7 Tips for Getting More Quality Social Media Followers

The world of social media is opening up a vast array of possibilities for businesses, particularly in raising brand awareness and reaching out to customers. Using sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram effectively can really give companies an advantage over their competitors, but it requires getting enough followers to make a difference. As social media has matured, it has also become apparent that getting a lot of followers isn’t the only key to success; they have to be quality followers. With that in mind, here are several ways you can get good followers for your various social media outlets.

1. Use Social Media Buttons

Don’t ignore the other ways you can reach customers. Think about how many people have access to your website or blog. If you don’t have social media buttons in an easily accessible place on those outlets, you definitely want to fix that. Also make sure to include ways for people to follow you in all your other outreach efforts. Including your Twitter handle on outreach emails can make a big difference. Also, don’t forget to place follow buttons on other social media sites (i.e. putting your Instagram page link on your Facebook page).

2. Be Active

You got to be active on social media if you want to get more followers. If you never post updates on Facebook or if you rarely tweet on Twitter, people won’t think to follow you. Tweeting frequently or posting fun pics on Instagram daily will definitely increase your chances of gaining good followers who are eager to see what your business has to add to the conversation.

3. Hashtags Are A Must

Facebook and Twitter are easily the most popular social media outlets in the world, so using them is likely a very good idea. But to get more quality followers, you need to do more than just tweet or post updates--you need to use hashtags. Hashtags help to connect your business with others who are talking about the same subjects. You can even use hashtags that are trending to really see a boost in followers.

4. Timing Is Important

You can post all day long if you want, but if you’re not seeing a bump in the number of followers, it might be because you’re not posting at the right time of day. Posting during peak activity hours will help you get noticed much more quickly. Studies show that the best time to tweet is at 5:00 p.m. ET, while posting on Facebook is usually best right before and after business hours. (Tweet This: Studies have shown that the best time to send a tweet is at 5:00 p.m. ET. #tips #twittertips)

5. Engage With Targeted People

Not everyone will be interested in what you have to say. That’s why you need to list those people who will take an interest in your business. Once you’ve done that, you have to engage with them, commenting on their posts, complimenting their insights, and following them when you can. Once they see how interested you are in what they say, they’ll be more interested in following you.

6. Share Good Content

If you’re filling up people’s timelines with easily dismissible material, you’re doing it wrong. Make your content count by posting things that are informative, entertaining, inspirational, intriguing, or a combination of the above. If you show how much you care about your content, people will value what you say a lot more, and you’ll get more quality followers. For a good example of a company posting quality content on social media, check out Nu Skin’s Facebook page.

7. Offer Exclusives

Your business has things to offer that no one else can. Take advantage of that fact and use it to push your social media channels. By offering exclusive content, you make your social media presence more valuable and you’ll get better followers. The exclusive content can be one-of-a-kind deals, contests, interviews, or anything else you can think of.

Getting followers can be a challenge, but getting quality followers is an even bigger hurdle. By following these tips, you’ll be sure to get the best followers for your business and make your social media sites a must-visit destination.

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7 Ways You Can Effectively Lose Social Media Followers

Establishing a social media presence is important for almost any brand nowadays. A recent infographic by MBA Online encourages CEOs to use social media because of some compelling statistics. For instance, data shows that 8 in 10 social media users in the U.S. would rather connect with companies on social media sites rather than on their company websites. The infographic also shows that social media campaigns are more effective in generating quality leads.

Knowing how important social media is would naturally motivate you to keep your audience engaged. However, there are some mistakes you can commit that can make you lose followers on social media. If you want to keep your social media followers, steer clear of these practices:

1. Using too many social networks. Unless you have the money to have a fully functioning staff to keep all your social networks updated, then don’t sign up for all the existing social networks out there. Remember that creating meaningful and engaging content takes time and people. Spreading yourself too thin may lead to mediocre posts that would make you irrelevant to subscribers.
2. Focusing on the number of subscribers. Some brands go as far as paying people to subscribe to them. However, the number of followers you have doesn’t determine the quality of their engagement. Building an audience is important. But if the existing audience only serves to exist and not actively engage, it’s going to be hard to keep your future subscribers engaged as well. Remember that social media users thrive on meaningful online relationships. Make this the focus of your social media efforts.
3. Posting all at once. Avoid spamming your followers’ feeds by churning out post after post with little interval in between. Instead, spread out your posts at strategic times of the day. You can also use time-saving tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to help you pre-program your future posts and schedule them more effectively each day.
4. Failing to respond to comments. This isn’t hard to do on some platforms like Facebook where most comments can be visibly seen on the post itself. However, mentions of your brand can be harder to track on forums you’re not a part of or on social networks like Twitter where you get a steady stream of content on your feed. To help you monitor mentions of your brand, you can use a tool like Mentions to track your name and get real-time alerts anywhere on the web, including social networks, blogs, news sites, and forums.
5. Posting irrelevant content. Sharing interesting or entertaining posts is a great way to engage your audience. However, if all you do is share content that’s not relevant to your brand, then what’s the point of people following you? Instead, aim to be helpful to your target audience and use your own unique voice.
6. Being a social media jerk. Remember that you have a brand to protect. Even if you come across trolls and negative commenters on social media, it still pays to be the better person and respond tactfully to all comments, positive or otherwise.
7. Making social media all about you. Yes, it’s your page, but remember that whatever you share also goes to your audience’s stream.

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Building Your Social Community: Start from the Ground Up

Building a social media presence from scratch can be a daunting task. At a recent seminar, one of the presenters said she felt sorry for community managers who had less than 1000 followers. Her reasoning was that these managers spent so much time worrying about gaining or losing a follower that they were not able to manage their communities.

These statements made me want to stand up and walk out of the presentation right then and there. Looking back at this event, I must say that building new communities can certainly be a challenge, but the opportunities provided by a small audience can also give the community manager a greater opportunity to engage directly with those who care most about what the company is doing.

Here are three advantages for building your community from the ground up:

1. Your company will have a vested audience – Too often we hear businesses saying, “Is my social media investment worth it?” When starting from the ground up and building you audience, you will have a solid core of vested brand ambassadors, people who believe in your company or product. These ambassadors will be some of your best promoters, give them a voice and your message will be heard by people you want to reach.
2. Engagement is about building a relationship – Social Media can become a platform to preach from when your audience grows too big too rapidly. The name social implies interaction and engagement; it is much easier to establish your community as a place to interact with your fans, clients, and customers from the beginning. Trying to change the theme or vibe of a community in mid-stream is much more difficult, if not impossible, than building it that way from the beginning.
3. Customizing your community according to your followers – Not all people respond the same to all social networks. A company community on Facebook, will be vastly different from that same company’s community on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, or Pinterest. By knowing the audience that is attracted to each of your communities from the beginning, your business will be able to customize content according to the benefits of each social network, while making it an engaging and attractive community for your fans and followers.

Is it nice to have a ready-made community with thousands of followers waiting for you to start sharing with them? Most certainly it provides the community manager with great numbers to brag about, but in the long run, building a community from the ground up will give you a more committed group to help share your message.

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8 Twitter Best Practices

Of all the popular social media channels, I’d say that Twitter is probably the most intimidating. But once you learn its unique language of tweets, hashtags, and handles, Twitter opens up a world of opportunities to promote your cause or business. For those of you new to Twitter or new to using it for business, here are eight best practices to help you find your footing.

• DO NOT use Auto Direct Messages (Auto-DM’s). Generic automated messages such as, “Thanks for following me… please follow me on Facebook” are impersonal as well as a waste of time and opportunity to connect with someone one-on-one. Instead, when someone follows you on Twitter, use personalized DM’s to transition a follower to a business friend.
• Respond to your followers. Leaving remarks or questions unanswered sends the message that you don’t care about your audience.
• Vary the times you post.  If you only tweet at the same time every day, chances are you are only reaching the same people. Broaden your audience by varying the times of day that you post. Also keep in mind the hours that are most effective for reaching your target audience.
• Avoid bulk tweeting. Depending on the patience of your followers, if you’re posting more than two or three times in a row, you may flood their Twitter feed and cause them to tune out.
• Mix up your posts with an array of tweets. Write authentic content, content with links and without, and retweet (RT) the content of others.  If most of your posts are simply retweets, what would be the motivation for others to follow you? Shared content is an important part of a content strategy, but it can’t be the only piece of the puzzle. You must build your credibility by showing that you know your stuff and can go beyond identifying other people who know it too.
• Use Follow Friday (#FF) appropriately. It’s become a free-for-all of simply naming accounts and hoping for some new followers. I recommend picking one person to feature in #FF each week. Be sure to tell your followers why they earned your ‘seal of approval.’
• Keep tweets relevant. Your goal on Twitter should be to build your reputation as an authority in your field and a staple of your community. Keep your posts related to your field of expertise. Don’t be salesy – be conversational – but keep the conversation focused around your expertise.
• Be conscious of updating multiple accounts using the same content tools. What makes Twitter so unique and popular is its 140-character limit. Beware of tweeting from Facebook, in which the tweet could get cut off and don’t use hashtags in messages that you plan to run on Facebook or LinkedIn.

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