Why are you on Social Media?

If its just to sell a membership, then there is no value for your non-toastmaster audience. Your target audience will move on. You will waste your time.

Want to know the secret to engaging people on social media?

• Offer value-added content, and
• Be deliberate.

To attract followers, your posts need to offer value and you need to be strategic about it:

Offer value-added content

Why do people read self help books, subscribe to magazines or YouTube channels?

Because they want to be better.

Does your content do that? Do you post quick tips on how a non-toastmaster can improve their situation?

If you’re not creating posts for others to learn something new, then your target audience will move on to someone who does.

Don’t consider yourself an expert?

By virtual of being a toastmaster, you are an expert in the eyes of a non-toastmaster!

Toastmasters International (TI) offers many communication and leadership tips that you can use in your social media post https://www.toastmasters.org/resources/public-speaking-tips.

If you subscribe to TI’s news alerts, you will have timely monthly seasonal tips arriving to your email inbox https://mediacenter.toastmasters.org/2021-12-28-Toastmasters-Offers-7-Tips-for-Making-New-Years-Resolutions-Stick

Don’t use all your tips in one post; post one tip. Ask your audience to follow your social media platform to get notification for more tips, then schedule a Toastmaster tip to publish on your platform every day or every other day. Sell the transformation, not the product.

Add a call-to-action with every post, such as “to learn more, visit ….” then insert a link to either your blog page on your club’s website, the blog page to the District website, the resources section to the TI website, or invite them to your next meeting to see how Toastmasters put the tip into practice.

In fact, to keep it fresh sounding, rotate your call-to-action, such as invite them to view the IT website in one post, your website on the next, the District website on the third post, then invite them to your club meeting/open house/workshop/contest. By rotating your call-to-action, you’ll sound more conversational, not lecture, and you are speaking about them, not you.

Always give value

Be deliberate – Have a strategy

Once you start regularly publishing your value-added posts, monitor your matrix. Month by month, compare your published posts to see what trended when, and the type of content that resonated with your audience. If a post generated more engagement such as views, likes, and shares, build on that post by regularly adding a similar tip.

You can also see the time of day when your audience is more likely to view your post. Use that information to schedule your posts for maximum engagement.

Sharing posts from others helps. If you share interesting content posted by other clubs, they’ll be more likely to share your content in return. Consider sharing social media posts published by TI or District 86 to add some variety to your page and keep it feeling fresh in the eyes of your audience.

Posting value-added content to a great way to attract attention, but don’t stop there. Your goal isn’t for people just to see your post, but to have them like, comment, and share:

• Ask for it
• Make it mobile
• Get visual
• Ask for comments
• Keep the conversation going

The easiest way is to ask for it.

Ask your club members to follow, like, comment and share. Ask your family and friends to do the same. Ask your club members to ask their family and friends to follow, like, comment and share. And after so many posts, switch out your “visit our website/meeting/event etc.” call-to-action with an ask of them to share the post.

Optimize everything for a mobile view.

According to The Global Statistics (https://www.theglobalstatistics.com/canada-social-media-statistics), the number of Internet users in Canada is 35.63 million, and the number of social media users via mobile is 30.65 million. Considering Canada’s population is over 38 million (source: https://www.statcan.gc.ca), relatively speaking, Canadians consume a lot of social media on their mobile devices.

Given that information, are you reaching your audience effectively? Check your post on your cell phone; how does it read? Are links displaying correctly? Is your club’s profile picture, cover photo, banner, and the other fixed assets on your platform showing well on a cell phone?

Get visual; images tell a story.

Visuals boost engagement. Keep photos or graphics simple, clear, and focused on telling your story – your audience should be able to tell by your image what your post is about. Ensure your image is on brand; you don’t want to confuse your audience about what your club represents (remember, its about them, not you).

To guarantee engagement, ask your audience to comment.

At the end of your post, pose a question and have your reader answer with a “like”, such as: “Do you agree?”, “Are you ready”, “Can you relate?”, or similar question.

Another way to gain engagement is to ask for an opinion. Have people to post their thoughts in the comments section such as: “What do you think?” Has this happened to you?” “How do you feel about …?” and “What is one tip that helped you?”

Reply to comments to keep the conversation going.

If you ask your audience a question and don’t do anything to engage them further, the conversation will die, and your audience will be less likely to engage with your post in the future. You want engagement; it’s a measure of how many are paying attention. Higher engagement equals greater promotional reach, greater time return on investment, and greater brand awareness. All these help to attract potential new members.

If you regularly reply to comments, people will be more likely to leave their comment. If you don’t know what to say, a simple “thanks for commenting” is fine. If you find that you have too many comments coming in for that one post (lucky you!) and you are getting overwhelmed trying to keep up, its okay to wait a day and reply to everyone thanking them for their insights and suggestions.

Why are you on Social Media?

If its just to sell a membership, there is no value for your non-toastmaster audience. To attract followers, your posts need to offer value and you need to be strategic about it.

The secret to engaging people on social media is to:

• Offer value-added content and
• Be deliberate with your strategy: ask people to follow, like, comment and share; optimize everything for a mobile view; get visual: images tell a story; ask for comments and reply to comments to keep the conversation going.

What about you? What do you do to engage people on social media? Or is there a blog post topic you would like to see from your District Public Relations team?

Let us know! Email the PR team at Publicrelationsmanager@toastmasters86.org

Created by Nancy Movrin DTM Public Relations Manager 2021 – 2022