- [Tutor] Engagement is a key measurement
for how your community's performing.
It means that members are finding value in what you post
and feel comfortable sharing and networking.
Without engagement there is no community.
When a community is new
or going through a growth spurt,
often engagement can fall.
Here are some best practices to get it thriving once again.
First, what is engagement?
It's things like liking a post,
commenting on a blog,
responding back to an email letter,
or your members reacting to a post.
Retweeting a tweet is another great example.
Some best practices for boosting engagement
are to first and foremost,
understand the algorithm.
Facebook, for example, favors conversation.
Instagram will shadowbans specific hashtags.
That means it restricts your content
to anyone except your audience without you knowing.
Understanding your algorithm means
that you're working smart, not just hard.
And what you can do is you can pay attention
to any algorithm changes,
you can Google it,
and they're not going to tell you
everything about the algorithm,
but they're going to tell you
what's really important to them.
When I say them, I mean the social network like Facebook.
Get to know the platform you're using
so that you can be smart
and use the algorithm to your advantage.
Next, use all the platform features.
Instagram's algorithm favors voice direct messages,
for example.
Try sending welcome messages to new followers
and see if that boosts engagement.
Facebook loves when people use Messenger.
Why not try setting up an automatic reply
when people message your page.
Never leave a comment behind.
My best tip is to respond
to every single comment you receive
with a text heavy response.
That means that you're responding back
with over three words.
Facebook and Instagram now favor text heavy responses.
The thumbs up emoji or thanks
is not simply enough.
Because Facebook especially favors conversations
and dialogue,
they want to see that occurring.
Set up a system
to ensure that every comment gets a response.
Perhaps you sign up for Hootsuite
and get a notification or alert,
and then you can check it off your list
when you've responded back.
I've said it many times,
I'll say it again,
video, video, video.
Video and live streams will boost your engagement,
add them to your strategy.
Most social media channels favor video,
even we have video pins on Pinterest,
Twitter has accepted video,
Facebook, and of course Instagram are very video heavy.
Fans engage with it
and they love it as well.
Lock in your content creation.
Without content pure and simple there is no engagement.
So ask questions,
take surveys,
poll your members,
get your community involved in creating
and curating content,
that is going to boost engagement.
Two Trees Olive Oil example,
is perhaps they have members submit
their favorite Meatless Monday recipe.
This is specific enough
that the call to action is achievable,
but not too generic that people don't act at all.
Think in terms of themes.
This is really, really successful.
I see a lot of Facebook groups specifically
having success when it comes to themes.
And when I say themes, I mean,
Member Monday, Work it Wednesday,
Follower Friday.
So perhaps every Monday,
they give a shout out to all the new members
that have joined their group.
At the same time, they'll tag all the members.
So that boosts engagement,
'cause they'll get those members notified
that they're mentioned
and they'll respond back to that post,
and hopefully they respond back with more than three words
and then Facebook is going to favor that post.
Themes give members something to look forward to.
It helps guide them and prompt them.
People are still shy,
there are shy people online,
and a lot of times they need permission to post,
and that's what themes do.
At the end of the day when boosting engagement
is to know your platform.
If you're building a community on Instagram,
stay up to date with their new features,
policies and algorithm changes.
That way you can be more strategic
in how you engage your community.
For example,
we know Facebook favors conversations,
create posts that stimulate dialogue.
Engagement will always ebb and flow,
but a solid understanding of these best practices
will ensure you can always be strategic
when it comes to engagement.