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Let’s face it. Social media is one of the most cost-effective ways to build your brand or business online. I focus primarily on Facebook but these tips can be applied to most social media accounts.

It’s less expensive than radio, television and billboard advertisements but even more effective. Think about it, when most consumers hear a commercial they either listen, mute or turn to another station to avoid it. What do you do when you hear the commercial? Are you eager to hear it? Probably not and that accounts for most consumers.

However, most people check at least one social media account everyday with their undivided attention. Then there are people like me who are practically glued to their cell phones —- checking Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn while commuting to work, at work, eating dinner or even sitting down to watch a movie.

As such, some entrepreneurs have either switched to social media to save or grow their businesses online. Social media can be a wonderful addition to your current marketing strategy.

Yes, social media, used properly, can help local businesses and entrepreneurs reach not just local customers, but national and even international customers!

Who doesn’t want to put new eyes on their business, right?

So what happens when most new entrepreneurs or soon-to-be entrepreneurs step into the online world of social media marketing or social selling?

If they don’t have a social media strategy, oftentimes, they fail.

It’s not as easy as maxing out your friend’s list or connections. This is one of the BIGGEST mistakes made. An audience with no target is the same as no audience. The focus should always be QUALITY over QUANTITY.

Now let’s get into why you aren’t getting any engagement on your posts.

Assuming that:

1. You ARE active on social media, meaning you interact with other’s content and reply to comments left on your content
2. You have a good-sized audience of at least 500 friends/fans/connections/followers

If you have 5,000 friends/followers/fans/connections but struggling to get 5 “likes”, there is a HUGE disconnect here and you should pay extreme attention to what I’m about to say.

Most accounts lack engagement because of two factors:

1. Target audience unknown
2. Lack content marketing strategy to engage target market

Top three reasons why you aren’t getting any engagement on Facebook:

1. Dead Audience

   • No longer on social media
   • Switched social media platforms
   • Have another social media account
   • Doesn’t check social media regularly

2. Wrong Audience

   • Didn’t branch out to find new following
   • Added random followers

3. Wrong Content

   • Not creating any content specific to target audience needs
   • Not sharing relevant content
     • Too many cute cat videos
     • Too many recipes
   • Content not consistent with brand
   • Too spammy
   • Too negative/controversial
   • Too fake

Tying back into the comment earlier about lacking a social media strategy. Each social media platform is different but a general rule of thumb is that you should be engaging with your audience at least ONCE per day.

If you cannot commit to once per day, but looking to grow your business using social media, consider hiring an outside firm to manage your social media accounts.

What can you do to improve your engagement?

First thing is to review your profile to determine if you are repelling potential clients/customers.

Clean up any negative items.

Get rid of dead audience – this may take some time

1. 1. Install a Chrome extension that analyzes your social media account and suggests friends to remove – this is usually done by seeing who is the least active connection
   2. Go through your friends list/contacts and remove if:

• • You’ve reached out to them and they don’t respond
  • You can’t connect with their content
  • They’re too negative

Determine how you want to brand yourself

Only post content consistent with your brand

NOTE: if you have relevant content and a good audience but still lack engagement, look at the times that you are posting. Studies show that posts over the weekend and during the hours of 9 a.m. – 7 p.m. receive more views and shares.