6 Top Tips for Growing Your Social Media Following Organically
Here at Agent99 HQ we recently attended a highly informative social media strategy session to brush up on our social media skills. With PR being such a fast-moving industry, and social media a key aspect of this ever-changing business, it’s vital to keep up with today’s trends.
When building your social media profile, it’s easy to be discouraged by slow growth and give up. Luckily, we put what we learnt to the test, and have noticed great improvements in our engagement and following across all our social media channels.
To help you out on your social media journey, we’ve put together a list of tips to organically boost your following on both Instagram and Facebook and create a campaign with an amazing social element for your clients.
- Hashtags – Hashtags are your ticket to visibility. Using popular hashtags such as #picoftheday, #igdaily and #follow increases your visibility to people who aren’t already following you. Hashtags are especially useful in numbers – we suggest using at least 30 hashtags. In the case of hashtags, the more the better! The best way to find the most popular and therefore most effective hashtags is through the site Hashtagify, which highlights the 30 most popular hashtags in the past week.
- Giveaways – Everyone loves a freebie – I know I do! Luckily, you can take advantage of this and increase your following at the same time. By hosting giveaways, you give the user incentive to follow you in the hopes of winning something in return. Giveaways also increase your engagement, which leads to higher visibility. Win, win!
- Stories – Using Instagram stories is an easy way to generate content for your Instagram account. They are instant, don’t require any editing, and are an easily accessible way for potential followers to view your content. Stories appear on a user’s homepage and explore page, and rise above Instagram’s new algorithm so they may be viewed by more people.
- Engagement – Facebook, similarly to Instagram, has also changed its algorithm to favour users with higher engagement. To increase your engagement, ensure you are replying to everyone with a proper comment, and consider using questions and captions which prompt users to make comments.
- Facebook Live – Facebook Live is another easy way to appeal to your audience. Like Instagram stories, they are instantaneous and do not require any post-production. Just yourself, your team and a device. Facebook Live is exceptionally good at increasing your engagement, as it sends alerts to your followers’ devices encouraging them to tune in.
- Paid promotions – Paid advertising is a tried and true method of promotion. Facebook’s paid promotions allow businesses to spend a customisable amount to increase their reach and visibility through incidental exposure. This promotion method injects your page and posts onto your target audience’s news feed, increasing the likelihood that you will reach the people you want and therefore increase your following. Although this tip requires a smell spend, it’s worth setting aside some campaign revenue for this considering Facebook’s userbase of over 1 billion people.
Agent Intern