#EastDallasIs a Social Media Success! Six Tips to Increase Social Media Engagement

I recently had the chance to help plan and execute a social media strategy for a community project in East Dallas. The goal of the project was to build awareness and support for a new co-brand for East Dallas – “Lake & Garden District” – while rallying the entire community around enhancing the value of living in, doing business in, spending money in and playing in the East Dallas community. This viral campaign was a huge success and it all started with creating a Facebook and Instagram page to reach the large community of East Dallas. Additionally, we engaged with traditional media, hosted and attended community events and used yard signs as a way to create buzz.

The social media outreach for this community project was well received and gained attention from the community and the media almost immediately. In fact, the Facebook page went from zero to 935 fans in one week! The Lake & Garden District’s social media pages have been steadily growing since they launched on Feb. 6, 2015. To make your social media strategy a success, I've outlined a few tips below to grow your online engagement.  

       
1. Get Visual – The reach and impressions for the Lake & Garden District Facebook page were highest when we posted fun visual content. Posts that had videos, photos and links to community news content were viewed and shared the most. Here are the top five posts from the Lake & Garden District Facebook page:

Our number one post to date with a reach of 7.2K+.

2. Sharing is Caring – Share posts, photos and videos from your followers. Social media is a way to have a conversation with your fans and followers. By liking and sharing content from others, you’re building a relationship and humanizing your organization. A few well-known and not-so-well- known organizations that are masters at this include @AnniesHomeGrown, @Netflix, @PizzaHut and @TacoBell.

3. Be Strategic – There are a myriad of ways to gather data about your posts and your fans to maximize the impact of your posts. Learn when your users are on social media and plan your posts around this schedule, posting on the most “popular” days and times when your fans are more likely to see and engage with your content.

4. Go Offline – This may sound counter-intuitive for a social media strategy, but engaging with your audience face-to-face is a great way to strengthen your relationships and build a fan base outside of social media. Whether you plan an event or simply encourage shoppers at your store to use a hashtag, having that positive in-person rapport translates to more fans online. 

5. Be Selective – It’s a rarity that a single company or organization needs to be on every social media channel. Consider your audience before you create a Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook page.  For the visually-heavy Lake & Garden District, we recommended starting with a Facebook and Instagram page because we knew we’d be creating photo contests, sharing hashtags and asking our audience to share images and stories of East Dallas.  Facebook and Instagram were the perfect tools for us and they continue to be the social media sites we utilize to reach our diverse audience. 

6. Create a Dialogue – As a way to not only reach, but engage our audience we encouraged fans to participate in the community project by sharing an #EastDallasSelfie or filling in the blank to this simple phrase: “East Dallas Is…” We encouraged our fans to share and post their “East Dallas stories” on our social media pages and on yard signs. The result was an overwhelmingly positive outpouring of support and community pride as our fans shared countless photos out and about in East Dallas along with numerous messages of what East Dallas means to them.

This post was contributed by Krystal Morris. @KrystalNMorris

#EastDallasIs a Social Media Success! Six Tips to Increase Social Media Engagement