Why Social Media Engagement Matters for Your PR
The old school approach to social media was to see how many followers you could accumulate. Like the old days of SEM (search engine marketing) people would game the system to gain followers. Today, the number of followers you have doesn’t really matter. What does matter is the quality of your followers. Are the people who follow you on your social media channels potential customers? One way to measure that is to look at social media engagement. In this article we take a look at Social Engagement and why it matters for your PR.
A Look at Engagement
Engagement is a reflection of the quality of your followers. It includes the shares, likes, comments, and reposts of your content. When someone engages or takes action on a social media post, it is a demonstration of their interest in your company or brand. So you could have 10,000 followers on Facebook, but if you only have one engagement each day, those followers aren’t productive. They’re not getting you anywhere. Conversely, if you have 1,000 followers and 100 engagements a day, they are quality followers.
Engagement as a Reflection of Your Brand
The better your social media engagement, the stronger it reflects on you as a brand. When your audience engages with you, it shows that they like, respect, and trust your brand. Social media is a personal connection. The competition for attention online is critical. If your followers take the time to share, comment, repost or like to yours, it shows they are paying attention.
From the Media’s Perspective
Your engagement helps you in a number of ways. From a very basic business level, if you have an engaged and active audience, they’re much more likely to drive sales. From a marketing and PR perspective, the time an individual takes to engage increases awareness for your products or services.
The media notices this. First, engagement attracts attention. When you have an active post, you’ll gain new followers. Media representatives are always on the lookout for a good story, and your active posts can attract their attention. Second, let’s be blunt and say that any media rep who is considering your pitch or doing a story on you is going to do some research about you first. One of their first stops will be social media. If you have an engaged audience, it helps boost your brand in the eyes of the media. If you’re not presently working to improve your social media engagement, it’s time to get a plan in place and to take action on it. Social media and good PR go hand in hand. Put time into both to get the best results.
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