You have reached the point where you’ve made your account and you have plenty of meaningful content, but now it’s time to build your following. There are many different ways to go about this. Targeting hashtags, @mentioning people, and engagements are some of the best keys to success. In this blog we will touch on target followers and stay tuned next week for more Social Media Marketing tips.
This is precisely what it sounds like you are getting the right people to follow you based on several different factors.
# Hashtags
Hashtags are the first step to success. For example, if you are a pizza place, maybe these are some of the hashtags that you would want to use: #pizza #cheeseheaven #saladbuffet #meatlovers #americanfood. Also a nifty little trick to this is when you start typing in a hashtag it will auto populate similar hashtags. Take this opportunity to explore those hashtags. Each platform has its limits. For instance, on Instagram people generally use up to 10 hashtags. On Facebook, people usually only use up to 3. A general rule of thumb is to stick to the ones that work. This allows your post to show up in the discovery page depending on its likes, comments, and shares. Treat your most loyal fans with respect and follow them back. The point of building up a social media following is to build a loyal audience for yourself. By following your most loyal fans, you are telling them that you enjoy them as well. Don’t just follow everyone though. There are a lot of uninterested people out there. Cater to the ones that care who you are.
Being a brick and mortar store you want to make sure that you are hashtagging your locations and making sure that it is going into the placement of location located at the top of the post. After people start using your location you can pull these people’s posts up and you can start following them as well. The more people that use that location tag the better you chances are of gaining a new following.
@ Mentions
Let’s not forget to mention mentions. One of the best ways to grow organic (free) traffic on social media is to have someone post about you. Influencers are great at helping you grow your following. An influencer is person with a medium to large following on social media. These people can help you out in many ways. They can express your company in a aggressive way. Influencers are regular people. They aren’t sales men. They can help people see your products in plain sight. Having an influencer @ mention you allows their followers to find you. This could potentially boost your following. With this all being said, don’t just choose any influencer. You want to choose one that will reflect your business in a good way. Have an influencer, in your industry, make a post for you and see how it goes. Just make sure that they @ mention you.
Engagement
Last, but not least, is engagement. You can do everything mentioned above and still not build a big following. You may start to loose followers. Why is that? Because you aren’t engaging with them. People follow you on Social Media because they care about your business. It’s important to show them that you care about them as well. When you don’t answer back to comments or follow people back; you start to seem greedy. People like following businesses that aren’t just in it for the money.
This is a great way to get started on social platforms that will help with organic (free) advertising. Later on in the future, if you feel so inclined, you can try paid social media marketing!
As always, we are here to help. Let us know if you have any question.
Total Merchant Supply is a POS Dealer based in NC & SC.