Without engagement, your social media profile would be dead.

It’s something fundamental regardless of what kind of content creator you are. In short, no engagement, no party.

However…even though having a high engagement rate is something that every content creator should look forward to, there must be a strategy in place to prompt growth and, ultimately, monetize their content. You know how it is.

To help you achieve just that, we’ll share what engagement is, how it works, and some best practices on each platform to implement them into your social media strategy.

So, without further ado, here are the 9 things you should know about social media engagement.
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#1. What is engagement?

First off, let’s go with a proper definition of “Engagement”.

According to Buffer, “social media engagement is a measure of how people are interacting with your social media accounts and content.” Or, in other words, it is a way to correctly measure how many people are interacting with your content in real-time.

From this definition, we can extract some crucial indicators, like…

1. Likes
2. Views
3. Comments
4. DMs, Replies
5. Saves
6. Clicks
7. Mentions
   

These indicators are just some of the multiple other factors you should consider when optimizing your content strategy. They are the raw product of how your audience reacts to what you’re sharing with them.

Let’s use an example: Twitter’s Trending Topics.

When a huge brand launches a new product (let’s say, an iPhone), hundreds of thousands of people react to it and share their thoughts on the news, thus becoming a Trending Topic on the platform.

As the marketing geniuses they are, Apple uses these comments as an opportunity to adapt their strategy and communicate better with them. And, in other cases, to tune up their future product launching efforts. Just like it happened with their MacBook Pro 2021, after considering people’s thoughts on the controversial TouchBar, they opted to remove it. Thanks, Apple.

#2. How does it work?

Taking Hootsuite’s words into account, social media engagement works through analyzing comments, likes, shares, and other indicators.

It’s about measuring how your audience resonates with your content, and implementing these acquired insights to boost your engagement growth strategy.

Sounds simple, right?

Not rocket science, but definitely not a piece of cake.

It takes work, high-quality content (which you’re already fantastic at), and a strategy to take your social media engagement to the moon and back.

Which ties up perfectly with the third thing you should know about social media engagement…

#3. How to boost social media engagement

First, you need to know where you stand (aka, you need to analyze your current engagement).

Ask yourself: Is my audience viewing or commenting on my content?

If the answer is yes, you start checking what kind of responses you’re getting.

Second, you use this acquired information to tune up your strategy. Because, same as your content is unique, your strategy should be too. There’s no bulletproof strategy to use that can be copy-pasted, and that’s a fact.

Third, you support your strategy by performing an avatar study. Yes, it’s about actually getting to know your audience as if they were family members. Okay, probably not that good, but good enough to understand what they like, what they hate, and desire to create a killer brand voice that sounds familiar to them.

And, fourth, do what you do best: Get that amazing content LIVE, baby.
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#4. Best practices for engagement

The world’s leading social media platforms are LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and now TikTok, which have all seen a major increase in engagement rates given their ever-growing user-base.

Let’s start with LinkedIn, shall we?

As you know, LinkedIn is known for being the place for B2B content creators right now. Tone, style, and audiences are very particular here, given that this platform is a perfect place for business owners to network with other like-minded professionals. Plus, contrary to what people think, it’s not only for job hunting. It’s a universe of possibilities if you know how to use it well.

In fact, according to REQ, LinkedIn is the leading platform in visitor-to-lead conversion rates, with a whopping 2.74% of effectiveness.

So, what to do?

Essentially, understand your audience before posting if you want to start monetizing. Posting creative, unique, and on-brand content to attract them to you. Also, updating your company or personal profile and regularly posting valuable content is the way to go.

Things are similar on Facebook and Instagram. The King and Queen of Social Media, both owned by Meta.

Given their incredible amount of users, it’s not surprising that successful strategies deliver top results.

However, it’s not a numbers game of who has more followers. In fact, it’s pretty useless to have thousands of followers if your engagement rate sucks. Ugly truth, we know. But still a reality.

That’s why creating unique content that’s deeply connected to your audience is the best practice you can implement both on Facebook and Instagram. Of course, if you want to grow (which we surely hope you do).

YouTube is a different case. Owned by Google, this video platform is the world’s leader in video content on any kind of subject. Sports, gaming, lifestyle, you name it. YouTube is the place you want your video content to go viral on.

And, it gets a bit trickier, too.

According to Upwork, some of the best practices to make it on this platform and increase engagement are…

1. Creating a unique thumbnail for your video

You want to create a compelling thumbnail to make people actually want to click on your video.

2. Including your target keyword in your title

Following basic SEO guidelines, you need to include your targeted keyword in your title to make it easier for your audience to find your content.

3. Write a keyword-rich description

Very similar to point number 2, you need to include keywords in your description to position your content effectively.

4. Include relevant tags

Tags, tags, tags. Want to get found? Use them wisely.

5. Choose the right category

You don’t want your “How to nail every 3-point shot” in the cooking category, right?

6. Use cards and end screens effectively

This is where you actually drive attention to another type of content you’re creating. Again, use wisely to engage your audience better.

7. Separate your video into chapters

Just like what we’re doing here on this blog post. If you want your audience to engage better with you, you must guide them. That’s when separating your content into chapters comes in handy.

8. Identify what performs well

It’s about trial and error. Testing what works, and what doesn’t. And the only way to find this out is… Precisely, through testing. Give your creativity a go and find out what works best for you!

9. Engage with your community

Want to increase your engagement? Get into actual conversations with your audience! They’ll love it.

10. Post regularly

Not only regularly, but following a strategy.

11. Maximize watch time

Reading time, watch time… It’s very similar, and a HUGE deal. The longer you can keep your audience engaged with your content, the more valuable your content will be for them.

#5. How to measure engagement effectively

According to Keyhole, the best way to measure your engagement on social media is calculating the total engagement divided by the total of followers, multiplied by 100%.

So, the formula is: Engagement Rate = Total Engagement / Total Followers x 100%.

Or, even simpler, your number of likes and comments is divided by the number of followers, then multiplied by 100. Kindergarten math? No. Rocket science? Neither.

#6. The importance of monitoring your social media engagement

Zoho shares a fascinating explanation of why you should monitor your social media engagement.

Basically, because social media is where people have conversations. And you need to know what they say about you to tweak your strategy.

Some examples are…

1. Monitoring social media allows you to provide better customer service.

2. Monitoring social media allows you to generate new leads.

3. Monitoring social media allows you to get feedback.

#7. How important algorithms are on social media to help engagement

Sprout social explains how important understanding algorithms is to create increased engagement. It’s about understanding the rules of the game to play.

Social media algorithms look like puzzles, but actually, it’s how these platforms prioritize the content every user sees in their feed depending on the likelihood that they want to see it.

That said, algorithms are here to help you, content creator, to reach your audience seamlessly if you’re sharing valuable content.

Given that, every social media platform changes its algorithm behavior almost yearly, it’s challenging to decode what works and what doesn’t. That’s when best practices in terms of content posting and sharing value gains even more relevance.

#8. Some content creators with excellent engagement

YouTube: PewDiePie

YouTube’s biggest content creator in terms of numbers is PewDiePie. With 111M subscribers, there’s no wonder why.

However, his engagement rate is also impressive.

And over 2 million views, over 23 thousand comments, and 331 thousand likes in just 24 hours just proves how important engagement is even for the big names.

Instagram: Rihanna

Pop-Star and Beauty Mogul, Rihanna, broke the internet earlier this month given her pregnancy. (Congrats, RiRi!)

With over 17 million likes, 220 thousand comments, and 120 million followers, her engagement rate skyrocketed, and it seems it’s nowhere near going down. Again, congrats Queen!

#9. Engagement can turn into monetization

As the bottom line, great engagement can turn into monetization fairly quickly if following a strategy that allows you to grow, reach more and dedicated audiences, and transform that momentum into attention towards your personal brand.

Possible, doable, and insanely effective.

Got any questions? We have answers. Reach out to us for more tips and support.