September 12, 2020

How To Boost Your Social Media Numbers

Starting social media accounts for your business can seem daunting. How do you attract and retain followers? How do you sustain regular interaction with your posts? Each platform has its own quirks. Here are a few tips for boosting your social media presence.

Follow related accounts.

 You want to get the attention of anyone who might have an interest in your content. Following organizations, businesses, institutions, individuals, and so on with related purposes and interests can help get you on the radar of the right people. Generally, following people with a high following-to-follower ratio is a good recipe for getting people to follow you back. This means that these accounts are following more people than they have following them. Also, follow people that your own followers interact with. Your followers are interested in your content – and the other accounts that they follow probably have related content.

Be careful of haphazardly following everyone – this will dilute your own following-to-follower ratio. Influential, popular accounts tend to have more followers than accounts that they are following. Even if you’re just starting out, you want to look more established than you are. Follow accounts that have a high likelihood of following you back, as previously mentioned. Also, be careful of following competitors (i.e. accounts offering the same services in the same area as you.)

Post targeted content regularly.

 Regardless of how many followers you have, you won’t sustain them for very long without substantial content. Keep up-to-date on news and other developments in your field that may interest your audience. When possible, share content from your business’ own website rather than third parties, as it will drive your web traffic and build a unique, original channel. On Twitter, Instagram, and occasionally Facebook, use relevant hashtags so that people searching for particular trending topics will see your posts. This may require some research – what kind of topics are people seeking out? Can you connect your business to these topics in a meaningful way?

Space out your shares and posts – you don’t want to have fifteen posts in one day, and then none for a week. Facebook’s scheduling feature can help pace your updates, and free services like TweetDeck and Hootsuite allow for scheduled posting on other platforms like Twitter. Also, don’t overdo hashtags – you don’t want to obscure the meaning of your post! It’s #hard #to #read #posts #like #this.

Interact with relevant users.

 Having a lot of original content is great, but sharing and engaging with other accounts is important in building connections and developing a larger audience. Pepper in retweets or shares between your original posts. Add comments where appropriate to encourage interaction. If you’re sharing a story from a third party, link to the original source or author so they are notified of your post. Often, they will return the favor – they may like or share your post, interact with your original posts, or even follow you.

Before sharing someone else’s content, make sure it comes from a reputable source that you would trust linking to your business. Avoid notoriously biased sources, tabloids, or heavily opinionated pieces. Also, be wary of engaging with everyone. Some comments are not worth a response, and sometimes bots or other attention-seeking spam accounts will try to interact with you. You don’t want to dilute quality brand engagement with this type of activity.

Take advantage of paid promotions.

 Free publicity is fantastic, but sometimes giving your post an extra boost with a targeted ad campaign can make a big difference. Even on a low budget, you can promote a tweet or a Facebook post to reach extra users who may not have otherwise stumbled onto your page. When possible, tailor your promotion to a specific audience. Include a location, an age range, and relevant interests to your targeting – this will help get your post in front of the users most likely to interact with it.

Steer away from large, bundled promotion options that claim to streamline the process of running and creating your ad campaign. These campaigns are easy to create in the short term, but will cost you in the long term, as they offer few customizable options and consequently attract less relevant attention.

Social media is a valuable addition to your business’ development and marketing strategy. By taking advantage of certain features like the ones above, you can put your business in the spotlight and grow an influential online brand.