How many followers does your favourite brand have on their social media pages? We’re guessing hundreds, thousands, or maybe even millions. But what happens if you’re not a large, well-known brand with a huge following?

Okay, so a high follower count doesn’t necessarily reflect the quality of a brand. But whether you like it or not, there is plenty of value to be found in a high follower count.

If you build a good social media following, it’s easier for you to get your message out there far and wide, build brand awareness, grow brand loyalty and convert followers into customers. Sounds attractive, right? So to help you out, we’ve rounded up our top tips to build your social media following and make an impact online:

Provide value

One of the most important tactics to grow a following of quality users is to share content of value. That means minimal ‘sales’ posts but plenty of educational, humorous and informative content which is relevant to your target audience.

When you’re thinking of ideas for your social media content, picture your target customer in your head. What would they find attractive? What problems might they have which you can help to solve? What would make them smile?

Post consistently

In 2017, a visual marketing tool called Tailwind studied more than 100,000 Instagram profiles to try and grasp how posting frequency affected follower growth and engagement rate. The study found that profiles which posted around seven times a week, every week, get more likes and have more followers than those who post less frequently.

Yep, it’s quite simple – the more often you post quality content, the more likes and followers you’ll get.

Use relevant hashtags

There are tons of tools online which can help you find relevant and trending hashtags. Hashtags help to expand your reach and increase your visibility. Users will search for a hashtag they’re interested in, and hopefully, they’ll then find your post and follow you.

Be responsive

It’s crucial to engage and respond to your followers on social media. A recent study by Sprout Social found that 83% of consumers had a positive sentiment towards brands who respond to questions on social media. Make sure to answer queries promptly – and if you have time, go a step further and spend ten minutes everyday liking or commenting on your followers’ posts.

Offer incentives to followers

Make people want to follow you by giving exclusive incentives. For example, you could create a promotional post detailing that every new follower in the next 24 hours will receive a 20% discount code or a £5 off voucher.

Link to your social media pages

It sounds like a super simple tip, but it works. Make it easy for customers who access your website to click through to your social media pages by placing buttons in an easily visible section of your website. You’ll be surprised at how many of your most loyal customers don’t know you’re on social media unless you make it evident to them. You can even add links to your email newsletters or confirmation emails.

Use automation tools

If you find it hard to stay active on social media, you may find it useful to use automation tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Buffer to save time and streamline the process. Try to create a routine of setting aside a few hours weekly to schedule your content ahead of time.

Advertise

Arguably, the social media landscape from a businesses perspective is very much a pay to play game. Changes to the algorithms of the likes of Facebook can mean that organic posts get positioned way down your target audiences news feed. Make sure you consider some paid for advertising as part of your social media strategy in order to reach a wider, more defined audience, increase your follower base and amplify your content.

If you follow these tips and stay consistent with your social media marketing, you’re likely to gain more than just an increase of followers. You could end up with an increase in sales and extra cash in the bank! Struggling to find the time to commit to social but want to reap the benefits? Contact 3twelve today. We can help you implement a considered social media marketing strategy and manage it on your behalf.