For salespeople and digital marketers, this means understanding the specifics of what hooks a group of people. Doing so is just the first step to creating a campaign that would appeal to your target audience.

But how exactly do you engage with your customers at a marketing perspective?

The traditional definition would go something like:

• Creating a strong pitch for the product or service you offer
• Providing discounts, sales and promos
• Doing online surveys

While these three still have their effect in drawing the attention of a market, this is no longer enough. With the increased number of content providers online, people now have more options in terms of finding information relevant to the product they want to consume.

You’re no longer a solo player in the business arena.

Even startup entrepreneurs and businesses smaller than you, could be a direct competitor. With this perspective in mind, how can one win against the rest? The answer lies greatly on how well you do with Social engagement.

By its very essence, this means liking content, answering comments and queries, sharing quality posts and reblogging articles that are relevant to what you promote. But in reality, doing all of these diligently doesn’t guarantee success. After all, everyone’s doing the same thing.

Social engagement is more than just mechanically reaching out to your market through replies. It’s about building a relationship by knowing what they need and providing it to them either directly or indirectly through your own content.

It’s not a one-time thing. Just because you get to answer their inquiries once does not mean you already have them on your side. Maintaining it is the bigger challenge, and it’s not easy. To keep your audience engaged, you must be able to keep doing the following:

• Provide high-quality content (articles, images, videos, slideshows, infographics, etc.)
• Maintain an active social media presence not just automated content posting
• Answer questions and address concerns as prompt as possible
• Stay on trend without deviating from your brand or identity

These things cannot be done in a single week and need continued effort throughout the year. It’s important to know that while many companies have invested time on creating a marketing plan, not everyone has managed to keep it up and track its progress closely. This eventually resulted to the failure in the campaign, thus the loss in money.

Should you or should you not hire a social media professional?

This really depends on your company needs. For big ventures that cover several product lines, the need to maintain Social Media accounts for each one might be necessary. This is difficult with only a single person running the entire thing and therefore demands additional manpower.

For smaller and experimental projects, maintaining social media activity comes easier. Still, it’s best to weigh your goals with the cost needed in hiring manpower.

The major benefit that comes with hiring a social media specialist is the added security and assurance that your content goes out at the best time, with better targeting. Naturally, this means you’ll have to pay additional cost for the specialist’s salary but if you don’t mind the price and are confident with the returns that an experts could do, then it’s a good investment.

How do you deal with tough market competition?

One thing you must keep in mind is the fact that there is not bulletproof solution to the art of social media engagement. This is the common mitake by new digital marketers who jump into the field and do multiple strategies in hopes of getting more attention from the public.

While bulk activity could indeed attract attention, the probability of it lasting for long is slim. Dealing with the Tough Market Competition does not end with one success. It is a continuous process and there will always be new guys who’ll jump into the bandwagon and challenge the efficiency of your current strategy.

If you wish to ace the competition, you must have guys who can work diligently for you and who are not afraid to try out new things that could benefit your campaign as a whole.

Social media engagement is a tedious task. But if you do it right, it can be very rewarding and fun!