Social media engagement is much more valuable in building brand awareness than a large number of followers. Learn why that is.
If there is one thing that I have learned from using Seton Hall’s Student Activities Board social media accounts, it is that engagement matters.
Engagement Leads to Traction
When building brand awareness, or in SAB’s case event/organization awareness, you can only gain so many followers in a given year. Gaining followers is like pulling teeth, and it is never as easy as it sounds. SAB will usually gain a lot of followers in the very beginning of the year, and there is a steady decline in the number of new followers for the rest of the year. One thing we have noticed though, is that our posts and content get much more traction where there is high engagement on the posts. Because of this realization, we have requested that our members like and comment on posts in order to boost engagement.
Building Brand Awareness
Many people don’t realize how impactful this can be. Engagement makes it more likely that others will see your post, even those that do not follow you. Facebook optimizes your homepage so posts that your friends and family share are prioritized. This is an invaluable tool when trying to build brand awareness and create relationships with your audience. People trust their friends and family, and so will trust brands that they share.
This article describes social media engagement as a long-term relationship; a funny analogy, but an accurate one nonetheless. This type of relationship takes dedication, time, and adaptation in order to work; quantity does not matter as much as quality here.
While it is certainly useful to have a strong number of followers, it is ultimately more effective for a brand to have strong social media engagement. This will result in the development of a trusted brand presence, and a loyal fanbase.
Sam's Social Media Blog 