8 Easy Ways To Increase Your Engagement On Social Media

What good is capturing incredible imagery for social media if you’re not complementing the algorithm? We all know the frustration of putting hours of work into scheduling posts and seeing little engagement in return. From optimal posting times, favoured content and hashtags, there’s so much to know. Luckily, our team of social media experts stay on top of the trends and know exactly how to get your content in the eyes of your followers. Discover these 8 easy ways to increase your engagement on social media.

1. Posting times
   You can’t expect your followers to see your content if you post in low engagement periods. Data shows that in hospitality, the highest engagement times are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Sunday nights at 8pm and commuter times. This makes sense considering this is when we’re most likely to pull out our phones and have a scroll. Posting in the middle of the day when people are at work or on a Friday afternoon when people are starting their weekend will always receive lower engagement as there are fewer people online at this time.

2. Consistency
   If you’re posting on social media regularly and receiving good engagement, the algorithm will prioritise your content in the feed. We would suggest posting at least 3x per week at the optimal posting times to ensure you’re getting that consistency. It’s also important that you regularly show up in the feed of your followers so that they become more familiar with your brand and start to interact with you.

3. Hashtags 
   We have seen a direct increase in social media engagement when we use hashtags. You need to have a good mix of generic hashtags to help drive engagement as well as relevant hashtags to help the right people find you, e.g. #foodporn will drive engagement but these people could be from anywhere around the world, while #newtownrestaurants is more niche and will help people in the local area find you. We would aim for around 15 hashtags to maximise engagement.

4. Community engagement
   It’s super important to build a community online and put a person behind your profile. We can do this by replying to direct messages, liking people’s comments and replying back. This not only rewards your customers for engaging with your content, but it encourages others to do the same therefore increasing your engagement online.

5. User-generated content
   We’ve noticed great engagement rates when you break up your content with high-quality tagged images of customers in your venue. This helps to bring a human element to your feed and create a sense of community. It also encourages others to take photos in your venue and upload them on social media therefore increasing your engagement online.

6. High-resolution imagery
   It’s worth investing in a photographer to gain quality imagery for your social media. Think of your profile as a magazine – it should be a curated feed of the best imagery you have to convey the quality of product. You will automatically see lowered engagement if you have images that are pixellated.

7. Cropping your images
   As simple as it may seem, we have seen huge engagement increases just from cropping images. With food and beverage shots, all the negative space should be removed so you’re able to zoom in on those dish details or perhaps the garnish of the drink which would otherwise be lost. This showcases the quality of product and makes it worthy of a double-tap.

8. Little use of graphics
   We have noticed that graphics don’t receive nearly as much engagement in the feed. We would suggest using them only once every couple of weeks to stand out in your overall feed. But we would ensure that the content you put in them is less important, e.g. not an event where you need to sell tickets as the post won’t reach as many eyes in the feed.