In today’s world social media is becoming ever more important, it now plays a key role in how businesses and brands market themselves, gain customers, and interact with the public. For this reason increasing your social media following is always desirable. While there is no point in chasing numbers over genuine followers and engagement, a larger following means a wider audience and increased opportunities. This article will outline 6 strategies which have been shown to increase social media following dramatically, and when implemented correctly they bring a quality following alongside an increased one.

Post top quality, shareable content

While what is ‘top quality content’ is largely subjective, you can easily discover what content works for you through trial and error. Keep a close eye on your post analytics to see what content performs well and endeavour to create and post more of that variety of content.

It is vital to post a large quantity of shareable content as this can bring in new followers quickly and easily. Simple yet effective posts such as inspiring quotes or emotive pictures and videos are readily shareable content and each time one of your current followers shares or retweets these they introduce your page and name to their own social media circle. Shareable content is the variety which can rapidly go viral and cause your number of followers to explode; so it is always worth posting easily digestible content amongst the more serious, as this can bring in the followers who stay for the bigger picture.

Connect and Engage

Being visible on social media is everything, modern users are inundated with options when it comes to who or what they follow, so if you want to stand out you are really going to have to go that extra mile.

Replying to comments in a cheerful and conversational manner will show your followers that you value their input and want to engage with them. “This will ensure that you maintain your current follower base and encourage loyalty in them. Likewise, those who are new visitors to your page will see the level of interaction as a incentive to follow you”, – explains Mary Godley, a Social media manager at Writemyx and 1Day2Write.

It is also worth noting that on some platforms, such as Facebook, engaging with followers will cause you to show up on their newsfeed, making you visible to their friends who are likely to have similar interests.

Join the conversation

You can find trending topics and conversation threads in your niche all over social media, so jump in and join the conversations to show your online presence. The beauty of social media is that with just a small amount of effort it can be utilised as free advertising, so don’t waste an opportunity to participate in topical threads and expose yourself to prospective new followers.

Partaking in threads is also an ideal way to show that your brand or business is relevant. Social media is a constantly evolving and changing organism and it can be all too easy to fade into obscurity by not keeping up to date. Make a conscious effort to demonstrate that you understand and have something to say about the current issues, news, and progress in your niche and you will attract new followers to your social media platforms.

Collaborate with other businesses and influencers

An influencer is a social media user with a large following and repetition and any association with them can do wonders for your own following. Even something as simple as a ‘shout out’ and vastly increase your following, so it is worth reaching out to influencers whenever you can in order to gain online publicity.

An example of how this could be done is a newly emerging cosmetics brand sending some of their products to a YouTube personality for free, in the hopes that they will test and review them on their channel. As many beauty channels have millions of subscribers, being featured and endorsed on one could easily double a small brand’s following overnight. No matter what your niche is there is almost certainly an influencer out there who would be suitable to collaborate with.

If you have an established social media following yourself then it also worth contacting influencers within your niche to collaborate on projects such interviews or shared projects. This is a mutually beneficial exercise as it exposes both of you to a new set of potential followers.

Reward those who follow you

The reality is that social media users are spoilt for choice when it comes to who to follow and gaining and retaining peoples interest is becoming increasingly more difficult. There is no point organising and implementing a complex marketing strategy to gain new followers if you don’t retain them. Rewards such as giveaways and contests solve both these issues by encouraging new followers to join and old followers to remain.

Rewards features such as giveaways are a solid investment, when you take into consideration the amount of publicity giving away a product such as a tablet can generate, it is undoubtedly a lot cheaper than paying for traditional advertising. “There are also structured rewards platforms such as Patreon, which provide exclusive content to loyal followers. Another tactic is offer discounts and special offers on your page, as this will encourage users to constantly check for any updates and engage with your brand”, – says Roger Cravens, a Marketing professional at Origin writings.

Find ways to reach new members of your target audience

It goes without saying that a sure fire way to begin attracting new followers to your social media is to reach out and target them directly.

Get to know your target demographic and become familiar with trends in their social media behaviour; what brands they follow, their age range, occupations, and shopping patterns. This information will make it easier to tailor your content more directly for your target audience and will show you which type of page to make yourself visible on and what kind of influencers could help you reach members of your target audience who don’t follow you yet.

To conclude, keep in mind your objectives when growing your following, there are multiple strategies you can use to grow your social media but it is also important to ensure you maintain your content quality and retain your new followers. The keys to success are strong, shareable content, engagement with followers and fellow influencers, and remaining relevant through topical interaction and interactive reward schemes.

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