5 Top Tips for Increasing Social Media Engagement

Hi, I’m Claire, a Brand Photographer in Surrey, UK.

As a fellow small business owner, I know how developing know, like and trust with your ideal client is paramount to growing your business.

Below are my 5 top tips for increasing engagement, raising awareness and creating varied content on your social media channels. Enjoy!

1. Share Testimonials

Using reviews, testimonials and kind words that clients and customers have said about you and your business, are a great way to show and share social proof. We live in an era of trust pilot and review sites, and I know reviews are one of the first things I look at, before making a new purchase.

So my first tip, is to start gathering these from your customers and clients. It doesn’t have to be in a formal way, you can use kind words they’ve written in an email to you, or comments posted on your social channels. Sharing these in the format they were sent, eg a screenshot of a WhatsApp message is also really powerful, as it shows they are truly genuine.

If you don’t currently have any, send a quick message to some of your most recent customers or clients, asking for a couple of sentences about how they found working with you.

Set yourself a target to post a review or testimonial every couple of weeks.

2. Show Behind the Scenes

People absolutely LOVE seeing behind the scenes!

It might be a selfie of you in your home office or workspace, or getting out and about on your way to meet a client. Increase engagement by asking people to share a photo of them in their workspace as well. Tag me in if you do and I can share mine 😊

If you are an artist or sell something you make, you could share a speeded-up video of you in action. Or you getting your equipment and tools set up for the day. This is so much fun to do, so play around with it! Short videos are great to post up on your Facebook stories.

For some extra engagement, perhaps you could ask your audience to choose something to go into your next creation, eg colour, flavour or pattern.

3. Be more visible

The next tip is for you to step out from behind your phone/camera and to show yourself! We all feel nervous about this, I know I do! But I also know that people buy from people and seeing the who, and what behind a business really helps to build know, like and trust, and ultimately increase sales to grow your business.

Just think about where you buy from and what makes that business stand out. If I was looking to buy from a local business, and I had several to choose from, the one where I can see the person and really understand the passion they have for their business and what they do will definitely entice me to buy with them.

4. Tell your story

Your Insta feed might be a stream of beautifully photographed products. But does it show the passion for what you do and the person behind it all?

Talking about you and your business, why you set it up, your passion and any challenges you have, really helps to build a connection with your audience. Imagery can really show that you love what you do and that people will be getting so much knowledge, passion and experience when they work or buy from you.

I know it can be hard to take this leap so I challenge you to do a post this week that tells the story of how and why you started your business, with a photo of you – and see what engagement you get! I would love to hear from you if you do this, so do tag me in on the post.

5. Provide value

As well as providing an amazing service or product, you will have so much knowledge and experience that can help others. Can you provide quick wins, simple hacks or quotes that will resonate with your potential customers or clients? Use things like #motivationalmonday, #tiptuesday or #throwbackthursday to share insights that will gain engagement, show your audience the value that you can provide and establish you as an expert in your field.

Thank you for reading and I hope you have found these tips helpful! As I brand photographer, I know a business brand shoot can create a bank of engaging, professional imagery to go with all the content above. I specialise in telling brand stories and help people become more visible in their businesses to increase engagement and ultimately help to grow your business.

I love to hear from new people and would be delighted to chat more about how a business brand photography session could help your small business flourish. If you would like to find out more, please contact me at claire@clairewormleyphotography.co.uk.

Best wishes

Claire x