I am a Social Butterfly online but as boring as hell in real life!! My real life is made up of routines, sometimes very strict, to keep me sane and productive. But for me to make a name for myself and Fashion and Style Police, I needed to be very social online.
Social media is the shortest route to your target audience as almost everyone has a phone and most times they’re on social media.
It’s one thing to be on social media, it’s another to use it effectively. Although social media brings people together, it’ll take some skill to form a close connection, because you don’t have the opportunity to speak to your audience face-to-face. Consequently, people find it easier to consume content instead of engaging.
For freelancers, this may pose as a problem. If you don’t engage with your audience, then no one will know about you. Engagement is where there results are.
The good news is that you can learn how to be more social on social media. It all starts with challenging yourself to take deliberate guided steps to being more social. Here are 4 challenges to help you get started today.
Challenge #1 – Be genuinely interested in individuals
This is the foundation of being social on social media because it creates a bond that will grow into a relationship.
Genuine interest sparks conversation which is continuous, fun and engaging. It inspires questions to ask and it will help you get to know the person you’re speaking with.
Action Step: When you login to any social media platform, be genuinely interested in your target audience. You can ask them how they’re doing and what they’ve been up to and build the conversation from there.
Challenge #2 – Comment more
Tapping on the little heart icon on Instagram or the thumbs up icon on Facebook is so much easier than thinking of something witty or interesting to say about the post. For those who comment, they could just drop one-word comments like “Yes”, “Good” or “Truth”. That’s not socializing, that is spamming!
Socializing requires you to create conversation. Type out what you like about the post. Get the conversation going with a question that will get a response and tell you more about the post.
Action Step: Every time you hit the like button, make the next action you take be a comment. With continuous practice commenting will be like second nature to you.
Challenge #3 – Send a message
We get carried away with acquiring friends, followers and fans that we forget to speak to them. How many friends/followers do you have? Compared to the number of people you speak to daily, I can guarantee that it’s nowhere near half the number of friends/followers you have.
Action Step: Send a private message to at least 3 people a day. Check on them and catch up on their lives.
Challenge #4 – Join discussions
Another way to get social, is to hop into conversations on social media like the ones on discussion threads. It makes your job easier as all you have to do is to participate in the conversation giving your contribution. Twitter is a great social media platform to practice this through Twitter chats. Facebook groups are also excellent.
Action Steps: Scout around for conversations on social media you can join in and make positive contribution to keep the conversation going.
Are you a social butterfly? Do you have any tips to share?
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Thank you, for your advice. It is interesting to know how people do things.
Thanks for reading.
Great suggestions. I agree that good comments are hard to make. Great dress, for example. I mean the wearer knows that it is a great dress. A feedback on what you like about the styling of the outfit is so much more thoughtful. The big hurdle is often time.
Thanks Nicola. Time is always an issue.
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Great post, this is the start of me making more comments 😍
Ah nice. Thanks Julie.
I’ve been commenting on more blog posts lately and trying to interact a lot more. I used to never be off Twitter and took part in up to 13 (!!) networking hours a day. I was a bit obsessed. Now I’ve taken a step back from it to work on my blog, but I do miss the interaction. Time is the thing that limits me now as I usually have so much work to do I don’t have the time left for browsing social media which is a shame, but also great I’m so busy with work! 🙂
Yea good to be busy..
This is such a good post girl! Building relationships with your viewers is so important and I totally agree. You should talk more about how you built such a large wordpress following in an upcoming post!
Thank you. I will work on that.
I totally need to take up these challenges as I am guilty of building a following I forgot about engagement and whilst I engage with fellow bloggers rarely with others who are not bloggers
Yea many bloggers tend to only engage with fellow bloggers and brands.
And it is so much more fun!
Yes Nancy!
Some great tips here. Definitely some that I could do with putting into practice x
Thanks Emma.
Great suggestions 🙂 🙂 xò xo
Thank you.
Great article and hits on one of the most important part of social engagement (either online or off): you need to care. Be engaged. Go that extra mile and you’ll be rewarded with loyal and trusting followers.
Exactly. Thanks for stopping by.
I love these challenges and will definitely have to bear them in mind as I try to grow my platforms and engage with followers!
Oh good. Pls do.
Love your tips. It can seem daunting to begin with, but joining in discussions definitely helps. I like taking part in Twitter chats – I find with them already from the outset I have something in common with the others who join in,
Thanks Sarah.
Great tips! I think commenting more is great advice. I struggle to find the time some weeks.
I do struggle on some weeks too.
Damn you look good
Thank you.
Yes! It’s so important to remember the social in social media – it’s not a one way street.
Yea true that Jenni.
Wonderful post. As a fashion & lifestyle blogger I find that most of my following is tbe same. Hence, they don’t comment much despite me leaving 2-3 sentence comments specically about the caption & photo. I will definitely try the DM strategy. I also invite them to collaborate. Any other suggestions to get more engagement? More followers who simply love fashion, style & women’s empowerment.
Thank you for an engaging post.
My pleasure. Thanks for stopping by.
I’m definitely working on commenting more. It shows that you really care about others’ content and want to get to know them better. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for reading..
Great tips, I have fell out of love with social media lately I really need to start being social again x
Thanks.
This is so spot on. Have learned these same tricks my months and months of painful experimentation!! Hopefully others can benefit from your thoughtful attempt to help us navigate this world!!! 🙂
I hope so. Thanks for reading.
Oh these are great tips. I am so useless with getting involved in the conversation. I just don’t have the hours in the day which is bad. It’s something I kind of miss since having my little one. I can’t just pop on a twitter chat if it’s at bed time.
Thanks Debbie.
Great advice, I am very shy in person so being able to have conversations online is fab for me 🙂
Ah nice.
Great post with great suggestion. I’m working on commenting more!
Oh nice Kacie.
Some great advice in this post. I’m just starting out with my blog and am still trying to get the hang of it all. So far I’ve focused more on content than engagement, but I need to start commenting and engaging more on social media and WordPress! Do you think commenting on blog posts is equally as important as engagement on social media?
Yes commenting on blog posts creates a relationship with bloggers, attracts more eyeballs to your blog and helps your blog domain authority in the long run. Definitely worth it.
Very well said . I appreciate it and would rather start implementing in my life. ✌️☺️
Thanks for reading.
Very good blog..
Thank you.
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i really like that you included “action” steps. thanks for the info
Thanks for stopping by Nicole.
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