11 ways to grow your social media audience
11 Ways to Grow Your Social Media Audience
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Brands, organizations, and institutions use social media platforms every single day to connect with their audiences, raise awareness, and drive leads and business.
With an engaged following on one or more of the major social networks, brands can effectively spread the word about campaigns, new initiatives, and new products and services. However, simply having 1,000 Facebook fans or 200 Twitter followers is not the best indicator of social media success.
It’s possible to have thousands of followers who never read your posts or click on your links. The key is to build a thriving online community of your ideal fans, the ones who'll actively engage with your content, share it with their networks, and ultimately, become paying customers.
It takes work to establish such, but that effort can pay off, big time.
Looking to grow your social media audience? In this post, we'll look at eleven simple ways in which you can grow your social media following.
Contests can be a great way to get new people to Like and follow your accounts, while also keeping your current fans engaged with your Page.
It's worth experimenting with contests on every social network on which you are active. Some examples of social media contests include:
Comment to win – Participants leave a comment or answer a question
Caption contest – Either the best caption (you choose) or the one with the most likes wins
Fill-in-the-blank Contest – Ask participants to answer a trivia question
Photo contest – Either the best photo (you choose) or the one with the most likes wins
Multiple choice contest
Tips for a successful social media contest:
Promote it everywhere - Use your website, email list, and other social networks to drum up participation.
Do not give away prizes completely unrelated to your brand - For example, if you give away a new iPad, you might drive a lot of engagement and participation, but not necessarily from people who will eventually become customers or lifelong fans.
Follow the platform rules - Each social platform has its own rules and regulations around contests - here's an overview of the key details.
Follow up with entrants who don’t win - Send them a thank you for participating, along with something about your brand/organization’s work.
- Include a visual with every post
Visuals are high-performers on social media, so be sure to include an eye-catching, colorful image or graphic with each post.
Consider these visual marketing statistics,
Content with relevant images rack up 94% more views than content without images.
Compared to other types of content, visual content is more than 40x more likely to get shared on social media.
Instagram photos showing faces get 38% more likes than photos without faces.
- Share more video
Video is the most engaging content type on every social media platform, so if you can, it's a good idea to create at least some form of video content to maximize engagement.
Be sure to upload your video directly to your platform of choice, rather than posting a link to an outside website (like YouTube). This way, your video will autoplay as people land on it while scrolling through their feeds, grabbing more attention.
Lots of views can lead to increased reach, engagement, and exposure for your brand.
- Be proactive in listening to and responding to your online community
Did you know that 83% of your Facebook fans, and 71% of your Twitter followers, now expect a response from you on the same day that they pose a question on each respective platform?
In fact, 32% of Twitter users now expect a response within just 30 minutes.
Give your followers a fantastic user experience on social by being exceptionally responsive. Listen to their needs, and respond accordingly.
You should also look to publicly recognize people who retweet, favorite, and mention your organization on Twitter, and thank users who comment on Instagram and YouTube.
When you make your online community feel heard and acknowledged, they're more likely to become raving fans, and your most loyal social media ambassadors.
- Change your Page profile photos and cover photos
Your profile photos and banners are some of your best and most-viewed social profile elements. Use these visual tools to showcase the impact of your work, and the stories of those who benefit from your services.
On Facebook, consider changing up your cover photo at least once per month, and remember to write a great caption.
On Twitter, use your profile picture and banner photo to highlight your great work.
Don’t just stretch out and pixelate a horizontal version of your logo - no one wants to connect with just a logo on social media. Personalize, humanize, and customize every channel you can, with a visual image that speaks volumes.
Also, make sure you use the right social media image sizes for each platform.
- Give people a reason to follow you
Give both prospective and current fans reason to follow you on multiple platforms.
Don't simply “set it and forget it” with generic, automated links blasted across all of your social media channels. Tailor your content for each channel’s users.
For example, you should use Twitter to share latest news and real-time alerts, while you can use Facebook to tell more compelling, longer stories about the people who benefit from your work.
You should look to strategically use each social media channel based on its strengths and demographics, and give your target audience a good reason to connect with you on that specific network.
What value are you providing? What are you offering that will entice them to stay tuned in?
Think about the reasons people use each network, then formulate a plan to consistently post and share content that will resonate with your specific audience, wherever they congregate online.
- Encourage tagging
An effective strategy to engage your followers is to encourage them to tag other people who may benefit from, or enjoy a specific post.
If you post an inspiring quote, write “Tag a friend who needs this today”; If you share a video about Mother’s Day, encourage your online community to tag a friend (or better, friends) who means a lot to them, and with whom they would like to share your message.
Ideally, these new people can be drawn into the fold, and join your online social media followers.
But a word of caution - ensure you employ this method sparingly and only where it makes sense, or it can look spammy.
- Use hashtags to get found
There are two great ways to use hashtags to increase your social media followers:
a) Use popular hashtags strategically and sparingly
I suggest using one popular tag per tweet or Instagram post, such as #OOTD (outfit of the day), #TBT (throw-back Thursday), #fail (self-explanatory), #FOMO (fear of missing out), etc.
There are thousands of hashtags out there - check out Hashtags.org and Hashtagify.me to find ones that are relevant to your audience and your content.
b) Participate in relevant trending topics and current events
I check my Twitter feed regularly to see what's trending for the day. If it's something that I think would be of interest to my followers, I share a tweet with the relevant hashtag.
For example, on Monday you could use the trending hashtag #MondayMotivation to share a quote or an inspiring story with your followers.
People searching that particular hashtag might come across your post, and will hopefully check you out and even follow you.
- Be entertaining, and use humor to engage
Take a note from the Frederiction SPCA, an animal adoption and protection agency which often shares entertaining memes and photos on their page.
Brands that show a bit of humanity and humor do well on social media - but that said, you should always ensure that any content that you do share makes sense for your particular audience and your brand voice.
There's no point in sharing cat memes for the sheer sake of sharing cat memes. Even if such posts do get a few likes, it can confuse your messaging, which won't help in your broader brand-building effort (i.e. connecting with the right people for your organization).
- Explore paid social
Leveling up your social media success often involves allocating ad spend, however limited it may be.
One of the best ways to grow your audience and gain more exposure is to invest a modest amount into paid social advertisements. When done well, paid social ads can promote your content, increase conversions, and help you reach new people.
Precise audience targeting enables you to focus your ads on "warm" audiences - people who've visited your website (if you use the Facebook pixel), people who are subscribed to your email list, and your current fans and followers.
Facebook's advanced options, in particular, can be hugely beneficial in reaching just the right people with your paid outreach.
- Never, ever buy followers and fans
Some people assume that purchasing fans and followers is a shortcut to building a huge online community. This is not only bad practice, but it will largely end up being more of a problem than it's worth.
The biggest issue here is that it pollutes your audience with robot profiles, which will ruin your audience insights, limit your ongoing performance, and will end up restricting the organic reach of your posts. And that's before you consider ads. For example, if you tried to boost one of your Facebook posts, Facebook's system would look to show it to more people like those who already follow your Page. You'd essentially be paying to reach bots, and the same implications apply to various other ad targeting measures.
4 Benefits of Using Social Media to Grow Your Small Business
Social media is one of the most effective ways to nurture your business.
Learning about your target audience can help you make informed marketing and analytic decisions.
Proper social media marketing tactics result in increased engagement, higher SEO rank and social proof for your website.
Personalized ads can improve your sales and website traffic.
Business owners have a wide range of marketing tools at their disposal. After examining numerous studies and data from real companies, it's evident that social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to grow your small business.
According to HootSuite, there are currently 4.39 billion people online, and 3.48 billion people using social media. Both figures increased by 9% from the prior year. This shows that there is an excellent chance you can find and market to your target audience on various social media platforms.
Every niche can benefit from the additional exposure, marketing opportunities and the chance to connect with potential customers. Depending on your industry, your social media experience may differ from others, but these are general benefits that apply to a majority of industries.
Learn about your target audience
The first and most obvious benefit of using social media as a growth tool is that it allows you to learn more about your target audience. Think about it; social media is where people go when they want to express their thoughts, opinions, or experiences. In other words, people online are more receptive to brands and products and happy to talk about their experiences.
You can use this data by checking out your competitors' social media profiles, and groups where people talk about your niche. For example, if you wanted to create content for your gardening website, you would go to the Gardening 101 Facebook group and see what people are discussing. If you notice that a majority of members have similar pain points or questions about growing climate-specific flowers, you can add that information to your customer persona sheet and start thinking about how to use this information in your content marketing strategy.
Take the time to learn where your audience likes to hang out online. Your target audience may spend their time on YouTube, which means influencer marketing will help you reach these consumers. If you discover that a large percentage of potential customers like Twitter, take the time to make a fully fleshed out Twitter account where you interact and respond to consumers.
The more you know about your target audience, the more personalized you can make the marketing experience for them.
Create personalized advertising
As you learn more about potential customers, you can create personalized ad campaigns on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Research shows that a majority of consumers are willing to exchange their information for relevant ads. People want to see products and offers that are relevant to their lives and experiences.
There are several ways you can create personalized ads on social media. The first tactic requires retargeting pixels on your website. When consumers come to your site but leave without making a purchase, your website drops a browser cookie on the IP address of the user. When that person is browsing social media at a later date, they will get personalized ads based on the items they had in their cart, as well as a discount to sweeten the deal.
Alternatively, you could use the data you obtained from the previously mentioned tactic to make ads that are personalized for your target audience. For example, if you learned that a majority of your customers want tips for repurposing garden tools, you could create an ebook on the topic and offer it as a lead magnet.
Create a landing page on your website where social media followers will land when they click your advertisement. Before you start looking for the best landing page creation tool, think about the scale and frequency of your ads so you can make an educated decision when setting up your campaign.
Boost your SEO ranking and improve site engagement
Boosting your SEO ranking and improving engagement are closely connected. Contrary to popular belief, the number of likes and comments doesn't directly correlate to your SEO ranking. If that were the case, it would be easy for anyone to game the system and get an undeserved ranking.
Instead, you can use your engaging social media posts to encourage consumers to go to your website, which can have a positive impact on your SEO ranking. Google needs to know that your site is relevant and that people look and interact with the various pages on your website. For example, promoting a giveaway on social media will improve audience engagement, but will also lead to consumers landing on your homepage and potentially browsing your content.
Consumer engagement is one of the core pillars of your brand's personality. The way you talk and interact with your followers will dictate how they engage with your business. Brands with personalities are appealing to consumers, think no further than the Wendy’s fast-food Twitter account and their "sassy" mascot.
Build social proof
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people are likely to buy a product if they see other people using and enjoying the same item. Many businesses add testimonial pages to their websites as a way to build social proof. This tactic is excellent for enticing curious consumers on your site, but you can create social proof online through your various social media profiles.
For example, if one of your customers writes a glowing review of your business and tags you, make sure you share it on your profile and thank them for their feedback. When people find your profile, they will see your retweets and shares showing what others are saying about your business.
If your content marketing strategy involves you writing guest posts for other publications, you can share their posts for additional social proof. Let's say someone finds your guest post on a site they already follow and trust, they will automatically have some level of confidence in your brand due to the connection.
There’s no question that every small business should embrace social media as a marketing tactic. Countless people use social media as a way to check out new products, research brands and eventually make purchases.
It's your job to pinpoint your target audience and learn about their pain points and goals. Once you understand who you're targeting, start creating personalized ad campaigns for potential customers. Nurture your relationship with consumers by sharing comments, replying and interacting with other businesses. Finally, research your analytic data and determine whether your social media marketing data for new ways to grow your audience and improve sales.
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