Engagement and community both seem to be the ultimate goals for those involved in the Social Media game. Yet building it seems shrouded in mystery; ask many successful community managers, and it is a combination of secret sauce, luck, and a strategy that has been built after-the-fact to explain their success. Building engagement and community boils down to two factors: volume, and content; do better on these, and a community will develop.

Volume: Building engagement and community is all about building critical mass. In other words, volume is required. This can come from three sources:

1. Increase the number of new users who walk through your social media door. This can be through Pay-per-Click ads, inbound web links, or traditional marketing activities.
2. Increase the number of posts from people who already are part of your community. This can be achieved by replying, linking, and sharing existing conversations.
3. Increase the number of posts that you (or others) write.

Improved content: Users don’t engage directly with your organization (or you): they engage only through your content. The better your content, the more engaging “you” will appear to be. Here are some ideas:

1. Use audience-relevant headlines that spark interest, without resorting to a low-value clickbait approach.
2. Use graphics: a picture is worth 1000 words, and not everyone prefers to read.
3. Use video: sometimes a picture just doesn’t cut it.
4. Embed a call-to-action.
5. Ask the reader what they think, using open-ended questions: a one-way monologue will never build engagement.

Of course, there are many more ways to increase volume or improve content, chief amongst them is timely participation in online conversations.  In the spirit of the last point, what have you tried? And has it worked?

Does this topic resonate? Reach out to Randall: he can present it to your group.  (More presentation topics)
Download Randall’s professional credentials: Speaker credentials one-sheet or Management Advisory credentials.

Content Authenticity Statement: 100% original content: no AI was used in creating this content.

@RandallCraig (Follow me for daily insights)
www.RandallCraig.com: Professional credentials site.