It is important to get the attention of the right people when trying to grow a brand.
There are a few ways to increase your website’s visibility online: Pay for ads on Google. Publish more content that is optimized for search engines (SEO). Or, master the art of social media marketing.
To learn more about the latter topic, building an effective social media following is key.
It’s possible to grow a social media following and get people to engage with your content using the right methods.
But how do you get these results consistently?
13 Simple Tips on How to Get Real Social Media Followers
This guide provides tips on how to increase social media followers who actively interact with your brand.
1. Choose the right social media channels to get followers.
It’s not possible to be active on every social media platform all the time. Instead, focus on being present where your target audience is and engaging with them there.
Determine who your audience is and which social channels they prefer.
You can gather this information in several ways:
- Interview or survey your prospects and customers
- Use social listening tools to find where discussions in your niche are happening
- Search for niche groups on various platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit)
- Find your competitors (they chose their social media platforms for a reason)
The following text describes how to find online reports that share platform user and usage trends for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, and others.
It is important to learn about the social media platform that your audience is using so that you can start creating content that will attract them. Find out what type of content does well on the platform and why this is the case. This will help you to decide if this particular social media channel is a good fit for your brand.
For example, if your target audience is using Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, you might want to consider using Facebook more often. If you don’t have a “visual” brand or industry, it might be difficult to generate the visual content required to do well on these platforms.
2. Optimize your social media profiles.
You know where your audience is. Here’s how to do so:
- Upload a professional photo, logo, or video for added appeal. Make sure it’s the correct size for the platform. Each has its own picture size requirements. For instance, on Twitter, your photo should be 400px by 400px.
- Use the same image across your profiles, so your audience recognizes your pages.
- Choose handles that are the same or similar, so it’s easier to find you across channels.
- Be discoverable via search by targeting specific keywords your audience uses. Add them to your bio and description areas.
- Include links to your website, landing page, and other social profiles. Be sure to test the links to ensure they work.
- Fill out all areas of your profile completely.
- Bonus: Untag yourself from inappropriate posts to protect your reputation
SEMrush is very good at optimizing its Twitter and LinkedIn profiles.
They wrote a short description of the account, what kind of posts to expect, and included a link to the website. Both platforms use the same logo and name. They also created a branded hashtag to increase visibility for the Twitter chats they regularly host.
3. Know your best time to post.
The best time and day to publish a social media post depends on the specific industry, platform, and audience. Although there are many posts and reports that cover the ideal times to publish across various social media platforms, it is important to note that what works for one account or industry may not work for another.
This is why finding the best time to post is so important. Check your social media metrics on the platform or software you use to track this data, or use Sprout Social’s ViralPost scheduling feature to find the best time for your specific account.
The insights from this data will help you plan your future publishing schedule around the days and times when your posts are most likely to get clicks, shares, and comments. By focusing on publishing content when it is most likely to be seen and engaged with, you can grow your social media following.
4. Post consistently, but with purpose.
You have probably heard a lot of different opinion about how often you need to post on social media to get results.
The frequency of your posts is not only about how often you post. It is also about being consistent and providing value. If you are posting every day but your audience does not find your content helpful, inspiring, or actionable, they will not engage with or follow you.
If you’re struggling to find engaging social media post ideas, try these simple tips:
- Ask customers what type of content they enjoy using surveys and polls. This gives insight into what topics interest them and, more importantly, what doesn’t.
- Look at analytics data to see what types of content perform best. Are people clicking on images? Videos? Links? Text only? What kind of content gets shared the most? How many likes does each piece receive? Which pieces generate the highest engagement?
- Study each platform to see what types of content perform best on each.
- Look at competitor activity to see what types of posts they share. Do they focus on product launches? Customer service updates? Sales promotions?
– Once you have found potential content ideas, you can use a tool like Sprout Social to help you plan and schedule your content weeks or even months in advance. – This can help to ensure that you have the right mix of content types and that they align with marketing themes, such as upcoming campaigns.
Scheduling social media content using data and insights will create an engaged audience.
5. Follow relevant accounts.
If you want to have a healthy relationship with your followers, you need to be willing to give and take. You will gain followers if you are already following others.
This doesn’t mean you should follow anyone who likes your account. Think of it more like networking.
Who is creating content that inspires you? Perhaps there is a brand advocate you could partner with in the future.
Some ideas to find relevant accounts you can follow:
- Groups and Communities: Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, and other networks allow you to easily find and join groups. While this is a great tool for content ideas and finding new accounts to follow, contributing to these groups can also be a fantastic way to gain exposure for your brand.
- See Who Influencers Are Following: Especially pay attention to influencers who have a positive follow-to-following ratio, meaning they have a lot of followers but are selective about those they choose to follow back. The people they follow are likely to be high quality.
- “Best People to Follow” Lists: These lists are published online for various industries and areas of interest. While they can be great resources, they aren’t always carefully curated, so use caution and vet these potential influencers before you follow them. (Example: Top SEO Experts to Follow)
6. Post share-worthy content.
If you want people to follow you, you need to post content that is exciting and engaging. Your followers should want to share your posts!
Some of the post types that earn frequent shares include:
Opinions
It can be beneficial to have a strong opinion on an issue, as it can result in more engagement; however, you need to be careful about what you say. Make sure that you have evidence to back up any claims you make, and be cautious when discussing topics that could be controversial and might have a negative impact on your brand.
Trends
If you want to be considered a reliable source for information on current trends and forecasts in your industry, you need to stay up-to-date on what’s happening.
News
Being able to deliver breaking news stories is a great way to stay relevant, but it takes a lot of time and dedication to be one of the first sources to cover the story.
Data
If you want people to respond to your argument, give them data that they can cite. Creating data that can be cited will help to increase social media shares and improve your website’s ranking on search engines.
Cute/Humorous Content
There’s no denying that people love things that make them smile, whether it’s cute animals, funny babies, humorous quotes, or anything else that brings a lighthearted reaction.
Try to be innovative when you are including this kind of topic into your brand while still staying consistent with the tone you have already set.
7. Create a calendar to schedule strategically.
The goal is to post often enough to remain relevant, but not so much that your content becomes annoying.
Invest in tools that will schedule your posts ahead of time so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to post.
8. Cross-market across your other social and marketing platforms.
You should use every opportunity to connect your audiences. Your website and newsletter should have links to your social platforms.
You could also try promoting one platform on another. For example, you could Tweet about a special hashtag you created on Instagram for an event, in order to encourage people to follow and use it.
9. Choose targeted hashtags.
try to use more specific hashtags so new followers can find you easily
This is an example of how quickly a post can be buried on Instagram if it is not hashtagged.
It is important to have targeted hashtags so that they are actually working for you. You can search for hashtags being used in relevant posts or try a tool such as Hashtagify to get analytical data and alternative suggestions.
If you want to target a specific group with your hashtag, it is more feasible to be specific in your hashtag. For example, if you love gardening, using #lovegardening as your hashtag is more likely to reach people who are interested in that than just using #love.
Brand-specific hashtags are a great way to encourage followers to share photos, like Splat did with #splatsquad. This is a great way to bring in user-generated content.
10. Seek out press features, interviews, and speaking opportunities.
If you’re present and active in the real world, your followers will take notice and it will have a big impact on them.
Every presentation is an opportunity to reach potential new fans who can then follow your social accounts to hear more from you.
Thought leadership opportunities like these can help you build links to your website.
11. Build partnership campaigns with companies and brand advocates.
When two companies that don’t compete with each other work together on a promotional campaign, it can produce great results in terms of exposure.
An ideal partnership between two brands has the potential to benefit both brands by allowing each brand to gain new followers and overall exposure from the other brand.
Brands can work with influencers to create user-generated content that will generate high engagement. Other marketing strategies that can be used to reach potential customers include contests, drawings, and affiliate flash sales.
12. Utilize analytical data to tailor your strategy.
If you want to improve your content, it’s helpful to first understand how it’s performing. This will give you a better idea of what changes to make.
What works best with your current audience in terms of type of post, time of day, Demographics, etc.?
This data is valuable and shouldn’t be ignored. It can provide insight into what you’re doing well and where you could improve.
There are a number of differentanalytics tools that you can use, depending on the platform that you are using. Some of these tools are free, while others are paid.
13. Loop your customer service team into the plan.
An active social media account inevitably invites customer complaints.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the percentage of customers who reach out to companies to voice their complaints has increased from 12% in 2017 to 43% in 2020. Of those customers, 55% who reached out on social media never received a response.
Your response to these negative comments will be closely watched by potential customers, as it will give them an indication of how you treat your current customers.
Customer service should be included in social media plans to keep informed on company policies and resolutions or so they can reply directly to unhappy customers.
Increasing the number of followers you have on social media platforms is a way to increase your return on investment and create excitement and discussion about your business or products that leads to people sharing, talking about, and buying what you’re selling.
Fake followers won’t accomplish any of those goals.
You will only be successful if you slowly and steadily work hard over a long period of time.
Related posts:
