How to Engage Your Fans on Social Media: 9 Tips from the Experts

It was a hectic late afternoon last Monday in Cairo when Egyweb‘s CEO Ahmed El-Rifai got on stage at the Digital Media Forum. The event, which concludes today, gathers 500 technology and media specialists to share their hands-on experience in digital marketing, advertising, and public participation.

With a growing 22 million Facebook user base in Egypt, and a smashing average of between 1000 to 1500 stories posted on Facebook daily, it is likely that a brand post misses out on audience reach. So Barakabits decided to jot down some of the experts’ best tips on how to engage your fans in 2015.

1) Don’t focus on fanbase: Engagement should be your target. “Fanbase is a dead KPI. The more your fan base is, the less your reach is,” El-Rifai said.

2) Boosting content is inevitable, and not that expensive. What to boost? Either focus on creative content, or promote all your posts with small budgets.

3) Users in the past were ready to sit and watch, but people are now looking for content that allows them to interact. Engage through photo competitions, trivia games, and online games. Build entertainment for your audience.

4) If you do photo competitions, consider hashtags across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and different channels.

5) In Egypt, 70% of Facebook access comes from mobile phones; so if you do something on Facebook that only reaches desktop users, such as Facebook apps, it will reach a tiny 30%. Concentrate on mobile content.

6) Get insights on your audience. “Social media is a very rich source of information about our audience,” says Trendak‘s CEO Mohamed Abdelmottaleb, When you have a good fanbase, you can utilize that information to analyze not only how many users respond but, more importantly, what they are saying about your brand.

7) Aside from content, opinion leaders are key. “Brands should focus on bringing bloggers and influencers on board, they are guerilla marketing,” El-Rifai says.

8) Interact. Engage elsewhere, not only through your pages. Look at how people are talking about you, and respond to them.

9) “If you are going to create content, do something useful. Make content that is contextual and subtle, don’t force the brand on the user, ” says Sumermama‘s founder Yasmine El-Mehairy.

For more information: Visit the Digital Media Forum‘s website or follow the hashtag #DMFCairo for live tweets from the event.