If you’re not getting much engagement on your social media accounts, don’t despair! It’s relatively common to struggle with getting the kind of engagement we expect we should be able to get.Tell me if this sounds familiar… Two people post nearly identical pieces of content. One person’s post blows up with comments, likes, and views. The other person’s post has four views and two likes, one of which is his mother and the other is his non-business account trying to curate engagement.

If that sounds like you, this article is for you! I’m going to break down two of the most likely reasons you’re not getting engagement on your social media, and how you can improve your social media engagement.

Reason #1: Content Quantity + Style

And I do mean style, but let’s dig into quantity first.

The pages that get the most consistent engagement are the ones that are posting on a regular basis.

In Social Media terms, a regular basis is a minimum of once a day, often it’s more than twice a day. If you think about how many times you get on your social media, and the amount of fresh content you go through in one sitting, the sheer quantity of posts going out is insane! And if your business page is only posting once every few days, people are seeing a lot less of your page, recognizing the brand less often, and therefore are engaging less with those posts.

Additionally, the people getting a lot of social media engagement are the ones putting out a variety of content styles and types. They aren’t posting strictly about what they’re doing in their business, they’re sharing different things. What I’ve noticed as a trend across the board is that the businesses posting 80%-90% about their business (customer journey, customer experience, new sales, etc) are the ones with very little engagement.

The people who are just sharing random things interspersed with their business promotion are the ones who keep their engagement rates up.

Notes on Post Content:

Here are a couple good rules of thumb to keep in mind when you’re working on creating engaging content

1: Keep it Engaging and Easy for Your Audience

What do we go to social media for?

Most people head over to social media when their brains are tired and they need something light and easy to take in, they aren’t looking for an article: if they were, they’d be on your website. When they have to hit “see more” and it takes them to a whole new page to finish reading a post, they mentally check out from the post and move on. Is it valuable? Most likely, but it’s not what they’re on social media for right now.

So when you’re creating your content, make sure it’s easy for your audience to take in.

2: Be Genuine

Human beings have an innate “BS” radar.

It’s uncanny, but we can immediately tell when something is off and the content we’re receiving isn’t genuine. When the content isn’t genuine, we check out – no one wants to engage with something false, needy, or puffed up. Focus on posting things you would genuinely say, and lifting up others around you. That kind of post attracts people, because it resonates with their BS radar.

Create content you would honestly say, and you’re far more likely to grab engagement than otherwise.

Reason #2: A Piece of the Puzzle

The people who manage to keep high rates of engagement understand that social media is only a piece of their marketing puzzle.

Like I mentioned above, human beings have a great “BS” radar and can tell when someone is being needy or pushy. The people who attract their audience by avoiding this are doing so because they know that social media isn’t their only avenue for marketing. They aren’t relying strictly on social media for leads and sales.

All great marketing works like this.

There is never just one strategy going, it’s a bunch of different assets that are supporting one goal. The people with phenomenal engagement have other things in the works, and are able to release the stress of having to get conversions off of their social media.

Notes on Puzzle Pieces:

The different marketing assets that you have are different pieces of your marketing puzzle, and it’s your job to make sure they all work together.

Each individual puzzle piece is something like social media, website SEO, radio ads, and public relations. Together they form a beautiful marketing strategy and plan that can drive you to your goal with marketing. If you want to remove the pressure of performance from your social media, take an hour to sit down, audit your marketing assets, and reorganize/rebuild them so that they work together to support your marketing goal.

Looking for more marketing info? Read more here.