Sunday 4 March 2012

How to Effectively Engage People on Social Media.

5 lessons from Churchill(Mwalimu King'ang'i)
How often do you check your social Media accounts? What do you do when you log in to your accounts? Is your influence on social media based on the numbers on your friend list? Or is it based on your reputation and respect or in the fanatical following you have?
Social influence involves much more than a popularity contest. Actual influence is composed of the ability to influence opinions,outcomes and actions.
Do you once in a while check on your friends and acquaintances or get to know your new friends better when you accept a friend request? Do you use your photo or company logo as your profile photo? Do you post engaging content to encourages interactivity on your page or profile?
Why do some updates have so many Likes and comments while others have barely any or none at all?
Here are the 5 tips;
1. Engage regularly.
Social engagement refers to the relationships or involvements – both positive and negative with your friends, fans and followers.Mwalimu king’angi is active on social media thus keeps his fans and followers engaged and interacting. Most of his updates encourage interactivity and conversation; Updates that end with a question mark attract more comments. Funny content gives you more Likes and Shares. If you want people to spend more time on your profile simply ask questions. 
Or post content that prompts one to leave a comment,not just like the update.Such as this;

2. Don’t over promote yourself.
Social media can be extremely beneficial to you and your business. It is effectively cost-neutral and if executed correctly it’s a well-targeted form of marketing. Whist sharing your own content online (marketing) This makes sure it is not the only activity. Those who only share their own content are transparent and audiences online look at that as purely selfish and switch off quickly.
 • A good ratio of sharing to promoting your own content is 4:1 as a minimum (the more you share about other valuable content i.e. less marketing messages, the more you get in return).

• Be sure you only share content that adds value to your community – content which they’ll find useful. This means that you should understand the demographics of your friends or fans. If it’s a mixed up case scenario share content that benefits people across the board.
3. Keep private things private.
As Facebook and twitter is very much in the public domain (yet it’s often perceived as private at the same time), there are numerous examples of how private (often extremely personal) information has ended up in the public domain. If you say the wrong things, it could damage your professional reputation. Mwalimu King’ang’ doesn’t share information on his private life. It’s just an update; don’t share info on your recent breakups, social places you frequent regularly for security reasons, don’t post vital information on people’s wall. Simply inbox them. A few people tend to also tweet when drunk, you may end up releasing nasty stuff!Try avoid this~!!!!
Totally wrong!
4. Vary your content.
Providing different types of content has been proven to engage audiences more effectively. Once in a while discuss football, politics, trending topics , business, jokes or even relationships and marriage.
If someone shares your content, thank them. If it’s possible, engage them in a conversation about the topic – enhancing your reputation as a specialist.
Look at how this update got many likes, comments and shares.
This simply shows if you once in a while engage your fans with what you don’t update  normally you are likely going to attract attention from your ‘dead’ or quiet fans.
5. Push products wisely.


  
I had to come up with this because at one point you have to use social Media for marketing, corporate communications and PR or even customer service to promote your personal brand or business.
However this has been abused terribly. Excessive self promotional content is so annoying and literally turns your profile into a billboard. People hate that! Small business owners literally do all manner of things to promote their products or services. This includes Spamming other people’s pages or groups with wall posts, Tagging people on your fliers, regularly promoting your own self and sending mass messages to friends online. 
Look at how Mwalimu ties in a promotional message wisely in his update. Can you do better than this?
Do you have any other lessons you could share with us? What are the annoying things your friends, fans or followers do on your profile or page?

14 comments:

  1. Great article, i found it very informative and helpful. However you seem to have concentrated on social media promotion from the perspective of people who have already acquired a following. what about someone new who is trying to get that crucial first following? can he/she still apply the same tips or are there any special tips for such people?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. www.trincmedia.com

      Delete
    2. Thanks for the response;Il check the Link.
      Check www.brand2D.com.See what we also do.

      Delete
    3. @Norman This is because the guys with the following seem to understand how to engage fans and friends online.
      Hence we can also learn from them.

      Delete
  2. That's a real eye opener for me especially now that I have three pages to administrate. I will surely use those tips! Thanks again and keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
  3. very well thought of really informative.....

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  4. very refreshing and informative. Its time Kenyans applied social media and reaped the benefits. Let us continue sharing and exchanging ideas.

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  5. I would wish you shed more insight on those people who are shy in the social media and think that nothing from them is marketing but more like personal.
    Its also true that other people are less popular and would wish you give their example too, Kingani is too much popular hence his reference is a bit intimidation in comparison to many people, great article though.

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