As an early-stage company who might just be starting out on the social media scene, it can seem impossible to grow a large following with so many other accounts out there. A lot of work, strategising and planning goes into cultivating an influential presence on social media, it is not something that can just happen overnight but the benefits of it, as a business, are worth the work it takes to get you there.
Whilst there is no magic formula to growing your social media following, there are some tips and tricks you can implement into your wider social media strategy to enhance your brands growth.
Consistency
First and foremost is consistency. Whilst this list is not ranked in order of importance, I have chosen to put this first because if you are not willing to be consistent in your posting, there is not any point in even attempting to grow your following as an early-stage company. Consistency is one of the most important factors for a few reasons. To begin with, social media is all about relevance and in order to stay relevant, your content must be new. Most social media platforms algorithms are thought to have relevance as a key factor in whether or not they promote your posts to users; Instagram, for example, has stated that relevance is one of their top factors. Therefore if you are posting daily, you will always have something new and relevant for the algorithms to be showing your followers, preventing you from getting lost in their feed. Moreover, regular posting ensures your followers are aware that you are still active, which as a business, is a useful way to remind them that you are still operating and give them a push in the direction of your services or products. Think … if you were to visit a businesses social media page and you saw no activity for months, you would not be sure if that business is even still operating. People will follow you for a reason and that is because they enjoy your content so be sure to give it to them otherwise you risk being unfollowed. Consistency is important but so is balance; make sure you don’t overdo it, no one wants to see their feed being spammed by the same account, one to two posts a day is optimal.
Something worth following : a complete profile, themed and relevant
Make sure your account is something worth following! In terms of aesthetics make sure your profile is completed and fits your brand’s image. Try to keep a theme amongst your posts so when people click on your profile it is clear what kind of account you are.
As a business, you should have a particular product or service that you are promoting therefore your content should be relevant to what you offer. Try and create content that is unique to your specific industry that would drive people to want to follow your account. For example, perhaps you are an early-stage financial services company, maybe you could create content about the latest news in finance (relevant to the focus of your business of course) that is presented in an easy and digestible manner for users to understand, making your account the one to follow over another, and hopefully drive more business back to you. Keep your content relevant to what your business offers but don’t be afraid to make it a balance between personable and professional.
Engagement
Speaking of being personable, let talk about engagement. Engagement is a great tool to grow your social media following, especially when you are running a business account because it makes you appear less robotic. People are drawn to interaction and if you reply to their comments or messages it reminds them there is someone behind the business, which makes your business feel a lot more approachable.
You should also be engaging with other accounts content; following relevant accounts, messaging, commenting, tweeting etc. can build relationships between you. If you forge a social media ‘friendship’ with another account they could repost or promote your content, driving their followers to your content and in turn business!
Join like-minded groups
Joining groups or communities is a great way to grow your social media following as an early-stage company. You should join based on interests/topics that align with your business offerings so that when you share content into those groups, users are likely to follow your business account and become a customer. You can do this on Linkedin via the Groups Homepage, which lets you join a community of brands and users with the same interests or are in the same industry, it is also a great trick for Facebook and Twitter.
SEO - know your audience
This is a more technical one. As an early-stage company looking to grow a social media following, you should see SEO as your ‘due diligence’. SEO will help you understand your target audience on a level that allows your content to be tailored to them. This should include things like keyword analysis, content analysis and strategy, market gap analysis and more. Conducting SEO research can be tricky but it is very important for your growth as an early-stage company, digital marketing agencies like Small Giants are able to provide full SEO services, from experts who can take care of the technical elements underlying your digital marketing strategy.
Trends
Finally let's touch on the topic of trends. We all know that social media platforms have ‘trending’ topics and content so involving your business is a great way to gain exposure and growth. This can be done by using trend monitoring tools, there is a large spectrum of tools available all at different price points so it is worth conducting some more in-depth research around what’s available to find the right one for your business. Free tools include GoogleAlert, which provides you with notifications on your chosen search terms and the option to filter based on source content. On the other end of the spectrum are paid tools like BrandWatch, a consumer research platform with a multitude of services. Of course, there are many options also available for small businesses with a more moderate budget, if you would like advice on what is right for your individual business contact Small Giants via (link). Monitoring trends allows you to identify and involve your business in hot topics, in turn driving traffic back to you.
Most importantly you want to grow your social media following organically, do not fall for cheap tricks and quick-fix methods like buying followers or engagement. Not only does this not actually do any real work for your social media accounts but as a business, it reflects on you badly; it can make your business seem dishonest and disintegrate trust levels between you and your customers because fake followers or engagement are not hard to spot. Slow and steady does the job when it comes to growing a social media following so remember it is better to grow an organic audience and customer following slowly than to boast high numbers with no business results to show for it.
If you are an early-stage company looking for a highly personalised and targeted digital marketing strategy, check out the Small Giants. We specialise in digital technology and marketing and work with start-ups and scale-up companies to create and implement custom marketing plan. If you want to know more, please check out the link here: www.smallgiants.agency.
