Should you care about engagement on your social media posts? (By engagement I mean comments, likes, reactions, shares, saves etc – any sort of interaction)
Aren’t those just vanity metrics?
The really important figure is sales made as a direct result of your social media activity. ←←This is the truth 💯
However, if you aren’t paying to reach people through paid ads, engagement is going to be a key stepping stone to those sales.
Let me explain;
Let’s say you share a post on a social media platform, for the purpose of this example let’s say Facebook.
Facebook then shows that post to 6%* or fewer of your followers if you don’t pay.
If you have 100 followers maybe 6 people see it. If you’re lucky.
Included in those 6 could be fake accounts, bots or friends and family that are following to support your page but will never buy..
Chances of sales are pretty low for that post.
That would make you feel pretty rubbish right?
Illustration for demonstration purposes only
BUT
Let’s say one of those 6 people engage with the post. Hurrah!
Facebook now shows the post to more people, which means your chances of sales go up.
And for each new person that comments, likes, shares etc with that post, Facebook will show it to more people… increasing your chances of making a sale.
The great thing about this is it also has a knock-on effect.
If you have a post that is particularly well engaged with, then Facebook will assume that more of your followers might want to see your next post too.. Increasing the amount of people who see your next post.
As you can see, while engagement isn’t the most important metric, it is pretty important if you aren’t paying to play.
Illustration for demonstration purposes only
- Consider who is in your audience. Write content that will inspire them to interact. Some people simply say ‘ask questions’ but really think about what they might actually want to answer online and how it would be useful to them rather than just randomly asking questions!
- Stand out and stop the scroll. Do something novel and different, don’t just post the same stuff as other people in your industry. Think about what people are used to seeing and how you can create something scroll-stopping.
- Have some fun. Make it easy for your audience to engage with your content by playing games with them. We sell templates for posts and stories to make it easy for you! Get yours here.
*A quick Google search came up with that figure – to be honest, it is probably a lot less.
