HOW TO ORGANICALLY GROW YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWING

There was a time when the number of followers your account had really boosted your credibility. This drove many users to consider buying followers, appearing to have more fans than they actually did. People quickly realized that the simple number of followers wasn’t translating to increased likes, engagements, website visits, or sales.

These days, businesses are really focused on increased engagement among all social media channels. The more engagement, the more time potential customers are interacting with your content, the more likely they are to recall your post, and the more likely your posts will lead to website visits and sales. So how do you grow your social platforms to have more engaged followers and increased sales? We’ll go over a few tactics below.

1. Post Consistently
To receive engagement, you will need to offer posts for users to interact with! Consistency is key in both frequency and quality of content.

We recommend posting 2-7 times per week per channel, depending on your brand and goals. Timing also plays a huge role in this science. It is important to know what days and times your followers are on each social channel. You can reference data like Sprout’s Best Time to Post on Social Media, but also take a closer look at your particular followers through free social insights (Instagram Insights, Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, etc.) Posting during peak times will increase engagement, and likely increase your follower count.

Keeping your content quality consistent is also vital in gaining engaging followers. Use only clean, clear graphics and media, and stick to your brand’s set  color or style scheme. When your posts correlate, users see your profile as cohesive and legitimate, and are more likely to trust your brand. Also, post on all channels! You can repurpose posts to display differently on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google Business, Pinterest, and more. Again, additional channels increase the number of ways a potential customer may come across your brand.

2. Feature Mixed-Media
Many social sites favor posts that include video content and have features to auto-play videos as soon as they appear on screen. Videos are captivating and instantly draw the attention of users, when curated correctly.
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Another option is posting a replaying GIF to switch up your content from normal still-photo posts. GIFs should be visually appealing and lure users onto your profile. Don’t be afraid of a little trial-and-error, as your may find one type of media appeals best to your followers, whether that be polls, posts with music, video, GIFs, still images, or a combo of each.

3. Engage with Your Audience
Don’t forget the “social” part of social media. Interacting with your audience is a simple way to create that one-on-one experience, producing a relationship with your brand.

Effective Customer Relationship Management strategy is vital to thriving social channels. Actions range from the simple liking of a comment, to leaving a clever response, or just answering a question. Be sure to respond quickly to all messages.

Seek out customers who are already interacting with your brand. If your brand has a hashtag, encourage use and frequently search that hashtag. Any post tagged with your handle or hashtag is an opportunity to comment and even repost their photo or video. The more interaction a user can have with your brand, the better! 

4. #Hashtags
Hashtags are an easy way to organically grow a social channel, primarily Instagram. Learn more about hashtags and how to use them on our previous blog post, The Hype on Hashtags.

5. Incorporate Cross-Channel Promotion
Make sure to display your handles on all social media. For instance, add your Instagram handle to Facebook, your website, flyers, press releases, etc. This is a subtle way of encouraging your current fans to follow you on all channels, which increases the frequency that user will see your content.