Handling Low Engagement on Social Media

The call to be authentic on social media is all over Instagram, LinkedIn and Tiktok. Guides will tell you there's a hidden formula to get your email. Posts will talk cookie-cutter "strategy" to address the engagement cliff.

But what does authenticity actually look like? Where do you draw the line between authentic content and "too much information?" How do you ensure that you know the unwritten rules on social media like when to jump in or stay silent, what’s cringe, and what’s gonna lose you followers? 

This week, I’m exploring ways you can keep things true to your brand, your voice and your people on social media.

Tackling the Engagement Cliff

We’ll take a look at examples of brands that are still commenting on social media as a marketing strategy and talk about why this works for some brand while others’ engagement tactics backfire. We’ll consider what platform expectations actually are and how that plays into engagement. And we’ll talk about how to do engagement in the era of cynicism about clout farming. Previously, I talked about how the bot boom is fueling this drop off and today I'll touch on how to push back. On that note, I'll close out with strategies to avoid the engagement death loop on LinkedIn, where tactics like mandatory staff engagement have replaced long-term engagement and audience growth strategies.

Let's jump in.

"Silence, Brand!": From Cringe to Unhinged

You’ve probably seen a brand engage really badly online in the past couple of years. In fact, one of the more memorable moments was when Duolingo declared that it was an AI-first company. Originally known for the savvy, smart comments by its genius GenZ, social media manager, Zaria Parvez, the brand had just killed its authenticity in one move and audiences sounded off. Now on social, you’ll see more comments like “silence, brand!“ All the time.

Audiences have grown much more cynical as a result of misinformation, site enshittification, layoffs, hard-sell marketing, generic posts and very public brand snafus. This sense that the era of brand commenting is over is palpable on many platforms. Audiences have grown tired of comment-jacking during pivotal moments and are now more wary of overt marketing in the age of influencers.

In spite of this, there are still brands commenting on things and doing it very successfully. Two examples spring to mind: King Arthur baking company, and Vivaldi browser. When Google rolled out AI search and new AI functionalities that segments of the public read as invasive, Vivaldi’s social team immediately jumped into the comments.

Because the brand has such high trust, responses have largely been positive. They have been commenting under posts made by individual users about how tired they are of user-antagonistic tech, suggesting Vivaldi as a high-quality alternative browser. Allowing their social media manager to use memes that meet the moment and that leverage consumer sentiment strategically has drawn millions of new users to Vivaldi's browser.

In the same vein, King Arthur Baking Company’s moves have paid off because they follow a values-aligned social engagement strategy. They are jumping into comments to signal their alignment with consumer sentiment. King Arthur has been conspicuously good at this on Threads. On Labor Day, they posted about the fact that King Arthur is employee-owned. They also continue to post in baking spaces, showing a clear understanding of how Threads works and how they need to be visible within niche-specific Threads topic labels. It's very smart stuff, and you should take a play from them.  

What can we learn from these two brands? Posts written by committee do not get the goods when it comes to engagement. Posts written by social teams who are highly attuned to consumer sentiment are better positioned to introduce themselves to new customers. The primary reason is that social teams can speak authentically to what real users are saying, seeing and thinking on social media. They write for the groupchat, not the company Slack. You won't find jargon here, and the sell is the brand positioning around relatability.

It's time to move away from processes that edit all the energy and cultural competency out of your posts.

Platform Expectations

Possibly one of the most misunderstood qualities of branded communications, understanding the rules, norms and expectations of social media is essential for building trust. In the current work landscape, where brands have whittled down social teams, and scoped them into the roles of other employees we’re seeing more brands struggle. This is because most employees do not have the training or expertise to run brand social, they have a familiarity with personal social.

Often the perception is that the "rules and norms" of social media are the dimensions and formats of social media posts, or knowledge of trends. But as any good anthropologist will tell you, those are just the base lines. Expectations are the true rich points. 

Expectations around being a 'reply guy' are a great example. Reply too quickly and someone might assume you’re a bot. Have an account that doesn’t have enough posts or a bio that’s barely filled out? People might also assume you are a bot. Reply too many times or in a 5-3-1 cadence or in a tone that doesn't match the flow of posting language, and people may scroll past. Reply in a manner that goes against popular public sentiment – you might have an incident on your hands.

This is where knowledge and trust of your social media team or social specialist comes in handy. They should know the unwritten rules and be able to navigate conscientiously to leverage positive sentiment for your brand. But that also means providing clear guidance around boundaries. Stronger public branding and prestige audience development requires deep listening, attention and strategy.

To do this, you need to be clear about things like brand, cadence and tone, be direct about subjects that are not brand aligned, and cultivate a consistent channel of communication with your social team to be able to respond with immediacy.

If this sounds like a lot of work, it is.

And it’s why a strong social media team can be found at the root of every business successfully cultivating brand trust through community-building.

The Engagement Death Loop 

Internal engagement with posts from workers does not contribute to growth in the way most brands think it does. On LinkedIn, this can be a short-term tactic to gain visibility for small brands at launch. But, in the long-term, it can become a growth inhibitor because it's not a strategy, it's a tactic for boosting reach.

Posts by employees are starting to feel less like testimonials because they are compelled content by employers for engagement. When this happens, posts can feel like hollow marketing language rather than authentic expressions of appreciation or uplift of the mission. 

This form of engagement-baiting has become one of the primary features of LinkedIn and is now associated with that platform’s tanking brand reputation. When working with LinkedIn to cultivate a presence, it’s important to distinguish your brand from the host of others pumping out AI-generated text on a daily basis. That’s not communication with the public, it’s a hard-sell that human audiences are increasingly exhausted with. 

Genuine connection and authenticity can show up in your branded conversations on LinkedIn in many ways:

• In comments written by you (not genAI)

• In photos that show you and your staff

• In who you choose to follow

• In testimonials with either photos or names of clients

• In graphic design made by human makers, that utilizes negative space, kerning, typography knowledge, and accessibility guidances

All of these things require taking the proper amount of time and consideration to obtain consent.

When brands make employees marketers, audiences notice. Left too long, this can lead to an engagement death loop, where the only engagement a company gets is internal and their reach is limited. This is another good example of following the expectations of social media to not give the appearance of trying too hard. The last thing you want is for your social to send up red-flags for audiences and give the wrong impression about who you are.