Clientversary: The Hampton Trust

The Sunny Bird PR team is celebrating its ‘clientversary’ with The Hampton Trust. Established in 1996, The Hampton Trust is an award-winning domestic abuse charity which delivers domestic violence perpetrator programs within the criminal justice system to reduce re-offending. The charity first approached the team with two objectives; to raise awareness of the work of The Hampton Trust in both regional and national press, educating those in the third sector industry and the wider public on their services and expertise, we’ve gone above and beyond securing 40 pieces of coverage for the charity over 12 months, reaching over 7.7 million people, with an advertising value equivalent of over £287,000!

To achieve these results , Sunny Bird PR ensured The Hampton Trust were considered experts in their field placed side-by-side with their competitors, other high profile domestic abuse charities. As well as this, we shone a light on the innovative work the charity are doing and we have made sure that the press are continually up to date with their program offerings. We are always scouring the press for reactive opportunities also, recently securing regular coverage in The Daily Express, with comments from Chantal Hughes, CEO of the Hampton Trust, on Coronation Streets coercive control story line, these pieces of coverage reached over 3.6 million people!

Here are some more examples of the work we’ve achieved for The Hampton Trust over the last 12 months:

CARA Workshop Press Visits

SBPR interviewed an attendee of one of The Hampton Trust’s CARA (Caution and Relationship Abuse) workshops and compiled a feature for the national press. This feature resulted in journalists from both Cosmopolitan Magazine and The Daily Telegraph visiting CARA workshops for themselves and compiling high-profile features in 2020, due to reach over 523,000 people.

CEO Profile

To ensure The Hampton Trust was positioned as the voice of authority in its sector, the SBPR team complied a feature on the CEO of the charity Chantal Hughes. This feature led to a series of exclusive opinion pieces running in Third Sector online, a coveted publication read by 123,000 voluntary sector workers.

Woman & Home Awards

SBPR nominated Chantal for the Woman & Home Awards, which champion women doing extraordinary things, in the ‘Changing our Country’ category. Chantal won the award in 2019, attending a photoshoot and a high-profile awards ceremony at London’s Claridge’s. This raised the profile of The Hampton Trust not only to the attendees, but to the 237,000 readers of Woman & Home Magazine.  To celebrate Chantal receiving this award SBPR complied a post event press-release, sharing the news with the regional press and achieving further coverage, which reached over 186,000 people.

Reacting to Television

The SBPR team know the importance of reactive media opportunities, and for The Hampton Trust we knew that prolific television storylines would bring domestic abuse into the public eye and into the news. Making sure we were up to date with the content of primetime soaps and dramas meant the team secured interview opportunities for Chantal in the Metro Online, the Daily Express Online and Tyla Online. These pieces of coverage reached over 4 million people, establishing The Hampton Trust as experts in the field and raising awareness of the charity as a go-to for comments on domestic abuse news for the national press.

Project White Ribbon Day

White Ribbon Day, and the 16 Days of Action is an annual event which raises awareness of domestic abuse against women. The SBPR team compiled press releases to highlight all of the work The Hampton Trust carried out during this time to raise awareness. The team also pitched Chantal as a spokesperson to target titles and broadcast media. The team’s PR activity secured 10 pieces of coverage for The Hampton Trust, including three features on the BBC South Today TV news programme, reaching over 2.7 million people.  

Regional Press

SBPR knew the importance of highlighting the work of The Hampton Trust to those who would need it the most, so the team ensured that regional press was given updates on essential news from The Hampton Trust. We secured 25 pieces of coverage for The Hampton Trust in Avon & Somerset, Hampshire, Dorset and the West Midlands, across broadcast, radio, online and print press raising awareness of the CARA workshops, the link up with the regional Police and the Hampton Trust’s ADAPT (Accredited Domestic Abuse Prevention Training) program. All of this coverage reached over 3.2 million people and would have cost over £29,000 in advertising!

We have loved working with The Hampton Trust over the last 12 months and are pleased to continue working with them in 2020.

The SBPR Social Media Challenge

Every January the Sunny Bird PR team take on a social media challenge, which sees the team go head to head to win a holiday abroad!

At the beginning of this month, each team member presented their yearly review of the SBPR social media channel they manage, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. We analysed our engagement, reach, impressions and followers and pinpointed the content that worked, and the content that didn’t work so well from 2019. Using this information, and up to date research into social media trend forecasts for the year ahead, the team have now prepared their January social media strategy for each channel.

What is the Challenge?
The challenge is for each team member to organically increase all the social media statistics on the channel they manage by 100% compared to December in just one month. This means doubling engagement rates, post reach, post impressions and follower increases.

Of course, successful content is not one size fits all, each social media platform has different algorithms and measures of success. If the team are going to succeed, they will have to work hard, do lots of research, carry out lots of split testing, create bespoke content and unmissable opportunities for their audiences to engage.

Why do we do it?
With social media algorithms constantly adapting and changing, no business can afford to be complacent with their social media strategy. At Sunny Bird PR we pride ourselves in being social media experts, which means we always reflect and put into practice our own up to date knowledge across the SBPR social media platforms as well as providing this service to our clients.

Who’s doing it?
Laura is all business on LinkedIn and her tactic is: “To engage more with other users on LinkedIn to create meaningful connections and improve the engagement on our own LinkedIn page.”

Josh will be putting all of his creativity into 180 characters on Twitter where he will: “Include call to actions within each post to maintain engagement.”

Grace is going to be stunning Instagram with beautiful imagery and engaging stories: “I am going to create aspirational imagery to feature on the feed with informative captions and lots of well thought out hashtags.”

Annabel will be sharing all of our news and updates on Facebook, and asking for our community’s feedback: “My Facebook content will start conversations through sharing Sunny Bird PR’s knowledge and asking our followers for their opinions in 2020.”

How will we stay on track?

Every Monday in January the SBPR team will meet and discuss what they have achieved for their social media channel in the previous week, analysing each post and engagement, discussing how they can improve for the next week – if we want to smash our goals, we should be improving by 25% week on week!

These meetings are an opportunity to celebrate successes, offer honest critiques, and where the whole team can make suggestions for improvements. By discussing our progress as a team, it means we all gain a strong insight into each social media platform – preparing us for when we switch up our platforms in 2020.

Our next social media course is from 10AM-2PM on Thursday 20th February, tickets are available on our website www.sunnybirdpr.com/social-media-course. At this course we will share our tried and tested social media tactics to help you maximise your social media presence and use it to the best of your advantage. This half-day course will teach you everything, from paid for advertising to organic reach and all the jargon in between.  

Building A Community on Social Media

When it comes to creating a direct line of communication with your audience, there is no tool more valuable than social media.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn aren’t just platforms for you to share your brand’s content with your audience, they also provide you with a way to communicate and engage with your brand’s followers creating your very own community. Brands that do this successfully are rewarded with organic brand champions and ambassadors as well as a sounding board offering a valuable insight into what is, and isn’t, working for their brand.

Two brands that have successfully created engaged social media communities are Jimmy’s Iced Coffee and Bliss Sanctuary for Women.

On Jimmy’s Iced Coffee’s social media accounts the team frequently share content posted by their community, and they respond to every comment in their unique and funny brand voice.

Bliss Sanctuary for Women make sure that their posts address their audience in first person, and use images of real guests who have visited their sanctuaries.

The social media shop window

You should approach your brand’s social media in the same way that you would your shop window if you had one. It is the first thing a potential customer sees when deciding whether they will engage with your brand.   

This means that social media isn’t just a shop window for content, it offers your potential customers an insight into how you deal with customer service issues too. If a potential customer browses your social media pages and sees that you are not creating a community with your audience, not answering their questions or listening to their opinions they are likely to take their business elsewhere.

So how can you build your community through social media? We have compiled some tips below to help you get started:

1.) Actively communicate

It might seem obvious, but communication is the foundation of all successful social media platforms. Brands which respond to comments, ask questions, and involve their followers with brand decisions gain not only the trust, but the respect of their followers.

2.) Be consistent with your engagement

Consistency is key when it comes to social media. Set aside half an hour at the start of every day and half an hour at the end to completely dedicate time to your social media engagement – this might be answering your audience’s comments, tagging them into posts, following new accounts or sending responses to messages.

3.) Step outside your own feed

Social media isn’t just about the space that your brand calls home, but the space that your followers, competitors, fans and collaborators curate too. Take the time every day to comment, like, share and engage with the content produced by these accounts. Both the Instagram and Facebook algorithm will prioritise your content if it detects that you are making meaningful connections with your followers – which means the more conversations you are having, the more your content will be seen.

4.) Make use of social media tools and trends

Instagram stories are more than just a feature to post quick snippets and videos. You can use stories to host polls, schedule Q&As, quiz your audience and much more. Stories that ask for involvement from the audience stand out, and when your followers see that you are asking for their opinions, they will want to be involved. 

5.) Keep it real

Making the most of real-life events and moments for social media content is an essential way to raise your brand’s value in the eyes of your customers. Showing your customers that your brand exists outside the screen builds your credibility, and keeps your brand feeling human. From working with influencers, highlighting your staff, shooting content at events and inviting your community to try products, there are many ways that you can bring your brand to life in your content.

For example, if you are a fashion brand, you could consider using a social media influencer that your community admires to promote your product. This activity could be as simple as sending an influencer a gift and asking them to share it on their social media platform.

An engaged social media community is an invaluable asset for businesses and can help to increase brand reputation, grow brand value in the eyes of the customer, and to receive constructive feedback. By dedicating your time to building your own community, we guarantee that you will see positive, tangible results for your business.

If you would like to learn tried and tested social media tactics to help you maximise your social media presence, grow your online community, and use it to the best of your advantage, then join the SBPR team on Thursday 20th February 2020 for our Social Media Masterclass.  Our half-day course will teach you everything, from building your community to increasing your organic reach and everything in between.

https://www.sunnybirdpr.com/social-media-course

Case Studies

In this blog post you will learn all about case studies. What they are, how they can help your business and how to find them.

What is a case study?

Case studies are people. People who have tried out, can vouch for or speak about your brand, product or service in a positive and interesting way. Journalists love them because they add the sparkle of human interest to even the most mundane story, helping the reader engage with the piece. Case studies can elevate even the most seemingly boring business. Putting a person with a compelling story behind a product makes the brand more relatable to the consumer and to a journalist. It’s important to have a case study ready to go when contacting journalists, it will look unprofessional and probably annoy the journalist if you say you have one and then don’t get back to them with it pronto!

Where do I find a case study?

Case studies can be people who:

a.       Already use or buy your product or service.

b.       Could be interested in using your product or service.

If they are already a customer you should be able to contact them via your existing customer database, but if you don’t already have something established you could reach them via your website. Do you have people who are already leaving testimonials on your website or through social media? Could you add a button onsite or a link to your blog asking for people who would be happy to talk about your product or brand?

Alternatively use your own social media feed to reach out and ask. It’s a good idea to create a bank of case studies, you never know when the right opportunity may come up in the media to pitch your case studies out.

Will I need to get them photographed?

There’s no doubt that a good photo can help a case study get placed, but in general editors will want a clear head-shot in the initial stages and will then arrange for further photography if they need it, so there’s no need to pay out on an expensive shoot. However, it is important to send relevant photography to the journalist. For example, If yours is a service or product in the health, diet, fitness or wellness industry where a ‘before’ and ‘after’ shot will be helpful, then you should absolutely ensure you have close ups and full body shots of your case study before pitching to an editor.

Dos and don’ts:

ALWAYS ensure you have the case study’s full permission in writing before proceeding.  They might have agreed to have their story featured but want to remain anonymous, so you could request a name change.  They may want parts of their personal details, such as the names of their children left out or they may or may not agree to a photograph being used. You should ensure you detail exactly what is expected of them and get them to agree in a signed, dated agreement.

ALWAYS ensure all parties involved in a feature give consent.

ALWAYS be extra careful when children are involved, to get the signed consent of all parents and or guardians involved in the child’s care.

ALWAYS ensure the case study is happy to be photographed. Journalists almost always require the case study to be identified, so ensure the case study is happy with that.

NEVER place a case study with more than one rival title. Editors hate to see identical or similar copy popping up in the competition as it devalues their content. You should avoid offering a case study to rival titles at the same time and state if a rival title has previously featured it.

NEVER ignore a journalist’s calls if a case study you have put forward lets you down or changes their mind. Let the journalist know as soon as possible and offer to help find someone else in order to maintain a good relationship.

At Sunny Bird PR we use case studies with pretty much all our clients. Whether that be for a domestic abuse charity, The Hampton Trust or for Just Shutters, a plantation window shutter company. Case studies have helped to propel our clients into the press with real life stories.

You can find our how Sunny Bird PR has used case studies to successfully get clients onto TV and radio as well as other media titles here!

If you would like to find out more how case studies could work for you and how to do your own PR, you can book onto our PR and Publicity Course on the 29th November at our Bournemouth offices - Sunny Bird PR, The Garden Studio, Pine Grange, Bath Road, Bournemouth, BH1 2PF

Follow this link to book your place!

Clientversary: Bliss Sanctuary for Women

The Sunny Bird PR team are celebrating another year ‘clientversary’ with Bliss Sanctuary for Women this month!

The luxury women’s only retreat in Bali first approached the team back in 2015 with the objective of raising the brand’s profile in UK press and the launch of its second sanctuary in Seminyak, following the launch of the first in Canggu.

Fast forward to 2019, and the SBPR were tasked with promoting the new sanctuary in relevant national press titles, securing celebrity trips to promote the sanctuary, as well as creating content and advertising on Bliss’ social media.

As the largest most luxurious sanctuary of the three, we knew we could use this to our advantage in attracting press coverage and celebrity trips. To start with we compiled a press release announcing the new sanctuary and pitched it to relevant travel, women and lifestyle titles as well as the national papers for inclusion in round ups, travel news and general features which focused on Bliss’ unique offerings.

Press coverage achieved included Bliss being featured in ‘Top Destinations of Women of the World’ in the Metro as well as ‘The World's 24 Hottest New Hotels Opening in 2019’ in The Telegraph. We also pitched Bliss in line with key awareness days such as International Women’s Day which resulted in coverage in The Independent for the ‘10 of The Best Female Only Trips for Solo Travellers’.

Our next approach was to secure well-known celebrities and national journalists for press trips in order to achieve national press coverage and increase social media followers.

The SBPR team used Bliss Sanctuary’s USPs, such as unlimited food, spa treatments and yoga, and the brand’s ethos of following ‘bliss on your terms’ to attract both media and celebrity attention.

We approached luxury titles, national newspapers, women’s titles, spa and yoga titles, tailoring each pitch to resonate with the publication and its readers, whether it was the luxury angle, solo travel, women’s only travel or the focus on wellbeing. We invited journalists to come and stay at Bliss and review the new sanctuary themselves in exchange for press coverage.

The team also researched and targeted celebrities to invite to Bliss in exchange for media interviews, photoshoots and exposure on their social media channels. We researched potential celebrities and the press angles, focussing on those that needed to take time out for themselves, spend time with the girls and focus on their mind, body and soul.

We only targeted celebrities with over 1 million followers on Instagram and negotiated the terms and conditions of their trips to maximise social media and press coverage.

As a result of this strategy we secured TOWIE stars Lydia Bright, Debbie Bright and Georgia Bright to take a mother-daughter trip to Bliss, as well as Love Island stars Zara McDermott, Ellie Brown, Samira Mighty, Jourdan Riane and Elma Pazaar for a ‘Love Island Reunion’ girls trip. We also secured two trips for Malin Andersson after she’d experienced a traumatic year, as well as well-known TV personality Vicky Pattison and her mum Caroll. The celebrity trips alone resulted in 40 pieces of national coverage in titles such as Daily Mail, The Sun, Metro, Closer, Soul & Spirit and Heat magazine.

Over the past year we have secured a total of 11 celebrity trips, with more big names booked to visit in January, as well as press trips for the Metro, Fabulous, Stella and Glamour magazine.

Alongside our PR campaign we have written regular Bliss News articles for the website on topics that women can relate to, created engaging content on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest as well as advertising campaigns to secure more bookings to the sanctuaries. We also positioned the Founder of Bliss, Zoe Watson, as an expert on hot topics such as wellness bathing, yoga and essential oils.

In total, over the past 12 months SBPR has achieved 56 pieces of coverage for Bliss Sanctuary for Women in top publications such as The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Metro, The Independent, Marie Claire, OK Magazine, Closer, Yoga Magazine to name a few. The total coverage reached over 55.1 million people and would have cost £1.7million if the same space was bought in advertising! Over the past year we have increased Bliss’ Instagram following by over 30,000 followers and positioned the brand as the number 1 women’s only Bali retreat for celebrities across the world.

We are looking forward to what the next year brings for Bliss and SBPR!

Reaching Your Consumer and Creating A Media List

Knowing you consumer will be key to you and your brand reaching millions. In today’s ‘digital age’ people consume new messages about brands and products in a variety of ways. The newspaper and magazine market may well be shrinking but top titles still boast readerships in the hundreds of thousands. Cleverly targeting TV or radio, online news and lifestyle websites, blogs and social media sites will get your message to your audience in the right way.

When trying to reach your target market, start by thinking about your consumer, target audience or end user.

·         Who are they?

·         How old are they?

·         Are they professional/white collar/blue collar/student/retired/homemaker?

·         How do they spend their time?

·         Where do they shop?

·         Which social media channels are they most active on?

·         How do they consume their media? Via blogs/TV/radio?

·         What media do they consume?

You should know the answer to all of the above and answering the last three questions is particularly crucial in gaining coverage that counts. All of this information will contribute to reaching your target audience and achieving the relevant coverage. Knowing which type of media they consume will also determine who you approach with your brand, story etc.

Once you know who your consumer is, you can target the media accordingly. The average ‘early adaptor’ must read, hear or see a message seven times, before they act on it. It’s therefore important to target multiple mediums to give your consumer different ‘touchpoints’ to absorb your message.

I’m sure you’re thinking where do I start? Well, below is a list of just a few of the different types of media on the market.

Trade press – these are industry-related titles meaning whichever industry you’re in, there will be accompanying trade titles. Such as Transport News, The Grocer, The Hotelier etc.

Regional press – newspapers and magazines specific to your area, such as Manchester Evening News, Yorkshire Post, Dorset Echo etc.

National Newspapers

Broadsheets – The Telegraph, Observer, Guardian, Financial Times etc.

Tabloids – Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Sun, The Daily Mirror, Daily Star etc.

Supplements – You Magazine, Style, Stella, Notebook, Observer Food Monthly etc. (These are magazines inside the weekend editions of national papers.)

Women’s glossies – monthly magazines focusing on a mix of news, fashion and lifestyle such as Woman & Home, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, In Style, Marie Claire, Red etc.

There is also online, social media, radio and TV.

For a free list of media, you can try sites such as www.mediauk.com and www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk. These contain a variety of useful information including readership stats, key staff members, personal email formatting and so on.

To do your own PR you need to be in the know, so sitting around reading magazines, watching TV, or scrolling through social media is a valuable way to spend your time. Try making notes while scouring the media such as - who are the journalists that keep reappearing, find what titles apply to your brand best and look for themes; is there an awareness day or an awards ceremony this month that applies to your business? Remember to always keep an eye on online media as well, coverage online could take the consumer to your website instantly. Once you get into the habit of doing this, you’ll never be shocked when news props up that you could’ve got in front of!

Media List

Once you are sure who your consumer is and what media you should be approaching it is time to create a media list. This should include specific and up-to-date contact information for key journalists, bloggers, social media influencers and editors across print, online, blogs, radio and TV.

 Organisation is key when creating your bespoke list. Here’s some tips on what to include in your list –

·         Include the type of medium – magazine, newspaper, radio etc

·         Frequency – daily/weekly/monthly/bi-annual

·         Readership or audience numbers

·         Specific contact details for each journalist or editor and their regular slots or segments

·         Job title (editor/features writer/sportswriter etc.)

·         Extras - You could also include a column or tab for any other notes as you go forward, such as how and when they prefer to be contacted, recent topics they’ve covered etc.

Finding the details of the journalist can be tricky, below are just some ways you can do this –

·         Look at the journalist’s name/names in the relevant publications

·         Look at the credits of TV shows for researchers/producers

·         Googling contact sites for specific TV channels such as ITV will give you access to valuable information.

·         Response Source – with journalists continually moving around it can be hard to keep up. Response source has a ‘Media Bulletin’ segment where you can not the movement of journalists.

·         Contacting influencers is great as you can usually message them directly, try their website of their social media page.

·         To find a specific phone number, try calling the media outlets switchboard first, when you get through ask for the relevant journalist and gather their details from there.

Talking to journalists can be daunting to begin with, however in time it’ll get easier and you’ll find your flow. A few things to remember is that journalists are time poor, it’s unlikely they’ll monitor their voicemails, so don’t waste your time leaving a message. Keep an eye out for freelance journalists, they will most likely have their own websites and a personal email to contact them with.

Final tips and tricks

·         There’s no time like the present! Start compiling your media list now.

·         Don’t contact several members of the same outlet ‘just in case’ as they may think you are spamming them, and bin your email.

·         You’ll find it’s easier to find contacts for regional rather than national press. There are less staff, everyone knows everyone and they’re more likely to pick up the phone and are quicker to respond.

If you’re looking for global newspapers you may find this article helpful - https://www.websiteplanet.com/blog/complete-index-of-newspapers-across-the-globe/

If you would like to find out more about how to find your consumer and create your media lists as well as how to do your own PR you can book onto our PR and Publicity Course on the 29th November at our Bournemouth offices - Sunny Bird PR, The Garden Studio, Pine Grange, Bath Road, Bournemouth, BH1 2PF

Follow this link to book your place!

Work Experience Week

Work experience is a key step in choosing the right career and we believe that it’s important to give students the chance to understand an office environment. As a company we are very keen on giving students experience as we understand it is essential for self-development and securing a job in the future. During National Work Experience Week, the SBPR team welcomed 14 year old Tom from Twynham School and 15 year old Louise from Bournemouth Collegiate. We asked them both to write a blog at the end of each day to see how they were finding agency life and here’s what they thought…

Tom’s Day 1 blog really showed how the SBPR agency  can make a valuable first impression “I found my first day really enjoyable with the access to free drinks supplied for you”, and the kitchen continued to strike a chord with Tom as on Day 3 he went on to explain that SBPR had ‘good kitchen facilities’. Luckily Tom was equally impressed with the rest of the office too “my first impression on Sunny Bird PR is that it is very bright and vibrant and very fun.” Louise also had a great first day: “My experience on the first day was wonderful, everyone was very welcoming and friendly, and the working environment was very happy and relaxed.”

Before the teens arrived, we reached out to brands via social media and invited them to send their teen products into the office for Tom and Louise to review live on the SBPR social channels. Companies all over the country jumped at the chance and before long SBPR HQ was inundated with books, beauty products, food and drink products for them to try and review.

Louise was very pleased with this task “I got a lot of freebies to review and try out which I think is awesome!”, Tom wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about the beauty products but discovered a silver lining: “I wrote a review for a lip balm I got,” he said “but I gave it to my girlfriend because I didn’t want it and she did.” While the lip balm wasn’t a hit with Tom, he did make a fashion statement in the office by wearing the Good Night Anti-Snoring Ring every day.

We have a team lunch every Wednesday and this week we took the whole team to Flirt Café in the centre of Bournemouth which was very well received! Tom flexed his new PR muscles and proved that he was already thinking like a PR Pro: “I had BBQ pulled pork nachos and 3 bowls of chips, this was very tasty, so I wrote a review of the café and posted it on Twitter to create good publicity.”

Another team activity that went down well was our SBPR team yoga sessions, we have these twice a week with the amazing Lillie. Louise was brave enough to join us and experience her first ever yoga session: “I took part in a yoga session that the team do on Thursday lunch time. I have never done yoga before and honestly it was so relaxing. I felt sleepy during it as the lights were off and we had this special oil on that smelt so good. I think I might take up yoga class once a week, I feel like it will help me with things like stress, exam pressure and just general life situations that aren’t too good.”

Tom and Louise had a great week with us at Sunny Bird PR and we really enjoyed having them with us in the office. Aside from lunch, drinking free coffee, and reviewing products, Tom and Louise did an impressive job in learning the fundamentals of PR. They both wrote engaging press releases, created brilliant social media posts, developed a strong understanding of media types and helped prepare for the Miss Dorset final by organising over 250 goody bags. We hope they learnt some valuable skills that they can take forward through school and in their future careers.  

Why Engagement Rates Really Do Matter

Long gone are the days where your follower count legitimised your social media presence, now it is all about interacting with your audience and boosting engagement rates.

As accepted wisdom once suggested, the more likes or followers an account has, the greater its influence.  However, in the world of social media, where a shiny profile can hide a multitude of sins, followers and likes are an easy game to fake thanks to the rise of bots and buying.

With measurements of social media success ever evolving and leaving last year’s benchmarks as obsolete relics, we thought it worthwhile to un-flesh the latest buzzwords- ‘engagement rate’.

What exactly is engagement rate, how is it measured and, most importantly, why does it matter?

What is Engagement Rate?

Obviously, the metrics vary from platform to platform, but generally speaking engagement rate is used to measure the level of interaction an account receives on its shared content. Simply put, it is the percentage of your audience which react or respond to the content you broadcast. The greater number of likes, shares or comments indicates a greater level of engagement.

How is it Measured?

Your engagement is measured by your likes and comments combined per post divided by your total following and times by 100.

Average engagement rates are notoriously unreliable as it is hugely industry specific. As a general rule anything over 1% is considered good engagement on Facebook whereas Instagram generally averages at around a 3% engagement rate, perhaps explaining the monumental rise of brands on the platform.

Twitter on the other hand only has an average rate of 0.7% given the volume of tweets and the speed of the timeline.

It’s a good idea to keep a spreadsheet of your different post types and the corresponding rates to accurately gauge what your audience is responding to, and what they’re not.

Why is it Important?

Followers and Likes are often referred to as ‘vanity metrics’ as although important, they don’t complete a full picture of how your audience is responding to your content.

For example, most people like a page because they see their friends do so or because they like a certain post at a certain time, but it is quickly forgotten. Therefore, even with high number of followers, it is still possible to see little interaction.

For example, the infamous Twitter fail from Rita Ora back in 2014. The pop princess tweeted she would release her new single on Monday if she got 100,000 retweets. Despite having 4 million Twitter followers, only 1,000 people retweeted her and the tweet was swiftly deleted.

Even with millions of fans supposedly at her finger tips, without an engaged audience, Rita Ora was effectively only speaking to 1000 people which is an engagement rate of 0.025%!

Evidently, a high engagement rate is a good indication that your followers are listening to what you have to say, developing trust in you as well as your brand and ultimately increasing brand awareness.

How to Improve Your Engagement Rate

Think of social media as a committed, long-term relationship with your followers. Ideally businesses and brands want to ensure they deliver the best customer experience through these platforms. In that sense, improving engagement is by no means rocket science but it does take dedication.

1.       Start a conversation

The cardinal rule is to give your audience something to ‘engage’ with. Talk about your industry, share some behind the scenes content or share something of value with your followers which isn’t just a product or service. When people realise there is a human, or humans, behind a brand they will be much more likely to follow it.

2.       Promote Brand Enthusiasts

A simple yet effective way to boost conversation is to promote your fans. Posting user generated content helps boost engagement by rewarding those who follow and engage with you and consequently encouraging others to do the same. The guys at Jimmy’s Iced Coffee are great at doing this and making customers feel part of something bigger.

3.   Jump on Trending Topics

If something is viral, you want to be part of it! If it’s trending or in the news in any way think how to harness a topic and divert traffic to your channel. Clothing giant Gap did a good job of this when the retailer promoted its sustainable wares for #EarthDay.

4.      Be Responsive

Make sure you respond to questions and queries as quickly as possible to keep your followers on side. It’s important to appear alert an attentive, otherwise people will think you don’t value them as a follower. Like this painful feed from telecommunications company Airtel.

5.      Join the Conversation

If starting a conversation seems like a big step right now, or if you’re stretched for time and resources, an effective way to boost engagement and simultaneously creativity is to join a Twitter chat or Q&A. You’ll be surprised how quickly you will see results, whether directly or indirectly from picking up tips and ideas along the way!