Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways of reaching out to a wide audience and increasing brand awareness. But simply posting content on your profile isn’t enough to get people to notice you.
You need followers for that. The success of social media marketing depends a lot on the number of followers you have.
Although just a number, your follower count has the power to influence the way your visitors perceive you as a brand. It can either make people want to follow you or turn them away completely.
Also, people will follow you only if you give them a reason to do that. For that, you need a solid social media strategy. Here are a few tips that you can try out to influence people to follow you on social media and increase your followers without hiring a social media manager.
Optimize Your Social Profile
If you really want people to follow you on social media, the first thing you need to do is to optimize your account.
Sometimes marketers ignore the importance of an optimized profile. So they forget to add a good cover photo, fill out the profile information, or add their official website link to their social profile. These tiny details look insignificant. But it can create a bad impression on your audience’s mind and can hamper your reputation as a brand.
That’s why it’s important for you to optimize your profile right from the day you create your account. There are several ways of doing that. You can start by adding your company logo as your profile picture. It’s also important to add a high-quality cover photograph that gives a better insight into your company objectives.
Once you do that, fill out every detail in your profile. Add quality descriptions and accurate information in each of the fields offered, including your ‘about us,’ objectives, location, etc. This is essential for improving your follower’s experience with your brand.
You should also add links to your other social media profiles and your official website to keep things professional. This will encourage your audience to explore your online presence. It’s also a good way of letting them distinguish your official profiles and website from the unofficial ones (if there are any).
Try to maintain uniformity in all your profile descriptions for consistency. Using the same keywords is one important tip that can help you do that.
Post Original and Relevant Content
Every marketer today has a social presence. But not everyone is capable of making an impact. Simply posting good content on social media doesn’t boost your followers. As mentioned above, you have to give them a reason to follow you.
One good way of influencing them to follow you is to consistently post content that is valuable, engaging, and problem-solving. This will capture people’s interest, and they will start following you with the hope of getting more of such content.
You also need to ensure that your posts are not too promotional. Include different varieties of content to keep people engaged. It can be videos, polls, promotional content, etc. You can also go live from time-to-time to interact directly with your audience and know their expectations.
Delight Your Audience
It’s good to post informative and educational content on social media. But it’s also important to post delightful content to keep your audience engaged. Such posts are more memorable and get easily shared too. It also helps increase brand awareness, boosts visibility, and quickly expands your follower list.
There are several ways how you can delight your audience. One of them is to share humorous and relatable content. Such posts can easily attract followers and boost engagement.
Another way of delighting your audience is to be quick with your responses. Be available to your customers when they reach out to you for support. Even if it’s a minor issue, try to resolve it as soon as possible. If you need time, tell them that you are working on it. Your quick response and instant support will let them know that your customers are your top priority.
Also, make sure to be enthusiastic and energetic while interacting with your customers. Maintaining a positive and welcoming attitude is very important for offering a happy experience. When you have happy customers, it’s easier to get recommended too. And that’s the best way of getting people to like, share, and follow you on social media.
Organize Giveaways
Organizing giveaways is another brilliant way of increasing your social media followers. People love freebies. So when they see you organizing a giveaway, they will surely want to join the contest in the hoping of winning the prize.
It’s a great way of attracting new followers and enticing your existing customers. But the trick is to let people know that the criterion for joining the contest is to follow you on your social channels. You can even ask them to share your giveaway post with others or tag 2 or more people in the comments section to boost exposure.
With more exposure, you can get more participants. And since the criterion for participating is to follow you, your follower count is sure to increase.
Engage With Your Audience
People don’t like brands that are too self-promotional and too obvious about their marketing strategies. More than that, they prefer to follow brands that are engaging and interacting with their audience.
Rather than being too focused on your marketing goals, use your social accounts to build relationships with your audience. It’s a great way of gaining people’s trust and confidence, which is very important for the success of your business.
This doesn’t mean that you have to go overboard and exchange personal messages with your audience. You can simply comment or like the posts they share, reply to their comments in your posts, etc. These little gestures make them feel valued.
It’s a great way of cultivating and nurturing relationships. It will help you build a loyal user-base, encourage positive word of mouth, and attract more followers.
Social media is now one of the most essential marketing tools for businesses. And having a strong presence has now become a necessity. But if you want your social media marketing plans to be successful, you have to have a strong following. So use the above tips and start increasing your followers now.
