It is so discouraging when you put effort and time into cultivating your social media platforms only for them to flop and have low engagement.
I’ve been managing social media for different brands for almost 7 years. And I learned that when it comes to low social media engagement, a.k.a. likes, comments, shares, saves, etc, it’s mostly because:
You have a messaging problem
Here are several messaging cases causing your low social media engagement.
1. Unclear and not relatable
Your messaging might not be at the level of awareness your followers or target audience have (ex., straight up using jargon or unfamiliar, hard to digest concepts).
What to do instead:
You need to meet them at their level of understanding. Then, you can bring them in from there. You need to relate your solutions to their problems in their own “language” and specific circumstances.
For example, instead of saying, “We have this product, it’s amazing,” you say, “You have this problem, and we understand how hard that can be, so this is the solution we spent so much time coming up with.”
2. Weak or non-existent hook
Your delivery should be attention-grabbing. You only have 1 – 3 seconds to show your audience why they should care. When your graphics are too noisy, generic, or uninteresting, you lose them immediately. If you start your videos with “Hi” or “My name is.”, they scroll down fast.
What to do instead:
Have an emotional or conversational appeal. For videos, use all text, visual, and audio hooks within the first 3 seconds. Your graphics should also be easily understandable at a glance, following the rules of graphic design.
3. Too salesy
People mostly use social media to entertain themselves and connect with family and friends. So, if your posts come across as salesy, your audience will lose interest. Almost everyone hates Ads when scrolling on social media!
What to do instead:
Ask yourself, “What’s in it for them?” instead of, “What’s in it for me?”
Whether that’s entertainment, education, or an opportunity for followers to connect with their friends, provide something your audience deems “valuable” rather than promoting a service or product. Of course, while keeping your posts relevant to your brand voice and goals.
4. You are not using call-to-actions
You might think, “If they like it, they will give a heart, comment, or share. There’s no need to tell them to do it.” The thing is, people go on social media with a passive mindset. So a little nudge to like or share your posts goes a long way.
What to do instead:
What do you want them to do as they consume your content?
If you want them to engage more, add call-to-actions (CTA) like “like if you agree”, “share to a friend who needs to hear this”, and “tag your friend who will love this” in your media and captions.
Be creative and stick to one or two CTAS. You can always change it depending on what your business goals for the month are.
5. Not adapting your messaging to different platforms
Your posts from Instagram or TikTok might not translate well to LinkedIn, X, or Facebook. Even when you are talking to the same types of people, we all have different behaviors and intentions for each of our social media accounts.
What to do instead:
Look at the data. What kinds of posts and messaging work best for your social media platforms? Draw your strategy based on that. Most of the time, it only requires a slight shift in voice or media to make the difference.
Do you really have low engagement? Or do you just have unrealistic expectations?
It’s so discouraging seeing your social media platforms have low performance when you’ve invested lots of time and money in it.
However, a lot of times, it’s because you are focusing on the wrong things and have unrealistic expectations with social media results.
This is why it’s crucial to have a deep understanding of your social media metrics. So you can assess objectively based on relevant data. Here are some things you need to know about engagement metrics.
→ Focus on metrics that align with your business goals
If you want brand awareness, look at views and reach. If you need more sales, look at profile visits and clicks. Because more often, # of views is not equal to sales.
→ Your low-engagement posts can be the high-converting ones
You need to check which of your posts are converting to profile clicks or message clicks instead of likes. Different content types serve different roles.
→ Measure your performance through Engagement Rate
The formula – Engagement Rate = (Total Engagements / Total Followers or Impressions) * 100. This is a better measure of your engagement performance versus blindly comparing your likes and views to other brands.
→ You need to build trust
You don’t just post and expect people to engage with you right away. You need to be consistent with your messaging and give value for a long period for people to like and trust every content you put out. You’ll need at least 3 to 6 months of consistent effort and strategy to see real results.
Go Social Media Solutions 