Mastering the art of engagement

You monitor the numbers. You see that the quantity of visitors to your social channels has never been greater than it is now. Yet "engagement" seems to lag. There are few things more frustrating than knowing there are many "lurkers" reviewing and consuming your content but not taking the "next step." They are not going so far as to "like" a post, share it with their friends, or, better yet, fulfill whatever call to action or prompt you may have posted on a given channel. What gives?

MORE THAN A POPULARITY CONTEST

For starters, it is essential to recognize and account for the differences and nuances in the following:

• Ways or indicators to measure, monitor, and manage social media engagement – the easier-to-measure metrics are not always the most beneficial ones, and are also dependent on factors such as your respective goals as a practice.
• How each type of channel or platform can resonate; ie, Facebook may be better suited to a different tone or type of content than Instagram, TikTok, or X (formerly Twitter). This point further supports and reinforces the importance of adapting and tailoring strategies to respective channels.

To the first bullet point, go account by account. Engagement may primarily be measured by:

• Follower counts
• Post counts
• Comments
• Shares
• Likes
• Saves
• Clicks
• Direct Messages

You can even home in on measuring and actively monitoring these indicators by a respective timeframe or strategy. So, you can see how well your social presence is received over a given period or in relation to specific initiatives or efforts.

Study findings published in the Journal of Marketing found that some practices and "brands" may be overestimating the power of their social media by focusing on indicators such as "likes" on individual posts.1 They indicated that clients may be satisfied and see success in answering questions in their respective posts or in responding to an online contest prompt. However, assessing social engagement success is not that cut and dried.

In their meta-analysis of 86 studies across 31 industries, 14 platforms, and 17 countries, these researchers from the School of Business and Economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands, concluded that those with the "most effective content to stimulate social media engagement" focused on the "touchy-feely."1 Emotional posts that tug at the heartstrings or make patients laugh are effective at getting tongues wagging in the digital space. But to "stimulate sales," as they put it, one must engage with followers and patients socially with more "informational" content. For example, a post that highlights a patient whose life has been changed by acne treatment or a cosmetic procedure will likely yield different results than one that focuses on empowering patients with credible information about a "buzzy" or seemingly "trendy" technology or product to improve their skin.

Researchers also found that certain networks were more appropriate for stimulating social engagement; for example, they highlighted Facebook and Instagram as better suited to build discourse with your community than a "microblog" like Twitter/X. As they put it, this finding indicates that attributes within respective channels, such as time and trust, are more important to would-be "brand ambassadors" than open access and the wide dissemination of content.

THERE IS NO "SILVER BULLET"

As always, it is essential to align the substance and tone of your posts and content with short- and long-term practice objectives as needed. It is not adequate to simply bombard with hashtags. In fact, as noted above, universal and widespread dissemination is not necessarily what you are after here. Engagement refers to a deeper relationship and connection with the follower or consumer. It is less about the number of followers or reach and more about building trust, being authentic, and having conversations as a means of connecting.

So, it is important to consider and account for both what is being said and how it is being said in relation to those specific goals. Here again, if you are laser-focused on growing your practice—perhaps you have added another associate—it may be a smart move to focus on meaningful, highly valuable, educational, and informational content. You may even want to develop posts that focus on a new associate's capabilities or expertise in a given area, such as the latest advancements in injectables or skin cancer treatment, whatever the case may be.

Likewise, suppose you are trying to build loyalty among a quality base of existing patients. In that case, it may make sense to focus on growing engagement through fun contests and posts that trigger emotion, be it a touching photo related to an in-office transformation or a humorous post that features a dog or child. You cannot go wrong when featuring dogs or children!

A FEW MORE POINTERS

Posts and online content have moved beyond personalization. Now, the focus is on "hyper-personalization." This notion refers to a highly precise and relevant approach to targeting and engaging with individual users and followers. Here, you can lean into your metrics and algorithms to better target and resonate with ideal, high-quality patients. Furthermore, you should leverage this concept when responding to posts and comments and engaging with followers. Do not miss out on opportunities. When someone does comment, there is an art to how you respond. Ensure your response is not rote or generic. Personalize it! Make your fans or followers feel like they matter and that you are not just responding because you are obligated to do so (though the mere act of consistently and appropriately responding is a start; after all, communications online and otherwise are a two-way street).

Importantly, use the information, patterns, and trends that are associated with social as critical business intelligence; for instance, if you consistently find that followers are asking the same two or three questions about a service, product, or procedure, carefully crafting content or FAQs around these particular questions goes far to show that you are listening, that you care, and that you are here to help. This information can also be used to craft the most relevant content your community actually wants in other spaces outside social media, such as on your main practice website or in email and snail-mail newsletters and flyers.

1. Liadeli G, Sotgiu F, Verlegh PWJ. A meta-analysis of the effects of brands' owned social media on social media engagement and sales. J Mark. 2023;87(3):406-427. doi:10.1177/00222429221123250 
2. Yokoi T. Getting Started in Hyper-Personalization. Forbes. Published March 2, 2021. Accessed June 26, 2026. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomokoyokoi/2021/03/02/getting-started-in-hyper-personalization/

Naren Arulrajah

• President and CEO, Ekwa Marketing
• Mississauga, Ontario, Canada