Did you know that if you have consistently low engagement on Facebook the bar for achieving it the next time is raised even higher? That’s how the algorithims work.
While this may seem unfair, the truth is all of the networks favor people and businesses that already have a proven audience. To make room for them, much of everything and everyone else gets ignored.
In our media saturated world this makes complete sense. These channels are vying for people’s attention, so they want to deliver media that is most in demand.
Here’s basically how it works on Facebook. One, two, three strikes and you are out! If you publish three consecutive duds on your Facebook page, the algorithm reasons you are not ready for the big leagues and sends you to the minors.
You need to get some hits, and that means stepping back to assess what works well on the respective channels, while concurrently encouraging engagement with it.
To Earn More Engagement Start Engaging
The engagement metrics the respective social networks use to validate your authority include likes, comments, shares and retweets (or the equivalent). If your content is not earning these signals, especially shares, then you need a new plan.
Apply a similar analysis to other media channels, such as your blog and digital newsletters. If you are not receiving engagement, then either the content is missing the mark or you simply need to open the door to feedback.
I encourage and receive a responses to my newsletter every week. They are greatly appreciated because they help to make it better.
How about you?
The simplest way to enhance your engagement is developing a system for doing so. Here are a few ideas.
#1 – Ask influentials to share your content. You have to ask nicely and carefully choose before inquiring or you may close some doors forever. Of course, be sure the content is useful and relevant to their interests, and clearly communicate that.
#2 – Freshen your lists of subscribers and followers. Most of us have email lists of hundreds to thousands, but we only occasionally engage with a few. Consider personally emailing 5-10 subscribers every week to connect and warm up your relationship with them. Apply similar tactics to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on.
#3 – Seek sustainable impact. The surest way to sustain personal and professional relevance on all of your media channels is to test and analyze what earns engagement and publish more of it. Commit to making everything you publish a winner, because one hit wonders are soon forgotten.
That’s the goal. People like to engage with winners, and true winners graciously create opportunities for personal, one-to-one engagement.
About the Author: Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.
He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+
This is Episode 05 of 
One of Ryan’s biggest successes within the insurance industry was using digital media to answer the questions that customers shared with him.
The true value of the respective social media channels is finding and building your audience.
