How To Get More Followers On Social Media With 30 Awesome Tips
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How To Get More Followers With 21 Ways That Will Boost Your #SocialMedia Traffic
Click To Tweet1. Post After Lunch To Reach More People
Research from Chartbeat shows 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. is the optimal time to share on social media, with social traffic being at its highest in the late afternoon: While there is still mileage in posting through the morning (more on that next), schedule the updates you want to convert most with, like blog posts, in this time window.2. Find The Best Times For You To Share To Social Media
It's a generality to say that posting in the afternoon is the best way to grow your audience. But there are better times to post on social media than others. To find out when your own audience is active on social networks, grab this Google Analytics custom report we custom-built for you with love from CoSchedule. :) It'll tell you when your current audience is clicking through to read your content. That will help you understand what your most popular social networks are so you can use your time more effectively. You'll be able to share your content even smarter. So let's use your own data to strategically choose the best times to share. First, choose the blog you'd like to apply the report to: That report doesn't look like much at first, but right off the bat you'll see which networks are your most popular ones: When you click through to see the data for each network, you'll see the best days to post on that network. Take it one step further and click through on those days, you'll see the best times to post on that network, too. That Google Analytics custom report will work with your own data that comes directly from your audience. Use it to schedule your social messages at the best times to increase your traffic and opportunity to get more re-shares that could help you get more followers.3. Share More Often To Get More Followers
The folks over at Beevolve recently posed the question: If you tweet more, will you get more followers? And, well, the short answer is yes: The more you share, the more followers you will get. But as the boffins over at Buffer noted, this could be for a few reasons:- You become more practiced and effective at tweeting.
- You’re more active and can interact with more people.
- You have a larger volume of valuable tweets for people to interact with.
4. Inform For 2x More Followers
In the world of social media, you’re unknowingly categorized into two separate camps:- Meformers: People who talk only about themselves. Like your friend Dan and his incessant lunch updates.
- Informers: People who bring value to the table.
Those who inform get 2x more followers. #blogging #smm
Click To Tweet5. Be Positive, Always
Being quintessentially British, this is a bitter pill for me to swallow. But, the data doesn’t lie. Dan Zarrella’s research found that the more negative remarks you make, the fewer followers you'll get: Not only does positivity help you get more followers, Neil Patel also analyzed data that suggests people are much more likely to share positive content, especially when it connects to these emotions:- Curiosity
- Amazement
- Interest
- Astonishment
- Uncertainty
6. You Have One Hour To Keep A Follower
According to Lithium, 52% of people who Tweet your brand expect you to respond within one hour (even if you're a solo blogger, you're a brand). And, if that’s a complaint, it jumps right up to 72%. If you don’t respond, they’re likely to punish you by either negative word-of-mouth, unfollowing, or other means. While if you do respond in a timely manner:- 34% are likely to buy more from you.
- 43% are likely to spread positive word of mouth.
- 38% will be more open to your advertisements.
- 42% will share your good work with their friends.
7. Cash In On Daily Trends
While it might not be fitting for your business to share your Man Crush Monday (David Beckham, always), it turns out there is actually an optimal day for everything on social media: Pinterest research found that different days of the week had different connotations for people. For example, starting the week off on a positive high with fitness and ending with chilled food and crafts. Your feed might not fit all of these categories. But, there are specifics like quotes or humor you can use no matter your industry:8. Take Care Of The Little Guy
You want power users to interact with your content. I know every time Jeff Goins likes or comments me on Facebook, I do a little fan-boy giggle. But the truth, as confirmed by Mention, is that 91% of the people who talk about your brand will have less than 500 followers: You’ve just seen that responding to the people who mention you can have a big impact on your business and conversion success. So, no matter who gets in touch with you, be sure to acknowledge them.9. Use Large Twitter Cards For 3x More Interactions
Research from Canva and BuzzSumo found that large Twitter summary cards create 3x more interactions than any other form of card: While you may not be able to use these for every update because it’s code that has to be embedded into your page, it’s beneficial for:- Blog posts
- Promotions
- Surveys
- Generation tools
- Sales pages
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"> <meta name="twitter:site" content="@CoSchedule"> <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@j4meswrites"> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Boost Your Followers Using Science"> <meta name="twitter:description" content="Want a scientific way to boost the amount of Social Media followers you have? Look no further..."> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://coschedule.com/image-for-this-post-example-only">
Reaching more people will inevitably help you get more followers.10. Add Images To Facebook Updates For 2.3x More Engagement
The decline in Facebook organic page reach has thrown a big wrench in the engine for social marketers. But, there are still some real glimmers of hope out there. That same research from Canva and BuzzSumo also found that adding images to your Facebook updates will give you 2.3x more engagement. Be sure to do this by uploading the image on its own, too. That way, it goes into your Facebook post through the add photo’s function as opposed to being pulled from the code on your post:11. Use Video To Reach More People
While photo posts are great for engagement, Facebook is slowly taking away the ability to reach more followers. In fact, it now has the lowest organic reach of any type of update, with video getting more than double that reach. You don’t have to be the one who created that video content, either. You just need to upload it. Facebook might have been the start, but you can now experiment with video on tons of networks: Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+ (well, YouTube) all have ways to use video to reach your audience.12. Images Are Still King On Twitter, Though
In a study of over 4,000,000 tweets, Stone Temple Consulting found that tweets with images had more than double the retweets and almost double the likes of those that didn’t contain images: More retweets equals more exposure. More exposure means more engaged followers. That’s a win/win right there.13. Keep More Followers By Not Bulk Posting
A big part of getting more followers is keeping the ones you’ve already got; but if you’re guilty of bulk posting (I am), that could be problematic. Research from KAIST university in South Korea found that a big factor for people unfollowing is leaving too many posts at any one time:The survey participants unfollowed those who left many tweets within a short time, created tweets about uninteresting topics, or tweeted about the mundane details of their lives.So, take advantage of social scheduling tools like CoSchedule to space out your (exciting) posts across days, weeks, or even months instead of posting multiples at once.
14. Freebies + Offers = Fans + Followers
A survey from Nielsen noted that...- 52% of people who follow brands do it to learn about offers
- 38% follow to take part in competitions
- 33% do so to get access to freebies
15. The 5 Essential Emotions Of Any Social Campaign
There’s no way around it. The more shares, mentions, likes, and retweets your social campaign gets, the more followers you’re going to pick up along the way. But, what most social campaigns miss out on is emotion. And by doing that, you miss out on a huge opportunity to get more followers. The big-wigs at Harvard studied marketing campaigns and the emotions that make them go viral. The results? Each campaign evoked at least one of these five:- Admiration
- Interest
- Serenity
- Amazement
- Astonishment
16. Use The 3 Most Shareable Colors On The Internet
I recently researched what makes the most shareable images on social media, and there was some fascinating research in there. One of the standouts was this:Researchers at Georgia Tech studied over 1,000,000 images on Pinterest and discovered that using red, pink, and purple in your graphics got you the most shares and interactions. Because, well, they’re deep visceral colors that create emotions like [excitement] and failure in people.Try incorporating a multitude of colors into your next social media image by making them the focal point of your text, or the main image. The results could shock you.
17. Analyze Your Competitors (And Steal Their Followers)
Neil Patel posted an interesting blog post about how to steal your competitor's followers. One of the most interesting aspects of that study—that you can use right now—is approaching their neglected fans. By running a competitor's Facebook page through FanPage Karma, you can see an analysis of Facebook trends, habits, and posting schedules. But, more importantly, you can see how that competitor interacts with their audience. And, you’ll see that a lot of pages neglect their fans: And you’ll find that most of these pages are in the 60%+ for neglecting their fans' comments. So, you can swoop in by:- Interacting with these people.
- Providing insights or answers the company isn't.
- Building a community presence.
18. Be Authoritative About Who You Are
Most people like authority, it’s just built into them. And, that’s been proven time and time again throughout history. But now it’s also come to the realm of social media. Dan Zarrella found that people who identify themselves as an authority have many more followers than people who don’t. So, don’t be humble in your profile. Identify yourself as who you are in the best possible light, just like you would on your resume. Knowing what you know now about meformers and informers, which of these sounds more appealing?- Daydreamer, coffee enthusiast and author
- Writer, speaker, and the official author of the CoSchedule Blog
19. That Being Said, It’s Appearances That Really Matter…
OKCupid discovered that what you write about yourself on their dating site is less than 10% of what someone thinks about you. The other 90% is your profile pictures. And, that’s not just a stat that applies to dating sites either. It works for social media too. As Rand Fishkin found, having a brightly colored background on your profile picture can make a big impact on the amount of followers you will get. Buffer’s extensive research into the psychology of profile pictures also validates that, too. But you might be thinking, “I can’t have a profile picture like that; I’m a business”. For you, a simple logo picture will still be effective. And you can get creative with it, too, like KLM have done here:20. Jump On The #Hashtag Bandwagon
As much as you might think hashtags are a little silly, especially when you see them for toothpaste or toilet paper, they’re actually an incredible marketing tool. And, they can help you get more followers much more effectively. Hashtags are not only a big part of how we use social media; they’ve even started to become part of how you speak. Or, at least those up-to-date on popular lingo. https://youtu.be/57dzaMaouXA More importantly, as Linchpin SEO shows, using hashtags can help you get 2x more engagement among other benefits: And, if you want to take a leaf from Marsha Collier's book, you can join in the conversation other people are having on your hashtag, like she does with the hashtag #custserv. https://twitter.com/MarshaCollier/status/69426275626293657721. Post Milestones To Boost Your Organic Reach
Post Planner picked up on a piece of information from Business Insider and Facebook that could seriously help you boost the amount of people you can reach there. Apparently, when you use the word, congratulations, more people pick up on your post. But this also appears to have carried on over to other milestones, too, such as:- Weddings
- Graduations
- Landmark trips
- Babies or birthdays
- Awards
BONUS: 9 New Tips From The CoSchedule Team
22. Write Super-Catch Social Media Copy
What you write on social media matters. So does how you write on social media. It's common to see social media copywriting faux pas. Brands, in particular, have a tendency to write sales-driven posts that simply aren't engaging. So, what's a marketer to do? Get good at writing exceptional post copy. Spend time crafting your posts. Don't just slap the first thing you think of on your social channels and call it a day. Here are a few pointers:- Avoid anything that sounds like SPAM or includes a hard call-to-action (especially on Facebook).
- Try to keep your post lengths reasonable.
- Make use of image text. Best practices for this vary by network. However, using images to tell more of the story can make it easier to write clear, crisp, and concise posts.
- His post copy is short and catchy ...
- ... and it ties in nicely with the image text.
23. Reach Out To New And Interesting People
It's easy to forget that social media is about being, well, social. That seems weird when you say it out loud. If social media is about connecting with others, then why do so many brands seem so self-absorbed? The answer is because they often place sales first and conversation second. What they fail to realize, however, is they have that equation backwards. The solution here is simple: talk to people. Respond to all your Facebook comments. Tweet a shout-out to someone you think is crushing it out there. Whatever you do, don't just talk about yourself. This gets back to being an informer instead of a me-former.24. Follow Others
Everyone wants an enormous tribe of loyal social media followers. However, you have to give a little too here. Follow other accounts in your industry and people who follow your brand. This accomplishes two things:- It makes it easier to monitor what your followers are talking about on social media (so you can create content that addresses those interests).
- It prevents you from looking anti-social. This is especially true on Twitter. Just be sure to stay within Twitter's best practices.
25. Add Shareable Content To Blog Posts
This simply means incorporating graphics that can easily be shared socially on their own. For example, consider adding infographics or quote graphics that add context to your blog post, but can also tell a complete story on their own. This is a tactic we use at CoSchedule all the time. It's a great way to get more mileage from your efforts, and also provides you with the kind of easily shareable content that can attract more followers.26. Be Consistent
This should be a no-brainer. However, posting consistently is often tough for overworked content marketers and social media managers. Using a tool (such as CoSchedule or others) can help you maintain a consistent posting schedule across all your social channels. This is essential for engaging, retaining, and growing an audience. However, that's not all it means to be consistent. It's also important that your messaging remain consistent across networks too. If you're building a cross-channel campaign, it's also important to ensure all messages on all networks support the same overarching campaign theme. If you say one thing on Facebook, you don't want to say something contradictory on Twitter (for example). Once again, we'll let Gary Vaynerchuk demonstrate this point:27. Include Social Sharing Buttons On Your Blog And Website
It's frustrating to read a great article, only to find there are no convenient social media buttons to share it with your followers. Including social sharing buttons in optimal locations on your pages makes it easier for readers to share your content. That, in turn, increases your ability to reach more people and grow your following.28. Sometimes, You Gotta Pay To Play
Paid promotion works well on social media when done correctly. In fact, Twitter even provides guidelines on how to build campaigns specifically to gain followers.29. Use A Click To Tweet Plugin
Click-to-tweet plugins add attractive tweet boxes into blog posts for easy sharing. If you've been following our blog for a while, you've probably seen these in each post we publish (including this one). Here's an example of what they look like:Build your social media following with these 30 tips:
Click To Tweet- Click To Tweet by CoSchedule (hey, we made this!)
- Click To Tweet by Warfare Plugins (another excellent option from our friends)
30. Include Social Media Links In Your Email Signature
You're probably sending plenty of emails to folks in your industry. Why not give them an easy way to find your company on social media? Drop some links to your brand's social profiles in your email signature for a quick win. If you use Outlook, it's even possible to add actual social media icons to your signature.Now You Know How To Get More Followers To Grow Your Traffic
Okay, you’ve been hit with a lot of data there. But all of it is easy to do and super valuable to help you get more followers on any social media channel. It doesn’t matter if you’re starting from scratch, or trying to increase your six-figure audience base, all of this data when applied will help you:- Reach more people.
- Convert more people to your content or site.
- Get more social shares and authority.
Want More Followers (Plus More Engagement & More Traffic)?
Actionable Marketing Institute has the ideal course for you! The Social Media Strategy Certification Course gives marketers the structure & tools to create a social strategy that is fueled by results to promote growth and traffic. Take what you learned in this post and apply it to the skills you will practice in the course. In the end you will have the tools, tactics, and skills to produce a winning social media strategy. ?How To Get More Followers In 30 Guaranteed Ways That Will Make You A #SocialMedia Rock Star
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