Instead of buying likes on Facebook and Twitter, build them

In last week’s blog post, I advised you on where to put your money when seeking to gain followers on Facebook and Twitter. Putting money behind those goals can be an effective way to create momentum on your social profiles. Of course, it’s not the only way to build a loyal following. In this week’s blog, I want to offer some Do’s and a Don’t that will help you quickly rack up engaged followers of your business’s social media pages and profiles without spending a cent. 

DO invite your friends to follow your pages and profiles: “But I don’t want to bug my friends and family and beg them to buy stuff from me,” you say.

Your friends and family are your earliest adopters. They’ll give you honest feedback, be your first fans, and your first sales. They want to support you. They want to be a part of your story. Embrace them. Don’t be aggressive, but don’t be silent. Invite them to like your Facebook pages, Twitter profiles and other social media accounts.

DON’T give a social network access to contact information that they don’t already have from your friends and family: This isn’t a data driven DON’T; it’s a human driven one. I simply won’t give Facebook or LinkedIn access to my contact list that I’ve built outside of their networks. If you’re my friend, family, or business contact, I see it as a violation of our social contract to share your contact details with a corporation without your approval. Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s good practice.

Additionally, you’ve lost control of that communication when you let the social network invite your contacts for you. How often will they be contacted? Will your name or business name be associated? Will that cost you or your business trust in the long run? Controlling how and what’s said that represents you is extremely important.

DO build a following through content and communication: Building followers is a long-term process, and it goes hand-in-hand with the promoted page strategy I mentioned in my previous blog post. Now that you’ve got their attention, engage WITH your followers. Give them something of value in the form of blogs, photos and infographics, engaging company news, even just a status update about an interesting or novel observation (but please make it interesting. For example, “I’m at the airport getting ready to head to Boise, ID to meet my favorite client. The people watching is unbeatable.”).

Creating great content can help others find you, too. Look for or create ways to mention and link to other companies, use hashtags, mark your location when making a post. All of these things can help you get noticed just a little bit more and slowly acquire new page likes and followers.

Reach out to us at (303) 394-2366 or send an email to info@philosophycommunication.com if you want to talk social media strategy. We’d love to help you with your social media challenges or hear about ways you’ve found to gain those valuable followers.