What Is Social Media Engagement?
Social media engagement is the measure of how actively people are interacting with your content on social media. While this may be a broad umbrella term, social media engagement tells you whether your content is resonating with your audience. Your posts must have value or you will never create excitement and engagement for your club.
Why Do We Need to Create Engaging Posts?
The primary reason for creating engaging posts is to ensure that your messages are seen by your target audience. Whether these are your members, potential members, sponsors, or the general public, by posting engaging content, you can increase the levels of communication and interaction on your page.
Also, when you have an engaged audience, it is more likely that even more people will see your posts. This is because most of the social media algorithms (which is how the platforms choose what to show on a user’s feed) prioritize posts with meaningful engagement.
Let’s also remember that engagement numbers or rankings are also things potential sponsors want to see. They want to know that the club they are donating to, has an audience that may also be interested in their wares. Read more on How to Create Successful Sponsorship Packages here.
How to Create Value-Driven Posts
To create value-driven posts, there must be a social media strategy in place for your organization. It should take into account the following:
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The organization’s social media objectives – Each post should be designed according to the objectives you have, whether it is to gain more awareness for your club, build credibility, or ask your audience to take the desired action.
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Your target audience – Understanding your audience is key to creating content that your audience will engage with. Make sure that you know what type of words they use, what are their interests, and what motivates them.
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The social media channels you are engaging in – Because every social media is unique, you should be able to know how to use each one to your advantage. For example, since Instagram is centered on photo and video sharing, you will have to ensure that your posts have high-quality images and videos that can stand out. Meanwhile, if you decide to have a Twitter presence, make sure that you offer interesting or helpful information through your tweets.
How to Create Engaging Posts
Even if you are using social media to recruit more members for your organization, or promoting a specific event for your club, it is important to avoid “the sell”. When audiences feel like they are being sold to, it is most likely that they will simply scroll past your post, as most people have already learned to develop an aversion to traditional advertising.
Instead, make it a point to tell your story with followers and why your organization exists.
Here are some engagement strategies you could use for your posts:
Providing useful information
From your knowledge of your target audience, you can then offer relevant and helpful tips that they can use. These may include healthy diet options they can eat while training, interesting trivia about the sports you are practicing, or tips for improving their performance. If you are planning on sharing videos on your accounts, how-to’s and tutorials are excellent way to show your expertise.
Keep in mind that the more valuable the information, the better engagement you will receive — your readers may not just like your posts, but feel compelled to share them as well.
How Seth Butler (a sports editor) reminded his sports community of gameday on Instagram.
Ask a question
This makes your audience feel you are speaking directly to them and should be a powerful tool to begin a conversation. Ask suitable questions that they can’t help but answer, such as “What is your favorite warm-up routine?” or “Which works better for you, morning or evening training?
Orlando City Soccer Club asks its followers what game they are looking forward to.
Link: https://www.facebook.com/OrlandoCitySC/posts/4219796054745317
Invoking emotions
There are various ways to appeal to the emotions of your target audience. If your organization is supporting a social cause, you could highlight the difference you are making and how their contribution can help your beneficiaries.
If you want to build trust for your organization, you can feature testimonials from members or athletes. Or better yet, sharing past members’ successes who have moved on to college or professional sports is a great way to get people excited. You can also post user-generated content (reposting those created by your target audience) to show that you appreciate them.
Another effective means to bond with people who may be relevant to your organization is to use hashtags. Through a Google search or the use of online hashtag generators, you can find out what are the most popular hashtags that are appropriate for your club. You can also create your own and ask your followers to use this in their posts.
Your choice of images and captions also matter — make sure that you use photos and words that convey the emotions you are after.
How Alabama Gymnastics showed they are making a difference in their community.
Link: https://twitter.com/BamaGymnastics/status/777296844808257536
Providing incentives and offers
Incentives and promotions generate excitement and can lead your target audience into action.
Running a contest would entail that you would have to provide prizes, so make sure to plan this carefully and explore options for sponsorships. Offers may also come in the form of discounts (such as reduced membership rates), referrals, or even free subscriptions.
To ensure maximum engagement, make sure that the offer is valuable enough for your target market for them to follow your contest guidelines. Also, set an expiration date for your offer so your audience knows this is only available for a limited time.
How Salt Lake Bees featured their Instagram Giveaway
Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/BzOsr1OpOpY/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Are you ready?
Creating posts for your social media account requires not just creativity but a strategy as well. This combination is the most effective means to communicate with your club’s followers. By ensuring that your social media posts are engaging, they can stand out from the other posts in your readers’ feeds.
