Ok – your business is new to Facebook or Twitter (or indeed any other social network) and you find that you only have a few fans or followers. It’s early days but you can’t help but worry about how you can grow your numbers. It’s tempting to think that having lots of fans or followers ‘looks’ a lot better than having not too many at all. If so, think about it again. Remember that quality beats quantity every time…
So, who exactly are you connecting with online? When you start thinking about the relevance of your connections, you’ll see why the numbers just aren’t as important. Engaging with one hundred people online regularly is far better than listing ten thousand that you never have any interaction with.
Grow your fans organically in three simple steps…
While ‘buying’ fans might seem like a good idea…forget about it! It’s nothing more than a waste of your money and instead put that toward a night out or treat yourself in some other way. Growing your fans organically is the only way to go.
One thing so many businesses forget is that social media is called social media and not sales media so you have to prioritise being social. Nobody likes that guy or girl who constantly talks about themselves without listening to others. Make sure your business is not coming across like that! People naturally join social media platform to be social online. So as a business you have to ensure that you build some ‘social’ into your social media strategy and activity. Here’s a few easy ways to get started…
- Build conversations with your network – ask them questions about what interests them. Try and engage with them by sharing information that you know they will enjoy. Always make it relevant to your industry…because this is your area of expertise after all.
- No matter how many fans you have, every one of them should feel that you are talking with them individually, not that you are talking to 100, 1000 or 10000. This will certainly increase engagement which, in turn will make you more visible to their network and this will grow your network organically. And remember, it should be a two-way conversation so you are talking with your connections/fans or followers, and not at them.
- Share media they will want to engage with. Typically, images and videos get higher engagement levels than regular status updates. But only use the media that suits what you’re saying and is suitable for your brand.
#2. Show your personality
Have you defined your brand’s personality online? How would you like to be perceived online? One simple way might be to think of three words to describe your business. Then look at your social media account(s) and ask yourself … ‘do they reflect my brand personality?’
- Think about the tone you use and the words that are used. For example, what about acronyms? Are you a ‘LOL’ or a ‘LMAO’ person and will using these acronyms fit with your brand image? If you’re not, that’s fine too and just don’t use them. For example, Tesco have done a great job at defining their brand tone on Twitter.
- Are you going to put a face to your brand? Personalising a brand goes a long way to help build trust and build relationships. Coze Di Roze on Facebook has achieved great results by personalising their brand and business page. Check out the Coze Di Roze page and have a look at the tone and personality.
#3. Be active
How active are you? If you’re only posting a couple of times a week, I’m afraid that will never help you grow your fan/followers.
- If you are using Facebook, use your ‘insights reports’ to see when your fans are most active. For optimum exposure and visibility, post at the times that your fans are most active. Remember, when someone engages with your Facebook content, this also makes you visible to their network which will help grow your fan base.
- If you are using Twitter, it should become part of what you do each day. In the same way that you keep a close eye on your email, you need to be monitoring and engaging on Twitter. Your connections on Twitter followed you because they want to hear from you, they want access to the wonderful content you are going to share and they want to build a relationship with you. Being active, relevant and conversational makes this happen. And remember most importantly, your Twitter followers DO NOT want you to keep pushing a sale on them. It should be clear where your expertise lies, through the content you share, the people you engage with and the conversations you have.
And that’s about the size of it! Keep in mind that growing social media connections slowly and organically is the only way to go. And when you do this by sharing original and helpful content, you’re not just making a run-of-the-mill sales pitch, you’re reaching out and starting a conversation.
Images: ”Modern keyboard with colored buttons and social media symbols / Shutterstock.com“
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