Are you worth following? Probably not. This comes down to two reasons: 1. You're not easily found 2. Your content isn't relevant to your audience.
This means that potential followers aren't even seeing your page and it's content, and if they are, they do not find it interesting or relevant enough to warrant a 'like' or 'follow'.
Building a thriving social media community is one of the best things you can do for your business. It connects you directly with people in real time, presenting a wonderful opportunity to get your communications and brand messages straight into their newsfeeds. It's often said that obtaining your first 1000 followers is the biggest hurdle in social media.
In general, there are two steps you must undertake. The first is to attract people to your page, and the second is getting them to follow. So here's a few things you can do to hit 1000 followers.
Stage 1: Get people to your page
Attracting people to your page can be the hardest part. But the theory is simple - don't make it difficult for people to find you.
Add social icons to your website and email
Making your social media pages easy to find is the very first step in gaining new followers. An effective way to direct people to your pages is to add social icons to your website and to the signature (or header and footer) of your company emails. It means that people are only a simple click away from visiting all of your social media accounts, making it easy for them to follow your feeds. It's one of the most simple and effective ways to increase your page likes and followers.
Optimise your social media accounts
This means getting your account found in Google searches. What's the best way to achieve this? One word. Keywords. Keywords are the fundamental means to being found in Google. You need to use the keywords that are relevant to your business. To do this, you need a good understanding of what your customers are actually searching. From here, you can use these words in your posts. If you want to find and develop a list of core keywords, head to Google's Keyword Planner.
Be active and - dare we say it - social!
One of the most effective ways to gain followers is to be an enthusiastic user of social media yourself. Like, share, and comment on other accounts that are relevant to your business. This gives an extra avenue for people to find you. Be sure to follow other users as well because it creates connections with like-minded people and businesses, meaning bigger social networks for you.
Stage 2: Get people to click that 'Like' button
Have content your audience cares about
Stop posting about your business all the time. People don't want to hear about the sales you are having, or about your products, all of the time. You need to follow the content ratio rule - 10:4:1.
- 10 curated posts. These are generated from other sources besides your business. For example, if you sold cars, you might post about new road rules, or the best ways to look after your car.
- 4 informative posts. These are informational and creative, and can include content you've generated. They can include any blogs you have written that aren't sales orientated.
- 1 promotional post. This is where you can post about your products.
The key here is posting content that your audience finds interesting and useful. Having great content on your social media pages is the best way to convert a visitor to a follower.
Post regularly
Social media is such a dynamic medium that posting consistently is really important. Making sure you always share engaging, interesting and relevant content is the best way to convert visitors to followers. Once people click to your social media account, it's important you have enough relevant content. You need to ensure that your pages are active, because people will steer clear if they look stagnant or uninspired. Your audience needs to see that you will provide valuable content regularly, otherwise, what is the point of following you?
Know your target audience
It sounds obvious, but being clear about your target audience ensures that the types of followers you attract are going to be the best fit for your business. Once you identify your target audience you are much more likely to create relevant, useful and informative content that your followers will want to share with their social networks, thus expanding your reach.
Having an in-depth understanding of your target market is important because it:
- provides a clear focus of what you should be posting,
- allows you to plan your content in advance,
- and it gives insight to what is relevant and interesting to your audience.
By implementing these simple things to attract people, you will see visitors to your social media accounts spike. But this is pointless unless your content is relevant and interesting to your target audience. What are you waiting for?
PS: we use a unique and interesting process for identifying and profiling our target audience. We call it 'Target Persona' and it involves creating fictionalised profile of your ideal audience 'persona'. Click the link below to learn more about personas and download our handy persona template.
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