Does this sound familiar? You’ve sent your latest social media posts out into the world and now you’re eagerly waiting for your audience to respond. You wait, and you wait, but your post just sits there forlornly without a single like, retweet or comment.

Going without any sort of response can be frustrating and it’s tempting to resort to bribing your audience (click LIKE and we’ll send you a gift!). Those methods work, but they can be expensive and difficult to organise.

There’s an easier way: ask. The best responses I’ve had to the social media campaigns I’ve been involved in have asked for the audience to be involved. For example, if you’re posting up an article on Facebook include something like this at the end:

“If you enjoyed this post we’d love it if you’d click like and share it with your friends.”

On Twitter it’s even easier. Every time you tweet something you want shared add the words “I’d appreciate a RT” or “I’d love a RT” (RT is Twitter shorthand for re-tweet).

I recommend a light touch, don’t harangue the people you’re talking to online, but do ask even if it’s only just once every few days. I think you’ll be surprised at the response you get.