Gaining Social Media Followers for Your Brand is Easier Than You Think

It doesn’t matter if you’re starting from scratch or ready for a refresh, reaching more people on social media can feel like a challenge. Getting them to click on your content can seem even harder. But with the right know-how, it’s actually easy to do. We’re about to hit you with a lot of valuable tips and tricks to increase your social media followers and boost engagement at the same time. But as you go through this list, take note of the ones that seem doable for you to implement right now and those that you can aim to attack in a month from now.

Before we dive in, let’s define ‘followers,’ and how they apply to your online profiles.

Defining Social Media Followers

By measuring your social media followers, we’re tracking the metric of those who “follow” you on Twitter and Instagram, “like” your Facebook page, “connect” on LinkedIn and “subscribe” to your YouTube page. This is your online audience who has noted your brand as one they want to stay in touch with, somewhat of an indirect measure of your digital popularity.

Don’t Be Fooled By Fake Promises

But don’t get too carried away with the thought of a popularity contest just yet. The quality of your followers matters just as much (rather, more) than the quantity. For example, you’re going to see a much higher engagement rate with a loyal group of 500 followers than you will with a disinterested audience of 5000.

This is why it’s vital to never buy fake followers through those third-party “too-good-to-be-true” vendors who promise genuine growth. Their lack of engagement will trigger your social platform algorithms to consider your content as less than interesting for your audience and rate it lower in quality than it actually is. This will cause your organic reach to plummet.

Instead, attract your audience naturally with your own efforts and content. With that being said, let’s reveal 25 simple ways you can gain more social media followers for your brand. It’s easier than you think.

25 Simple Ways to Gain Social Media Followers for your Brand

1. Strategize. Before you draft your first post, you need to begin with a strategy. If you already have a profile, it’s not too late to get started. This will be more like hitting the refresh button. Identify who your target audience is and where you’re going to reach them.
2. Complete. First impressions are vital to your brand’s success and therefore, you must make a conscious effort to make a good one. That means filling out your social media profile completely; if you don’t, visitors won’t know what to expect and will most likely pass you right on by. Not only will this help you stay fresh in the eyes of current customers, it will also expose you to new, more relevant users who may be interested in following you in the future.
3. Optimize. As you’re completing your profile, remember to optimize it for relevant keywords and phrases your target audience could be searching for. And get good at writing excellent post copy to get people to stop scrolling and pay attention. It requires time to craft posts with a call to action that doesn’t sound like a strong sell. Be careful to avoid the megaphone-spam-sale by slapping the first thing you think of on the feed and call it a day.
4. Link. If you want followers, you need to make it super easy for them. Link your social profiles on your website, include them on email footers, business cards and other marketing assets.
5. Commit. Consistency is what’s going to make people stick around for the long haul. Maintain the same frequency of posts each week so people can get into a rhythm with you. Also, be sure to keep your brand voice and messaging consistent across all social media platforms as well.
6. Promote. Provide valuable content that your followers are looking for and then promote it so it becomes more visible and effective. You are the industry expert, be the go-to resource your audience deserves.
7. Go Live. Don’t be afraid to do a live-feed on your Facebook profile. Whether it’s of a speaking event, behind the scenes, or a how-to, just make sure it’s valuable for your followers.
8. Laugh. Even if your brand’s voice is traditionally more professional, don’t underestimate the power of a clever, clean, joke.
9. Hashtag. Optimize your posts for social searches by using #hashtags. Just be careful not to stuff your posts full of too many or you could end up appearing desperate.
10. Comment. Social media is a two-way street. The more you interact with others, the more they’ll interact with you. Just make sure you’re being sincere in your efforts.
11. Respond. When users comment on your post, respond to it. At the very minimum, “like” it.
12. Follow. Take time to follow accounts that are relevant to your industry. People will notice your activity and many of them will follow you back. While you’re at it, research your competition so you can differentiate yourself and stand out from the crowd.
13. Share. In addition to sharing your own links and awesomeness, share content that has been posted by influencers, other brands in your industry and even some of your individual followers. When you share a user’s content, they’ll be more likely to share some of yours in the future.
14. Engage. Get involved in discussions and engage with influencers who could potentially mention you in a future post, exposing your brand to thousands of new users.
15. Attract. Photos attract people much more than text. Visual content will help you stand out on news feeds, which gives you more opportunities to attract new followers.
16. GIF. Take it a step further and post or create your own gifs. They can be used to graphically illustrate product how-to’s or simply to entertain your audience resulting in more shares….and more exposure.
17. Trend. Find out what new topics are trending and use them to your advantage, but only if they can relate to your brand’s voice.
18. Answer. As you become the go-to-resource and grow in prominence on your social channels, you’re going to get more questions from users looking for advice in your niche. When this happens, and it will, give a good answer to win them over. Or better yet, create the content they need…before they need it.
19. Help. Use social media as a convenient form of customer service to open doors of communication in every possible way. If someone reaches out to you on messenger, respond to them quickly.
20. Analyze. Determine what posts have gotten the most engagement and replicate those efforts. At the same time, analyze your worst posts, learn from the experience (then avoid them) and move on.
21. Ask. It doesn’t hurt to ask directly for a share. Sometimes. Just don’t do it too much or you could come off as desperate rather than confident. Also, try to promote your social accounts in real life. Rather than just hanging a “follow us” sticker on your door, personally ask each of your customers to follow you on Facebook before they leave your side.
22. Humanize. Add a personal touch to remind your followers that your brand has humans behind it. We’re social creatures; people simply love humans of other humans. And,  posting pictures of people gives you the chance to tag them in your post, which will extend your reach even further!
23. Recover. Make a mistake? It happens. The key is to recover your reputation quickly by acknowledging your mistake and apologizing for your misstep.
24. Discover. No matter how much you brainstorm, there are only so many new topics you can dig up on your own as inspiration to write or share new content. When you’re fresh out, turn to external tools such as BuzzSumo or Feedly to help you generate new ideas.
25. Schedule. Save time and ensure a consistent frequency of posts by scheduling your content in advance. Just be sure to balance your automated posts with your “in-the-moment” updates. You need both.

Now that you have a good start on some ideas you can implement to increase your social media followers, pick a few you can execute right away and watch your social presence flourish!

With the help of the experts at Post Café, it’s easy to establish a consistent presence with all the content you need for a strong social media following.  We write all the trending articles and post them directly to your social media accounts – so you don’t have to. Call us at 732-218-9377 to learn more today.