How to build an engaged audience on social media

Ever wondered what social media would be like if no one was talking, sharing things, having conversations or building networks over similar interests?

Just take a minute to imagine it.

How does it seem? Weird right? 

Even in an alternate universe, social media without engagement seems like it’d be pretty strange. What would people even be doing there? Posting? Scrolling? Rinse and repeat? 

No, please.

In our article on tools for social media, we shared ways social media managers or creators can simplify their processes for better growth. But in this article, we will be focusing on building an engaged audience on social media – beyond creating and publishing content.

According to Esther Partridge Warner, without engagement, social media is just media. 

This saying should become the holy grail of everyone with hopes of dominating the social space because engagement is the key to becoming a successful social media manager or creator.

An engaged audience means loyal fans and/or customers, increased sales, positive reviews and everything else in between.

Doesn’t that sound like a dream come true?

Well, here are five ways for you to build an engaged audience on social media. These tips will help you understand the basics of social engagement, why it matters and how to drive it.

1. Build a community

Having followers or customers on social media is one thing, but communities are so much more than that.

So how do you go about building an engaged community around your brand on social media? Here are a few tips:

• Invite your circle of friends – Encourage the people in your life, who will likely be interested in what you do, so they can like, follow and engage on your posts. This really goes a long way in boosting your account, improving reach and growing brand reputation.
• Keep communication channels open and easy to access – e.g. your social media DMs or comment section, Telegram or Facebook group chats, on your Twitter timeline, via Instagram stories or even from your website live chat feature. Let people be able to reach out to you, give feedback and get prompt responses easily.
• Get your community involved in what you do – User-generated content is a great way to do this. For example, encourage your audience to send in testimonials, write guest posts on your blog or share pictures of themselves using your products on social media. Always try to follow these up with relevant but subtle calls to action about your offerings.
• Tell your brand story – Let it be a unique, relatable, valuable and memorable story. Showcase your growth, learnings, progress and vision. You can also spotlight some of your staff, share some in-house processes or publish client case studies (with permission of course). It makes people feel closer to you and this can get them to care more about what you do.

2. Create incentives 

Most people actually start to care more about you when they have something to gain from doing so. 

Basically, the more you give, the more you get. 

Some incentives you can offer your social media audience to keep them engaged include:

• Running giveaways – cash or gifts
• Offering free trials of your products or services
• Sharing discount codes for active members.
• Announcing job opportunities early

At Hera for example, when we need to hire new employees for writing or other related roles, we share the opportunities with our Telegram group and community members, even before publishing the vacancies online.

Another instance. Picture this. 

When season 5 of Money Heist was going to launch, Netflix organised a special event for their top spoiler makers. 

Whether or not the move can be considered an actual incentive is up for discussion because the spoiler makers couldn’t do what they do best from the screening location – share spoilers online in the first few hours of the release. 

So even though Netflix took a tricky route to prevent them from sharing spoilers of the new season, it can still be considered a really great incentive for these avid fans of the show.

3. Always give value 

On social media, you can’t just attract people and then leave them hanging. You need to work on retention – ways to keep them engaged so they don’t jump ship to your competitors.

The internet is not the place to sit around and shamelessly promote offerings, all day everyday. You won’t get very far.

Instead, your focus should be on identifying the pain points of people in your community and sharing content that addresses those pain points – whether it be through educating them, inspiring them or entertaining them. Yes, entertaining content counts. Valuable content can come in various forms and doesn’t always have to be serious. 

Remember, the whole idea is to build an engaged social media audience by putting the people first, and the brand next. For example:

• Sharing simple DIY videos, like this Lydia Butler reel posted on PrettyLittleThing’s Instagram page.
• Posting ‘how-to’ content through Twitter threads, Instagram carousels or other channels.
• Hosting free virtual events on relevant topics like Instagram live sessions, Telegram audio chats, Clubhouse sessions, Twitter Spaces discussions or tweet chats. For example, this article on writing compelling stories was basically a summary of a Telegram live chat we hosted with Wisdom Obi-Dickson.
• Hosting hangouts – in person or virtually – to unwind, network and exchange ideas.

Start implementing these strategies and watch your audience engagement thrive.

4. Use relevant hashtags

When building an engaged audience on social media, using hashtags is also a great strategy. They help your posts reach new people in your target audience. 

If these people find your posts from hashtags and consider them compelling enough, they might even be interested in following your page for more similar content.

But to really get the most out of hashtags, you can’t just sprinkle them around on posts and expect magic. You need to take time out to plan your hashtag strategy for best results.

Certain hashtags are used by people who are already in a community of like-minded people and have built a habit of engaging with others within their niche. 

Ready to up your social media game using hashtags? Here’s a quick guide on using hashtags that you might find really helpful.

5. Include visuals

Let’s do something real quick.

Pause for a second. And think about how different this article would have been without pictures or gifs.

Do you think you would have read up to this point? Probably not. And the reason is simple: we are wired to prefer pictures over text.

Visuals put the ‘media’ in social media. Literally. Without pictures, videos, memes and GIFs, social media would be just words.

So if you want to really build an engaged audience on social media, you should definitely include visuals in your content strategy.

Conclusion

To build an engaged audience on social media, you need to make people feel like they matter. 

While it is important to stay up to date with changes to the algorithm of the different social media you work with, making people feel heard goes a long way to helping you ‘beat’ the system. 

Keep tabs on your numbers and how your audience is engaging with you by checking out insights on the social media you use or making use of external analytics tools. 

These will help you build your brand or business, improve your reach, hold people’s attention and ultimately make you more money.

About Oyinkansola Ogunyinka

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We have worked with over 24 startups to drive conversions through increased community presence and relevant blog posts that we help distribute. To understand our process, book a 15 - 30 minutes meeting with us.