So, you want to grow your social media follower count? While this is the primary goal of any brand’s social media efforts, gaining followers can oftentimes be more difficult than you’d imagine. The good news? There are always new tips ‘n techniques you can adopt that can lead to achieving the results you want.
Here are some ways to help you kick your follower growth into high gear!
1. Engage More #KEEPSOCIAL
The whole point of social media? To #KEEPSOCIAL, of course! It seems logical, but you’d be surprised how many brands don’t actively engage as much as they could with their followers. Your followers follow you for a reason, and whenever they interact with your brand via social platforms, you should be on the receiving end to acknowledge and engage with them. Be it a follower commenting on your Instagram post, sending you a DM, or otherwise, the best practice is to simply respond and engage in a way that keeps the conversation going!
For example, if someone leaves a “❤️” emoji on your post, don’t just like the comment or respond with another heart emoji; instead, try responding with “we’re so glad you love this! ❤️ Check this *other similar post/article/etc.* out for more 😊”. The more you establish a personal connection with followers, the more the individuals behind the Instagram handles will feel seen and feel connected to your brand and to the content you publish! This ensures that you keep current followers happy and engaged while you use other strategies to grow your following.
2. Don’t Sell To Them, Speak To Them!
No one likes to be constantly pitched to! While a branded social media’s purpose is essentially to push awareness about a service or product, there’s a way to gracefully weave the aspect of selling within organic content creation. In other words, make sure that your brand is not constantly making obvious sales pitches as the main goal of your content. As always, you want to get a conversation started about your company initiatives! Show your followers why your brand is making a difference through your content. A strong and trustworthy voice and message is always something that you should be striving for – the followers and sales will come later.
As tempting as it may be to add numerous shoppable posts to your Instagram feed, you don’t want the voice of your brand to get lost within endless promotion. Take some time to analyze your content and check back in with your brand’s core values. If you want to see a spike in your follower growth, sometimes it’s key to go back to basics and reconnect with the heart of your company. It’s really just common sense that followers would rather see original, on-brand content than be presented with blatant opportunities to whip out their credit cards!
3. Be Smart About #Hashtags
Impactful hashtags are one of Serotina’s social media strategy staples for our clients. While it may seem like common sense to add popular hashtags with large followings to your posts in an attempt to gain traction, that approach can sometimes have the opposite effect. More relevant, “smaller” hashtags are definitely the way to go!
For example, say you’re posting about Tejano (an amaaaazing burrito restaurant in Montreal – and one of Serotina’s clients) and use the hashtag #MTL on your post. Your post will be thrown into a sea of 5.1 million (!!!) other posts with the same hashtag. Instead, use #MTLEATS (which has about 77.4 thousand posts) and your post can be found more easily by users who are looking for posts specifically on that Montreal restaurants. By using more relevant hashtags, you’re honing in on the people you actually want to attract and who are most likely to hit that follow button on your profile! By all means, you can still use #MTL to kick-up your Engagements and Reach count, but again, it’s all part of a bigger strategy.
Want to learn more about follower growth? We cover everything about that and other important Instagram analytics & metrics here!
That’s all for now! Talk soon xx
Michelle ✨
@serotinamedia
#KEEPSOCIAL
