When social media was first becoming popular, a high number of followers was an immediate indicator of success. For businesses, it was almost as if the more followers you had, the more customers you had.
Today, many businesses continue to prioritize followers in their social media efforts because they see it as a sign of growth. When your followers are growing, it can seem like your business is doing the same.
But the truth is, a high number of followers doesn’t help your business if your audience isn’t consuming your content. This is measured through engagement, which is what businesses should really be paying attention to in order to gauge their success on social media.
What is Engagement on Social Media?
Social media engagement is a reflection of all the different ways people are interacting with your social media accounts and content. This encompasses a broad range of actions, such as:
- Likes and favorites on posts
- Shares of posts
- Comments on posts
- Replies on posts
- Tags of people in your posts
- Mentions of you in other’s posts by tagging you
- Opening a link you shared
- Watching a video you shared
Why Social Media Engagement is Important
To understand the difference in importance between followers and engagement, think of a new follower as a very cold lead. When this person engages with your content, they go from very cold to very warm.
In other words, someone who follows your brand on social media might be interested in becoming a customer one day, whereas someone who regularly interacts with your brand on social media is very interested in becoming a customer. The latter individual is statistically more likely to visit your website, share your content, and start a conversation with your brand. So, it’s really just a matter of interest. Though an engagement is just a minute action, it denotes significantly more interest than simply following an account.
Here are a few other reasons engagement is more important than followers:
Engagement Affects Visibility
Engagement is the point of social media. It exists for people to interact with each other, as opposed to passively scrolling past each other’s posts. Since social networks place so much value on engagement, accounts with more interactions tend to get more reach. When more people engage with your content, more people will see your content. Why? Because this is what people like to see on social media: brands positively interacting with their customers.
Engagement Tells You Your Content is Good
If you post content that effectively suits your audience’s needs and interests, they’re going to engage with it. Good content gets rewarded with engagement because you’re showing your audience that you understand them as individuals and genuinely want to connect with them. Forming relationships is a primary goal of social media for businesses. So, if people are engaging with your posts, you are officially winning at social media.
A high number of followers, on the other hand, doesn’t indicate that your content is resonating with your audience. If it was resonating, people would take action and show you. If people aren’t taking action at all, it usually means your content isn’t making your followers any more interested in becoming paid customers. In comparison to followers, engagement is a much more accurate way to measure social media success.
Your Competitors Need Engagement, Too
Since engagement is such an accurate indicator of success, this is what you should look at when researching your competitors’ social media accounts. What are they doing to facilitate interactions with their audience? How are their customers showing their approval of their content?
If your competitors’ content is resonating more effectively than yours, it’s time to dig deeper and find out what they’re doing right – so you can do it even better.
For more advice on fostering engagement on social media, contact the team at The Found Gen today.