Most people realize that social media engagement is how their audience interacts with them on their social media pages and around the web. Additionally, a digital marketing agency knows they need to consistently post content to their customers’ social media pages and blog if they want to build a following and brand recognition of any kind. Unfortunately, many people don’t stop to really think about their social media beyond the mundane task of posting their content. However, if you take some time to really think about your social media on a deeper level, you would probably come up with some eye-opening insights. Once you really understand social media engagement, you can implement some phenomenal tactics that will instantly take your social media engagement and brand to the next level and beyond. Here are seven ways to gain social media engagement.   1. Create Excitement What truly gets your audience excited? Browse through all your social media pages and the other social media pages where your audience “hangs out.” Look for the topics that get people excited and see which of those topics are trending and why. Piggyback on positive news and trending social topics by adding a new point of view or opinion. This is a great way to get your audience engaged with you and each other, especially if it’s already a trending hot topic where everyone seems to have an opinion.   2. Learn to Make Friends (and keep them) Social media engagement is all about making friends. But once you make a new friend, you don’t stop communicating with them. That’s no way to make and keep a friend. If you really want to boost your social media engagement, you have to treat your online friends, aka customers, just like you do your own personal circle of friends. It means you, or a designated team member should personally acknowledge every new like comment, subscriber, etc. by their name and not use a template welcome or template comments/answers, etc. You wouldn’t do that with your personal friends, would you?   3. Giveaways and Free Stuff Who doesn’t like to get free stuff? Offering giveaways, contest prizes, and free stuff is a great way to get your content to go viral and to actively engage with your audience. Just make sure what you are giving away is something of value; otherwise, it will seem to your audience as if you don’t really value their loyalty.   4. Use Lots of Visuals When was the last time you received a text, email, etc. of something interesting, funny, or odd? You remember it vividly, don’t you? That’s why it’s so important to use lots of visuals if you want your audience to engage and react. However, it’s important that you only send visuals that have an off-the-charts, attention-grabbing value to them; otherwise, it’s just another spam message taking up space in your followers’ inbox/messages.   5. Go Live Once you’ve developed a loyal following, why not consider sponsoring a local event so everyone who interacts with each other online can meet in person. Yes, we understand that many of your followers aren’t going to be local, but that doesn’t mean that if you sponsor an event big enough that they won’t make arrangements to come. And, for those who can’t be there in person, you can arrange for a live feed of the event and a way for those who do attend the event to interact with those who are engaged through the live feed. This is a great way to solidify the bond you and your followers have with each other. This is because once people actually meet in person, they are more likely to become long-term friends and brand followers.   6. Humor Is Contagious The humor concept is almost identical to how you use visuals, except that you are sending a content that’s funny. And that in itself makes it memorable. People love cute/funny videos and other humorous content. Think about it—what’s the first thing you do when you receive something that is really funny? You share it right? Yep…so does everyone else. What a great way to build your brand recognition and engage your audience!   7. Get Real How many times have you seen a brand actively engaging with its audience by using generic template statements? Yeah—that screams, I don’t really care what you have to say, but I have to engage with you because it’s my job. Yep, we see you shaking your head in agreement because that’s how most brands engage with their audience. So why not be different—that will increase your social media engagement. GUARANTEED! After your initial welcome and onboarding, if you will, you need to actively engage with every one of your new social media “friends” to the point they feel genuinely welcome and as if they are really a part of your “group.” Another thing that helps tremendously is to have one person/team member take charge of this or work directly with your social media management company. Your audience won’t be able to bond with your brand if they can’t get to know, and feel like they are friends with, one person or the same group of people, especially if there is always someone different interacting with them.   What’s Next? If you would like more information about how to boost your social media engagement, please Contact Us today. We are a professional digital agency that would love to help you take your social media to the next level!   About the author: by Actuate Media.