Three useful hacks to unlock follower growth on social media

Watching your social numbers and noticing the only one not going up is follower growth? Not having a lot of followers on your social media channels is not the end of the world. However, if you have too few followers, you probably aren’t reaching as many potential customers as you would like to. 

Business owners shouldn’t get too bogged down by social media metrics, but it is important to recognise that more followers can mean more customers, which increases your chances of gaining sales. It’s never a bad idea to find some accessible and easy ways to increase your potential of gaining more followers on your social media platforms. Below we share three useful hacks to unlock follower growth for ultimate social media success. 

#1 Get your employees to interact with your social media content

Our first tip to unlock follower growth on your social media platforms is to get your employees interacting with your content. If your employees like, comment, and share your posts, that means you get even more visibility for your brand, which can equate to an increase in following. Whilst you can simply ask your team members to do this, it may slip their minds. What’s more, they probably want to reshare the content because it’s their idea to do so. 

Therefore, you will want to come up with some way to encourage them to interact with your content on their own initiative. There are many different things you could do but we would recommend something like a monthly competition. At the end of the month, monitor your socials, and see which employee engaged the most with your social media content and reward them for their efforts with an attractive prize. This is particularly effective on platforms like LinkedIn because even a like will bring your content into their network. 

#2 Create a strategy that underpins your social goals and be consistent

Beyond employee engagement, you want to make sure that you populate your channels with interesting and valuable content. If you don’t do this, new followers will quickly disengage or unfollow. Trying to post this valuable content on the spot can be challenging. This is why we recommend that you sit down by yourself if you handle all things social media or your marketing team and start creating your strategy.

Before you jump into what to post on each day and how many times per week to publish content, ask yourself what you want to achieve from social media. For instance, do you want to increase your sales? Does the idea of building a strong community resonate with you? Perhaps, you want to simply use social media as a gallery for your service or products. There are many different reasons brands utilise social media and just like them, you need to determine why you are using it. 

Once you have defined those goals, start thinking about content, and how the content you publish can help you achieve your desired goals. A great way to do this is by creating content pillars. For example, ‘inspirational’ posts to drive sales, or ‘proven effectiveness’ to build community. After you have the logistics down, you can take pen to paper or fingers to keyboard to start brainstorming engaging content ideas. For an extra tip here: it’s a good idea to use high-quality assets if you have them and to jump on what’s trending currently. 

#3 Get word of mouth going by communicating with your followers

There’s no denying that word of mouth is a fantastic marketing strategy bringing businesses across the globe a lot of success. However, word of mouth does not have to be limited to in-person brand experiences; you can also drive word of mouth on social media. Simply engaging with current followers and showing that you appreciate them supporting you will inspire them to share how amazing your brand is with their network. 

This is even if they have not purchased your product or service yet. Being supportive and responding to followers promptly shows you care, and by acting more personable, you will increase your follower count. A lot of research also shows that a significant portion of customers will purchase from businesses after following and communicating with them on social media. With this in mind, every interaction counts. So, be sure to reply to people’s questions and comments frequently! 

Summary

Acquiring followers on social media channels is no easy task. Many brand owners pay a lot of attention to follower count, and it's understandable since this metric informs whether you are reaching your potential customers. Although it is not the be-all and end-all, it is still crucial to give it some attention by implementing some easy tips and tricks. In this blog, we shared three hacks for unlocking follower growth on social media.

They include getting employees to engage with your content, driving word of mouth, and creating a solid strategy that ensures consistent posting. We hope you implement these tips and they help you reach new levels of social media success. Be sure to let us know if you do and how they have helped grow your brand in the comments below. If you want to become industry-leading on social media but are unsure where to start, contact us today! Our team would be thrilled to grow your brand online and help you reach your goals for social media success.