Social media has connected people from around the world in ways that nobody could have expected. Even the invention of the internet itself could not produce the level of interconnectivity that social media has infused into our day-to-day lives. Ultimately, social media has become a place to not only connect with friends and family, but to meet new people, find great content, organize and even run a business. Many brands rely on social media to generate bigger audiences and expand their reach; because of this, social media engagement is important. Today, we’ll discuss four ways in which you can short-circuit your existing social media dynamic and produce better engagement rates for the content you create.

Spark a Conversation

Social media is known for intense discussions and disagreements. While this can be stressful for those involved, it can also be a great way for brands to engage with fans and start a dialogue. By pinging URLs to late-breaking controversial stories or asking a question in which there’ll be passionate opinions, you can help augment the level of activity on your brand’s social media page and initiate running dialogues that increase visibility. As more and more people begin to engage, more and more of their friends will see the activity in their feeds and will begin to engage as well.

Tag, Give Credit

Many influencers and content creators on the web will share your content and engage with it under the right circumstances. If you want to increase the number of people who are being brought into the conversation, then find a way to make posts in which you give credit and/or tag people who have helped influence the discussion or have otherwise provided a contribution. This can often lead to those individuals sharing and engaging with the post as well, which will boost the number of people who may engage due to visibility.

Double Down on Multimedia

Social media is a place for sharing, not a place for writing dissertations. Study after study has shown that social multimedia performs anywhere from two to three times better than traditional posts in terms of the amount of engagement. You can use both pictures and video to increase engagement and ensure that people are liking, sharing and commenting on your posts. Likewise, be sure that your blog posts and articles have compelling images featured in their image previews when shared on Facebook, as this will increase engagement.

Use Social Media Management Tools

Lastly, if your engagement rates aren’t what you’d like them to be, consider adopting one or more social media management and engagement tools to help improve the process. When combined with a consistent posting regimen that features quality content, your engagement rates will go through the roof. There are literally dozens of tools that can be used to improve performance and ultimately increase engagement on a wide variety of posts. The tools won’t do the work themselves, though: remember that you have to continue posting and engaging yourself.

By creating the conditions for conversations, giving credit where credit is due, using social media management tools and committing to the use of multimedia, you can dramatically improve engagement rates and have more active engagements on social media. What other things have you noticed improves engagement on social media? Let us know in the comments below.