Social media can be frustrating and mysterious. Why does one Tweet earn likes and retweets, while another tweet gets overlooked and eventually buried in the timeline? No love, no recognition, just a lonely tweet, ignored and not doing anything for your social presence. There are a few rules and guidelines to follow that will bolster your social media engagement. While Twitter and Facebook are both important to maintain, they are different platforms that require different approaches.
Frequency
I see a lot of businesses set up social media accounts and leave them alone once set up. An empty or hardly used social media account is worse than not having one at all.
Facebook: Your audience does not expect, nor does it want in that case, to be bombarded with content from you on their Facebook feed all day. Post updates a few times a week with important information about your brand, timely updates and stories your audience would care about.
Be consistent about delivering quality content to build an engaged reader-base. Decide on a feasible amount of content to post each week and stick to consistently posting that amount. Frequency and consistency builds an engaged audience. Lack of consistency will drive away audiences that expect a certain degree of content each week.
Twitter: Twitter is a different beast altogether and requires a lot more attention. Twitter can deliver great customer engagement if you have the time and resources to be engaged and aware of what your audience is doing on Twitter.
If you don’t have all the time in the world, use scheduling sites like Hootsuite to make sure you have a presence on Twitter all day. It’s a great idea to go back and check what people have been saying to or about you. Twitter audiences expect you to be accessible. Keep up, be engaged and try to Tweet 3-5 times a day content that is visual, engaging and interesting to your followers.
Content
Facebook: As I talked about earlier, Facebook does not need as much attention as Twitter. That is not to say it doesn’t need any attention, because it does. Facebook audiences are expecting to learn about the company, find more information about upcoming events and get a feel for your personality.
Twitter: This is the most important element of any social interaction. No one wants their Twitter feed filled with tweets they care nothing about. Tweets are more likely get a response if they have some visual element. Using content from other sources and retweeting things that your audience would find entertaining is a great way to utilize Twitter and get people to join the conversation with you.
Audience
The audience on Twitter is a different audience than that of Facebook. Not only are they different people, but they are looking for different content. Facebook audiences are looking for up-to-date information about the company or services. It doesn’t hurt to show some personality and Facebook is a great place to ask questions and engage with your audience. Don’t expect it to be as fast paced as Twitter, but Facebook is a great channel for asking and answering questions.
Twitter audiences are more engaged. Twitter’s best quality is its ability to interact instantly, stay in the conversation and get your audience to come to you as a resource for good content and valuable information. Twitter followers come to engage, when you utilize popular hashtags, retweets and tweeting at other users, you’re more likely to get engagement and better conversation.
For more information on how and when to use social media for your business, check out the Social Media Starter Kit.
