What to post and when. That’s a social media marketing strategy, right? Wrong. These are just tactics to boost engagement. Although they can be very effective if executed well! They are, however, usually the first and the last thing a time-poor small business owner will think about when planning their social media strategy, because…. what else is there? Well, what about engaging with your followers? How are you socialising with them (it’s right there in the name!) If you’re not already doing it, you need to start including Community Engagement in your social media marketing strategy to start getting the results you crave.

Social Media = Connection

Social media is all about connecting with people. In order to connect, you need to be putting out high-quality content that speaks to both your brand’s position in the market and the mindset of the potential customers you’re hoping to attract. But social media platforms reward accounts that build engagement in a variety of ways – not just through likes and comments. They also look at how many times a post is shared via DM, saved for later or how many users are tagged in the post’s comment section. These types of engagement are much more personal, and due to that they give the algorithm a better indication of just how valuable a post may be to a wider audience.

In order for someone to engage personally with your content, they need to have a personal relationship with you. In some instances (with accounts that exist purely to entertain) this can be created via content alone. But for businesses who have an end-goal of driving leads to their website/sales team – you’ll need to put in a little bit more work!

This is where community engagement comes in. But first… a little bit of information about the algorithms!

What’s in an… Algorithm?

The main goal of all social media platforms is to keep its users happy. How they do this is by showing you content that they “think” you will enjoy based on how other users are already engaging with it. The more engagement a social media post generates, the mor