We have spoken about where you should begin regarding social media in our previous blog, Where to Begin on Social Media. But once you have opened your social media accounts, where do you go from there? Especially if you are not investing in paid advertising or boosted posts, then you need to focus on your organic growth.
The first thing that usually pops into your mind is, how am I going to gain followers? We’re here to help! To get you going, we’ll go through some fundamental tactics to gain your social media following.
Quality Content
First and foremost, the main way to increase your following is simply by creating great content that will engage your audience. This will encourage your following to like, comment and share your content which will expose your content to a wider audience and increase your following. Electronic word-of-mouth is the greatest influencer amongst consumers. Where a follower engages with your posts, a friend of theirs may be more inclined to engage with you too. Brand advocates such as your friends, family and employees will be a great support here to get things moving too.
Use of Imagery
Image is everything. As mentioned in our Maximise Engagement with Images blog, content with relevant visuals get more attention and views on your posts.
Instagram primarily focuses on imagery, so take a little more time to get these pictures right. You may look to develop a brand theme for your images so your feed has consistency. Have a look at your filters as research proves they really are eye-catching and mix things up with video too, Boomerangs and Giphy’s.
Hashtag Strategically
Use relevant hashtags with your imagery that your desired audience is likely to search for. Dedicate a hashtag to yourself that you can promote on other channels to integrate your marketing activity (be fun and creative with this!). Read more in our Use Hashtags Strategically blog.
Facebook changed it’s strategy and is actively encouraging hashtags since 2020.
Follow for Follow
The beauty of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are that they suggest relevant accounts that you should follow, based on your content, bio, current followers and who your competitors are following. Seek out key influencers in your industry too. Following someone new, encourages follow backs. Stay active and engage with these followers, including sharing their content. Showing them support means that they are more likely to support you too.
Just make sure you keep control of your Following to Follower ratio on all your social media channels as these can put off new followers. We recommend regularly reducing the accounts you follow if this is near to your total number of followers.
Link your channels
Add widgets to your website to direct people straight to your social media pages. Then look to add your social links to your emails and other marketing materials.
As simple as it sounds, don’t be afraid to post about your other social media channels to encourage a following across all networks. See this examples:
Your Facebook page tabs can also add Twitter, Pinterest & Instagram feeds. Head to Facebook’s search bar to find, for example, ‘Instagram feed tab for pages’ and install the app and link your accounts.
Schedule Posts
It’s so important to stay organised. We suggest planning your posts using a simple Excel spreadsheet, displaying which posts are going out when and on what channel. You can then schedule your posts using tools like Hootsuite. This has a natty ‘Auto Schedule’ facility that works out the best time to post for maximum engagement. That way, you can get on with your day without having to worry about posting. Be sure to keep up with any engagement though as it can be easy to forget that your social media activity is live when using scheduling tools.
These social media organic growth tips are proven methods and to see results you really have to be consistent with all of these points and take the time to engage with people, after all, social media is about being sociable. If you need help with your organic social media growth, get in touch!