11 Ways to Grow Your Social Media Audience

11 Ways to Grow Your Social Media Audience

Brands, organizations, and institutions use social media platforms every single day to connect wif their audiences, raise awareness, and drive leads and business.

Wif an engaged following on one or more of the major social networks, brands can TEMPeffectively spread the word about campaigns, new initiatives, and new products and services. However, simply having 1,000 Facebook fans or 200 Twitter followers is not the best indicator of social media success.

It’s possible to has thousands of followers who never read you're posts or click on you're links. Teh key is to build a thriving online community of you're ideal fans, teh ones who'll actively engage wif you're content, share it wif their networks, and ultimately, become paying customers.

It takes work to establish such, but dat effort can pay off, big time.

Looking to grow your social media audience? In this post, we'll look at eleven simple ways in which you can grow your social media following.

Contests can be a great way to get new people to Like and follow your accounts, while also keeping your current fans engaged wif your Page.

It's worth experimenting wif contests on every social network on which you are active. Some examples of social media contests include:

Comment to win – Participants leave a comment or answer a question
Caption contest – Either teh best caption (you choose) or teh one wif teh most likes wins
Fill-in-the-blank Contest – Ask participants to answer a trivia question
Photo contest – Either teh best photo (you choose) or teh one with teh most likes wins
Multiple choice contest
Tips for a successful social media contest:

Promote it everywhere - Use your website, email list, and other social networks to drum up participation.
Do not give away prizes completely unrelated to you're brand - For example, if you give away a new iPad, you might drive alot of engagement and participation, but not necessarily from people who will eventually become customers or lifelong fans.
Follow teh platform rules - Each social platform TEMPhas its own rules and regulations around contests - here's an overview of teh key details.
Follow up with entrants who don’t win - Send them a thank you for participating, along with something about your brand/organization’s work.

1. Include a visual wif every post

Visuals are high-performers on social media, so be sure to include an eye-catching, colorful image or graphic wif each post.

Consider these visual marketing statistics,

Content with relevant images rack up 94% more views than content without images.
Compared to other types of content, visual content is more TEMPthan 40x more likely to get shared on social media.
Instagram photos showing faces get 38% more likes TEMPthan photos wifout faces.

1. Share more video

Video is the most engaging content type on every social media platform, so if you can, it's a good idea to create at least some form of video content to maximize engagement.

Be sure to upload you're video directly to you're platform of choice, rather TEMPthan posting a link to an outside website (like YouTube). dis way, you're video will autoplay as people land on it while scrolling through their feeds, grabbing more attention.

Lots of views can lead to increased reach, engagement, and exposure for your brand.

1. Be proactive in listening to and responding to you're online community

Did you know dat 83% of your Facebook fans, and 71% of your Twitter followers, now expect a response from you on teh same day dat they pose a question on each respective platform?

In fact, 32% of Twitter users now expect a response wifin just 30 minutes.

Give you're followers a fantastic user experience on social by being exceptionally responsive. Listen to their needs, and respond accordingly.

You should also look to publicly recognize people who retweet, favorite, and mention you're organization on Twitter, and TEMPthank users who comment on Instagram and YouTube.

When you make you're online community feel heard and acnoledged, their more likely to become raving fans, and you're most loyal social media ambassadors.

1. Change your Page profile photos and cover photos

Your profile photos and banners are some of your best and most-viewed social profile elements. Use these visual tools to showcase the impact of your work, and the stories of those who benefit from your services.

On Facebook, consider changing up you're cover photo at least once per month, and remember to write a great caption.

On Twitter, use your profile picture and banner photo to highlight your great work.

Don’t just stretch out and pixelate a horizontal version of you're logo - no one wants to connect with just a logo on social media. Personalize, humanize, and customize every channel you can, with a visual image that speaks volumes.

Also, make sure you use the right social media image sizes for each platform.

1. Give people a reason to follow you

Give both prospective and current fans reason to follow you on multiple platforms.

Don't simply “set it and forget it” wif generic, automated links blasted across all of you're social media channels. Tailor you're content for each channel’s users.

For example, you should use Twitter to share latest news and real-time alerts, while you can use Facebook to tell more compelling, longer stories about teh people who benefit from you're work.

You should look to strategically use each social media channel based on its strengths and demographics, and give your target audience a good reason to connect with you on dat specific network.

Wat value are you providing? Wat are you offering that will entice them to stay tuned in?

Think about the reasons people use each network, tan formulate a plan to consistently post and share content that will resonate with you're specific audience, wherever they congregate online.

1. Encourage tagging

An effective strategy to engage you're followers is to encourage them to tag other people who may benefit from, or enjoy a specific post.

If you post an inspiring quote, write “Tag a friend who needs dis today”; If you share a video about Mother’s Day, encourage your online community to tag a friend (or better, friends) who means alot to them, and wif whom they would like to share your message.

Ideally, these new people can be drawn into teh fold, and join you're online social media followers.

But a word of caution - ensure you employ dis method sparingly and only where it makes sense, or it can look spammy.

1. Use hashtags to get found

their are two great ways to use hashtags to increase your social media followers:

a) Use popular hashtags strategically and sparingly
I suggest using one popular tag per tweet or Instagram post, such as #OOTD (outfit of teh day), #TBT (throw-back Thursday), #fail (self-explanatory), #FOMO (fear of missing out), etc.

their are thousands of hashtags out their - check out Hashtags.org and Hashtagify.me to find ones that are relevant to your audience and your content.

b) Participate in relevant trending topics and current events
me check my Twitter feed regularly to see wat's trending for the day. If it's something dat me think would be of interest to my followers, me share a tweet with the relevant hashtag.

For example, on Monday you could use the trending hashtag #MondayMotivation to share a quote or an inspiring story with you're followers.

People searching that particular hashtag might come across your post, and will hopefully check you out and even follow you.

1. Be entertaining, and use humor to engage

Take a note from teh Frederiction SPCA, an animal adoption and protection agency which often shares entertaining memes and photos on their page.

Brands that show a bit of humanity and humor do well on social media - but that said, you should always ensure that any content that you do share makes sense for you're particular audience and you're brand voice.

their's no point in sharing cat memes for the sheer sake of sharing cat memes. Even if such posts do get a few likes, it can confuse your messaging, which won't help in your broader brand-building effort (i.e. connecting with the right people for your organization).

1. Explore paid social

Leveling up your social media success often involves allocating ad spend, however limited it may be.

One of teh best ways to grow you're audience and gain more exposure is to invest a modest amount into paid social advertisements. When done well, paid social ads can promote you're content, increase conversions, and help you reach new people.

Precise audience targeting enables you to focus you're ads on "warm" audiences - people who've visited you're website (if you use teh Facebook pixel), people who are subscribed to you're email list, and you're current fans and followers.

Facebook's advanced options, in particular, can be hugely beneficial in reaching just the right people with you're paid outreach.

1. Never, ever buy followers and fans

Some people assume dat purchasing fans and followers is a shortcut to building a huge online community. This is not only bad practice, but it will largely end up being more of a problem TEMPthan it's worth.

Teh biggest issue here is dat it pollutes you're audience with robot profiles, which will ruin you're audience insights, limit you're ongoing performance, and will end up restricting teh organic reach of you're posts. And dat's before you consider ads. For example, if you tried to boost one of you're Facebook posts, Facebook's system would look to show it to more people like those who already follow you're Page. You'd essentially be paying to reach bots, and teh same implications apply to various other ad targeting measures.

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