Wondering how on earth your favorite brands, bloggers and personalities get more followers on social media? While you are constantly striving to pick up a follow or a like or a mention from someone, looks like these folks do it effortlessly. Well, that’s not the real picture. The real picture is what we are going to share with you; those industry secrets that will attract your target audience, fetch you better conversions, more followers and better customer experience.
Here you go:
Organic methods of adding followers to company pages
Publish great content
Publishing high quality content regularly will boost your visibility on social media pages, thereby driving more engagement. When more people visit your page, and find relevant content, the number of followers is very likely to increase. Remember, Content is the King! Thus, write super catchy social media copy. Invest time in crafting copies and try to keep your posts crisp and concise. Use variety of content in the form of blogs, presentations, infographics and video.
For B2B platforms like LinkedIn, images play a great role in visually attracting the visitors. The more appealing the post, the more it will be liked and shared by visitors, and if you get lucky, they might also direct their connections to your company page and add to follows.
Share content at the right time
Find out the best time to share your content on different social media channels. It is a generality to say that posting in the afternoon is the best way to gain more audience, as social traffic is the highest during that time. But, this trick may not work always. Thus, be smart and find out when ‘your audience’ clicks more to read your content. Make use of the Google Analytics Custom Report, to find out when your audience is active on social networks. Increase your opportunity to get more traffic and shares by knowing the peak time to share content, and thus increase more followers.
Note: This chart shows that 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. is the optimal time to share on social media, with social traffic being at its highest in the late afternoon.
Add social sharing buttons on your blog or website
A simple tip that you may use to add more followers is to include social sharing buttons on your website as well as blog. That way, visitors will be more interested in your content and click on your business page to follow you or share your content.
Include social media links in your email signature
Linking social media in emails is an important strategy followed by successful marketers. When your sole aim is to engage your followers with content marketing, why not give them an easy way to find your company on social media? Drop some links to your brand’s social profiles in your email signature. Email list subscribers are more likely to click on social media buttons in your email, thus, winning your more traffic.
Follow other companies
An easy and effective trick that companies/people tend to forget is following other companies on their social media pages. Social media channels like Twitter allow you to follow companies that are relevant to your industry. So, if you start following them, there are chances that they will follow you back, particularly on Twitter. Similarly, LinkedIn also allows you to search for companies in a particular industry. If you show them you are interested by sharing their updates, they might follow you back.
Be Social
We usually tend to forget that social media is about, well, being social. It is about reaching out to new and interesting people. However, some companies put sales first and conversation second. What they fail to realize is that, talking to people is the solution to add more followers to their network.
So, go ahead and strike up a conversation. Respond to all your Facebook or Twitter comments.
Harp on the #hashtag bandwagon
We all know the importance of hashtags as an incredible marketing tool. But, how often do you use it to get the right followers in an effective way? Try and use hashtags on all social media networks you have a presence on, specially Twitter. But, don’t overload your posts with bulk hashtags. Too many hashtags can hurt your engagement and get you unfollowed.
Using hashtags can help you get 2X more engagement. Here’s more data on the visibility of hashtags:
Share links to case studies and white papers
Brands with a B2B focus can use case studies and white papers as powerful marketing tools. If you have already created your targeted set of following on LinkedIn, these links can always be shared to get better results. Always have a follow us button at the end of the content piece to encourage readers.
Share links to your blogs
Written a great blog with all the useful information? Post them on your social page, and if they like the blogs, they might follow your page.
Slideshare + LinkedIn = A great marketing combo
LinkedIn Slideshare is a great tool when it comes to upgrading your visibility and engagement on LinkedIn content. Slideshares get almost the same amount of reach as videos.
Paid methods of adding followers to company pages
Create a Follow Campaign on Facebook and LinkedIn Ads
If you are in a hurry and have a budget to reach out to more users, then launch a Follow Ad campaign and target your ad to specific companies. When users click on that button to follow you, the activity is spread into their network which encourages more people to notice and follow you.
If you have the budget and wish to drive more followers to your corporate page, then you must start visiting LinkedIns Targeted Advertising Page. Follow campaign can be done for both Facebook and LinkedIn.
Run a simple PPC campaign
Pay per click works the best if you intend to promote your website on a social channel by investing a bit of money. Catchy headlines and attractive imageries can drive more customers to your ads. As a result, they click on your ad, visit your website and follow you on your business page. The higher you bid, the greater is the chance to make your ad more attractive and increase users.
Now that you have learnt how to get more followers, the choice is yours to decide if you would invest money and run paid campaigns or invest nothing and get followers organically. It doesn’t matter if you are starting from scratch or trying to increase your audience base, these steps will help you to get effective results.
So, which one are you going to start with to get more followers?