Your Social Media Engagement Questions Answered

Consistently generating new ideas to enhance social media engagement can be a challenging task for anyone. The team at CivicPlus® can certainly relate. That’s what has inspired us to put together the following Q&A-style piece packed with quick and easy tips to spark engagement on any social media platform. If you are tasked with social media management for your local government agency, and you’re struggling to find new and exciting ways to engage with residents, this article is for you.

Top 7 Questions About Social Media Engagement

1. How Can I Increase Social Media Engagement?

Social media posts with visuals and multimedia content garner more engagement than text alone. Images, videos, GIFs, infographics, memes, charts, and more can help convey messages more clearly, attract attention, and evoke emotion to foster engagement. For example, you can use a video to demonstrate how your online recreation program registration process works, an infographic to summarize key agenda and meeting points, or a tasteful meme to inject some humor.

According to Venngage survey respondents, original graphics like infographics and illustrations perform best, while stock photos perform the worst out of all visual formats. On the multimedia side of the equation, short-form video has the highest ROI of all marketing trends, according to marketers surveyed by HubSpot.

2. How Often Should I Post on Social Media to Maximize Engagement?

According to Sprout Social data, the industry average is 11 times per day across all social media platforms. On a platform-by-platform basis, recommendations and industry averages are:

• Facebook: 4-5 times per day
• Instagram: 1-2 times per day
• LinkedIn: Not more than once per day
• Pinterest: Not more than once per day
• TikTok: 1-4 times per day
• X (Twitter): 3-4 times per day

3. Do I Need to Tailor My Posts for Each Social Media Platform?

Yes. While cross-posting, or posting the exact same piece of content on different social media platforms, can save you time on content creation — platform requirements, audiences, and algorithms vary. For instance, your how-to video can do wonders on YouTube, but the engagement factor might disappoint you on Instagram. The point is that what works on one platform might not work on another, and what resonates on one network might fall flat on another.

The secret lies in understanding the preferences of each platform. So, instead of copying and pasting the same content everywhere, take the time to customize the content accordingly.

4. Should I Be Using a Social Media Post Scheduler? What Are the Best Practices for Using One?

Yes. Unlike copy-paste cross-posting, using a scheduling tool will save you time without compromising efficacy or engagement. The key is to invest in the right tool and master its usage.

The right tool will allow you to schedule social media posts and other resident communications in advance, via multiple platforms and channels. We recommend leveraging one the most accurate, reliable, and efficient solutions purpose-built for government agencies like yours — CivicPlus’ Social Media Archiving software — to maintain compliance with public records laws and manage your social media accounts in real time.

The best practices for using our Social Media Archiving software can be found in the help center.

5. What Should I Do If a Social Media Platform’s Algorithm Clearly Changes and it Affects Engagement?

To help you stay ahead of social media platform algorithm changes, consider adopting evergreen tactics such as:

• Crafting relevant and engaging captions to encourage residents to react positively
• Using clear calls to action (CTAs) to direct residents to take the next desired step
• Asking questions that invite responses and encourage the sharing of thoughts
• Replying to or resharing posts from accounts that engage with your content
• Choosing hashtags and keywords strategically
• @-tagging other accounts in your posts
• Optimizing post timing and frequency

6. If a Particular Social Media Platform Doesn’t Perform Well for My Agency, Should I Continue to Post There?

Actively maintaining accounts across all social media platforms is likely a waste of your time and effort. Your audience can’t be everywhere and neither can you and your staff.

For example, if your residents lean toward an older demographic, they are far less likely to be scrolling TikTok. You might produce the best TikTok video ever, but it will have little-to-no impact on your target audience. You need to be as present and effective as possible on the social media platforms where your residents actually spend their time.

7. How Do I Keep Up With Social Media Management When Engagement is Booming?

When engagement increases, the key to maintaining a safe space where residents feel welcome is to also increase monitoring. The more residents you attract to your social media content, the more comments and chatter you inspire.

The good news is that the CivicPlus Social Media Archiving software takes care of the monitoring for you. Keyword alerts allow agencies to set up notifications for topics and sentiments they need to keep an eye on, alleviating the burden of having to watch social media accounts 24/7/365 (which we know is impossible, so why not let tech do it for you?). Take a self-guided demo now to see how it works.