showing off real results—building trust in the brand and gathering feedback about how people use the products.
Grubhub
Grubhub uses social media to partner with restaurants and other online businesses to promote food delivery and engage with customers. They offer exclusive deals online, encouraging restaurants and other influencer accounts to promote Grubhub as one of the best delivery services.
Another thing that helps Grubhub stand out is how it uses social media to deal with customers and address issues. Grubhub has an experienced social media team that scans social media chatter for mentions of Grubhub and customer complaints—allowing them to respond quickly to issues and resolve them.
How to maximize your social media content creation for better engagement
Now that we’ve explored how some of the best brands have used social media to get engagement, it’s time to dig into how you can do the same. These techniques will help you create content that resonates with your audience, encourages interaction, and drives better results for your brand.
Understand your audience
You can’t get great engagement without first having great content—and that won’t happen if you don’t understand the people you’re targeting.
Start by figuring out the basic details about your audience:
- General demographics like age, gender, and location
- Personal interests like hobbies and lifestyle
- Online activity like content preferences and activity patterns
- Pain points and motivation for buying your products
Understanding these details will help you deliver tailored content to your audience and get the most ROI from your efforts.
Of course, you’ll need to learn who to target before starting. Do this by running analytics software (like Google Analytics) to learn who visits your website. You can use the demographic detail report to learn your visitor’s location, general demographics, and other interesting data that help you further tailor your content.
This information will also help expand your marketing efforts. For example, if you learn your audience’s general age range and other demographics, you can begin paid advertising with that information instead of a more general audience.
Practice consistent branding and messaging
Maintaining consistent branding and messaging across social media and the rest of your marketing is critical for building recognition. You want your fans to know what to expect when consuming your content.
Here’s why it matters:
- Builds brand recognition
- Establishes trust and credibility
- Creates a cohesive user experience
- Reinforces brand personality and values
This consistency should apply in all areas. That includes visual elements like colors, image styles, typography, and logo usage. It also applies to messaging, such as tone, language, and personality traits.
Look at other brands to learn how they keep their brand consistent everywhere, using the same colors, imagery, and other elements to maintain a consistent image.
Just look at Coca-Cola as an example. They have had a consistent red, dynamic ribbon, and themes of happiness for many years—and that has carried over to social media. Consumers know what to expect when seeing their ads and what to expect when consuming their products.
Use data to inform your content strategy
Data is what will tell you if your social media strategy is working. You’ll learn what types of content work best on social media, determine your optimal posting times, learn your audience preferences, and learn where to focus to optimize your social media ROI.
Having the right tools will help you measure your social media performance and learn what works.
For example, you can measure performance on social media platforms by using their tools to track likes, comments, reach, and other metrics. Use these metrics to determine how your content performs and which demographics like it the most. Continue testing until you find out what your audience wants and create similar content around those themes.
You also have third-party tools available to track off-platform activity. Bitly, for instance, will help you track clicks of shared links—helping you determine how much of your audience clicks on your social media posts and which content types and social media campaigns get the most engagement.
Top strategies for increasing social media engagement
Now that we’ve gone through a few reasons that you may not be getting good engagement, it’s time to turn things around and focus on the steps you can take to turn things around.
These top engagement strategies will help you tailor your social media strategy to get the most engagement out of your content.
Optimize posting frequency and timing
You can’t count on your audience being online at all times of the day. They have patterns for social media usage—patterns you should understand if you want your content to get their attention.
You may not get this right straight away. Optimizing posting frequency and timing will mean testing different time periods and tracking them for a few weeks to see when you get the best engagement. You can also check platform tools, like Facebook’s “When Your Fans Are Online” tab.
Track the days and times you get the best engagement with your social media metrics and make note of them. For example, if you target an audience of working-class families, you may find that your audience is typically available during weeknights after normal business hours.
Create unique and compelling content
In a world swarming with content, what makes yours stand out? Delivering unique and compelling narratives, visuals, and ideas is key. When your shared content offers fresh perspectives, intriguing social media stories, or solutions to common problems, it becomes an engagement magnet in a world where consumers already have too much content to see.
Regarding content curation, prioritize originality by infusing trending content with your unique perspective. Equally important is delivering value through informative, helpful, or problem-solving content tailored to your audience’s needs. For example, use AnswerThePublic to find less-commonly answered questions in your niche.
Emotion also plays a significant role, as eliciting humor, inspiration, or empathy can boost engagement. By consistently crafting content that captivates and resonates, you’re not just accumulating likes and shares—you’re nurturing a thriving, connected community.
Use high-quality multimedia content
Today’s social media landscape is visually driven. Eye-catching images stand out on feeds with a bunch of content that looks the same. High-quality multimedia content will help your posts stand out.
Create images, videos, and infographics to grab attention. Adobe Express and Canva can create great images, Animoto and Biteable help with simple video creation, and Piktochart and Venngage help with infographics. Keep consistent with your brand when doing this—using similar colors, fonts, and brand elements.
Each social network also has different content types that work best. For example, Pinterest is an image-driven platform, meaning you must focus on high-quality images. But Facebook is a mix of images and short videos, so you can try both there.
Engage with your audience
Effective communication is a two-way street, and when sharing content on social networks, it’s vital to actively engage with your audience. This practice not only shows that you value their input but also fosters a sense of community.
Start by promptly responding to questions, compliments, or critiques, and then you can initiate conversations and pose questions to get your followers talking. Don’t just do this in public, either. Take to your DMs and respond in private to form a closer connection with your audience.
Look at how JetBlue handles this. JetBlue’s social media team monitors social media to look for mentions. They provide quick, helpful responses to show they care and make sure they have happy customers.
Trending hashtags, video content with behind-the-scenes insights or informative clips, and funny or relatable GIFs and memes can also enhance your overall interaction efforts.
Leverage user-generated content (UGC)
Customers are often your best salespeople. Ads and marketing may put some people off, so they turn to customer reviews and friends for recommendations.
User-generated content can add to your marketing efforts. Encourage customers to take to social media to talk about their experiences. They can post pictures, product demos, and anything else they do with your products using your branded hashtag—all of which is social proof and boosts trust.
You can encourage this in a few ways. Host a contest using Gleam or other services to see who uses your product the best. Make submitting feedback easy on your website and social media for people who want to submit content.
Create polls, quizzes, and interactive content
Interactive content can be a huge driver of engagement if you do it right. Think of quizzes, for instance. How often have you seen a friend share a cool quiz they found on social media and saw it spread far and wide?
The same is true for most types of interactive content, like Q&As, live sessions, and stories.
Many platforms now have interactive features built-in. Twitter/X has a feature to create a poll with a few clicks of a button. Facebook and Instagram both have live features that allow you to quickly go live and start chatting with your audience immediately. If you want to create a quiz outside a platform, use products like Typeform to set up your branded quiz.
Run contests and giveaways
Sometimes a little competition is all it takes to get people excited about something. People want to feel part of the event that’s happening—and if they win, it’s a feeling that they will look back on for a while.
Loyal customers will get engaged straight away, looking for a chance to keep engaging and potentially win. You’ll also get many new followers who may not know your brand yet get involved.
Be sure to clearly define the terms of your event. Declare prizes, how to win, rules, and contest type. You can make it as simple as entering an email address or requiring contestants to produce UGC to be judged for entry.
Do this yourself with your own resources, or use contest platforms like Gleam and Woorise to handle the heavy lifting. Be transparent about the process and get people excited about the chance to win.
Encourage interaction on your posts
While serving delectable content is important, inviting your audience to join the discussion table is equally crucial for fostering active participation.
When it comes to social media engagement posts, incorporating polls, quizzes, or Q&A sessions entices your audience to join in the fun and interact. At the same time, captions that invite responses, opinions, or shared experiences keep the conversation flowing.
Showcasing user-generated content, such as reviews, testimonials, giveaways, or posts where followers have tagged your brand with hashtags, highlights their loyalty and encourages more interactions. Mix this with links to review platforms and QR Codes on products to direct people to leave reviews.
Finally, don’t underestimate the power of engagement questions, which can be something as simple as asking, “Coffee or tea? Tell us in the comments!” This is another tool successful influencers use to ignite delightful mini-debates and foster a sense of community in the comments section.
Use branded short links to drive traffic
The sight of a cluttered, lengthy URL can be quite off-putting. It disrupts the visual appeal of a post and can divert attention away from the content itself. This is where branded short links come to the rescue.
These links are concise, clean, and easy on the eyes, ensuring that your audience remains focused on your social media content—not on your clunky URL. The shorter format of these links also makes them more user-friendly and click-worthy, further enhancing engagement.
Using a branded link takes personalization a step further. By incorporating your brand’s name into the link, you reinforce brand recognition every time someone encounters or clicks on it. It also conveys professionalism and trustworthiness, as users instantly know where the link will lead them.
With Bitly, you craft these appealing shortened and branded links with ease and monitor their performance through Bitly Analytics. It’s a win-win—links that boost engagement and insights that keep you informed.
Use QR Codes to add an extra boost of interaction
QR Codes can fill the gap between physical and digital experiences. They allow people in a physical space to quickly bring out their phone, scan the code, and see what goodies await on the internet.
QR Codes can help promote specials, point to landing pages, and lead to exclusive content. Software like Bitly Codes will allow your business to create custom QR Codes, include unique CTA information, and easily direct people to where they need to go to interact.
Take a look at Spotify as an example of QR Code usage. They created unique QR Codes for Spotify playlists, allowing users to share with friends. This allowed users to share with non-Spotify users and potentially bring new users to the app.
Establish a consistent posting schedule
Consistency is the backbone of trust, and a regular schedule ensures your brand remains top-of-mind and signals reliability to your followers.
When they can anticipate and look forward to your posts, it increases engagement levels. Algorithms love consistency, too! Platforms tend to favor regularly updated profiles, often boosting their visibility in users’ feeds.
You don’t have to make it a point to remember to post at the same time every day, either. Look at scheduling apps—like Hootsuite, Loomly, and Sprout Social—to automate social media posting based on what you know about your audience to make sure you never miss a post on your content calendar.
Recognize the distinctions of each social media platform
Each social media channel is its own unique beast, with different quirks, audience demographics, and content styles, meaning cross-platform posting of the same content may not land. A humorous meme that’s a hit on Twitter might not necessarily resonate with the professional crowd on LinkedIn.
Recognizing these distinctions helps you tailor content effectively, ensuring it lands well with the intended audience. Diving deep into platform analytics, understanding audience behavior, and tweaking content strategy accordingly can amplify engagement. After all, it’s about speaking the right language in the right room.
Instagram, for instance, is a visual platform. It focuses on stories, reels, and image posts. To stand out here, your brand needs high-quality visuals and interactive stories to engage with your Instagram audience.
On the other hand, TikTok is a video-only platform. You only have a short time to capture the audience’s attention, so you need a video that immediately grabs attention and gets straight to the point.
Leverage social media ads
You may not go viral on social media immediately, or even reach all of your following—especially if you’re a new brand.
But, you do have tools to expand your reach and attract new fans to your account. You can set up ad campaigns to promote your social media posts. To do this, you’ll need to create ads strategically:
- Use ads that encourage interaction, like engagement and carousel ads.
- Create multiple ad versions to A/B test.
- Target a strategic audience to attract the right people.
- Set small budgets and scall ad groups that perform well.
- Regularly monitor and tweak your ads.
Use influencer partnerships to amplify reach
You can expand your brand’s reach beyond your normal fans by working with other social media users. Many people follow influencers online now to get product recommendations and entertainment—meaning you can work together with these influencers to promote products.
Finding the right influencers to work with will be the key to making this work. Find people who align with your brand’s values, have the same type of audience, and produce high-quality content.
There are many ways to structure these deals. Some influencers charge per post, while others will want longer-term contracts for extended promotion. Find the right deal for your business and your goals with influencer promotion.
Amplify your social media engagement with Bitly
There are many different reasons for disappointing social media engagement rates. That means learning why your engagement rates are poor and learning exactly what your audience is looking for. Then by following these best practices, you can start building an active community around your brand.
But don’t forget to incorporate some efficient social media management tools to supercharge your efforts. From detailed metrics on how your content is performing to boosted brand awareness with branded links, Bitly can be a trusty sidekick in your engagement journey. With our URL shortener, QR Codes, advanced analytics, and no-code landing pages, the Bitly Connections Platform makes it easy to engage your social media audience across multiple touchpoints.
Ready to take your social media engagement to the next level? Get started with Bitly and find the perfect plan tailored to your brand’s needs.
