10 Easy Ways to Increase Engagement on Social Media
By Bonnie Fanning

Social media posts are a quick and easy way to increase your writing income by repurposing content you’re already creating for a client.

But if the posts you create for your client aren’t getting engagement in the form of views, likes, comments, or re-shares … your client may decide it’s not worth the extra money.

Here are 10 simple ways to increase views and engagement that you can start doing in your own posts, as well as any you create for clients.

1. Add graphics or video

Graphics (photos or other images) and video are a major component of any social media post. You can certainly cut and paste text from a blog or email to create a short LinkedIn or Facebook post, but without a visual element or video, folks are more likely to scroll on by without looking.

Social media algorithms are favoring video content more and more, too.

On top of that, according to Sprout Social and Promo.com, viewers retain 65% of a message when it includes a visual element, and 95% when it’s delivered as a video — as opposed to 10% when it’s only text.

When you create posts for a client, ask if they have stock photos you can include, or perhaps a Canva account where you can create your own graphics to go with what you post (for an extra fee, of course).

As an example of how simple this can be, this recent LinkedIn post from AWAI includes the same photo that they used on the companion blog post.

2. Upload videos directly to the platform

If you’re posting a video to LinkedIn or Facebook, upload the video directly to the post, rather than linking or embedding it from YouTube or Vimeo. Social media platforms prefer “native” content — content you’ve uploaded to their platform — so they can keep users on their site, rather than having them click off to some other site, like YouTube.

When you play the game by the algorithm’s rules, you’ll be rewarded with a wider distribution of your post.

3. Keep outside links to a minimum

In many cases, your client will want you to link to a promo, an email sign-up page, or their website directly from a social media post. That’s okay — it’s all part of driving traffic to their site. But keep in mind that your post may not be seen by as many people if you do. Social media sites benefit when people stay on them longer, so they will favor content that keeps people engaging on the site rather than clicking away.

4. Pay attention to the day/time you post

Each platform has a different “ideal” time to post for best engagement. For example, Monday morning is the best time for Facebook and Instagram. It’s Friday morning for Twitter, and for LinkedIn and TikTok, it’s Monday and Sunday afternoon, respectively.

These are all based on averages, and your client’s audience may differ from the norm, depending on who they are and when they’re active on social media.

Ask your client if they know or have a preference, and experiment with the day and time you post to see if you notice a difference.

5. Encourage comments with a call to action

One of the easiest ways to increase engagement on a post is simply to ask for it! The most common way is to ask the reader a compelling question and invite them to comment. You could also share a personal story and end it with something like, “Has that ever happened to you?” or “Know what I mean?”

Also try tagging people in your post who you know might comment.

6. Reply to comments right away

If you manage your client’s social media channels, stick around for the first hour or so after you make a post and immediately respond to any comments that come in. Tag the commenter in your response and make it meaningful. You may be able to get a discussion going — and some algorithms will push content out to more users if it’s getting comments.

7. Post an irresistible poll question

Polls can be excellent for engagement if you ask a question that’s intriguing, trendy, controversial, or otherwise irresistible. Keep it relevant to your client’s services.

When you compose the poll options, think about other ways you can use it in the future. You may end up with genuinely helpful information about your client’s prospects or be able to use the responses to spark an email or future social media post, too.

8. Drive readers to your posts in emails

A quick way to increase engagement on social media posts is to include a link to them in emails to your client’s list. This is best done in content emails, not sales emails, because you don’t usually want to link to anything but the sales page in those

Try this timing for a content one-two punch:

• Post to social media. (Create a “companion” post ahead of time that goes with a content email you plan to send.)
• Fifteen minutes later — send out an email with a link to the post and invitation to comment on it.
• Immediately go back to the post and reply to any comments that come in for the first 30 minutes to an hour.

There’s no need to do this for every single email that goes out (especially if there are multiple emails per day), but it can help drive up engagement when you do it once a week or every couple of weeks.

9. Keep your content helpful

If you want people to follow you and like, save, share, and comment on your posts, start by giving them what they really want: genuinely helpful information.

Posts that celebrate your client’s wins or highlight success stories are great to sprinkle in here and there — but the more helpful tips you can give away, the more people will engage.

10. Find and track your metrics

Most social media platforms have a back end where you can track likes, impressions, comments, or other forms of engagement. If you do the posting for your client and have access to that data, keep track of how your posts are doing, so you can experiment and discover what works best for their audience. And, of course, mention it to clients when your posts do well!

Social media can feel like a game. When you follow the rules of the platform, post compelling content at just the right time, and include an intriguing call to action … you should see your engagement go up.

But it’s also an opportunity to connect with real people, start conversations, encourage community, and form a deeper understanding of your client’s prospects and what makes them tick.

Sharing helpful information and responding to comments thoughtfully will do more to turn viewers into lifelong customers and fans than any “gaming the system” you try.

In the end, being genuine is what it’s all about.