Step 1 – Use insights to understand your audience

In order to best engage with your audience, you need to understand who they are. Your desired audience may not align with your actual audience, so it is important to know what groups of people are typically drawn to your online content. Using any and all data that is available to you, start building out an audience profile. Once you know your core demographic, as well as your occasional ones, you can begin to tailor your content towards them.

Step 2 – Tailor your content to your audience

Your content should be designed and delivered in a way that will peak the interest of your audience. It is all about finding ways to generate engagement that is beneficial to your goals, whether those goals are to increase brand awareness or to drive sales of a particular product. Don’t be afraid to experiment either. While it is important to continue with content that is working, you should also be innovating, even if it doesn’t always land perfectly.

Step 3 – Post at peak timing

The timing of your posting can have a massive effect on engagement. With the sheer amount of online content being posted daily, you don’t want to waste your work by posting it at inopportune times. Know when your audience is most active and schedule your content to go live at those times. Avoid the muck and place your brand right in front of your most important eyeballs.

Step 4 – Encourage engagement

This may seem obvious, but it is important to remember that your audience is not obliged to engage with your content. Even if you have tailored everything correctly and are posting at the right time, you can still be simply scrolled past. Interaction sometimes needs to be actively encouraged. This can be done through polls, questions, giveaways, ‘tag a friend’ type posts etc. Calling your audience into action will increase the likelihood of your content reaching a wider audience, therefore bringing more potential customers into the fold.

Step 5 – Trending content

Social media moves quickly, and you need to try your best to keep up. Always having one eye turned towards trending topics, relevant conversations, popular formats and memes will minimise your risk of falling behind. Keeping up to date and active in online discussions is a great way to generate engagement, and in some ways can be an easy win for your brand. Trends trend for a reason, and you should always be looking to capitalize on that kind of online popularity