How to get more engagement on social media

Understanding psychology does has its benefits. Understanding psychological principles of human behavior can benefit you in social media marketing.

Children's Curiosity.

Have you heard a kid asking, "Why ... ?"

"Why do things work the way they do?"

Young Children do not lie. They will continue to probe until they get a good answer.

However, adults think it too, even if they do not voice it out.

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Have you watched a political debate and gotten frustrated by the politicians dodging direct questions?

How do you feel? Do you get frustrated?

This is the same when you engage in social media and do not give a satisfying answer. People do get frustrated and you will lose your audience. However, when you answer in full clear details, you may start to build loyal followers.

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So the big question is: HOW DO YOU ANSWER IN FULL CLEAR DETAILS?

1) You need to do your research. There are many sites like Yahoo Answers, Quora and various forums on Linkedin and other technical sites which hold the answers, and you can find it using your favorite search engine.

Of course you will get a lot of answers, and some of them will be good while others rubbish. This is the problem with search engines today, and it they could give you what you want perfectly, then your social media engagement would not be required.

So to add value, you need to sift through the various answers, get a good understand of the topic itself, and add in your own knowledge. When you are ready, answer it on your own website. (or blog)



2) Now, you need to find the best way to answer them. Getting all the research materials, curating the content, putting together is a well organized fashion is key.

Simple is better. Avoid using too many technical terms, and edit over to make sure it reads well. To do that well, you need to ask yourself some questions.

a) How long is it going to be? (Short answer? Video? Blog? )
b) Which is the best format? (Video? Infographic? Text?) *Visual is always best
c) Determine how you are going to present it. (pdf for download, blog, answer on quora)




3) With a good reply, think of how you can retain the audience. Perhaps give them more information, a video and other links if they join your mailing list? Have a good idea of up-selling and giving more, even if they do not pay for more, having the option to contact them next time would be a bonus.



4) Gift Economy.

Free things can come at a price. Blogs, infographics, videos full of information and data, organized in a clear and brief manner is great value for people. If they get it for free, they may follow your blog, twitter account and join your mailing list.

When a waiter gives you attention and fulfills all your requests, answers all your question and offers you a free mint at the end, would you give the waiter extra tip? They are after all doing their job.

You can apply the same principle to the influencers whom you find their blog useful. Create links to their blogs, share useful tweets and help promote others. Have good meaningful discussions on other blogs with similar topics, and these influencers may do the same as well.



5) Engage with the audience.

When someone asks a question, give a good well thought of reply. (And not those short brief ones) Ask if some of them want to contribute to your blog.

Feel free to post and share blogs on different mediums, Twitter, Facebook pages, forums and other question polling sites. Engage with others on the sites.

The more people see you, the more they will like you.



-- Robin Low

Media and Trump

It seems like for the past few days, all I get to see on the news, on my Facebook and Twitter feeds is about Trump and Star Wars. The more the media sheds attention on Trump, the more ridiculous his campaign speeches become and the more support he gets.

It seems like Donald’s trump campaign is just out to get media attention and no matter what he says, he gets to pick up more supporters. So why does the media give him so much attention?

From a PR point of view, Trump is newsworthy. He is a presidential candidate of one of the bigger party in the United States. He is touching on a lot of controversial topics like immigration and religion. He is also taking on unpopular views, which many considers racist. And now, he is the front runner of the GOP.

As you may know, different media reports do report news with different tone and opinions, but many independent media try to put out facts and the audiences connect the dots. Listening to media on both conservative radio and liberal radio, I realize that many of the programs on the radios are condemning Donald Trump, and some even resort to call him a liar and a racist, yet his reach and support seems to increase.

I realize that even now, as I’m writing this article, I’m doing research and reading more about Donald Trump. And I guess everyone has their own view and opinions, and when facts are presented to different people, they piece this information together and come up with their own conclusion.

So should the media be to provide the truth and help the audience understand the truth, however, when the media tries to explain too much and share one side of the story, it may feel as though it is not a balanced view. But for many of the viewpoints, is there even a balanced view?

With Trump’s aggressive media use and shocking statements, he does get a lot of coverage, and yet, how do you put a balanced opinion on Trump’s call to ban Muslims from travelling to the US. If the media ignores him, he can still reach many others on social media, and when media covers him, does it put the US in a bad light for having so many racist supporters?

Do we not agree on racism? Do we not know what racism is?

It is very clear that our society is fragmented, and our values and ethics differ a lot. On one hand, the statistics show that even with Trump’s stance on Mexicans and Muslims, 36% support him. But this 36% is 36% of the Republican Electoral Support not even 36% Republicans which is the minority of people in the US.

I feel that the media is covering Trump because in today’s digital media world, it is hard to get attention. Will we see Trump as Republican Presidential Candidate? It is hard to tell. Even in the country with free speech, many media don’t call a spade a spade. When Trump lies and does not check facts, it is the responsibility for the media to inform and call him out, and not to mislead.

Even when the role of media is not to protect and censor out all the racist comments, the role of media is to inform – to uncover the truth as best as it can and to put it together in a way that the audience can understand the truth, without opinions, without name calling.

-- Robin Low