9 Ways Wellness Brands Can Increase Engagement Using Social Media
This is a guest post for the Aventive Studio blog written by Eleanor Hecks.
With all the wellness, skincare, and beauty brands out there, figuring out how to stand out from the competition is crucial to your business success. Social media levels the playing field and lets smaller brands reach their target audience with less chatter and noise than you might find via other marketing mediums.
The GWI Global Wellness Economy Report shows the industry is worth approximately $4.5 trillion with a 6.4% annual growth rate. Trends change from time to time, such as immune health being a top contender amidst the current pandemic.
With massive growth comes competition. Increasing engagement on social media ensures you reach your target audience and get an edge over your competitors, and here are nine tips to help you accomplish that!
1. Educate Your Audience
Not every tip you post has to be article-length. You can also send out quick reminders about how to ramp up healthy choices. If your brand only focuses on promoting itself, then you’re missing out on a big part of social media, which includes engagement.
Throw an invitation out and let your audience ask questions. Work on teaching people how to live healthy lives, and you’ll naturally attract those most interested in what you offer.
2. Become a Micro-Influencer
It’s great to work with influencers and spread the word about your brand, but you should also strive to become a micro-influencer.
In an influencer marketing benchmark report, researchers found 48% of marketing professionals felt building a relationship with their audience was one of the most important things they could do.
How do you build that connection? Engage in a conversation, share articles you think they might enjoy, and try to help the your audience solve their pain points. Once you have 1,000 or so followers, keep them engaged by asking what they’d most like to see you share next.
3. Offer Freebies
People love a good free offer, so think about what adds value to your wellness brand. For example, you wouldn’t give away a motorcycle in a sweepstakes, but you might give out a fitness watch.
You can also offer lead generation freebies such as a webinar, course, ebook, or software. What are your customers most likely to want? If you offer the tool or resource for free, you’ll attract even more customers who are similar to those you already have.
4. Seek Trending Hashtags
One way to get people talking on your social media accounts is to tap into current events and trending hashtags. Make sure the topic is relevant to your industry, and then go for it.
For example, if your ideal clients love sports and the Super Bowl is a trending topic, go ahead and tap into that! You can share your favorite player or team and ask who others like.
5. Post Videos
A recent poll by Pew Research Center shows that around 81% of Americans use YouTube frequently. One way to drive traffic to your pages is by adding video. You can livestream a reveal of your latest products or share some how-to tips on YouTube.
Many marketers find video an effective selling tool. The format naturally engages users and drives new traffic your way. You can also upload a video to YouTube and embed it on your website and share it on other social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.
6. Add Value
Spend time on social platforms and pay attention to the questions people have and their concerns. When you can add value to the conversation, jump in and do so.
Be careful you don’t just spam groups and drop your own links, though. No one likes feeling they’re getting a hard push to buy something!
For example, it’s okay to answer a question, but it’s often not okay to add a link to your page unless invited to do so. It’s okay to mention a resource, but it’s usually frowned upon to link to your outside resource unless invited to by the group admins.
7. Personalize Your Efforts
Spend time creating buyer personas. What does your average customer want? What language is most likely to reach them and initiate a reaction? Look for ways to personalize your social media efforts and tailor your content to these personas.
You can start by sharing things you find interesting, but as your business grows, you really need to focus on the wants and needs of your followers. Try to share things they’ll want to share with others, so your posts go viral.
8. Ask for Feedback
Post to your social media wall and ask what they like about your posts. What do they want to know more about? What do they wish you’d stop posting?
Most people following your business likely follow similar ones. They may have ideas for how you can compete that you’ve not thought of. Gather all their feedback and implement the ideas that make the most sense for your company.
9. Host a Contest
Get your users sharing information about your brand. Think about some of the past contests and campaigns you’ve seen, such as shoe companies encouraging followers to snap an image of where they’ve gone in their shoes and uploading it with a particular hashtag.
Your goal is to get your name in front of their friend lists, so these types of contests can help you expand your reach by at least a few hundred people for every follower you have.
Measure Results
Pay attention to the built-in analytics most social media platforms offer to business owners. Which of your past posts performed best? How can you repeat those efforts?
You may want to use a tool such as Hootsuite or Buffer to see when the best time to post your next engagement might be. Changing things up and posting on a Saturday instead of a Friday can make a huge difference in how many likes a post receives.
Be open to trying new things, and pay attention to what your competitors do. Over time, your engagement rates will go up and you’ll get more benefit from your social media presence.
About the Author
Eleanor Hecks is the editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. She was the director at a marketing agency prior to becoming a freelance web designer. Eleanor lives in Philly with her husband and dog, Bear.