The Psychology of Social Media Engagement

Social success is measured by the number of engaged followers interacting with your posts: liking, sharing, or responding. However, without engaging content, your followers will ignore your posts and continue scrolling through their feeds.

To create engaging content, you need to understand your audience's wants and needs. This helps you influence your audience's decision-making process, persuading them to interact with your content to increase your engagement.

The Psychology of Engagement

A Sense of Reason

If you give your audience a reason to engage with your content, they will. Your followers follow you for a reason. They want to see what your brand offers and hear your story. Show them your passion for what you do. They want to know what makes you different from other Realtors.

You're Not a Robot

Audiences would rather follow a person than a "brand." This means, not only should you expect audiences to comment, share, and like your posts, you should be doing the same to theirs.

Followers tend to engage with profiles that align with their views, values, interests, and beliefs. By knowing your audience, you can better adapt your social identity to align with that of theirs.

Be Committed or Be Forgotten

There are over 2 billion users on Facebook, more than 700 million on Instagram, and over 330 million on Twitter. Content is getting shared constantly, making it easy for yours to be forgotten or go unnoticed.

When you started adding followers to your profiles, you made commitment to consistently share content relevant to your brand. To help you maintain an active social presence, try creating a social media schedule. You can plan content weeks in advance, helping you keep your commitment to your followers.

Herd Mentality

People are influenced by what others in their immediate surroundings like and social media is no different. Posts have a higher chance of continuing engagement when they have more likes and shares. This makes your content desirable because others have shown interest in it.

The Do's and Don'ts of Engagement

Tell Your Story

The content you post should tell a story about who you are and what your brand stands for. If you are sharing content that isn't yours, write a status update to go with it, adding a personal touch. This shows that you have a connection with what you're posting, inciting a reaction from your audience.

Audience Inquiry

A great way to spark conversation is by asking audiences a question. Whether it's about what kind of home they want to move into or how they feel about the change in housing prices, a question relevant to your brand is always a great conversation starter. You can even try creating Live Interactive Polls on Instagram to get live responses from followers.

LOL

They say laughter is the best medicine. Sharing funny images or memes, jokes, or videos is a great way to share content and get the engagement you want. However, be respectful to your followers and don't try to be funny all the time; you still want to be taken seriously.

The News

You are your audience's housing expert. They depend on you for up-to-date news regarding property taxes, real estate legislation alerts, and updates on whether or not the market is increasing in value. Sharing newsworthy stories on your profiles is the best way of doing this; however, try to stay politically neutral, keep personal rants personal, and always think of your professional career first.

Mix It Up

It's easy to get repetitive on social media, especially when trying to stay consistent with your updates. However, to keep your audience interested and engaged with your posts, you need to mix things up a bit. Try posting images one day, sharing a blog the next, or going live to showcase a listing.

Your social presence will continue to grow as long as you create and implement a strong social media strategy, and getting to know your target audience will help you create the right content to drive engagement.

To view the original article, visit the Homes.com blog.