Whether you’re a business or other brand, by now you know that online is where the money is. This means that if you want to grow and expand, you’ll have to find a way to engage your audience online. If you can do this, you have a great chance of making an impression and building a loyal following that will be well worth your time and money. If you’re not sure of the steps to take in order to engage your audience online, have a look at the helpful tips below.
Ensure Your Equipment Works as it Should
To start with, it’s important for you to make sure that all your equipment works the way that it should. This involves testing everything you’ll use to be sure that it works. One of the easiest ways to lose the attention of your audience is to be inaudible or unclear on the screen. Sharing audio, video, and even images that are bad quality is one of the fastest ways to lose the attention of your audience. This may come at a steep price for you since the most engaged audiences spend 76 times more on products and services they see advertised online, according to High Rock Studios.
Keep Things Simple
Next, you don’t want to run the risk of boring your audience with complex statements and convoluted ideas. With most people’s attention spans getting shorter each day, the best thing that you can do is to keep things simple. If you can say something in five words, for example, there’s no use in adding more words to the mix. In fact, one of the most important pieces of advice that people running websites or social media handles is to keep things as simple as possible.
If you need to put across facts as well, it’s a good idea to put them across in a language that’s extremely easy for your audience to digest. For example, a study done by Pew Research Center found that a mere 2% of federal criminal defendants end up in the courtroom. Of these, 83% face convictions in the end. This is something that should be simplified to a single statement so that it’s easier for an audience to digest and move on to the next topic.
Make Use of Polling
Another way you can keep your online audience engaged is by using polls. With a poll, you give your audience the chance to have an input in the matter that you’re discussing. There are many free tools and plugins that make it possible for you to hold a poll. Make use of them so that you can get the most out of the audience that you’d like to engage with.
Keep in mind that this is also something that can be applied in the workplace with employees. That’s because 54% of employees say that they’re psychologically unattached to their work and therefore do the minimum, according to JB Coaches. You don’t want this for your business as it translates to lower productivity and a higher likelihood of losing employees.
Send Previews and Reminders
Last but not least, if you intend to have a presentation or something similar, it’s important to remind those who are going to attend. Send reminders to them to make sure that they don’t forget, either through emails or in the form of text messages. You can also take things a step further and send a preview of any material that you’re going to use. This should familiarize the attendees with what you’ll cover and make it easier for them to follow along with what you’ll be presenting.
With these methods, you may have more success in engaging your audience online. Remember that it may take a few trials to find out the perfect method for your specific audience because audiences differ. The time and money invested in finding this out will prove to be worth it for you in the end.
It’s been a long time since I’ve done a coffee chat (like….literally its been years). This is where I imagine us having a little coffee friend-date and getting updates on each other’s lives. Dive in below for my updates and please leave comments with YOUR life updates! 🙂
Health Updates
If we were having coffee, I’d ask about your and your family’s health. Unfortunately, I’ve had a pretty sickly last month. I spent a good ten days down with Covid. As soon as that cleared up, I had maybe 2 good days before I broke out in a full-body rash. My official diagnosis was hives caused by some type of allergic reaction, and it took another trip to urgent care and a 5-day prescription for prednisone to clear up symptoms. Still waiting on the bills for that to come in, but I’m very grateful to have a Health Savings Account so this doesn’t have to come from my normal budget.
In the midst of the crazy full-body rash, I also had to complete my routine medical lab work for my kidney disease. I have a bad kidney due to recurring kidney stones and while I am grateful everything is under control and I have a great specialist….I absolutely loathe the lab work. It requires me to collect my urine for 24 hours, take it into the office for testing, and get a couple vials of blood drawn at drop-off. Typically, this labwork only has to be done once/year, but at my annual check-up one of my numbers was off, so my medicine was adjusted and I had to redo all the labwork only 3 months later. Knock on wood that my next follow-up shows my numbers in a good range, and I won’t have to redo the dreaded urine collection for another year.
Table Update
If we were having coffee, I’d probably ask if you have done any redecorating anytime recently. I am *not* an HGTV girlie, and while I love watching the shows, I know I don’t personally have that type of talent. That said, I would be excited to share that I’m getting my new kitchen table! It’s a big, gorgeous 9-piece Dining Set on sale from Costco this month for only $1400 (including delivery and setup!).
I just ordered it so it’s not here yet, but will be here soon and I can’t wait! I saved up to pay in cash by cutting my spending in several categories. To be honest, a perk of being sidelined sick for half the month of August is that I had almost no social engagements, no eating out, no shopping or superfluous spending, etc. Plus, I finally got paid for some side work I did back in May. I agreed to participate in some advanced professional development training and take what I learned back to my department. In exchange, I received compensation for my time. It took forever for the money to finally hit my paycheck, but it came through in August.
Job Updates
I would want to know how your job is going. Do you enjoy it? Are you feeling valued and happy? I’ve been going back to campus more in-person these days (I spent a solid year-and-a-half fully remote, but now I’m approx. 50-50 in person vs remote). I have mixed feelings about it. I have missed my coworkers and there are some benefits of being able to quickly ask someone a question in the office versus having a formal meeting. But, going to campus comes with additional costs (gas, parking, time of the hour round-trip commute), and I feel less productive in the office because there are always more distractions.
That said, I wanted to update on asking for a raise. Over the summer I shared some tips about asking for a raise and never reported back on my progress. I did in fact get a raise. It was not as much as I had hoped or wanted, but I am grateful for the raise nevertheless. I had gone into the meeting asking for 10% and ended up with 5%. Given inflation, it’s pretty minimal. But I know that talking about compensation should be an ongoing conversation. Even if I didn’t get what I wanted over the summer, that’s okay. I’m going to ask again sometime later this Fall. I’m also positioning myself to apply for a sabbatical. And I’m still doing little side hustle situations like the professional development training I just mentioned. So on the whole, I’m happy with my salary situation and feel well compensated.
Kid Updates
I would want to know about the kids! What activities are they into now? How are they doing in school? I would share that both my kids are in choir this year, and one of my daughters is in cross-country for the first time! I’ve been a runner for many years so it’s been extremely exciting to watch her follow in my footsteps and I love cheering her on at cross-country meets! I’m so proud of them both!
I’d also update you on the debit card situation. I’d mentioned getting my kids debit cards so they could start learning how to budget their money and spend wisely, etc. So far, I feel like it’s been going really well! I ended up going with the Greenlight Core plan ($5/month for up to 5 kids). I love how easy it is for me to transfer funds, and for them to have different designated accounts within their app (e.g., saving, spending, donating, etc.). I also love the oversight – I receive automatic messages whenever they spend anything. I think eventually I’ll move them over to a free kids’ account (some suggested a Capital One teen account, and I’m a big Capital One fan – I use their travel credit card and 360 savings accounts for myself), but I’m happy with Greenlight for right now.
Upcoming Plans or Goals
Before we part ways, I’d want to know what the next couple of months look like for you on the horizon. Do you have any big plans or goals you want to share? What are you working toward personally, professionally, etc?
I would be thrilled to share that I’m hoping/planning to pay off my car in October. I still owe about $5,000 and that is more than my monthly budget can absorb. However, I have an EF with $5,000 and a few other CapitalOne360 savings accounts with other various pots of money. I have accounts for annual fees, student loan savings, a car repair fund, and more). Now that my table savings is complete, I’m going to redirect those funds toward my car loan. And then I think I’ll take whatever I’m “short” from my savings accounts to pay the whole thing off in one swoop.
The reason why I’ve set the target date of October is two-fold: 1) I bought the car in Oct 2021, financing $20k, and it will feel sooooo good to have paid it off in exactly 2 years. I can be very proud of paying $10k/year to get it paid off. And I know how good it will feel to be car payment-free again!!! 2) Student loan payments resume in October, so the money I would have been putting toward my car loan is now likely going to be pulled over into my student loan debt payment. I still owe $26,561 in student loans, and that will be my last remaining debt besides the mortgage.
Money talks aside, I really want to spend some time this Fall trying to re-prioritize my health. I’ve let a lot slide in the past year and I’m ready to recommit to healthy eating, regular exercising, adequate sleep, etc. I can’t help but think that some of my health issues have been due to putting my own health on the back burner and I’m ready to reclaim that part of me. I might sign up for a running race this Fall to help get me motivated and stay on track. I hope next time we meet for a coffee date, I can share some fun updates on that.
Please join in! Share your updates and answers to my questions in the comments!
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
