For many social media marketers, a majority of time is spent crafting content — whether it’s creating compelling videos or writing memorable copy that will take a social post to the next level.
However, that’s only half the battle. In order for any social media marketing plan to be successful, time must also be spent on growing your brand’s following from platform to platform; after all, even the most well-crafted social media post won’t do much good if no one ends up seeing it.
With that in mind, here are four easy-to-implement strategies that will help you build your brand’s follower base on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and beyond:
#1: Be Proactive
The old adage of “if you build it, they will come” simply doesn’t work in the social media universe. Especially if you’re just getting your brand’s presence established on social media, you must be proactive and actively seek out new followers instead of continuing to churn out new content and hoping that people will find it and begin engaging with your page.
A few simple ways to start building your social media following from scratch include:
- Inviting friends and family members in your own network who have a logical connection or genuine interest in your brand to follow your social media profiles;
- Following social media profiles for any professional/networking organizations in your brand’s industry;
- Searching popular hashtags connected to your brand (for example, those that are specific to your local area) and following users who actively engage with them;
- Locating similar profiles to your brand and following accounts that you feel would be receptive to the types of content you are posting.
#2: Try a Few Tools
Of course, implementing the bullet points above is easier said than done, and building a substantial social media following takes valuable time that many social media marketers might not have.
Luckily, there are a variety of great third-party applications, both free and paid, designed to make your life a little bit easier. A few of the best that we recommend include:
- BuzzSumo, a “content discovery engine” that helps to key you in on the trending conversations in your industry and can recommend the key influencers for you to follow;
- HypeAuditor is a paid service that will help reduce fake or “bot” followers on your Instagram profile and will also help to provide in-depth demographic data on your follower base;
- Friend or Follow, a fantastic app with handy sorting and filtering features to help you locate the accounts you should be following — and shows you the accounts you’re following that aren’t following you back. Check out this fun video introducing the basics of the platform:
#3: Experiment with Social Advertising
In the early days of social media marketing, it was possible to grow a substantial following simply by posting a lot of great, organic content. Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case.
The simple fact of the matter is that if you’re going to be spending the time on creating social media content, it’s also worth investing at least a small budget on sponsoring that content on Facebook (or promoting those tweets on Twitter, etc.) in order to ensure it is actually seen.
Dedicating a portion of your budget to sponsoring social media content — even if it’s just a few dollars behind each of your Facebook posts — not only makes sure that your current followers will see those posts, but can also be a great way to attract new fans to your page, too.
As a bonus, most social media platforms make it even easier to grow your following via tools such as Facebook’s “invite people to like your page” feature, which is a great way to build a following of the types of people most likely to engage with your posts.
#4: Be Delightful
Growing a social media following is one thing — but sustaining those followers and keeping them engaged with your brand’s content is something else entirely.
The best way to make sure your brand’s social media page doesn’t become one that has thousands of followers but generates little to no engagement is to be strategic about every single post you make to your social media profiles. Every post should have a purpose, which should be easy to articulate from the inception of the post onward. Are you attempting to inform your followers about an upcoming event, or entertain them with a new video you’ve created? If you can’t articulate your reason for posting, then that’s probably a good indication that it’s best to hold off for now.
Continuing to post high-quality, engaging content that delights your social media followers every time they see your brand pop up in their News Feed will go a long way toward keeping your current audiences engaged — while also attracting new followers, too!
Ultimately, while building a following on social media can be a difficult (and sometimes frustrating) process, being persistent and sticking to these strategies will help to make sure your brand’s profiles are trending in the right direction.
If you’ve got a favorite follower-building or community management tip, we’d love to hear it — let us know on social media by tagging our profile @ScooterMediaCo (on Facebook and Instagram) or @ScooterMedia (on Twitter).
Looking for more social media tips? The experts at Scooter Media have you covered! Don’t miss our “4 Ideas for Elevating Your Facebook Ad Copy,” then get our “Guide to Social Media Image Sizes and Specifications,” updated for 2021!
