As we go into 2018, here are some general, as well as platform-specific, tips and tricks you can use to boost your social media reach and get you better interaction and more followers.
General Tips for Better Social Media Reach and Interaction
- Tell a Story
The great thing about stories is that readers are engaged from the first line. Depending on your brand or product, you may be struggling with how to make a story out of it. The trick here is to think about the story behind the brand or campaign and then craft your content ideas around it.
- Use Videos
Of all the types of posts on social media today, videos garner the most interaction in likes, comments and shares. If you’re camera shy, there’s no need to worry; you can keep your video simple and short – 15-30 seconds is more than enough.
- Create a Feeling of Community
People like to feel a sense of community. When they feel a part of something, they are much more likely to stick with it- be it a brand, a product or a website. You can offer physical products exclusively to your online followers; create a Facebook group to boost interaction, conduct polls and perhaps even create events that your followers can attend.
- Use Social Media Ads
Boosting your posts with an ad can be a great way to widen your reach and gain new followers. It’s relatively inexpensive as well – you don’t need a huge budget to get potentially thousands more followers and customers.
- Retarget
When you do get traffic to your website, be sure to target those visitors, engage with them and invite them to Follow or Like your page.
- Timeless Tips
It goes without saying that some things must always be followed through on if you want to gain reach and followers.
- Always use high-quality photos and images
- Be consistent. If your page is inactive for too long people will lose interest and are more likely to Unfollow you. The recommended schedule for posting is generally 2-3 times a week.
- Test out and have fun with new features. Change your posts up once in a while and add a sentence at the beginning that will help humanize and personalize the post. This will engage your followers and encourage more interaction.
Time for some platform-specific tips – here are some ways you can grow your brand organically through Instagram.
- Post Strategic Comments
A great way to gain exposure as well as new followers for your brand is to interact with other related brand accounts. Simply choose 5 brand accounts similar to yours and leave just one sincere comment on 2-3 of their photos per week. Doing this will widen your exposure to their followers and help gain you new followers.
- Liking Post Comments
Liking comments on those same brand accounts posts can help with exposure, just the same as leaving comments on those posts will. Liking a comment will bring you to a person’s attention. It’s equally important to like the comments left on your own posts as well.
- Stories and Live
Not only does using the Instagram Live and Stories feature bring you to the attention of your audience much more often, but it also helps you to roll out even more content. You can add to a Story every day and your followers will not feel overwhelmed as they might feel if you were actually posting that often. Another added benefit is that Instagram Live content can also lead to your video being featured in the Explore section, which is a gold mine for exposure.
- Highlight Your Story
Instagram now has a feature that enables you to keep some Stories highlighted on your profile for as long as you want. This works exceptionally well for offers, events, brand promotions, contests or even just humanization of your brand which will help you gain traction with your followers.
- Hashtags
Another recent Instagram feature is the ability to follow a hashtag. Not only can you keep track of how many people are using your (or a certain) hashtag, but you can also use it to gain more exposure for your hashtag.
Like Instagram, Facebook has its own set of features that can help you to get better and wider reach for your posts and here are two of the best-utilized ones.
- Live Video
Here again, videos are one of the best ways to engage your current followers and gain better post reach. Make an effort to learn all the ways to use Facebook Live and then utilize each one to maximise your marketing.
- Facebook Groups
As we mentioned before; people love to feel a sense of community and Facebook Groups are one of the best ways to promote that. With Facebook Groups, you can better connect with your audience as well as encourage interaction between your followers and, thanks to the new features, you can schedule posts as well as view Group Insights to manage and track the performance of your Group.
- Live Videos
It simply cannot be said enough that videos are the best way to engage your audience and, fortunately, you can stream your live videos straight from the Twitter app.
- Character Limit Update
There are so many advantages to now having double the amount of characters than before. Utilize them to churn out more and better content for your brand.
- Twitter Chats
Twitter chats are one of the best ways to create that feeling of community we keep talking about. You can use them to interact with your audience and gain new followers as well as demonstrate your experience and expertise in your field.
In Closing
Even if you don’t see results immediately, there is no reason to give up. Be consistent, keep trying and you will eventually find the combination that works for you in every way you want it to.
