Are you being tasked with growing a social media audience, from the ground up, with no budget? If you find yourself in this situation, whether you’re a small business owner, a social media manager, a community manager or working for a non-profit, here are a few things you can do organically to get your accounts off and running.
Complete Your Social Media Profile
This seems obvious, but I can’t tell you how many business accounts I see that have been tweeting, posting, liking and following for some time and still have an unbranded profile. Please, hatch from your egg. Having a complete profile is the first signal to potential audience members that you are legitimate. A complete profile includes your profile picture, your cover photo, your bio, your location, hours – all of it. AND it means adding a few posts to your timeline, even though you aren’t talking to anyone yet. By adding posts to your timeline first you’re showing potential followers what kind of content they can expect from you and the kind of voice you’ll be using.
Leverage your Friends
While they may not be your target audience, asking your friends to follow your new account is really the best way to get started with a following. Your business social media account has no social capital yet, but YOU do. Your friends will get behind your effort and help give you the social proof you need. So use Facebook’s “invite friends” feature, or send an email asking everyone to follow your Twitter account. Don’t make them search for it either – provide the link in your email.
Leverage your Company Employees
Who are your best brand ambassadors? Employees. They are the ones cheering for your success and the ones that understand the brand messaging. Send a company-wide email asking everyone to follow your new account. Tell them what the strategy is, how they can help, what the target audience is and what you plan to share. Then give them easy ways to connect and share.
Mention People
I once heard a speaker at a social media conference say “if you’re not including people in your posts you are not being social.” As you begin to gain followers make sure to @mention them in a few posts, especially if you can tie content you’re posting to their interests. Talk to them directly. Demonstrate that you don’t plan to use the channel as a broadcast medium, but as a way to engage and have fun with your brand. Pay attention to people and they’ll return the favor. For example, because of my father’s legacy of puns, I like to make a pun around my new followers. So, if a furniture company follows me I might tweet “I’m sitting pretty with @furniturecompany as my new follower. #puns” It’s cheesy, but it gets their attention. AND it’s real because it’s me.
Post Quality Content in Your Niche
Even if you’re not producing content of your own yet (but you do plan to start a blog, right?) you can curate content in your niche as a way to get started. People follow an account because they want to get something out of it. By sticking to your message, keeping your posts on brand, and becoming a trusted resource for a specific type of content, you’ll grow an organic following.
Use Hashtags in your Niche
Hashtags are now integrated into every major social media platform and, while their effectivness varies, they can be a good way to reach people beyond the audience you’ve built. Do your research and include relevent hashtags as follows:
- Facebook: one or two for emphasis only.
- Twitter: one, maybe.
- Instagram: They allow 30 and I still recommend you shoot for using all of them, as long as they are relevant.
- LinkedIn: One or two, using the tool they provide.
- TikTok: Niche down and include three or four specific to your content.
This is simple advice I know, but it still works. Each platform has a recommendation tool for hashtags, so start by using that, then keep notes on which ones are working for you.
How do you grow a following with no budget? Tell me your success stories here! And, please, follow me on Twitter @suereynolds – I promise I’ll welcome you with one of Dad’s puns.
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