How to Build a Following on Social Media in 4 Easy Steps

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By Drew Boehmker, Scooter Media

Whether it’s writing creative copy or creating compelling videos, crafting memorable content is vital to taking your social media posts to the next level.

But that’s only half the battle. In order for any social media marketing plan to be successful, time must also be spent on growing your brand’s following from platform to platform; after all, even the most well-crafted social media post won’t do much good if no one ends up seeing it.

Here are four easy-to-implement strategies that will help you build your brand’s follower base on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and beyond:

1. Be Proactive

If you’re just getting your brand’s presence established on social media, you must be proactive and actively seek out new followers instead of continuing to churn out new content and hoping that people will find it and begin engaging with your page. The old adage of “if you build it, they will come” simply doesn’t work in the social media universe.

A few simple ways to start building your social media following from scratch include:

  • Inviting friends and family members in your own network who have a logical connection or genuine interest in your brand to follow your social media profiles;
  • Following social media profiles for any professional/networking organizations in your brand’s industry;
  • Searching popular hashtags connected to your brand (for example, those that are specific to your local area) and following users who actively engage with them;
  • Locating similar profiles to your brand and following accounts that you feel would be receptive to the types of content you are posting.
  1. Try a Few Tools

Of course, implementing the bullet points above is easier said than done, and building a substantial social media following takes valuable time that many business owners or social media marketers might not have.

Luckily, there are a variety of great third-party applications, both free and paid, designed to make your life a little bit easier. A few of the best that we recommend include:

  • BuzzSumo, a “content discovery engine” that helps to key you in on the trending conversations in your industry and can recommend the key influencers for you to follow;
  • HypeAuditor is a paid service that will help reduce fake or “bot” followers on your Instagram profile and will also help to provide in-depth demographic data on your follower base;
  • Friend or Follow, a fantastic app with handy sorting and filtering features to help you locate the accounts you should be following — and shows you the accounts you’re following that aren’t following you back. Check out this fun video introducing the basics of the platform:

3. Experiment with Social Advertising

In the early days of social media marketing, it was possible to grow a substantial following simply by posting a lot of great, organic content. Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case.

The simple fact of the matter is that if you’re going to be spending the time on creating social media content, it’s also worth investing at least a small budget on sponsoring that content on Facebook (or promoting those tweets on Twitter, etc.) in order to ensure it is actually seen.

Dedicating a portion of your budget to sponsoring social media content — even if it’s just a few dollars behind each of your Facebook posts — not only makes sure that your current followers will see those posts, but can also be a great way to attract new fans to your page, too.

As a bonus, most social media platforms make it even easier to grow your following via tools such as Facebook’s “invite people to like your page” feature, which is a great way to build a following of the types of people most likely to engage with your posts.

4. Have a Purpose

Growing a social media following is one thing — but sustaining those followers and keeping them engaged with your brand’s content is something else entirely.

The best way to make sure your brand’s social media page doesn’t become one that has thousands of followers but generates little to no engagement is to be strategic about every single post you make to your social media profiles. Every post should have a purpose, which should be easy to articulate from the inception of the post onward. Are you attempting to inform your followers about an upcoming event, or entertain them with a new video you’ve created? If you can’t articulate your reason for posting, then that’s probably a good indication that it’s best to hold off for now.

Continuing to post high-quality, engaging content that delights your social media followers every time they see your brand pop up in their News Feed will go a long way toward keeping your current audiences engaged — while also attracting new followers, too!

Building a social media following can be a frustrating process. However, being persistent and sticking to these strategies can get your brand’s profiles trending in the right direction.

If you have further questions, comments of your own follower-building tips, we’d love for you to start a conversation with us. Let us know your thoughts on social media by tagging @ScooterMediaCo (on Facebook and Instagram) or @ScooterMedia (on Twitter).

Looking for more social media tips? Visit scootermediaco.com.

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Scooter Media is an award-winning boutique PR agency specializing in public relations, social media and digital communications. Based in Covington, Ky., the agency has been named Small/Mid-Size PR Agency of the Year for the last four years by the Cincinnati chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. Independently owned and a nationally certified Women’s Business Enterprise, Scooter Media is always on the move – connecting people and driving results.