8 Reasons Why Your Social Media Engagement is Down

If your business has experienced a decrease in organic traffic and engagement on social media, you are not alone. Studies have shown that organic reach on Instagram and Facebook is down 29% and 9%, respectively.

Many factors, both inside and outside your control, could cause this steady decline. As more and more creators and brands compete for a shrinking number of eyes on Facebook and Instagram, social media metrics are bound to decrease for some profiles.

We want to share the tactics we use in our clients’ social media strategies to increase organic engagement and bring in more leads from social media.

1. You Aren’t on the Correct Platform

Brands have been finding success on Facebook and Instagram for years—and these are still valuable platforms that should be a part of your strategy. Many other platforms have emerged in recent years, enabling businesses to find much higher organic engagement, reach new audiences, and diversify their social media strategy.

Namely, networks like YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, and even Pinterest let businesses reach new audiences and make up for some lost engagement rates on Meta’s platforms. Not every social media platform will fit your business’s goals. But brands can’t have all their eggs in one basket.

Which Social Media Channel is Right For Me?

2. Your Posts Lack Variety

How often have you used the same post template, team photo, or stock image? Although you may be able to get away with this to some extent, eventually, your social media assets are due for a refresh.

Posting the same type of content for months can get boring and repetitive, especially for your most engaged followers on the platform. Crafting new post designs or taking new team photos can go a long way in keeping your content fresh and engaging!

Brainstorming and executing a new series on your pages is a great way to keep your social media strategy fresh. For example, a “Testimonial Tuesday” or “Team Throwback Thursday” can be an engaging way to connect with your followers. It also gives you a strong weekly set of posts to make for a few months until the series eventually concludes and you start a new one. These add the benefit of keeping a solid posting schedule, which is essential to consistent engagement!

3. You Aren’t Posting at the Correct Times

You may have found yourself searching, “When is the best time to post on Facebook?” or “What days should I post on Instagram?”

The correct answer? It depends!

As much as some articles may try to sell you on the best times to post on social media, this varies heavily on your audience, industry, and content.

Are you sharing a thorough article breaking down B2B marketing on LinkedIn? In this case, you won’t want to share this on a Saturday afternoon when most people are enjoying watching their favorite college football games.

Is your restaurant running a late-night special? The typical “best time to post” of Wednesday at 9 AM will probably not reach your target audience at the right time.

Besides using sound reasoning, you should also consider the insight that social media platforms provide. You can see which days your traffic spikes, and some platforms, like TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn, even show you exactly when your followers are using the platform!

4. You Aren’t Using a Call-to-Action (CTA)

Social media is a great tool to increase brand awareness, website traffic, and sales. If you put a lot of effort into making creative, engaging content for your target audience but fail to include a call to action, your content will not convert nearly as well as it could.

The cliche, “Find out more,” will not cut it. HubSpot data suggests personalized calls to action have a 202% higher conversion rate than non-personalized CTAs.

Additionally, avoid the trap that all CTAs must direct your audience to your website. Calls to action are also a great way to increase engagement on the native social media platform you are posting on, growing your audience and reach.

5. You Are Over-Promoting

Do you link back to your website on every social media post? Is all the content you create attempting to sell your audience something? This is one of the biggest mistakes companies make when developing their social media strategies.

Of course, this is the end goal for all businesses. This is why social media is worth a squeeze in the first place. However, not allowing any room for content that focuses on providing your audience with value through advice and education or just building community is a huge missed opportunity.

When creating a social media strategy, consider what you want to see from the brands you follow. It’s unlikely that a constant stream of promotion and advertising is enticing to very many people. Promoting your brand on social media is a give-and-take. You can take a lot more promotional value from your community after giving your audience a reason to follow and engage with your posts.

6. You Are Under-Promoting

At first glance, this may seem like the antithesis of the above point, but what we mean by this is to promote your social media accounts on your other marketing channels. We’re sure every business has social media icons tucked away on their website’s footer, but this alone is not enough to get your customers to check out your social media pages. There are plenty of great places to drive traffic to your social media pages, such as:

• An email list
• Outbound links on your blog posts
• Cross-promotion from one platform to another
• A QR code at your brick-and-mortar location

These are just examples of internal marketing channels, not to mention all of the external places you can promote your social media by collaborating with other brands on social, being active on community forums, and influencer marketing.

(Here’s a shameless plug to follow us on social media by checking the icons in our footer! 😊)

7. You’re Talking But Not Listening

We could all use this advice, even outside the world of increasing social media engagement. But without getting too philosophical, people want to be heard, and your audience on social media isn’t any different.

It is imperative to pay close attention to the comments and posts people share regarding your brand. This feedback creates excellent opportunities to engage 1-on-1 with customers and can give you a solid view of how your community perceives you as a brand.

The best way to get this feedback is when you are “talking”—ask your audience questions! Asking frequent questions is a great way to gather data on your audience and customers and a definite way to receive increased engagement on your posts, which will always positively impact organic reach!

8. You’re Not Investing in Short-Form Video

With the success of TikTok, other social media platforms have quickly shifted to prioritize short-form video. We’ve seen the rise of Reels from Meta and Shorts from YouTube. The algorithms on these platforms are increasingly favoring video content, particularly short, attention-grabbing clips that boost engagement.

If your social media strategy relies solely on static images or graphics, you’re missing a valuable opportunity to connect with your audience through more dynamic, interactive storytelling. While investing in short-form video can feel overwhelming, we have a comprehensive article that explains how to easily and effectively incorporate video into your social media strategy.

Why Should You Care About Social Media Engagement?

For many business owners, social media can seem like a fickle marketing channel that requires more work than it is worth. This is especially true when one focuses on the day-to-day responsibilities of running a business.

But, with 4.62 billion people using social media around the world, we know that businesses not utilizing social media are missing out on a massive opportunity.

For those of you who don’t have time to spend strategizing and executing social media strategies, PHOS Creative is here to help! Social media management is one of our core competencies. We can work with you to increase social media engagement and build this into a holistic inbound marketing strategy!