When I'm talking about engagement, what immediately comes to your mind?
My guess is you're instantly thinking about reactions and comments. How did I know? Because that's typically what is considered engagement when it comes to social media, but I'm here to tell you there are more ways to receive and track engagement on your social media posts. Keep reading to find out more...
Prefer to listen to this blog on the go? We did a full podcast episode on the different types of engagement that you can consider when reviewing your metrics for your social media marketing! Take a listen to the episode here.
The term engagement has quickly become a blanket term when it comes to social media, and I have found that there is a misunderstanding of what engagement truly is and how you can utilize it to achieve the desired results you're looking for with your social media marketing.
Let's start with the basics ➡ Google's definition of the term engagement: a metric that includes any interaction with content.
Think about that for a minute... any interaction, not just a reaction or comment.
Social Media engagement is a metric that tells you how someone is interacting with your post in any shape or form - comments and reactions are only two metrics of engagement.
While there are several social media platforms out there in this digital-forward world, each platform generally has more than comments and reactions as a means of interacting with posts and accounts.
So what are the other forms of engagement? Let's dive into that. ⤵
Seven different types of engagement that you may not be considering:
Link Click: If you add a link to a post and are getting link clicks to your website, to another post you've included or referenced, to an opt-in, etc. - you are getting engagement.
Website Visits: A follower goes to your profile or account and clicks on your website link straight from your profile - you are getting engagement.
Profile Visits: A user or follower visits your account (or profile) as a result of your call-to-action stating "visit the link in my bio", etc. - you are getting engagement.
Comments: A comment, whether good or bad, is made on your graphic, story, or image you shared - you are getting engagement.
Shares: A follower resonates with the content that was posted and wants to share it with their audience, instead of just telling them about it, they click the share option and post it to their story, feed or send to someone in their messages - you are getting engagement.
Saves: A popular option that has become available on social media platforms and allows your follower(s) to save a post for looking at later - you are getting engagement. This is actually a great form of engagement that you don't want to overlook as it is showing the follower's interest and desire to reference the content at a later date.
Reactions: Just that, a reaction, such as a "heart" on Instagram or a "thumbs up" on Facebook for a "like" on a picture or graphic that was posted - you are getting engagement.
Knowing the different ways you can reach people, and in turn, knowing the different ways they can interact with you on social media is necessary when it comes to unlocking the potential of social media marketing.
When you have a better understanding of what engagement actually looks like on your social media posts, then you will be able to better define your metrics and know how much traffic your posts are truly generating.
Now that you know social media engagement is more than just comments and reactions, I encourage you to review your account analytics and look at the exact insights and engagement types that your posts are receiving. Were your comments higher on a post, but your link clicks lower? At a bird's eye view does it look like there was low engagement from the "likes" you received but there were more saves than normal on a recent post? Assess what may or may not have been done in terms of interactions and determine what you can do differently in the future, or what works well for your content and audience.
After you have a better understanding of what's resonating, you'll be able to use those metrics to set tangible goals for your content marketing strategy and leverage social media to connect with your audience on a new level.
Looking for resources to help you with your social media? We've got you covered.
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📌 If nailing social media for your veterinary practice is a goal of yours this year, you definitely don't want to miss out on my course Veterinary Social Media Foundations.
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