Stoke the Flames of Social Media Engagement Through Social Proof

Why would you want to invest time in consuming content from someone who has no recognition? Would you choose to eat at a restaurant that has 5 tables full or a restaurant with no one at the tables? Would you choose to watch a film with 3 Academy Awards or none? Are you more inclined to read a blog post that has been shared 20 times over one that has not been shared at all?

Without social proof there is no social media engagement, without engagement there are no new readers, without readers there are no new relationships. We could go on and on in a cyclical fashion.

1.  Light the Touch Paper.

Self promotion comes naturally to most people and under certain circumstances it can be quite grotesque to see and hear people talk about themselves, their accomplishments and what they have done however their are times when promoting yourself needs to be done and promoting your own content to your social media following is paramount to starting the social media engagement train rolling down the tracks.

The people in your social media circles should know what to expect from you and therefore trust you and are likely to help by spreading and sharing your content.

2. Stoke ONLY your best content

And by that I mean promote your content that has earned social proof and continues time and time again to get shared by others. The fact is that, not every piece of content that you create will take off so don’t force the issue. Instead of spending time trying to flog a dead horse work on increasing the “sharability” factor of the posts that are proven to work.

3. When Your Content is being burned elsewhere

Reach out a hand and thank that person for taking the time to share your content with their social media following. The more people you interact with, the more connections you make, relationships you develop and the increased likelihood that your future content will be shared.

4. When the fire is down to it’s last embers add more fuel

Instead of reaching out to everybody at one time to thank them for sharing your content, stretch it out a little to make sure you get a bigger bang for your buck. Use a tool such as Bufferapp to post a “thank you for sharing or thanks for leaving your comment at a peak time when your audience is listening.

That way followers who were not interested the first time around will see the social proof element and this may encourage them to take a look and share.

When more people discover and share your content this sends a signal to search engines to re-index the content. The search engines then see that people are still engaging and that it is trust-worthy content.

5. Fan the Flames!

Receiving social media engagement is not easy. It takes patience, hard work, good relationship building skills and great content to name but a few.

The more time you put in into cultivating those relationships and helping other people by sharing their content the less time you will have to put into sharing and promoting your own content however stick with it because over time the relationships will pay off.

6. Attend the biggest Camp Fires!

If you receive most social media engagement on Facebook then spend then share your best, most highly polished content their first. Keep track of what people are saying how they are interacting with the content and see which pieces really take off.

Test different headlines on your audience, ask different questions to see what provokes the best response and then use this information to construct a powerful message to win the hearts and minds of your audience on other social media platforms.

Spend time building relationships with likeminded people, take those relationships from cold, to warm, to white hot and when you achieve that your content will act as the fuel for your social media engagement to sizzle and your brand to burn brightly.

Share this post and start your own social media engagement fire by clicking on one of the social media sharing icons below!

About

James Debono is a small business owner and Internet entrepreneur. James dedicates his time to helping other small business owners leverage the power of the Internet to drive business growth and positive change. Click here Join James Debono on Google+

• Mail
|
• More Posts (213)

Related posts:

1. Social Media for Small Business – Less of the Marketing and More of the Social.
2. Why Social Media Strategies are All Important
3. Increase Social Proof Using Twitter Counter
4. Are Social Media Networks Worth the Effort?
5. Social Media Marketing for Small Business – 7 Time Saving Tips