Back at it again with our Steps to Success series!
Today, we will be talking about Step #3: Gain Followers. Before we begin, make sure that you have read about steps one and two. Although this is the majority’s favorite step, you can’t reach this goal without the previous two steps. Don’t worry. This will still be here when you finish up. If you haven’t done it already, make sure to download our free Ebook, Social Media Steps to Success, the foundation of this blog series.
Assuming that you have read about the previous two steps and downloaded our Ebook, let’s get into it.
Top 10 Practices to Gain Followers
1. Post Relevant Content
Posting relevant content is extremely important. As we said previously, having a goal guides you and your team to create content that is specifically aligned with your vision. At the same time, content needs to be under your brand voice and towards your audience.
Let’s say you own a flower shop and want to gain more followers so that people will buy your flowers. Instead of posting about what you ate for lunch that day, take quality photos of the different flowers that you have or create content educating your audience on how to take care of their flowers. You want content that supports your brand and encourages your audience to come back for more.
2. Be a Self-Proclaimed Expert in Your Bio
No one knows you better than yourself. Summarize yourself or your brand in carefully calculated words. When your audience clicks on your profile, what are they going to see? Should they spend their time on your account? Why? What do you have to offer? All these questions should be answered in a matter of 150 characters or less.
(If you are lost on what to say or do in your bio, take a look at some of your competitors bios and see what you like or don’t like about it. However, you don’t want to be known as copycat. Without copying exactly what they said, how can you incorporate your own branding into a similar style?)
3. Use Trending Hashtags
Hashtags connect new or related content for the easy access of your intended audience. Using trending hashtags, you can increase your contents engagements and reach more clients who will have interest in your brand.
Expanding your reach sounds spectacular, but you must use caution when choosing your hashtags. Your goal shouldn’t be to gain anyone and everyone. The hashtags you use should be aligned with your brand, company, and targeted audience. Be specific with what kind of audience you want to bring in.
For example, we use hashtags like #WebsiteDesign #DigitalMarketing #SocialMediaManagement because it is in line with what we do and what kind of audience we want to bring in. If we use hashtags like #LuxuryHotel or #LuxuryTraveling, it will bring in an audience that doesn’t align with either of our goals. As you can see, trending hashtags can be either beneficial or a waste of energy.
4. Engage With Others
Social media isn’t just about the media. It’s also about being social. After deciding and defining what your target audience will be, create content and hashtags that fit them personally. Mainly focus on content that are visual like photos or videos, that grab your audience’s attention.
Once you have their attention, give them a call to action. A call to action could be encouraging them to visit your website, follow you on social media, or to contact you. This invites your audiences to engage with you at another level.
When they do respond, make sure you give them your full attention. If someone comments and tags your band in a post, make sure you address it as soon as possible. Listening and responding also increases your relationship with your audience. The more you recognize and thank your followers publicly, the more likely they will turn into your brand’s biggest cheerleaders.
5. Make Content Shareable
Social Media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter provide options to make your content shareable. However, if your content isn’t in line with your brand or your target audience, it will loose value with your audience.
This is why creating content that is specific, personal, and appealing to your target audience is so important. By using shareable videos and images, calls to action, and content that is relatable and inspiring, you can encourage your target audience to share your content.
6. Share Other People’s Content
Who are the other people? To begin, it could be some of your target audience’s posts about your brand. By sharing their content, you will gain an organic uplifting review for your brand. This will encourage the rest of your target audiences to post about your brand, which will help increase the validity of your brand.
You can also share content outside your brand and audience. This may seem ridiculous for driving your audience to someone else, but there is a method to the madness. If you post an article, interview, or topic about your industry, you show your audience that you are up to date on the latest trends and are knowledgeable. At the same time, this gives you the chance to start creating relationships with other established brands.
7. Start Conversations with Influencers
Influencers are people who are credible and have an audience on social media. By working with influencers, not only are you creating a relationship for your brand, but have a chance at increasing your own audience because of their referrals. Rather than being bombarded by an ad, their audience sees a brand that they can trust because they trust the influencer.
First, you must decide on the right influencer by asking yourself questions about them. Are they credible? Does their target audience and brand messaging align with yours? Do they post frequently? Can they be authentic in their posts?
After finding a candidate that fits the answers to these questions, start by building a real relationship by authentically messaging them directly. The way your start this relationship will be the beginning of the journey between your brand, the influencer, and their audience.
8. Follow Other Users
Before you hit that follow button for every person that followed you back, take a seat. Not only is there a limit on social media channels of how many people you can follow, but it also makes your brand look spammy and maybe even provocative.
Like everything else, ask yourself, “Why? Why should I follow this person?” While there are no strict rules on who you should or should not follow, this is where discernment comes in. Does your brand follow major fans? Will you follow other companies that you have worked with? Do you follow your team? By following certain people, you began to establish and show to the rest of the audience that these people are credible and worth following as well.
9. Use a Scheduler to Post Content
In Step Two of the Steps to Success series, we suggested that brands and companies use content calendars to plan out their posts. A great way to plan these out is to have it all stored up in one place that can post it manually for you. You can bulk upload all your content and schedule it so that it uploads at a certain time and place.
Working with a scheduler can save you time, energy, and resources that could be spent on creating more content, growing your relationship with your audience, or even just running your business. At Brandit360, we use schedulers like Hootsuite to better manage our time and content.
10. Stay Active
We cannot stress it enough how important this step is. Staying active is one of the most vital parts of increasing your followers. Let’s say that you go on a hiatus for a while on social media. When you come back, you find you lost many followers. Then, when you do post, it’s not as many likes or comments that you had previously. The world is constantly moving forward. Your brand is not the only one out there. If you stop engaging with your audience, they will loose interest and look somewhere else. Maybe all you can do is just post a couple times a week, but make sure that you are always staying active on your platform.
Of course, these are all just a few practices to include into your social media journey. Technically, there is no single, simple trick to get more followers. Remember to remain patient, determined and consistent and your presence will grow.
Should you have any other questions for Brandit360, feel free to contact us here.
