Social media engagement plays a pivotal role in determining the reach and eventual sales success of B2C brands.

Brands can make their products familiar to society through social platforms by implementing the correct customer engagement marketing tactics.

Beyond making people aware of your products, it's just as crucial to build and work on your consumer brand engagement and user acquisition.

Today you'll learn about what you can improve and how to streamline your external brand engagement with social media and hopefully reap all the benefits along the way!

  1. Drive People Through Videos 📹
  2. Ephemeral Content 🥰
  3. Make Use Of Customer Feedback 🤗
  4. Instagram Reels - Get To Know Them 🙌🏽
  5. Go With The Right Influencer 🤩
  6. Stay On Top Of Conversational Marketing 💁🏽
  7. Launch Polls And Quizzes 📝
  8. Messaging Platforms 📲
  9. Personalization Is Key👨🏼‍💻

Important disclosure: we're proud affiliates of some tools mentioned in this guide. If you click an affiliate link and subsequently make a purchase, we will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you (you pay nothing extra).

1. Drive People Through Videos 📹

Video consumption is increasing at a rapid pace  – people of all ages spend hours online on social platforms by watching video content of their favorite brands 📺.

According to a survey from Oberlo, people spend around 84 minutes per day watching videos on average.

Such statistics show just how much potential there is in engagement drivers, such as videos, and the more engaging content is, the better.

Thus, the videos’ reach is regarded as a vital metric in increasing brand awareness on social media platforms and should be at the forefront of any SMM campaigns.

For higher consumer engagement, brands know that marketing themselves through video works better than through text or images, and they capitalize on this.

Still, it doesn't mean that you can abandon posting images and text on your social media feeds. It just means the non-video content you post needs to be optimized and perfected for optimal social media engagement.

For example, if you post images and visuals on Instagram, make sure to follow the Instagram photo size guide to make sure your images look top-notch.

Nonetheless, video content is king 🤴🏽

Both Facebook and Instagram have cemented themselves as leading social media platforms, mainly due to making modifications according to the prevailing trends.

As of today, both platforms have become video-centric.

Instagram, which was introduced as a social application to share photos, has IGTV, Instagram Stories, and Reels, and all are video-based features.

Instagram video length varies greatly, so knowing the length beforehand will help you plan out your video content in advance. Let's not forget about the popular video social media platform, TikTok.

TikTok has millions of videos on the platform so to get yours noticed make sure you are creating appealing content and using the right #hashtags.

First off, you could also only film shorter-type videos on TikTok, like 15 seconds to 60-seconds videos, but this has changed recently to enable users to film for a whopping 3 minutes!

Luckily, this feature of making longer-type videos is available to every user. Just be sure to have the newest, updated version of the TikTok app.

Something useful to remember is that you can easily create trendy video content inside the TikTok app, or any other app while uploading the content to your other social media accounts.

When sharing your TikTok video to your other social media accounts, the video will automatically download and save to your device.

Furthermore, it will leave a TikTok watermark with your TikTok account handle when sharing it with other social media accounts. This is great as you ultimately want to promote your video content on all your social media accounts.

It's crucial to remember not to solely use TikTok's video content for your other social media profiles, but to still create images, IGTV, and whatever else applies to the other platforms.

As a general rule of thumb, even though video content is king, you still need to create content separate for each platform. Communications with clients will surely improve if you use video content, as it is a great engagement strategy.

Being consistent in your communications with clients will positively impact consumer loyalty intentions.

2. Ephemeral Content 🥰

Image Source: Buffer

Ephemeral Content is the short-duration temporary videos that last for mere seconds. Instagram Stories is the perfect example of ephemeral content.

Giving preference to the stories section strengthens customer relationships and drives strategies around it.

LinkedIn is another notable social media application that has recently incorporated ephemeral content in its platform.

3. Make Use Of Customer Feedback 🤗

Gaining people’s trust is an essential factor in maximizing sales, and this can be achieved through user-generated content, which helps sustain your social media posts’ retention rate.

User-generated content is the word-of-mouth marketing of the internet age. This form of content has massive engagement and results in additional customer loyalty.

How Exactly Do Brands Create User-Generated Content For Higher Social Media Engagement?

Let's assume you're the proud owner of a cafe...☕️ 🍪

You might have several customers who've been enjoying your food for a long time. Gently persuade them to come up with a post on their social media handle about how much they prefer coming to your restaurant and also about the dishes they like.

Once you share this kind of content on your brand's official social media page, these posts will be a testament to your service quality and will also drive new customers.

Today, people share their opinions more openly on social platforms. If they are delighted with a service, they won't refrain from praising it on social media.

Furthermore, studies have shown that 50% of millennials' decision about how they perceive a brand relies on word-of-mouth recommendations in today's climate.

Accordingly, what your customers are saying about your brand online is very important. Monitoring all the online platforms through social listening will help you reach out to those people and ask if it'd be okay to re-share their posts.

Such posts will enhance the credibility of your brand among your target audience and increase your sales.

Utilizing your customers' feedback in such a manner helps increase your brand awareness, consumer brand engagement, social proof, and hopefully, sales.

4. Instagram Reels - Get To Know Them 🙌🏽

Reels launched by Instagram this year are gaining momentum as a primary marketing medium. The 60-second video is still long enough to capture the viewer's attention and promote something simultaneously.

Initially, content creators only had 15-seconds to use when making Reels, which shows that Reels are booming and that it's here to stay for the long run.

Reels are a perfect way to attract Gen Z, who prefer short-form video content.

So, you can take advantage of Instagram Reels as a tool to turn this age group into your customers.

Instagram doesn't have any barriers when it comes to creating engaging Instagram Reels. You also get access to the Instagram effects gallery that comes with a distinct range of filters.

This allows for lots of customization on your end. Today, every user has the ability to even create their own Instagram filters that can also be used and shared on Facebook.

This will definitely increase your consumer engagement and even your internal brand engagement.

Internal marketing motivates your employees to be authentic, which shows and will ultimately increase your employee engagement and customer engagement marketing.

Think about it; if there isn't any internal brand engagement, you cannot expect to have a high level of external brand engagement.

5. Go With The Right Influencer 🤩

@itsjojosiwa

Baller @bangenergy @bangenergy.ceo ##BangEnergy ##CaffeineFree ##Ad

♬ original sound - JoJo Siwa

Influencer Marketing is gaining more momentum than ever. The (mostly) great content provided by these influencers is attracting viewers who want to see their favorite celebrities.

Due to influencers, TikTok was able to achieve a whopping growth in a short period of time.

TikTok has more influencers than any other social platform, which is the primary factor behind its user base.

However, earning profit through influencer marketing solely depends on the influencer chosen by you and his engagement strategies to drive people.

Picking an influencer in your niche will ease the process of getting in touch with your potential customers.

It can be a good idea to break your target audience into segments, which entails that you find specific influencers to help with your marketing for specific segments of your audience.

Doing so can help form self-brand connections, which lead to the audience having an emotional engagement with your brand.

For instance, if you have a restaurant, you should collaborate with the food bloggers on Instagram or Facebook because these bloggers’ followers will be food lovers who are always hungry (pun intended) for new content.

By collaborating with these bloggers (who are in your niche) and promoting your restaurant, reaching the right potential clients should be easy enough.

Owing to the growing demand for influencers, Instagram has recently come up with the Instagram influencer dashboard.

The dashboard provides comprehensive data about an influencer, such as their niche, post engagement, etc.

Still, doing thorough research about their reputation before doing business with them is a must. You want to know what you're getting into. This entails doing some research about the followers of the influencer.

For example, if you're going to collab, you want to make sure that the influencer gained their audience through an organic manner, as this has an impact on loyalty intentions from your audience.

This way, you'll be sure that you target a specific intended audience rather than users who are not really interested in your brand to obtain consumer brand engagement.

Usually, you can quickly get in contact with influencers via the email address included in their bio.

6. Stay On Top Of Conversational Marketing 💁🏽

Developing a conversation with your followers will help in maximizing the retention rate as you establish emotional connections.

It also helps to understand your customers better, such as what their interests and expectations are from your brand. Hence, you can make modifications to the product and your marketing strategy based on online emotional engagement.

Through communication with clients, you can learn valuable insights about your active clients, improving your brand relationships along the way. Many social platforms have their very own features that work best for conversational marketing.

Go Live 👋🏼

Go live on social media to get the conversation going between you and your audience

The live feature present across all the major social platforms can be utilized as a useful conversational tool, enhancing consumer brand engagement. This feature allows you to interact with your followers in real-time.

People can ask their queries and share their thoughts in the comment section.

By replying to their questions and interacting with your customers, you get one step closer to them.

7. Launch Polls And Quizzes 📝

You can use the stories' section of both Facebook and Instagram to launch polls and quizzes for better social media engagement.

For instance, if you have decided to offer any one of the food items from your restaurant at a discount, you can leave the decision to your customers by launching a poll.

By doing it this way, the customers will feel that you value their opinion. Moreover, people will also come to know that you are about to slash prices in your restaurant.

8. Messaging Platforms 📲

Messaging platforms have an impressive demographic variety, which can be capitalized on as practical conversational tools. Facebook Messenger currently has 1.4 billion global users and is anticipated to rise to 2.5 billion by 2022.

WhatsApp and WeChat also have a considerable user base. You can also use these platforms as a medium for conversational marketing and strengthening your customer relationships.

It's crucial to be active on these messaging platforms in order to establish external brand engagement. Altogether, messaging platforms are great engagement drivers.

9. Personalization Is Key👨🏼‍💻

There's no way around it - personalization will be a crucial factor for the growth of B2C business in the coming years. If you are aiming to beat your competitors, then you have to be open to personalization.

Launch ads or posts on your social media pages stating that you will customize products. You can also post pictures of the personalized products on the stories' section of Facebook and Instagram.

Personalization of products should be prioritized in marketing campaigns.

Launching personalized ads will help you with convincing a prospect to turn into your customer.

For instance, if a person checks a product on your e-commerce website and leaves midway without taking any action, you can launch a customized ad for him on his Facebook feed.

You can frame the ad by highlighting that you have lowered the price of the product viewed by him.

For example, you can incorporate Facebook Pixel into your website, and it will provide data about your website visitors and their actions.

By utilizing the data, you can craft customized ads and launch them in that specific person's Facebook feed. Personalization cannot be left out of the engagement drivers' marketing mix, as this has an impact on loyalty intentions.

Wrapping Up 💁🏻‍♂️

The bottom line is that the future of B2C relies on digital marketing. Millennials are also used to making purchases through digital platforms.

The insights given above will help you craft a dynamic social media strategy and elevate your business to drive external brand engagement ultimately.