Why is it so hard to get more social media followers? You would think with about 3.8 billion social media users on the internet, it would be easy, right? Some people argue that the total number of social media followers you have is a vanity figure, but we disagree.
Followers matter in the sense that they generate positive social proof for your brand. Even more crucial is the fact that people follow accounts with large followings, and even social media platforms offer rewards for large followings. For instance, Instagram allows you to add links to your stories once you hit 10,000 followers.
The trick here is getting followers that actually love your brand and not bots or people who couldn’t be bothered.
Well, what if we told you there are certain strategies you could follow to attract and retain not just more followers, but also more engaged followers? In this post, we have compiled some of the best strategies that will help you acquire more followers for your brand.
Table of Contents
Start by Choosing the Right Social Media Platform
The first most crucial aspect you must understand is that just because a platform is social doesn’t mean you need to be on it. It’s important to understand what the platform is all about, what kind of people use it, and how they use it, then determine whether it will benefit your brand.
It’s unlikely that your target market uses every social media platform on the internet, so you will ultimately need to make the right choices.
That said, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that Facebook happens to be the leader with over 2.8 billion active users. You could make Facebook followers a priority because Facebook houses a wide range of different age groups.
Over the years, Facebook has created a robust advertising platform with live video streaming services, Facebook groups, new publishers, and much more.
Instagram has grown exponentially since Facebook acquired it. It now has over 1 billion active users per month. Even better, Instagram has about 10 times more engagement than Facebook, and with the introduction of Instagram stories, the platform has become more and more popular for business.
Once you open an Instagram business account and gain Instagram followers, you can easily tag your products and post links to your e-commerce pages. This allows your customers to purchase directly on the social media platform.
If you’re struggling, you need to buy Instagram followers to jump-start your campaign.
YouTube
You should also consider YouTube, given the fact that it’s the second-largest search engine after Google. Besides, videos have skyrocketed as the preferred form of contact for a lot of internet users.
It also happens to be the second most visited website on the internet. Take advantage of YouTube and post how-to videos, product tutorials, or explanation videos, depending on your type of business.
When it comes to Twitter followers, the one thing you need to know is that a lot of Americans use it as their primary source of news. Also, over 80% of users are located outside the US, and the platform supports over 34 languages.
This means that if you’re looking to expand your business to international reach, then Twitter can be a great social media platform for you. Beyond that, the platform also features advertising, and you have the ability to live stream and upload videos, both of which are very useful to business advertising.
LinkedIn is easily the top social media platform for professionals, which works extremely well for B2B marketers. This is where you connect with people in your industry or niche and where you can market to businesses directly. It makes it one of the best social media platforms to grow your business.
Even better, you can use the platform to recruit talented professionals for your business.
Complete All Your Profiles
Creating and completing profiles is usually a lot of work that a lot of people don’t like, but for the sake of your business, it has to be done. Not only do you need to complete them, but you need to be accurate and up-to-date as well. All social media platforms, regardless of which ones you choose for your business, feature a profile picture, a cover photo, and a summary area where you get to showcase all the information about your brand.
You need to make sure that this information is accurate and the same on all platforms. The last thing you want is for your customers to see one address on your website and a different address on one of your social media pages. It’s essential that you establish your general information across the board to add credibility and reputation to your brand.
Apart from your business social media pages, you also need to complete your personal social media pages if you want to gain more social media followers. You can be sure that your followers will certainly visit your page to get to know the person behind the brand. It would also be a lot better if you had your employees complete their profiles as well.
You see, employee advocacy is very important when it comes to having an engaged social media following. They’ll do an excellent job of sharing company news, offering industry insights, and recommending products to your customers. You’ll absolutely gain more followers if you establish an employee advocacy program.
Be Consistent
Now that you have established your brand, it’s a given that you have already established your brand personality, voice, and values. It’s important that you maintain this personality, even on social media platforms. Your social media bio should match your profile picture, your cover photo, as well as your content. If you choose to use multiple social media platforms to gain more social media followers, then your story should be consistent on all platforms.
One of the most important things you should understand about consumers is that they like making meaningful connections with brands. The last thing you want is to send mixed signals and confuse them because it’ll simply deter them from following you.
Engage With Other People in Your Industry
One of the best ways to gain more social media followers is by following other social media accounts in your industry. The people who follow these accounts will discover you this way and have an inkling of following you once they discover you have something to offer. You can interact with those accounts by helping answer questions and offering relevant suggestions or opinions as an industry authority.
Beyond that, you can follow conversation hashtags that are related to your industry to drive discussions back to your social media platforms. One of the best things about this is that if you offer good insight, the audience will be interested and will want to know more about your pages.
Authentic, unique, creative, and personal content is the holy grail of social media marketing. It may not be easy for a lot of people to give consistently awesome content at all times. However, the beauty of interesting content is that your audience will share it, and this is exactly what you want to happen.
When your followers share with their friends and followers, they attract more people to your page. This leaves you with an incredible avenue to gain more social media followers. The trick here is to offer valuable and helpful information that your followers can actually put into use.
Additionally, if they have questions or comments about your posts, it’s vital that you answer with warmth and humor. This will make it easy for you to build lasting relationships and gain loyal customers.
Follow the 70, 20, 10% Rule
Now there is a content rule you can follow, which is the 70, 20, 10% rule. The content you share with your audience should add value and build your brand 70% of the time. However, you should also focus on others’ ideas and content 20% of the time and only promote yourself and your business 10% of the time.
Yes, self-promotion should only be dedicated to 10% of the time. Nobody likes a business that keeps blasting them with promos and offers all the time.
Use Visuals on Your Posts
The next best thing you can do is use visuals with the content you share. It doesn’t matter if you use GIFs, images, or videos, because any of them will make your content much more enticing to your audience.
Social media users, or people in general, need to see something visually appealing to catch their attention. A lot of social media platforms have proven that visual content promotes massive engagement activity.
Gaining More Social Media Followers and Growing Your Social Empire
As you can see, there is so much you can do to gain more social media followers. It may not be easy, but as long as you do it right, then you are bound to get them. It’s essential that you choose the right social media platforms, post the right content at the right time, and always engage with your followers.
Partner up with influencers, and take advantage of hashtags, especially branded hashtags.
Beyond this, if you would like to read more informative content, please check out our blog section today. We have so much more on fashion, beauty, health and fitness, technology, as well as travel and entertainment.
