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Quick and Easy Ways to Increase Your Social Media Following


"Follow for a follow" ring a bell to anyone? How about "like for a like?"" In today's social media obsessed landscape, it is incredibly important to stand out, and one of the most integral and essential ways to do so is by increasing and growing your following. While it may seem obvious, becoming noticed remains a critical part of successful social media marketing, and, like Inc.com says, "Social media marketing works only if you actually have fans or followers." But why?

For starters, a higher following automatically gives your brand more credibility to the common social media user. Face it, people are superficial and like to see big numbers — the bigger the following, the more legit your account is to the common social media "passerby." If your brand has less than 1,000 followers, you can almost certainly count out any potential new fans giving your account a follow. When Instagram models and meme accounts possess higher following numbers than many of the brand accounts out there, it is always going to be tough to convince new eyes that your content is worthwhile with a measly 422 fans.

Additionally, timeline algorithms created by Facebook and Instagram greatly reduce the amount of content that your followers will even see. The statistic that blows everyone's minds these days? On average, 1-4% of your total audience will see your organic content. So, without paying for boosted/sponsored posts, hardly any of your fans will see most of your content. Therefore, the higher the following, the more potential reach and influence your content — and your brand — has on customers/consumers.

So how can you go about increasing your followings? Social media marketers offer up several suggestions. For the sake of clarity, we've compiled the best ways to do so!

CREATE QUALITY CONTENT. In social media, quality content is more important that the amount of content you create. Post blogs with attention-grabbing headlines. Produce funny gifs or short movie clips. Go live! You may think that posting more and more is key to your success, but if you are not sharing high quality content, you are shooting yourself in the foot. The reasoning behind this is twofold: 1) quality content is more likely to be shared, which will get increase your reach to other diverse social networks, and 2) quality content that generates more engagement (likes, shares, comments, clicks, etc.) is prioritized by many social media networks (namely Facebook and Instagram) to be shown over other posts. Before posting something, think to yourself: "Would I engage with this? Would I share this? Would others be interested in this or have anything to say about this?" If the answer to any of these questions is "NO," then you should probably refrain from posting, or consider altering your content.

BE ACTIVE. This is important! Engage back with your fans, community, and like-minded social users. Follow other, real accounts and give them appropriate feedback on their content. Throw out the canned responses like "Nice one!" and "Great content!" — anybody who isn't an Instagram robot (more on that later) will be able to tell that you are mailing it in. This may take some time, but If you are being an active social citizen, you will see results, and you will gain meaningful followers. Avoid using following automation programs at all costs! You may think that having a robot that auto follows, comments, and likes others' content is doing your job for you, but people can tell when they are getting "spammed" by one of these accounts. The results can seem nice at first, but you may just be getting followers for the sake of increased numbers. You want followers who are engaged and communicate with you on a regular basis. Instead, consider searching for, and joining an Instagram pod (large message groups designed for those trying to boost their following by posting links to their content and having the group comment and like it back). But again, if you do, make sure to do your part and engage back with the other group members' content as well. Another thing you can do is reach out to influencers. Scratch their back so they scratch yours - provide them with a free sample, free meal, or merchandise to post about. Their highly active audience will follow their advice and have more and more people checking out your content.

INCENTIVIZE. Give your fans a reason to engage with your brand. Create a simple and easy contest, giving away a gift card, freebie or merchandise item for liking a post, joining a mailing list, or using your hashtag. It may seem like you are giving away something for nothing, but as stated above, more reach = more potential followers/customers.

So, now you are armed with some advice to get your following up. But don't rush the process. If done right, you will see results, which can grow exponentially as you continue your journey to social media stardom. Interested in learning more about successful social media growth? Alternative Strategies is here to help.