There are few things more aggravating than learning you gained a new follower on social media, only to find that same person unfollowed you a few days later. Why? Because you didn’t follow them back. Unfortunately, this is a common tactic and doesn’t gain the right social media followers.
Many businesses will send out mass follows with no consideration for who they’re following. Their sole purpose for doing so is in the hopes you’ll follow them back. It may gain a high volume of followers in the beginning, but over time they will unfollow when the content doesn’t interest them. So why waste the time?
We have some tips on how to earn followers that will engage with your social media. Doing this the right way will take more time, but it will pay off in the long run as you’ll generate an audience of supporters and evangelists for your business.
Tips for Gaining Social Media Followers
Follow people in your real life network
- Your existing customers
- Your suppliers / trades
- Colleagues
- Those in industries that support yours
- Other businesses with like-minded ideals
Support others publicly
- Give a shout out to another business that did something inspiring or whose product you love
- Engage with other companies’ or individuals’ posts by liking, commenting, and sharing wherever possible
- Offer value when someone asks a question
Optimize your bio
- Ensure your bio is written in a way that makes it clear who you are and what you offer
- Use keywords and/or hashtags in your bio description
- Explain briefly how you solve your audience’s pain points in your bio description
- Be sure your profile photo is professional and represents your brand
Include your social media link in your email signature
- This one seems a little obvious, but it can help you gain new followers as you communicate via email.
- Use an email signature builder to design a more visually appealing signature that contains your social media links:
Be highly engaged with your audience
- Reply to all comments on your social media posts, even if it’s a simple ‘thank you’.
- Ask plenty of questions or poll your audience to encourage engagement
- Don’t be all business; post things that are interesting to your audience
- Stay away from being salesy, but if people ask questions be sure to answer them as clearly as possible
- Don’t answer questions in a private message if they’ve been posted publicly. Others will likely want to see your answer.
- Be sure to answer complaints or negative comments publicly and quickly. Do NOT delete them. How you handle these situations is important to your audience, and will win you clients if done well.
Post content that solves your audience’s pain points
- Offer high-value content that gives your audience what they are looking for
- Solve a common problem
- Show them what working with you or buying from you will be like
- Show them what they’ll gain
- Ask them relevant questions and engage with their responses
Have Fun!
Your audience will enjoy being a part of your social media experience as much as you will if you offer continuous value and have fun connecting with them. Offer up some behind-the-scenes posts so they can experience your world and learn more about how your product or service is created. With all of these efforts, your social media will be more successful as you gain the right social media followers.
