Audience engagement is a key aspect of social media today, whether it’s for your business or personal brand. Have you ever shared content and not gotten as much feedback as you would have wanted? Well then this is for you. Today we share some simple yet important reasons why your audience is probably not responding as much as you would want them to.
- You are not being personal enough
Why should a client, viewer or reader click on your content and not someone else’s? With so much content out there these days, there is a need to connect on a personal level with your audience. Instead of taking on a general tone, you need to find ways to make your audience feel you are speaking directly to them. You could also find simple ways to connect with your audience such as an occasional check-up, a birthday wish, a giveaway or content that is relevant to them at the time.
It is important to at least have some information about your audience, whether it’s their e-mail address, just their name or what catches their attention the most. This by no means implies you should be intrusive, but it will mean more to your audience if your content spoke to them more on a personal level as compared to general content that comes across as speaking to just anyone. Your message should be tailored to suit your audience, to make it more practical and relatable. Tools such as Google Analytics makes it easier to identify who is responding more to your content, where they are responding from and where they spend the most time on your page. This takes us to our next point…
- You are not making good use of insights
What you do with the insights gained from your analytics could play a key role in improving your audience engagement. Where do you get most of your clicks from? How often is your content reshared? Where is your audience hearing about you from? Using tools like Google Analytics does not only end at gaining audience insights, but also making use of those insights to give your audience engagement a face-lift. Responding to such information could help make your content more audience-specific and help you to know which key areas to focus on and which ones to do away with.
- Your content cover/featured image/title is not catchy enough
There is so much clutter on the internet these days, which leads us back to the question, how can you stand out? You may need to take your creativity a notch higher with your content presentation, cover photos etc. Are they becoming monotonous or they are visually appealing enough to catch the attention of your audience? You could explore options such as using real-life pictures that will influence your audience to want to know more or use tools such as Canva to design simple yet interesting images to attract and sustain audience interest. Often, an attractive image or title will lead your audience to want to know more.
- You are posting way too much
Sometimes posting way too often may cause your audience to lose interest because your content may either seem too ‘all over the place’ or just not relevant anymore. You could schedule your posts to space out the timing a bit more. You do not necessarily have to post on every topic out there or engage in every conversation. It is much better to develop an authoritative voice on topics relevant to your brand and to your audience. This makes it easier for your audience to take you more seriously because you know what you are talking about and your posts/content are always well thought through. You need to strike a balance between consistency and making your audience miss you occasionally such that when you post, they will sit up and pay attention.
- Is your audience learning from your content?
Does your content make your audience feel they are gaining something from you? Will your content make your audience feel they have not wasted their time (and sometimes bundle)? Does your audience feel they are much better people after viewing your content? How does your content make your audience feel? More importantly, how does your audience benefit from your content, without you saying it point blank that “this is how we can help you?” You should not only seek to entertain through your content, but also educate and provide solutions to your audience. This will eventually encourage them to visit your brand, site or page more often especially when they are looking for information pertaining to topics relevant to you and them.
These may seem like very simple reasons but influence how well your content is doing and should not be underestimated. Keep your audience engaged, informed and feeling valued, and this could very well have a positive effect on your brand. Your focus should not be on numbers, but on the quality of your content and how you make your audience feel. This will in turn lead to greater brand performance and audience engagement.
Written by : Nana Boatemaa
