How to Grow Your Social Media Following

As a company in 2019, creating and maintaining a presence on social media is a key player in your success in connecting with potential customers. However, the benefits you receive from social media are dependent on a very important factor– followers! Your number of followers is certainly not the primary way to measure the success of your business, but it can provide a sense of credibility to those researching your brand. While we aren’t suggesting that you grow your following simply to improve your “followers to following” ratio, what you can maximize here is an opportunity to interact with your consumers in a way that can give your business a more personal feel. This helps with creating a sense of trust. Whether your company is just starting out on social media, or you have a well-established presence, here are a few ways you can grow your social media following.

Goals, Objectives, & Buyer Personas

Before you jump into building a profile on every social media platform available, it’s important to establish the goals and objectives of your company on social media. What is it that you want to portray to your followers, and how will you reach them? After you determine goals and objectives, you need to develop the buyer personas of your followers that you are trying to reach. Determining this will help you to understand their interests, needs, and how to best attract them to your posts. Buyer personas will also help you establish which social media platforms you should be on.

It’s All About the Content

When you begin utilizing social media, you want to remain relevant and consistent with your posts. The truth is, people will look at your social media because nearly any target audience you can think of is on one social media platform or another, whether that’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or whatever the kids are on these days! When people are researching a business often times the first thing they check is their social media accounts.

If you haven’t posted in months or even years, people will be uninterested and untrusting. To avoid this, create a content calendar! With all of your posts laid out, you can easily remind yourself to stay organized with your posts. By scheduling posts ahead of time, you will never leave your audience hanging. With that being said, the content that you post should be interesting and relevant to not only your company but your followers as well. Include images, gifs, or videos as often as possible — this increases your engagement significantly!

Spread the Word

Your posts, although interesting and relevant, can only do but so much without followers to back it up. Be sure to share your social media in a variety of ways! Add your social account names to your business cards, that way when you hand them out, people know which social platforms you utilize. Or, simply tell people you know to check out your social media accounts to spread the word. Be sure to include the social media icons on your website and email signature, linking them to your social media accounts. These are some simple ways to get your accounts some attention, without being too pushy about it.

Engagement & Interaction

You’re on the right path to grow your social media following! However, there are a few more important aspects to keep in mind. Interaction and engagement with your followers is key to successful social media brand management. Start a conversation with your followers! In your posts, ask questions and tell followers to comment their thoughts to get a conversation started. If they tweet or comment at you, a response can be necessary. I learned once that “you’re only as good as your last Tweet.” If that tweet is a complaint from a customer, respond to clear the air! Not only is your reputation important, but so is taking the time to respond to followers. This creates trust and personalization between followers and your business.

There are endless ways to continue to grow and improve your presence on social media. It’s important to realize that once you have an account, it must be maintained! If done correctly, the use of social media can help grow your business immensely.

Kelly is an Account Strategist at Xponent21. With a focus on content creation, she enjoys brainstorming unique ways to showcase ideas and thoughts customers have for their business. Our company engineers digital experiences that delight, drive revenue, and increase operational efficiency. To find out more about our services, contact us.