There’s no escaping that social media is an essential part of everyday life and whether you’re a business or an individual, reaching out to people online is one of the most effective marketing tools you have at your disposal. This guide explains some of the things you can try to increase the number of social media followers organically.
- Post Content Specific to Your Industry
When we spend so long on social media every day, it can be easy to make your Twitter or Facebook account an extension of ourselves. Many people “think out loud” online and post things they’ve seen that have made them laugh or otherwise interested them. When you’re posting on a social media account to do with a business or a project, make sure that everything you put out there is relevant to what you do. Your followers will start to see you as an authority in your industry and may even begin visiting your socials just to catch up on the latest news. Similarly, other people who work in your area will start to notice you as somebody with a keen interest in their area of expertise. Essentially, making sure your timelines are full of targetted, good quality content that you genuinely want to read, watch or listen to will help to increase the number of followers you have. People generally follow accounts that they find entertaining or engaging, so try to save the posts about the weather or your breakfast for your personal pages.
- Get Connected With the Competition
Making social media work for you is a two way street. You need followers, but you also want to make sure that you’re following the right people yourself. Check out who is providing the same kind of goods and services as you and take a look at their socials. You can learn a lot in terms of how they engage with their clients and customers, the kind of content they post and also who they may be following. Though you want to stand out on your own eventually, if you are just starting out and need to attract new followers, retweeting or reposting great content that some of the other professionals in your sector have published can be a good tactic. Try to learn as much as you can from those with a successful social media presence. Look at the way they structure their posts, what they include on their pages and anything else that stands out to you. There’s no need to copy things directly, but you can still use an account that has a lot of followers as a source of inspiration.
- Engage with your audience personally if possible
The reason social media has become such an integral part of daily life for most people is that it allows us to connect with each other. Instead of treating your Facebook page or Instagram profile like a notice board, try and think about it a little differently. If your followers see that you regularly respond to questions and queries personally, this provides a human element that is often missing in the online world. Businesses who respond to customer queries on Facebook within 24 hours can be quite successful but those who respond immediately generally get a far better response. This kind of reputation spreads and people are more likely to follow you if they know that they can interact with you as a person as well as just reading your tweets or blog posts. Try to avoid deliberately writing posts that sound too sales driven or that use jargon as this makes you seem less human. Instead, be as conversational and natural sounding as you can as this generally puts both existing and potential followers at ease. Essentially, if somebody sees that a social media account is run by a person with good manners and a friendly, approachable communication style, they are more likely to click the follow button than if they find the content a little impersonal.
- Share and share alike
The world of social media is based on sharing and having followers retweet or repost something is one of the fastest ways to spread information. This practice can also indirectly help you to gain followers as well. If you try and share content that you believe in, whether it’s a meme that makes you laugh or a particularly insightful article on one area of your business niche, your timeline or page will gradually begin to attract the right kind of followers. You may also find that your own posts begin to be retweeted as many individuals and businesses will be happy to return the favour if they notice you are supporting their content by helping to spread it around. The worst thing to do is create a page that lies dormant and doesn’t appear to be managed by anybody. Even if its just a few retweets a day, that can be enough to stay engaged and steadily pick up followers as time goes on.
- Rewards and incentives
A great way of boosting the number of followers you have quickly is to offer rewards and incentives that encourage people to engage with you. Retweet competitions are great and offering prizes can create a fantastic buzz around your around your account as more and more followers get involved to try and win something. You can also offer things like discounts or reduced rates for those who follow you on social media. Everybody loves to save money and if they can do that by doing something as simple as becoming an Instagram follower or a Facebook friend, that’s even better. Some of the most successful social media campaigns revolve around offering free products or heavily discounted services to active users. Asking users to share your post to be in with a chance of winning a prize draw is a simple and extremely effective way of making sure a lot of people see your profile in a short space of time.
