003: 6 Simple Ways to Boost Engagement on Social Media

Episode Transcript

003: 6 Simple Ways to Boost Engagement on Social Media

One question that I ask my audience often is “what do you need help with?”  Or some similar to iteration like " if you could ask any question about marketing your business, what would you ask? "

The reason I do this is because I would rather create content that directly answers their questions and is super relevant than g guess and is super relevant then gas and miss the mark.s and miss the mark.

 So with that being said, the question that I am asked the most often is “ how do I get more engagement on social media?”

 And it's a relevant question,  Especially in direct sales where most people are choosing to use social media as their primary form of marketing within their business. 

Now, a quick side note... I highly recommend that you do not rely solely on social media for your marketing. I'm not going to get into that today because that's a whole episode in and of itself so if that's something you're interested in hearing more about go over to the build it like a business Facebook group and let me know that you'd like me to record an episode on that. But when it comes to social media engagement is crucial.

 the more engagement you have some more the Facebook algorithm views your content as interesting. The more engagement you have the more the Facebook algorithm understand who to show your posts to. So it makes perfect sense that people are wondering how to boost engagement.

So today I want to  Share my top 3 strategies for boosting engagement on social media, whether that's your Facebook group, your Instagram posts, or anything in between. This is definitely an episode worth taking notes for, but I know that you're probably listening to this when you're super busy, maybe you're chasing the kids around, doing laundry, driving to an appointment, on a break at your day job... So I went ahead and took notes for you.  everything I'm talking about today will be available in a free download on my website if you visit anchordesignco.com/3, for episode 3.  So don't worry if you can't take notes right this second. All right, ready to dig in? Let's do this.

Be specific about who you’re talking to. (Ideal customer avatar)

Understand that there’s more than one form of engagement.

Use these 6 types of posts.

First up,  I want you to be super clear about who you're talking to on social media. This is known as your ideal customer, or your ideal customer Avatar. Your ideal customer Avatar is basically when you described your perfect customer in very specific detail and then write every post  as if you're talkin to that specific person. As if you're trying to attract that specific person.

 for example, my ideal customer is a woman and direct sales who is maybe new in her business or is at a stage of transition within her business.  Most often she's a mom or at least someone who is highly family-oriented. She loves to shop at stores like Target, TJ Maxx, and really enjoys being up with the trends. She probably has a Pinterest account full of ideas… maybe even a board for DIY home improvements. Or for her dream house. She is someone who cares more about building a sustainable business which actually makes her money than  hitting company goals through whatever means necessary.

As I was saying that you might have found yourself nodding along to some or all of that. And that's because you as a listener of this podcast most likely my ideal customer.   the woman who I am most passionate about working with, the woman who stands to gain the most from the products, services, and training that I have to offer.

You might have found me through a social media post, or maybe you signed up for a free business tool that I offered. those posts or those tools resonated with you because when I made them I was thinking of you. I was creating everything with you, my ideal customer in mind.

Had I written those posts or created tools with a middle-aged man who likes baseball in mind  there's a good chance we would have never connected. Because the social media post that I wrote and the free tools that I created wouldn't have made sense for you or your business. They would have made sense for a middle-aged man who likes baseball.  as a result it would have been really difficult for me to serve the person that I had attracted because  there needs wouldn't align with what I have to offer. My business would suffer for it and so many people would miss out on the results that my products and services are able to bring them.

So you can see that when you are clear on  Who your ideal customer is you're able to create content, including social media posts, that attracts the best person for your business.

This can be hard. The biggest objection that I hear when talking about this is “ well, I want to serve everyone”  and that's usually because the person I'm talking to is afraid they're going to miss out on something by not serving everyone.

But the truth is the more generalized you are when you're talk the less likely you are to attract the person who is actually going to engage with you, and eventually do business with you. Instead of attracting somebody who is very specifically interested in what you have to offer you're going to attract someone who might be interested in what you have to offer, and there's a major difference in those two people. you rather do business with people who are 100% interested in what you have to offer versus people who are a 50/50 shot?

There are billions of people in the world. I know that it's easy to think that if you narrow it down you're going to miss out on a potential sale, or new team member.  but the truth is there are way more people in the world, and even in this country then you can reasonably Serve by yourself. 

You're doing yourself a disservice and you are missing out on more by  not speaking to an ideal customer. I don't know about you but I would rather attract  75 people  who are definitely interested in what I have to offer than a hundred people that I have to to convince to care about my products and services, who might not end up being interested anyway. 

So the first thing to do is just super clear on who your ideal customer is. This might be somebody that is a current customer, and this person just happens to represent your perfect customer. If that's the case start by sitting down and writing as many details as you know about this person. It might be a combination of different people you work with overtime. Or, if you're just getting started or you feel like you're really getting a big mix of people and you'd like to narrow it down this is your opportunity to design that person. The goal is to understand them as if they were your best friend.

Map out as many details about this person as possible. You can do this in a notebook, or when this episode is done I have a free download worksheet that you can use which you'll find on AnchorDesignCo.com/3.  but here's an example of some of the things that you want to know about this person:

 what is their age range? What is their gender identity? What are their Hobbies? Where do they shop? What is their personal style?  what do they do for work? What trends are they interested in?

The more you can narrow down about this person the more specific you're able to be. And the more specific you're able to be the more likely you are to attract people who actually want to engage with you on social media.

 So that's your first step: get super clear on who you're speaking to.

Next it's super important to understand that there's more than one type of engagement on social media.

The first type of engagement on social media  is active engagement. This is the type of Engagement that most people are looking for which makes perfect sense because it's the easiest to see.

Active engagement shows up as likes or reactions to a post, comments on a post, sharing a post. It can even show up as somebody posting on your timeline or in your Facebook group themselves.

 This is easy to see and easy to track because it's very clear. There are defined markers that show us whether or not a person is actively engaging:  we can see if they are, we can see when they liked a post, and we can see you when they post in our group.

Most people judge their level of Engagement based on these active forms Engagement. How many likes they get. How many comments they get. But the truth is this is not the only form of Engagement and is only showing you half of the picture. So if you judge your engagement based on only what you can physically see you're going to have a really skewed perspective of what's actually happening within your group or on your social media profiles.

The other type of Engagement is passive. Passive engagement is often overlooked or people don't realize that it exists at all because you can't see it. But just because you can't see it doesn't mean that it doesn't matter. Because the Facebook algorithm or the Instagram algorithm CAN see it. 

Some examples of passive engagement are people watching your videos.  someone who clicks the read more button on a long post on Instagram or Facebook. Someone clicking the save button so that they can save your post for a later. Someone copying the link to your post so that they can share it.

All of these are forms of passive engagement…  You can't see them, you can't always track them, but they exist and the algorithm is paying attention to them.

 And ultimately the Facebook algorithm is who decides whether or not people see your post. The more people engage, passive or active, the more the Facebook algorithm will see your content as interesting,  the more the Facebook algorithm will assume that people really want to see your post.

So it's important to remember: even if you can't immediately see it. Doesn't mean that there is nothing happening. Don't judge your social media strategy based on only the obvious likes and comments. Remember that those are only two forms of Engagement out of many,  And not all forms of Engagement can be easily tracked or seen without digging deeper.

So now you know. In order to get engagement you need to be clear about who you're speaking to and you also know that when you're judging your  level of Engagement you may not have an accurate picture if you're only looking at likes and comments.

Now, let's talk about types of posts that get engagement. And I know this is probably the part that you're actually here for. Everyone wants clear, defined steps that they can follow. And I totally get it! When you're not sure where to start having an obvious path is majorly helpful. But that past doesn't matter if you don't have lights along the way and the first two tips I gave you today are the lights. So don't discard those just cuz we're getting into the fun stuff, all right?

So let's dig in when it comes to getting engagement on your social media post there are five types of posts that are  intentionally designed to boost engagement and help you build a relationship with your audience.

 The first type of post is one where you ask your audience to help you make a decision. These are magnets for engagement  because people absolutely love  giving their two cents.  so for example you might ask a this or that question like which lipstick should I wear today red or pink? Or what type of cookies should I bake chocolate chip or macadamia nut?

With this type of poster giving your audience specific options to choose from. You're not asking them to write their thoughts you're just asking them to choose from A or B, one, two, or three.   These are also very low commitment. the rear does not have to think very much in order to engage -  they just need to comment which of the two options you gave they like better. Some people will give you more information than that, but others will do the bare minimum and that's totally fine.   because these posts don't ask for a very much and don't require very much thought they're very easy to engage with.

With these posts it's important to People to leave a comment instead of asking them to vote using the poll feature on Facebook. Not all engagement is created equally. The Facebook algorithm views certain types of Engagement as more valuable than others. In this case comments are significantly more valuable than somebody checking a box on a poll.  so instead of using the poll feature that Facebook has just ask people to comment which they prefer. This is going to make a much bigger difference in helping the reach of your post, and getting it  in front of a larger number of people.

The next type of post is actually really similar to The Post we just talked about. This is an opinion post. The big difference between the decision post and the opinion post is that  in a decision post you're giving people very specific options to choose from.  You're not asking them to think critically or share much thought.

In an opinion post you're literally asking for someone to think about what you're saying and share their opinion on that subject. This is a slightly higher commitment post type than the decision post because it requires thought. It requires the reader to think about what they're going to say. That being said it's still one of the easiest types of posts to engage with because people absolutely love giving their opinion on something. People love feeling like they're the expert and in an opinion poll you're giving them a platform to feel like an expert.

So in this type of post instead of saying which do you prefer a or b, you're saying  tell me your favorite Acts or how do you feel about Y?

 For example instead of saying “which lipstick should I wear red or pink?” You would say “what is your favorite brand of lipstick?”

Or, instead of saying “which cookie should I bake chocolate chip or macadamia nut?” You're saying “what is your favorite type of cookie for the holidays?”

 You're asking people to share their individual thoughts and opinions on a specific subject,  not giving them options to choose from. 

The third type of post that promotes a ton of Engagement is an authenticity post. The type of post where you're sharing raw, behind the scenes information that aligns with your audience and your ideal customer. You might be sharing something that was hard and the lesson you learned and how you got through it. You might be sharing a real life moment where things didn't go according to plan and you had to Pivot. You might even be celebrating a win and talking about what that Journey was like and how you got there.

The point of this post is to share raw, authentic  information that helps your audience relate to you and see you as a human.

It might feel obvious that you're a human. Like, duh, of course you're human. Robots don't own businesses... At least not yet. But when you're operating from behind a computer screen there's a certain amount emotion that is removed from every interaction that you have.

When people connect with you primarily through their devices you take on some of the personality of that device...  and less of your actual personality. And so it's really important to infuse your social media presence since with posts that can balance that out.

When you share raw, authentic stories you're reminding people that you're human, you're making people feel something emotionally, and you're building a stronger connection with them. This is  also a really good opportunity to repeal the people who are not your ideal customer and draw in the people that you want to work with.

For example maybe you’re a mom and so is your ideal customer.  you might share a story about a time that parenting wasn't easy this week. Maybe your kid had a meltdown in the grocery store and you had no idea how to respond, and  you felt like everyone was watching you, and it was super stressful. That moment was not easy for you. And it might have felt like you were completely alone while it was happening. But the truth is Mom's everywhere have those moments all the time. And everyone feels alone while they're happening. By sharing your story and talking about the messiness of it you are connecting with your audience and helping them see themselves in you and by association, your business.  You're helping your audience feel like they're not alone. You're helping them know that they can turn to your business for someone who understands their life and what they're all about.

With that story you might repel the 20 something that doesn't like kids and thinks Mom supposed to much on Facebook about their families. And that's completely okay because she isn't your ideal customer. You're instead, going to attract more people who appreciate hearing about the messiness of being a mother and you're going to build an audience of people that not only feel understood by you but that you in turn understand. An audience of people who are significantly easier to connect with because you're speaking the same language. Instead of having to convince them to get on board with who you are as a person and the values that you have in your business you're attracting people who are already on board. And like I said before... I'd rather attract 75 people who are 100% interested in what I have to offer then 100 people do I only have a 50/50 shot with.

 So quick recap, so far we have decision posts where you're asking people to choose between two or more options. We have an opinion post where you're asking people to share their personal thoughts on a subject. And we have authenticity posts where you're sharing a raw, unfiltered view  that adds humanity and emotion to your brand.

 The fourth type of post is, yes, the one where you actually remind people what you have to offer. Where you incorporate your products.

This type of post get overused and I think we all know that. Everyone is friends with someone who has a business and can't talk about anything else. Someone who seems to have completely lost their personality and only knows how to talk about their products.

That type of person repels most people. Including the person they probably see as their ideal customer.

 But that doesn't mean that this type of post isn't important. It means that  context matters. It means that it works best when it's sprinkled in among the other types of posts that were talking about today. It means that it works best when it's not all about the sale and it's more about the benefits and results. it works best when there's a relationship that has been built between you and your audience versus someone who will have never connected with you before.

 if you've ever posted about your business and felt spammy this is for you. Because most likely one of two things was happening when you felt that ick set in:

 You were likely  either posting what somebody else told you to post, maybe you copy and pasted it from somebody else's page or group, and it didn't really sound like you, and it didn't really fit well with how you would normally talk. Or...

All of your recent posts were about the same thing, your product. You weren't sure how to talk about anything else and so you felt like you were constantly repeating yourself over and over again. Which you very well might have been doing.

 And that's why context matters because when you share about your product it needs to come from an authentic place.  if your posts feel like a script to you and they're definitely going to feel like a script to somebody else. So one of the best tricks I can give you is to  read your posts out loud before sharing them. Even if you have to whisper, don't just read it in your head. Read it out loud and see how it feels. If it feels awkward then it probably needs to be tweaked before you post it.

When it comes to posting about your products using those scripts, using stock photos provided by your company... That's a trap that a lot of people fall into. But it leads to your brand looking generic and your posts feeling robotic.

 Instead try painting a picture of what it's like using your product or interacting with your products. Think about how you could tell a story to get your point across. For example instead of telling people how much you love being a business owner and how flexible your schedule is try telling a story about your former life and at the end make a connection to what it was in your business that allowed you more freedom in your life. By telling a story you can connect with people on an emotional level so that by the time you bring your product in they already understand the point you're trying to get across. Instead of feeling salesy you don't feel like you're authentically connecting...because you are.

 And fifth  type of post that you can share with your audience to boost engagement and build relationships is the value post.

Before you can really expect someone to buy from you they need to firmly believe that you're the right person to trust, an expert in your field.

You can help position yourself as the expert in your field by delivering value to your audience. so, instead of posting about how your specific product works try talking more generally about something that relates to your product and educating your audience, giving them information that they can use to better their own lives.

For example, I often teach about marketing on my social media. Do I always promote the AnchorCard Digital Business Card  at the end of every post? Definitely not…  because my purpose isn't always to sell. Austin my purpose is to provide valuable  information, tips, and strategies that can make a significant impact on my idea customer’s life.  the AnchorCard Digital Business Card  is a marketing tool that helps direct sellers simplify their businesses so that they can make more money in less time, so that they can build a stronger team that's excited about their own businesses. But  if I want my audience to give this product to try we need to have a strong enough relationship and enough trust built up so that they know this is a product worth trying.

 If I walked up to a random person on the street and said try this, trust me, I'm a marketing expert they would probably laugh and walk away. Because how did they know? How  do they know that I have a strong enough background in marketing that I can create a tool that delivers on those promises? they don't. Because we have no relationship,  they've never experienced any type of result at my hand before.

but someone who has been following me on social media, or someone who was a part of the build it like a business Facebook group, or someone who is on my email list nose that I know what I'm talking about because I constantly deliver tips and strategies that get results. I'm constantly giving them value for free that can better their businesses and as a result they can feel secure in knowing any tool or product I offer to them is backed by that seem knowledge and those same proven results.

And it's exactly the same for you. It doesn't matter whether you're selling lipstick or Kitchen products or essential oils or something else...

Your audience needs to trust that you know what you're talkin about and that you can deliver  on the promise of your products before they're going to open their wallets and spend money with you.

And that works in Reverse as well. Yes, we all make impulse buys on a regular basis. But impulse buys are short-lived, small in the total amount of money spent, and they don't result in repeat purchases most of the time.  The businesses that we spend the most money with are the businesses that we trust and that we can see results from. 

So let's go through that list one more time really quick first we have decision posts. Post we're asking your  audience to choose between two or more options.

Next we have opinion post where you are asking your audience to share their own unique thoughts and opinion about a specific subject

Then we have authenticity posts where you’re sharing a raw, unfiltered view  that adds humanity and emotion to your brand.

Fort we have product posts where you're  introducing your product to your audience.

And finally our 5th type of post is the value post. Where you're delivering value and helping people see you as an expert in your field so that they trust you enough to actually make a purchase one day.

 Now I know that was a lot to go through all in one day and like I said at the beginning this is a good episode for taking notes because there's a lot of a really actionable information here.  I also know that if you I also know that if you ARE  someone who aligns with my ideal customer you're probably busy and multitasking right now so you didn't have time to take notes... So I went ahead and took those notes for you. If you visit AnchorDesignCo.com/3, the number 3,  you'll find all my notes from this episode as well as a free worksheet that you can use to identify your ideal customer.

 I hope that this episode give you Clarity on what engagement really means on social media, how you can attract people who are more likely to engage with you, and made you feel confident with simple, proven posts that you can go and share today within your group to start gaining momentum and connecting with your audience. And if you enjoyed this episode  it would be in the absolute world if you would be willing to share a quick  review of the build it like a business podcast. My goal is to bring you valuable training that you can Implement right away every single week and when you leave a review it helps me know  that I'm giving you the support that you need.

All right my friend thanks for hanging out with me today, it's time to go engage on social media: you’ve got this, girlfriend! Bye for now!