Social Media Engagement can no longer be considered just one of the marketing metrics that you evaluate purely on the number of likes and comments received. Engagement on social media has moved well beyond the standard response’s brands gave as basic hygiene. It has evolved into a strong tool to genuinely engage with audiences in a more personalized manner. In the constant race of reaching high number of views/audiences, true engagement is what it all eventually boils down to. It is this “true" engagement is going to form the core of your audience, who not only interact with your brand but have become an integral part of your “tribe”. 

Community centric social media marketing has gained prominence and will continue to be instrumental in creating the brand stickiness we all desire. This section of your target audience doesn’t require massive media budgets and will readily and passionately engage with organic content. Here the aim of having a wider reach is superseded by the objective of having a relevant or targeted reach that resonates with the brand and its personality. Achieving the latter is significantly more difficult and requires higher efforts but its outcome is more meaningful and long-lasting. We have seen this across social media platforms where brands, personalities and pages with much larger audiences, but no meaningful messaging have fewer meaningful engagements. 

The concept of Social CX (Customer Experience) has gained prominence in the last few years, which has put customer experience on social media at the core of marketing strategy. Social CX enables you to maximize the actual potential of social media as a channel of communication by encouraging true interactions between the brand and audiences. As per Lyfe Marketing, 71% of users would recommend a brand if they’ve had a positive social media experience with it. The key to create a positive experience, amidst the crazy cacophony of communication, is to build a community/tribe vibe through your social media presence and interactions. The easiest way sought by brands is to have an external ORM agency give pre-approved standard responses to customer comments and feedback on social platforms. While it is a less tedious method of responding to your audience, it can no way be termed as “true engagement”. Internet users spend 2.5 hours on social media each day (Source: Hootsuite) and can very well identify the difference between a personalized response from a standardized one. As a brand, we acknowledge and respect the expectations of our social media audience and interact with them directly. 

In addition to the approach towards “social media engagement”, it is imperative to understand audience behaviour across platforms. Having genuine and organic communication on social media requires time, effort and inclination. To be efficient concentrate on particular channels where your efforts will be appreciated and reciprocated the most. For example, engagement on Instagram is higher as compared to engagement on Facebook. As per the research by Emplifi, in Q2 2020, the total number of interactions generated by Instagram profiles (Likes and Comments on posts published by brands on their profiles) was 5.2x higher than on Facebook profiles. This gap has only increased in Q2 2021, reaching 6.4x. This implies that as a brand you need to customize your communication efforts as per Instagram trends, rather than having a copy-paste approach from Facebook. 

The job however doesn’t end with engagement, your tribe journey starts with it. Like any other relationship, a brand needs to maintain and nurture the tribe it has built and be consistently connected with the community members. Be it giving quirky reciprocation to their comments or helping them with personalized suggestions on DMs (Direct Message), every little step goes a long way in solidifying the bond with your target audience. At the same time, be open towards receiving critical feedback too and accept it with grace. There are times when we find our fans defending us against baseless trolling and that is actually quite heartwarming. And then there are times, where strangers become a part of the community and revel in the shared affinity for the brand. These are the instances that indicate that you have created a brand tribe that is here to stay! 

The Author is By Sid Mewara, Executive Producer and Co-Host, The Big Forkers.