9 Ways to Find and Grow Your Social Audience

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You can have the best content in the world, but if no one is seeing it does that help your brand? Probably not. Increasing your social audience is a goal that should permanently be a part of your social strategy. Why? Because followers matter for a business. Social media is one of the best ways to reach your target audience, have your content shared, and ultimately get more conversions. If you’re not sure how to go about growing your social audience, read on for 9 helpful tips:

  • 1) Create Killer Content

  • Social media is all about content. By creating interesting and relevant content that resonates with your audience, you’re increasing the chances that your content will be shared. When that happens, you are not only reaching your followers but the followers/friends of that person or brand. Those people are now aware of your brand and can choose to follow you based on the content they saw shared on their feed. But if that content isn’t compelling, you may end up missing an opportunity.

  • 2) Share the Content of Others

  • Sharing content is a good social media engagement practice. By sharing content from other social channels, you’re adding to the conversation and giving others a reason to share your content as well to return the favor. Another way to utilize the followers of another person or brand is through a page takeover. This is when two brands arrange to “take over” each other’s pages, meaning they are now introducing their content to the other channel’s followers, in the hopes of both pages getting followers from each other.

  • 3) Choose the right social channels for your brand

  • Not all social channels are going to be the best fit for all brands. For example, if you’re a jewelry retailer, Instagram and Pinterest would be effective channels to display the merchandise, as well as the link back to the website for that person to make a purchase instantly. However, if your brand is a financial services provider you may not have as much success on those channels, but rather sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook as well as your own blog. While any capable social media manager can leverage their brand on any channel, there are some that make more sense for different brands. Finding those that work for you and your brand will help save time and maximize your audience by focusing on quality over quantity.

  • 4) Make Sure Usernames are Consistent Across All Channels

  • If someone wants to find your brand on social, make it easy! Consider using your web address as your username across all social channels. For example, if your business name is 123456, you want to make sure your usernames all look the same: Twitter.com/123456 (@123456), facebook.com/123456, and so on. Having different usernames makes it difficult for users to find you, and could cost you, followers.

  • 5) Cross Promote Your Social Channels

  • You already have one tool in your arsenal that you may not be considered as a source of generating new followers: Your other social channels. Use Facebook to get Instagram followers, and use Instagram to get Facebook followers. Twitter can send followers to your LinkedIn and so on. One way to encourage followers to seek you out on other social channels is to tell a story on one channel and make followers visit another one of your social channels for the conclusion. Once they are invested in how the story ends, they will be compelled to see it through and will click through to your other page. From there, it’s up to you and your content to be interesting enough to make them stay and become a follower.

  • 6) Stay active

  • There’s nothing worse than going to a brand’s social media page and seeing the most recent posts are from a week or even a month ago. That’s a really fast way to either lose followers or at a minimum lose their interest. Social media moves fast, so fast that if you’re not posting and updating regularly, it will move on right past you and never look back. Make sure you stay in your followers’ feeds and continue to engage them. After all, social is all about content sharing. If you don’t give your existing audience anything to share, you won’t have your content shared to new audiences and potentially gain new followers.

  • 7) Use analytics to See What Your Audience Wants

  • Social analytics can be a great tool to help increase your social audience. Using the stats you have on your social media accounts can help you gauge the best times of day for engagement as well as the types of content that get the most interaction. Also, if you have one social channel that outperforms others, perhaps the analytics from that platform can help you determine a strategy for your other platforms. Keep in mind, however, that some platforms have different audiences, so not all analytics can be carried between platforms.

  • 8) Use Hashtags Appropriately

  • Hashtags are one of the main ways content is shared and found by others on social media. When posting content, be sure to include relevant hashtags that have the potential to bring new followers to your page. Keep hashtags specific, but not difficult to read or type. Also, avoid generic hashtags that bring up unrelated content. The key is to find the right balance between memorable and relevant.

  • 9) Use Giveaways and Promotions

  • Holding a contest or offering deals specifically for social followers is another way to increase your social following. People love free stuff, and more importantly, they love to share when they get something for free or scored a great deal. Use this as an opportunity to turn those customers into brand advocates who can help grow your audience.

    By treating your social media channels as a way to distribute engaging content and provide value to your followers, you can continue to regularly grow those followers and leverage the power of your audience to drive conversions.

Kaley Hart
Jumper Media
Kaley Hart is a San Diego based digital strategist and writes for Jumper Media social media marketing column. She loves working with small businesses and telling their stories through social media. Kaley is very talented, but her most impressive quality is the ability to identify any dog breed recognized by the American Kennel Club. Go Bruins! You can connect with her on Twitter @kaleyhearts

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