Social media is a great way to increase your reach and promote your brand/business. But to enjoy the full benefits social media has to offer you need to build your social media following. This could take months/years, and the growing process never truly ends. I have written a post in the past about the power of social media and my book – How to Cash In as a Blogger covers this as well.
It is important for you to note that your aim should be to gain quality followers who love your content and will engage with you. Some people follow the wrong approach when it comes to gaining followers. Instead of winning their hearts, they buy them. Buying followers will lead you nowhere. The followers you pay for hardly engage with you, rather they are just numbers.
If you want to gain quality followers and raving fans, then applying these steps will help you achieve that. Whatever method you decide to use, you need to make sure you apply it consistently over a long period of time. Growing your social media followers is hard work and it does not happen overnight. But if you put your heart and soul into what you do, but you will eventually begin to see results over time.
Find, follow and engage with people in your niche
The main aim of social media is to actually socialize with people. In order for you to do that you need to find people, follow and strike a conversation with them. Make sure the people you follow are those who would be interested in your content. This will help to ensure that both of you benefit from the connection. If they find you interesting, they will surely follow you back.
Pro Tip: Go to the social media account of an influencer in your niche. Check out their list of followers and engage with them. You are more likely to engage with people who would be interested in your content.
Be a source of valuable information
People are always in search of information. Make sure you post quality information consistently. The information you share doesn’t always have to be yours. You can share other’s posts, images and tweets that you think your followers will find valuable. The re-shares would likely get you more followers in return.
Pro tip: Follower people you are genuinely interested in. Avoid “follow for follow” as much as you can, so you are not stuck with a boring timeline you have no interest in.
Use hashtags
Hashtags will help increase the visibility of your posts. As more people see your posts then more people will be inclined to follow you especially if you post valuable content regularly.
Pro tip: To effectively use hashtags, you need to make sure you choose hashtags that the followers you want to attract will use. For example, if you’re a wedding planner or a wedding photographer, you’ll attract more followers if you used the hashtag #GettingMarried or #WeddingInspiration.
Blog about some of your social media conversations
If you have a steady flow of readers to your blog, this tip will work really well. Blogging about some of the conversations you had with your followers or about the posts or comments your followers made will let your readers know that you acknowledge their presence. This will encourage more people to follow you on social media and engage with you.
Pro tip: After writing a blog post about a conversation you had on social media, make sure you tag the people you mentioned. This will encourage them to share that post on social media. As more people read the post, this will increase your reach and your following.
Are you into social media? How do you grow your following?
