Almost everyone uses social media. Whether you idly scroll on Instagram or avidly update your Facebook feed to keep friends updated, you are an active social media user. But have you thought about how social engagement can help your business?

While organic traffic remains, for most, the biggest source of website traffic, social media has been accounting for a bigger and bigger share. Some are even suggesting that social media will, soon, become the most important source of traffic for many businesses. But whether it becomes bigger than search engine traffic or not, social media is an indispensable way to get more visitors, and more sales, for your site.

What is social engagement?

Essentially, social engagement for your business is exactly the same as the social engagement you have when you are on social media. The key difference, though, is that while you might just do it for fun or relaxation, when you are using social engagement for your business you should have a clear strategy.

The goal of social engagement is to increase the number of people who are talking about, and sharing, your brand. By doing that, you will also increase the number of people visiting, and returning, to your site, viewing your brand positively, and moving from having never heard of you, to being customers, repeat customers, and eventually, evangelists.

The importance of the relationship

Perhaps the most significant difference between social media and traditional customer interactions is that, when it works well, it becomes a relationship. If you run a shop, for example, then the relationship with most customers might be quite transactional, they come in, select items, then pay and leave. But on social media, you are creating something that goes beyond that.

Instead of having a relationship that is based around a single transaction, social engagement creates a positive relationship in which purchases — although vital to your business — are almost incidental. The customers become spokespeople for your brand, talking positively about you and recommending you, even when not asked for a recommendation. Although ‘influencer’ has become a job title for some people, the truth is that on social media everyone is an influencer among their friends and colleagues.

How to build your social engagement

Unfortunately, it takes work to build your social profile. Although many brands will have social presences that look effortless, breezily engaging with their customers and generating viral publicity, a lot of work will have gone into them, thinking about their brand persona, planning campaigns, and monitoring for opportunities.

Start by thinking about your audience, and where they are likely to be. And consider what your product or service is. These two things will help you think about the platform or platforms you want to be on. You cannot be effective on every social media platform, and it makes sense to be where your customers are likely to be, and where you can show off your products the best.

Then consider how you engage. What are the opportunities that will present themselves. There might, for example, be commonly observed events in the calendar, from holidays to sporting events, that you can use to draw attention to your business. Or you could use your website to create content and add sharing tools to encourage people to share with their friends and followers. And you can use the power of social media to reach out to customers.

If you want to harness the power of social media for your business but don’t know where to start, or just don’t have the time, then call or email us. We can show you how we have helped other businesses transform their social media presence into a business-winning asset.