At #TwitterSmarter, we often talk about the importance of community. When you spend time engaging with your audience, learning from them, and using their feedback to improve your own content, success would be just around the corner.
And this week, we asked social media consultant, Erika Lovegreen, to share some of her best advice on engaging with community. Apart from being highly-experienced in the field, Erika is also the Director of Digital Strategy at ICUC, a social media management agency.
Here’s a summary of our chat.
Guest: Erika Lovegreen
Topic: The Best Ways to Engage Your Community
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to answer.
When you prioritize community building, you nurture a group of people who care about what you have to say. And so, they will return to your profile to consume more of your content. This group of people will continue to offer you feedback and suggestions about what else they’d like. It’s a great way for you to build trust and use your community to shape your content strategy.
A1: Bottom line: you build loyalty!
________? These are the people who care about what you have to say.
? They have the potential to come back again and again.No better group to learn from. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/4Rbl2kKUoU
— ✨ Erika Lovegreen (@eelovegreen) December 19, 2019
With such a strong sense of community, not only do you get to engage in meaningful conversations, but you also get to build long-term relationships. These connections power your brand, and as Tom pointed out, can even help you remain sane and grounded in an ever-changing industry.
A1) Business is ALWAYS relationally based. A community gives you a base of relationships for credibility, improvement, direction on useful content, and for solopreneurs – a sense of sanity! #TwitterSmarter
— Tom Reid (@_TomGReid) December 19, 2019
The most important thing in social media management, is having a strategy. Make goals and ensure you and your team understand your purpose. When you have a list of proper goals you want to achieve, you can then base your activities on that.
For example, for every social media decision you make, know what you get from it and what your audience gets from it. Unless it’s mutually beneficial, you’re not getting or offering much value.
A2: Invite people ?. (Amazes me how many brands—big ones— miss this step). And know the goal of your community.
? What do you want to get out of it
? What will your fans get out of it#TwitterSmarter #givelovegetlove https://t.co/fTeySYapzQ— ✨ Erika Lovegreen (@eelovegreen) December 19, 2019
Once you know why you’re on social media and what your values are, you should then start to engage with your audience. Listen. Observe and people will tell you what they think about recent developments in the industry, your competition, and even your content. Engage with their ideas, ask questions, and offer helpful suggestions.
a2: the first step is to CONNECT and engage in conversations. find your audience and say hello. practice social listening. ask questions. #twittersmarter
— Joana Rita Sousa ? ?? (@JoanaRSSousa) December 19, 2019
That way, as Joana pointed out, you can connect with more people and learn a lot in the process.
Erica’s top tip is to share a variety of content. That’s a great way to cater to all your audience without alienating a specific group. When you have so much diversity, you’ll also get a lot of data such as engagement rates, click throughs, and link visits, that you can analyze to understand your audience better and change your goals accordingly.
A3: Do ✅
DIVERSIFY your content and learn from data to help guide you on what’s working and what is not for your audience. Analyze, analyze, analyze
Don’t ❌
Make assumptions about your people. Rookie mistake. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/DOkOrnUhp0
— ✨ Erika Lovegreen (@eelovegreen) December 19, 2019
As Erica said, as important as it is to have variety in your content, it’s also necessary not to make assumptions about your audience, what they need, where they’re coming from, and how they’ll react to specific content. Analyze the data and know for sure.
This also leads to Gene’s point about observing. There are many tools out there you can use to search through Twitter and other social media for conversations in and around your industry. Twitter’s own Advanced Search is such a good resource.
A3. Start by listening And observing more. Who is already talking/tweeting about your subject? Who are the people engaging with those tweets? Who are the people showing their passion about the subject? Those are great places to start. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/ppV8q4az7P
— Gene Petrov – LDRBRND (@LDRBRND) December 19, 2019
If you have an ecommerce site, check out some of the tools our friends from GiveWP mentioned. Google Analytics is such a comprehensive way to keep an eye on your website activities and how people navigate through your online store. Another idea is to survey your audience directly asking any questions you have in the back of your mind. People will be happy to tell you exactly what they’re looking for.
A3: For #nonprofits and businesses with eCommerce sites:
? Use Google Analytics eCommerce and Audience tools
? Send out a customer demographic survey to existing customers (or donors)
? Use Think with Google tools
? Spend time networking in person #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/fL4ZlvkgTl— GiveWP (@GiveWP) December 19, 2019
Events and trade shows are also a good way for you meet people, engage in conversations, and glean information about your ideal audience.
Before you sign up and settle down on a specific social media platform, start by building audience personas. From the information you already have of your customers, well wishers, and audience, try and segment them by which platforms they use the most. When you have that analysis, you’ll have a clearer idea of which social media channel you need to prioritize. Focus on your customers and their requirements when you make any strategic decisions. Go where your audience is.
A4: Build personas, then segment and prioritize them to the platforms. Consider where you are now and where you are going ahead of time so you can be strategic!
Please… ➡️NEVER.FORGET.THE.CUSTOMER. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/Adfp7Tpb9F— ✨ Erika Lovegreen (@eelovegreen) December 19, 2019
It’s also worth noting that sometimes, the most popular platform for your audience may not be the most comfortable one for you. If you face that crossroad, always chose your customers. Adapt to newer trends so offer value and don’t disappoint your audience.
Research. As Jim said, when you’re looking for the right social media platform, also remember that content type plays an important role in the success of content as well. For example, you may have audiences on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. In that case, reserve your image-based content like banners and infographics for Instagram and focus on creative storytelling on Twitter.
A4: Do your research. Each platform has a main type of user.
What is the type of content you plan to provide and how do you plan to communicate with your community will determine the best one.#TwitterSmarter https://t.co/hKyDSOGX3X
— Jim Fuhs Digital Marketing Consultant #SMMW20 (@FuhsionMktg) December 19, 2019
There’re many ways to measure engagement from your community. One is to keep a keen eye on your website statistics. Tools like Google and Adobe Analytics can help you follow how many people have landed on your website through various social media. You can even see how they’ve navigated through your pages and where they’ve dropped off. All this is thorough data to help you change aspects in your website to make it more user-friendly. In addition, you can also use heat mapping tools to see how far people scroll through your website, and which content they spend the most time reading and absorbing.
A5: Tracking sentiment ? is one way to see that your content is working for your audience. Depending on your KPIs, digging into website analytics never hurts!
Pro tip: Please stay away from vanity metrics! One solid engagement is worth way more than 20 likes. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/RlnnuLsCOk
— ✨ Erika Lovegreen (@eelovegreen) December 19, 2019
Your website is only one medium, however. Look at Madalyn, for example. Twitter is her high-priority social platform. And she said that from observing her Twitter analytics, she realized that her custom GIFs are a major success.
A5: My engagement has gone through the roof since I went all in on custom GIFs. People love them! And now I figured out how to have up to 4 GIFs in one tweet. If you want to get amazing engagement with your community, go make custom GIFs. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/EmDLzMA6xg pic.twitter.com/RJN2bKRUs4
— Madalyn Sklar – Digital Marketing since 1996 (@MadalynSklar) December 19, 2019
Stats like this go a long way in helping you generate content ideas that work.
Here’re a few more ways to measure your engagement, as shared by our community members:
The most effective way to make sure you’re not wasting time on social media is to create a content calendar and stick to it. It may seem like a trivial idea, but unless you have a plan that balances your evergreen and seasonal content well, you’ll have a hard time managing your social media activities.
A6: Who doesn’t want more time?! Here are my thoughts:?
✓ Create a content calendar & optimize
✓ Determine a content mix as part of your strategy. (Can some be evergreen? ? If so, when and percentage?)
✓Balance the evergreen with localized content #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/m5vn0ZUPrI— ✨ Erika Lovegreen (@eelovegreen) December 19, 2019
Masooma also shared a great tip about scheduling content beforehand. Most social media management tools let you maintain a content calendar and schedule your posts so that you don’t have to scramble for ideas on a day to day basis.
A6. Two tips from my end:
? Use a social media scheduler to help you post content on times when your audience is more active
? Divide and conquer: Give each network a specified time. Don't over- or under-spend time on any channel.#TwitterSmarter— Masooma | Content Writer (@inkandcopy) December 19, 2019
Here are more some ideas our community shared:
To be honest, social media management can be tiring and sometimes too much to handle. So when exactly should you raise your hand and ask for help?
The moment you start compromising the quality of your content, you will lose credibility among your audience. Don’t let that happen. When you realize that you’re posting just for the sake of posting and your content is no longer as sharp and valuable as it could be, it’s time to seek help.
That said, getting help doesn’t necessarily mean that you hand over your social media to a third-party. Often it’s doing tasks like customer support or social listening in conjunction with your social media management.
A7: As soon as you are jeopardizing quality. FOR THOSE IN THE BACK: never jeopardize content quality. ? #Justsayin
Help can come in the form of support, management and/or strategy. #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/zKwXKWS7uA
— ✨ Erika Lovegreen (@eelovegreen) December 19, 2019
Here’s a great example of hiring external help: Social Media Examiner hired Megan as their Community Moderator. This doesn’t mean the in-house team is relinquishing control of their handle, but it’s a way for professionals within the community to be part of SME’s social activities.
A7. I believe it's when you're juggling too many things and your attention to each platform and your ability to strategize goes down in quality. Speaking of, SME is SO EXCITED to have brought on @meganpowers as our new Community Moderator this week! Yaaay! -Jen #twittersmarter
— Social Media Examiner (@SMExaminer) December 19, 2019
Just remember, though: whoever you hire to help out with your social media should know and appreciate your brand. They should understand your goals, your policies, and why you do what you do. Only then can you all work seamlessly.
Erika vouches for Sprout Social and Sprinklr. Besides those two, she also spoke about the latest social media tool developed by the company she works with. It’s called ICUC Central. You can check it out here, and contact Erica with questions.
A8: I’m a pretty big fan of some of the changes @Sprinklr and @SproutSocial have made recently. I’m bias though, as I’m an even bigger fan of the tool my company’s created called @ICUC Central (feel free to DM with questions) ? #shamelessplug #TwitterSmarter https://t.co/gZyp63xklq
— ✨ Erika Lovegreen (@eelovegreen) December 19, 2019
We’ve seen how effective videos and video replies are on Twitter. If you’re looking to venture in that area, Jennifer recommends Bonjoro.
A8: I'm using more and more video these days. Sending out some welcome videos to new course signups. Using @bonjoroapp mostly. I keep testing out other similar options and none compare to what Bonjoro offers. #TwitterSmarter
— Jennifer Navarrete (@epodcaster) December 19, 2019
Here are a few other tools our members shared:
Well, that’s all from me folks. For more great ideas from the chat, take a look at this Twitter Moment that our team member Joanna put together. Thanks for reading and if you have some time to spare next Thursday afternoon, join us for our next #TwitterSmarter chat at 1pm ET.
Happy holidays from #TwitterSmarter!
About me, Narmadhaa:
I’m a writer of all things—technical and marketing copy to fill the pocket; haiku and short stories to fill the soul. A social media enthusiast, I’m a member of the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and always happy to take on writing gigs.
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