This week I ran a poll across my social channels.
My aim was to find out what kind of learning experience I could provide that would best support my pet business friends right now.
And the results were decisive.
62% of you wanted to learn how to increase your engagement on social media.
So off I went to plan out my latest free challenge to help you do exactly that.
And so the Engagement Booster Challenge was born!
If you’d like to learn more about the challenge and get involved, click here.
To help you decide if this is worth your time, let’s dig into why engagement is important for your pet business.
Engagement boosts reach
Organic reach is at an all-time low. In fact, on average only 2-5% of our followers see the content we’re putting out there.
The social media platforms want you to pay for exposure, because advertising is their bread-and-butter money.
But when you get more engagement on your posts, your reach increases naturally.
It becomes a snowball effect.
The algorithms start recognising that your content is resonating with their users, so it starts to show that piece of content in more news feeds.
In theory, it’s simple. The more people engage with your content, the further your content will spread.
I hear you. I know this is a classic case of chicken and egg.
You can’t get more engagement if no-one’s seeing your posts. And you won’t expand your reach if no-one engages.
It’s why your content strategy is so vital. You need to know exactly what kind of content is going to drive your followers to interact.
It creates social proof
When people see that other people are interacting positively with your brand, they’re more likely to pay attention to you.
They’re more likely to want to get involved themselves and learn more about how you can help them.
Engagement plays a major role in how a potential customer perceives your business.
If someone visits your page and sees lots of likes and comments, they’ll start to think, “Wow, if all these people are raving about this business, maybe they can help me too!”
It gives other people the confidence and reassurance they need to purchase your products or services.
Boosts your Google rankings
Social media and the content YOU share doesn’t directly impact your SEO and Google rankings.
But when people share and interact with your content, that does send important signals to the search engines that your content is useful to your target audience.
Engagement factors such as likes, shares and comments are indicators that Google uses to rank your website.
Engagement in itself doesn’t directly impact search rankings, rather it reinforces the status of your brand as a whole, which indirectly tells Google you’re a credible source that’s valuable to its users.
And when the search engines identify you as valuable, they bump up your website in the rankings.
It’s a handy performance metric
Engagement allows you to understand what kind of content resonates with your audience.
It’s a useful marker that helps you track the effectiveness of your content strategy.
When people engage with one of your posts, you can start to understand what it was about that post that people loved. This can help guide the kind of content you publish in the future.
Equally, if your engagement is currently dwindling, it’s a sign your content is missing the mark.
Although it’s not healthy to obsess over vanity metrics, it can be useful to measure the overall performance of your social strategy.
Gives you valuable feedback
Engagement can be a valuable opportunity to gather feedback from your audience.
Have you ever had a customer complain about you on social media?
It’s not the nicest feeling when people complain publicly. But believe it or not, there are advantages:
- It’s a chance for you to address their concerns and put it right for the customer. Turning an unhappy customer, into a satisfied one.
- It shows other people you’re a respectable business that truly cares about the happiness of their customers.
- It highlights areas of your business you need to work on and improve. Which in turn allows you to create a better experience for future customers.
Improves relationships with your audience
Social media is all about being social!
When people comment on your posts, it opens the doorway to having conversations with your potential customers.
This allows you to form stronger, real relationships with your audience.
People buy from people they know, like and trust.
And a big part of that comes from the human-to-human interactions you have with your people.
Engagement gives you an opportunity to build on those relationships that you may not have had if they hadn’t engaged first.
Now you know just how important engagement is for your pet business, are you ready to get more engagement, sales and less stress from your social media marketing?
If so, come and join my simple but powerful membership Socials On Zoomies, where every month you’ll get 20 highly engaging, pet specifc social post templates to share with your audience.
All for the teeny tiny price of £1.20 a day! To learn more about SOZ and the results it can help you achieve, click here.
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P.s. If you need help to reach more pet parents and sell more of your products or services, there are a few ways I can help you do that:
For 44 ways to get more clients for your pet business, grab the FREE Pet Biz Sales Booster Bible.
The Pet Biz Thrive Online Club is my super affordable, contract-free membership programme and your safe space where you'll learn all about how to market your pet business online. So you can grow your audience and attract new clients. Doors are currently open to new members. Learn more and sign up here.
If you need more 1-1 coaching support to give you the clarity, focus and plan to achieve those results you crave, check out my coaching packages here.
If you're on a tight budget, want to DIY your marketing and kick-start your progress, I have a few online courses to help with that. All my courses are designed to help you market yourself with more ease and flow, without spending all hours in front of your computer. Head over here to check them out.
To get my 4 step online marketing strategy that will help you get booked solid with pet clients, sign up for my FREE masterclass.
To join my FREE community of ambitious pet professionals, join the Content Marketing Tips For Pet Businesses Facebook Group.
Not sure what you need? Email me at hello@karlyedwards.com and let's chat about how you can market and grow your pet biz.