When it comes to social media marketing, engagement is key

Facebook dominates the social universe with more than 4.5 billion likes every day and 890 million individuals logged in daily. Every minute 300 new profiles are created with the average amount of time spent on Facebook each month per person is 6.35 hours.

If you currently have a Facebook business page are you getting engagement? If someone has liked your page they may never return to that page or seek you out again. The key factor to social media marketing success is engagement. What does successful engagement look like? It is comments, likes and shares of your posts, taking quizzes, entering contests, redeeming offers and writing reviews. Facebook shares more than how many fans you have on your page, but also if consumers have checked in at your business and how many people are talking about your business. This information can be viewed by clicking on the number of fans on your page.

So how do you create engagement on social media? Post content that is relevant, timely and interesting. Infodocket states that the average time spent per Facebook visit is 20 minutes. This means you have a short time period to make an impression. Post information of value to your fan base and their friends. Educate your audience on something they may value. For example, if a boutique posted tips and photos on how to look trimmer wearing the latest fashion trend or how to get five different outfits with the combination of four articles of clothing they may increase engagement as well as drive sales. It’s also okay to share or repost content, but users will have more trust and engagement with original content posted by the business. Posting photos and video also increases engagement. Social drives equal amounts of online and in-store purchases. Almost 43 percent of social users have purchased a product after sharing or liking it on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.

The following are more tips for social success:

•Become a fan of your competitors and be aware of what they are doing to increase engagement, sales and their fan base.

•Respond quickly to posts or reviews on your page. Facebook monitors this and highlights how responsive you are on your fan page. Post frequently, but not multiple posts within a short time period. Social users scroll their home page checking in on the occurrences of the day and may be turned off by too many posts from one source or business in a short period of time. The opposite can happen as well, if a potential new fan visits your page and there has been no activity for weeks or even months they most likely will not click the “like” button.

•Make sure your page is updated with accurate business hours, location, website link and other relevant information that a fan may want to know about your business before visiting.

According to State of Inbound Marketing 2012, 42 percent of marketers report that Facebook is critical or important to their business. Pages organically reach about six percent of their fans on average in this crowded space. To improve your visibility with your fan base you can boost or sponsor your posts to increase of your content. Facebook is also an excellent target marketing tool with 94 percent accuracy to help increase your fan base and engagement.

If your business does not have a Facebook page you could still have engagement on an unclaimed page. It is important to be aware of what people are saying about your business good and bad. Look for your business on Facebook, you might be surprised on what you discover. At the very least, claim your page so someone else does not and make sure you are an administrator on the page. You can assign someone else to manage the page for you, but it is important to have a strategy on what type of content is posted, how to respond to both positive and negative engagement and how to increase your fan base.

Once you feel you have a strategy on Facebook you may want to experiment with other social platforms based on your target audience like Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Periscope and Pinterest.

Jennifer Sorenson is the director of advertising at Great Falls Tribune Media and has more than sixteen years of digital marketing experience in markets across the U.S. Social media management and marketing can seem daunting to many small businesses or another full-time position. Great Falls Tribune Media has been successfully growing local business’ social footprint for more than six years. To learn more on social media management and marketing contact her at jsorenson@greatfallstribune.com.