Creating Content On Social Media To Increase Engagement

The number one thing small business owners ask me is, “How do I increase engagement on my social media pages?” They know they need more people interacting on their page to increase their results, so their primary focus becomes the big “E” word: engagement. Ironically, they’re missing what really creates an increase in sales in an online environment.

Right now I’m in Hawaii, enjoying two weeks of relaxing, writing, and refocusing. There’s something about the islands that propels me forward more than anything else in life. When I come here, within just a few days my creativity gets a jolt, my writings get clearer and my mind gets really clear. This is where I got the idea of the #BEMORE book and to date, we’ve sold over 115,000 copies. THIS is where I got the revelation of how to increase my reach on social media, and to date, we have over 1.8 million people connected to me, with over 75% engagement and a reach of over 23 million every 15 days! Hawaii is a great place for me to be. I’ve been considering buying a house here and just yesterday put it on my goal list to complete by 2017. 🙂

As I’m walking the streets of some little towns, highly populated with tourist towns, and everything in between, engagement is right in front of me. The storefront where only 150 people live is visited every single day by prospective clients every single day. People will drive 15-45 minutes to get to these little towns. The storefront where 2500 people live is visited every single day by tourists also. People will drive just as long of a ride to visit these elite store fronts. Engagement is happening EVERY single day. Many of the store owners make a full time living off of their sales. Mind you, there’s only 145,000 people who live on the island of Maui, but hundreds of thousands of tourists come through here on a monthly basis.

What does engagement look like in a brick and mortar business world? It would be defined as people walking into your front door, calling your phone number to inquire about your items, attending your kiosk at the mall, visiting your kiosk in front of the oceanfront shopping plaza. When people physically connect with your storefront, engagement is happening. Then, the sales process begins. 

• What is it like when they enter your store?
• What do they feel as they look around?
  Is someone there to help them or do they have to fend for themselves?
• Are the sales people pushy or helpful? Friendly or cold?
• What do you have on display?
• What does the store smell like when I walk in? (Fresh, stale, inviting or disgusting?)
• Can I find prices easily?
• What are the fitting rooms like if relevant? Can I touch things?

All of these questions, when answered, will lead me to understanding ENGAGEMENT in a store front. None of this is surprising to a new small business owner. Some of these questions might be new, or something they’ve never thought of, but none of this is surprising, seems overwhelming, or is unusual. 

ENTER the virtual shopping world and social media engagement.

It’s so ironic to me how profiting stores that have a brick and mortar business get ‘lost’ or don’t know how to act when they’re on social media pages. They get ‘weird’ is all I’m gonna say. Playing a role, only posting what they have to sell, never talking back to people, using their pages like a billboard. OR the opposite occurs. People take a whole new perspective when it comes to building social media pages, online sales pages, online store fronts, etc. They FORGET that culture is key and the exact same engagement, interaction, feel and friendliness of a store front is going to be important in a virtual world. It’s even MORE important.

Here are 5-steps for increasing your engagement on social media today!

1. Create content that people engage with. Always remember that people come to social media to see their friends, NOT to interact with brands. But they LOVE brands that they can engage and connect with that make them feel like their friends do: inviting, friendly, encouraging and fun. Create content that resembles the same kind of thing you’d do in a brick and mortar world EVEN if you don’t have a brick and mortar store and you’ll raise engagement instantly.
2. Remember the human side to social media. Your pages are not billboards, business cards or places to blast your latest offer. It’s where your prospective customer or client comes to ‘engage’ with you just like they do in a store. Talk back to people. Be friendly. Have a team member that is talking with people during your normal business hours. Don’t forget he personal, human side of connecting online.