The pursuit of social media engagement has become a focal point for businesses and content creators alike. Engagement Rate (ER) calculates the effectiveness of the content by measuring how involved the audience is. A higher ER usually indicates better engagement.
TikTok is exploding with higher ER scores than its competition by at least 15% and it is the reason why many businesses and content creators use TikTok as part of their social media marketing strategy.
The Dark Side of Social Media Engagement
A recent experience from 1st Avenue Constructions, a local Construction Company is Gippsland, Victoria, shed light on the different levels of social media toxicity. 1st Avenue Constructions has 334 TikTok followers and 1490 Instagram followers. As shown in the image below, the ‘completed homebuild’ TikTok video blew up to over 110k views on TikTok alone and over 1000 views on Instagram.
Source: TikTok
TikTok sounds great for brand awareness and engagement… right?
Well, in the above TikTok, the comment section seemed to be rife with body shaming remarks from global keyboard warriors, which then raises questions about the true value of engagement metrics.
In contrast, the same video on Instagram received little to no negative feedback, even though it has three times as many people following.
Brand awareness v Quality Leads
Do businesses want to attract engagement for the sake of engagement or is it better to focus on quality leads? This is the question! The stark difference in the quality of engagement should demonstrate to businesses, which social media to place their time and effort into and to prepare to have a thick skin if the strategy is to be on TikTok.
The owner of 1st Avenue Construction has since posted another video discussing the comments on his personal TikTok page, as shown below.
Source: TikTok
A growing trend among social media users is to prioritise mental well-being over the pursuit of engagement on platforms that may harbour toxicity.
WIth over 2.5 million small businesses in Australia, most would be running their own social media or creating the content themselves. Therefore, creating authentic, educational content, with the intention of gaining positive engagement, may inadvertently lead to negative feedback. And the negative feedback could also affect the business owner’s mental health, as explained in @tj_eccles TikTok post.
Not all engagement is created equal. The platform of choice significantly influences the type and level of engagement, with different social media platforms attracting varying degrees of negativity. The more visibility you gain, the more trolls you attract. This paints a sobering picture of the harsh reality of online engagement.
As a business owner, you should carefully strategise what your goals and objectives are. In a digital landscape where online presence is crucial, the emphasis should be on genuine leads rather than a superficial pursuit of engagement.
After all, not all engagement is great engagement. So, choose your evil wisely.
5 Responses
Loved the article Marina! The examples you used were very impactful and really added to the piece. I disagree with not all engagement being good engagement! I’ve had a number of posts that I have posted for work get good engagement but when I dig deeper the sentiment on those comments were not very positive towards the brand. However, the high engagement rate shows that our customers are there and are willing to engage with our brand. For me its now just about finding the right way to get them to engage positively and creating discussions that focus on the content and not the brand, which is another challenge! What do you think?
Hey Sean, that is a really interesting perspective! The fact that your audience is taking time out to engage shows they are willing to spend time with your brand. I think we are on the same page though – as you showed with your example that good engagement does not necessarily translate to positive engagement. I should have explained what I meant by ‘great’ (as I meant it as positive) – so maybe I should have written it as ‘not all engagement is positive engagement’. Thanks for telling me your story.
Hi Marina,
Great blog and an important topic to discuss, thank you for sharing it!
First, I just want to mention how amazing that header is, it made me laugh and it also instantly drew me in and left me wanting to see where you were going with this post.
The topic of engagement is a very interesting one. As a social media marketer, I admit sometimes I get pretty bummed out when my engagement drops and incredibly excited when it starts jumping back up again after a slump. I, like many people on social media, put a lot of stock into engagement numbers, and that’s because it has been drilled into my head that it is an important metric, and I don’t want to disappoint my clients. And at times, I recognise that this can be a toxic mindset.
At the very least, I am not personally connected to these engagement numbers. It is not MY social media accounts I’m trying to build. I can certainly, however, imagine the kind of stress and expectations people who do manage their own brands put upon themselves to raise those numbers. It can become obsessive. And that is bad enough for your mental health, but couple that with finally reaching those high engagement numbers…on a video where people were constantly tearing apart your appearance?
Social media can be a very toxic place, and achieving success on it can often come at a price. When people go viral for the way they look or sound, or for doing something a little embarrassing in public, I always feel so bad for them. Because I get so embarrassed when I do something awkward in public like trip, and a few people see me. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have a chunk of the internet watching it happen and laughing or criticising you for it. This is what I try to remember when I get too caught up in social media. Even though my job revolves around it, I can recognise its (many) flaws, and understand that, sometimes, it’s better to go unnoticed.
Thanks,
Carina
Hi Marina,
I definitely agree, the power of Tik Tok is huge! Although it can help businesses reach a larger audience it comes with the negative side to it, like the hate comments as you mentioned.
It is extremely difficult to predict how consumers will react to content as their behaviour is constantly changing. Many social media platforms have specific target audiences and since a large number of Tik Tok users are a younger audience, do you think this is why they received a large number of comments.
Are there any points in particular that businesses should focus on when planning their goals and objectives?
Do you think the outcome could have been different if the business posted the video on a different social media platform such as Facebook or Twitter?
Overall, the examples provided assisted in understanding the content easily as well as the images/videos utilized. Good job!
Hi Marina, I definitely agree, the power of Tik Tok is huge!
Although it can help businesses reach a larger audience it comes with the negative side to it, like the hate comments as you mentioned. It is extremely difficult to predict how consumers will react to content as their behaviour is constantly changing. Many social media platforms have specific target audiences and since a large number of Tik Tok users are a younger audience, do you think this is why they received a large number of comments.
Are there any points in particular that businesses should focus on when planning their goals and objectives? Do you think the outcome could have been different if the business posted the video on a different social media platform such as Facebook or Twitter?
Overall, the examples provided assisted in understanding the content easily as well as the images/videos utilized. Good job!