It’s always an exciting feeling to see new likes, comments and shares when you post your content on social media.
But what if in your accountancy firm those numbers are a little bit on the low side?
What if you don’t have a huge audience?
What if you’re struggling to get more people engaging with your content?
You could start to ask yourself ‘is posting and sharing content really worth it?’
Now I could create an article here with tips and tricks on how to get more engagement… but what I’d rather do is talk about this topic from a completely different angle.
Everyone’s talking about how to get more engagement.
But have you ever stopped to think about those who are seeing your content and NOT engaging?
Online we sometimes call these people the lurkers.
There are always more lurkers than people who engage with your content.
(And I’ll be the first to admit, I can sometimes be a bit of a lurker too.)
I consume a lot of content, but I don’t always share, like or leave a comment. But I do usually remember the content and who created it.
In fact, maybe you’re one of those people reading this article right now and you have never engaged with my content before (by liking, sharing or leaving a comment)… yet you’re still here, reading this content.
The truth is everyone does it. Some more than others.
So next time you create a blog post and you don’t see it suddenly go viral, don’t worry. You never know who’s actually reading it.
Can you still find out who is consuming your content?
Even though not everyone will engage with your content, it would still be useful to know if people are actually reading your blogs or watching your videos, right?
One of the ways you can find out if potential clients have been consuming your content is on the calls you have with prospects when they reach out to work with you
Some of the questions I normally ask on consultations with potential clients are ‘What motivated you to take the time out of your schedule to speak to me today’? and ‘There are lots of marketing agencies out there, so what made you decide to want to work with us?’
This usually reveals the real reason why they’re on the call and that allows me to see how I can best help them.
What’s interesting from asking these question is that most people say something like
- “Well, I was watching some of your videos…”
- “I enjoyed the webinar you did on using LinkedIn….”
- “I was reading this blog you wrote on ‘how to generate leads’ and…”
They have all been consuming content!
Some even mentioned that they’ve been consuming content and following my posts on social media for years before actually reaching out.
What’s interesting about all of these comments is that not one of those people have ever left a comment, share or like on the content they were consuming.
Yet, I know they were still consuming the content, because they told me!
So in your accountancy firm, when your speaking to potential clients, ask them questions like ‘Out of all the other accountancy firms, what made you decide to speak to us?’
A lot of the time you’ll find it has something to do with your website and how your content really resonated and helped them.
Track people who consume your content
Sometimes people don’t actually tell you on the call that they have been consuming your content, even though they have. People can forget.
I sometimes get people on calls say something like “Oh I think I saw you on Facebook or Google or somewhere but I can’t really remember…”
But, not all is lost even if they don’t remember!
There are two awesome free tools you can use to track exactly how much people are consuming your content even if they never engage or tell you directly.
Tool #1: Google Analytics
If you don’t do anything else, make sure you at least install Google Analytics on your website.
Although you can do a lot of things inside Google Analytics, I’m going to focus on just one of it’s features that allows you to see how often someone is consuming your content.
In Google Analytics, if you log in and go to Behaviour > All pages:
Google Analytics will give you break down of the most popular pages on your website.
If you have a blog, you’ll also notice how most of the popular pages on your website are actually blog posts you’ve written. Some might even be blog posts you’ve written years ago that are still getting lots of traction even today!
You may be surprised to learn how many people are actually reading your content every day (even if they don’t engage with it).
Tool #2: Hubspot Marketing
If you click here you can install Hubspot’s Free Marketing Tools on your website. The main tool I use from Hubspot is the “Collected Forms” tool.
What this does is it track anyone who submits a form on your website (such as your contact form) and then it tells you what pages on your website they viewed before and after they submitted the form.
Why is this useful?
You can actually see what content / blog posts someone was reading before they decided to reach out to you.
So even if someone didn’t engage with your content, you know they were still consuming it and you can learn what type of content led them to reach out to you.
Marcus Sheridan, the author of the book ‘They Ask, You Answer’ also uses Hubspot to track people who fill in forms on his website and he found that the more content and pages of a website someone views before the sales call, the more likely they will be to sign up as a client.
Content never sleeps
I came off a call with a potential client last week and he admitted that he saw one of my videos from a Facebook ad at 1am in the morning. He said that the content inside the video really resonated with him and although it was late, he just had to finish watching the whole 25-minute video I recorded.
I’ve heard the saying that ‘content never sleeps’ before, but when you actually see the power of it first-hand, it really hits you.
I was fast asleep at 1am. Yet, here there was someone consuming content at that time.
Keep that in mind when you’re creating, publishing and sharing your content. You never know when content you’ve created for your accountancy firm could be viewed. People can find, watch and read your content at any time and any day.
Track who views your content on social media
After sharing your content on social media, if you have a small audience and you’re not doing any paid ads, you may see very little engagement.
But again, remember everything we’ve discussed above. There are always more people that will consume your content without engaging with you.
So depending on which social media platforms you’re posting on, have a look at that platforms analytics. For example, on LinkedIn you can see how many views you have for every post you publish individually (just by clicking on the post, it will tell you your views). And on Twitter you can go to analytics.twitter.com to see how many people are seeing your Tweets every day.
You’ll notice, even if you have little engagement, there are still a lot more people consuming the content you share.
And you never know who they are and when they will reach out to you.
Keep posting content consistently
By now you’ve learned that a lot of people read and watch your content even if they don’t actually engage with it.
So my last tip on this topic is to keep creating content that solves your potential clients problems consistently.
It could be weeks, months or years before you build up enough trust for someone to reach out and work with you. But it will happen eventually. So if you stop creating content or sharing that content on social media, people might forget about you.
Instead, make sure people always remember who you are, what you do and how you can help them by creating, posting and sharing content as often as you can.
About the Author
Ashley Davis is the Social Media Director at The Profitable Firm and also works with small to medium sized businesses at Skyline Social.