The Big Secret to Social Media Engagement Which Nobody is Talking About

Some social media accounts get all the action, don’t they? We’re familiar with statistics about how half of the world’s wealth is held by a very rich one percent of the population. I think it’s quite similar in the social media sphere; I’d hazard a guess that one percent of Twitter users get more than half of all the engagement on the network.

Take this chap for example. Ed Sheeran has no less than 9.1 million followers. He’s nowhere near the most popular account (he comes 89^th in the top 100 most popular accounts). So what does our Ed do to get engagement? It has to be something interesting, right? Well, no. Not exactly. Take this for example:

The 11,000 favorites and 4,500 retweets aren’t of anything excessively (see: marginally) philosophical. Mr Sheeran has certainly not changed the world. He’s getting all this engagement because as a brand, he does okay. With a debut album which reached number one in the UK charts, and 5 in the US, a fair few people know his name. It’s really just a numbers game. With that many followers, 4,592 retweets is only engagement from 0.05% of his possible audience. I have a humble 252 followers on my personal account. If just two of those people retweet me that’s 0.79% of my audience.

(I probably wouldn’t get a single retweet for ‘Brb’ though)

So the more followers you have, the better your chances are at getting at least some of them involved.

The most popular accounts are those which are already pretty well known in their own right. YouTube is the fifth most followed account (after Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Barack Obama and Lady Gaga), so it’s not just celebrities but brands which can hit the Twitter big time.

And the secret?

To be completely honest, there isn’t really one.

There’s no scientific formula which will work for all types of businesses and at all times

There’s no scientific formula which will work for all types of businesses and at all times, it’s really down to your readers. You need to know who they are, and what they’re interested in.

There are various things you can have a go at, but be aware that just because they work for other people doesn’t mean that they will definitely work for you. That said, if they do work for others there is absolutely no reason at all you shouldn’t have a go.

There’s a lot of reasons you should be on social media. If you haven’t been convinced yet I’ve found some cracking statistics for you. Did you know, for example, that of the people who follow small and medium sized businesses on Twitter, 74% do so for product updates? And 47% of people following brands are more likely to visit the company’s website. Your followers are more likely to be your customers, so if you can get people on board, you’re doing well.

You should begin by looking at your competitors’ social media campaigns. For example, if you’re a modelling agency, you can look at other modelling agencies, but also at the profiles of models, at fashion blogs, and at anything else which is likely to appeal to your audience. How do they attract engagement? What is it that they do that you’re not? If something is working for then it’s likely to work for you as well. A bit of trial and error is all you need.

The rule of thirds (but not the picture one)

Hootsuite recently blogged about the social media rule of thirds. Just like the rule of thirds in photography, it’s all about getting the balance right for the best results possible. Modelling agencies love a bit of the rule of thirds. It makes composing pictures so much easier. It’s worth trying in your social media campaigns as well.

It goes a little something like this:

• 1/3 of your social content should promote your business, convert, and generate profit.
• 1/3 should be sharing ideas and stories from others in your industry, or other like-minded businesses (so that’d be where those models you were looking at earlier could come in handy for modelling agencies; if you’re a drama school you might want to share stories about actors, you get the idea).
• 1/3 should be based on personal interactions which help to build your brand.

You might find for your particular model it doesn’t work in thirds, but start out with that, and then you can work out just what is most appealing to your audience.

Good luck!