Building a social media following today is rather simple in theory, but very difficult in practice – particularly given how much competition there is out there. With that being said, there are some organic methods that you can adopt to help grow a large following and ultimately monetize them through your website. Here’s what you need to get started…
1. Define your brand voice
This is a very important step: find and define your brand voice. If you wish to attract an audience, you need to be consistent in your delivery. If every post is all over the shop and reads as someone different wrote it every time, people will be less inclined to stick around.
2. Know your audience
And of course, you need to know who you are talking to – inside and out. It’s not enough to know their age, gender, and location; you need to know what makes them tick. What are they most afraid of? What are their hobbies? What kind of sense of humour do they have?
The more data you have, the easier it will be to create posts that attract and thus resonate with the right people.
3. Post content your audience will get excited about
It should go without saying, but in order for your social media content to be impactful, it has to hit the right notes.
A great place to start is to study your biggest competitors. What are their interactions like on their social accounts and which posts are your audience most resonating with?
This should give you some awesome ideas and then craft some posts of your own based on what you’ve learned.
Don’t copy your competitors outright; emulate the successful posts and make them even better.
4. Hashtag well
Remember, unless you are actively paying to have your posts boosted and put in front of a wider audience, you are going to struggle to gain an organic following – unless of course, you learn to hashtag well.
Adopting the appropriate hashtags is an effective way to get more eyes on your posts – especially when writing about trending topics, local causes, or seasonal events.
5. Visual content is essential
If you are writing Facebook posts without any accompanying imagery or video content, your engagement, and ultimately your conversions, will suffer for it.
The fact is, consumers are 323% better when performing actions that are accompanied by visual instructions, such as infographics. So, if you are posting a “how to” social media post, get a branded infographic up there and watch as your shares and engagement skyrocket!
6. Start a series
Want to keep people coming back from more? Create a content series, such as “Watch me get shredded in 12 weeks using this new workout program,” etc.
That way, when posting consistently, more people will be obliged to tune in and follow as the content progresses.
This can be applied to so many different business types.
For example, a Facebook advertising agency could start a content series and share game-changing social media hacks over the course of a month. “30-tips over 30-days”, etc.
Your audience is hungry for helpful content and if you kindly oblige they will thank you for it.
7. Host live events
Live streaming is an excellent tactic in the modern social media marketing arena, especially if you get thought leaders in your industry to share high-value information on your channel. In fact, over 80% of Facebook users claim to prefer engaging with live streaming content than they do regular branded video content!
Final thoughts: Be present. Be consistent.
Ultimately, the key to growing a following organically is showing up consistently. If you are always on social media posting at set times on set days, your audience will grow to expect it. That, and if you consistently deliver awesome, high-value content for free, they’ll be far more likely to follow you!
Digital Web Services (DWS) is a leading IT company specializing in Software Development, Web Application Development, Website Designing, and Digital Marketing. Here are providing all kinds of services and solutions for the digital transformation of any business and website.
