How To Grow Your Social Media Following Online.
As a professional marketer, I’ve often been asked about the best way to grow an online following (so much so, that I’ve actually decided to put this up online as a reference so I don’t have to keep answering the same question over and over again, haha).
The truth is, when boiled down, growing an online following really comes down to “3 P’s”, as I like to call it: Providing Value, Performance/Networking and Purchasing Followers/Using Bots for Growth.
PROVIDING VALUE
Simply put, you have to do something that people find value in following. Your content is so audience-focused that they can’t help but find themselves following along in order to keep getting more content.
The only caveat to this approach (aside from the additional production-hours required) is that it is often still a pay-to-play system online; and, although you might have the best content out there, you still need to either (a) pay into advertising in order to maximize the number of eyeballs who see your content, or (b) leverage the second P: Performance/Networking.
PERFORMANCE/NETWORKING
This comes about through external activities outside of Social Media. Performance and Networking would fall under the category of something like: doing a pop-up and telling people to follow you online; or, attending a networking event and asking people to follow you for a follow-back.
The pro to this approach is that it doesn’t require any additional investment related to the first P; however, this approach is much more labour-intensive from a customer-facing standpoint. Essentially (when considering your audience as customers), you are required to input more physical (ie. not digital; though, in some cases digital - depending on how you choose to network) time for a more limited amount of reach (you can only speak to or see so many people in one setting). Which brings us to the final and easiest method of the 3 P’s—Purchasing Followers or using Bots for Growth.
PURCHASING FOLLOWERS/USING BOTS FOR GROWTH
Often a taboo subject (but one that must be considered because it’s a legitimate way to grow followers), purchasing followers is actually a highly common practice. It’s easily spotted with brands who have a high number of followers, but extremely low engagement.
But what if they have a lot of Fire-emoji comments and Likes on a post? Those can easily be bought as well. As a professional marketer, the first thing I look at when gaging a truly engaged audience is how many of those comments are actually conversational or relevant to the content on display.
Alternatively, another option aside from Purchasing Followers is utilizing Bots. Bots are programs that go from account to account according to relevant tags, auto-commenting and liking content from other users. Why does this matter, you ask? Because the whole point of Social Networking platforms is to Network. By engaging with other users online, you increase the likelihood of receiving a follow-back (so long as you meet the requirements of one of the first two P’s).
The upside to this approach is that it’s quick and easy, requiring zero effort on your part except for a minimal investment (you can buy 150 Instagram followers for around $2 USD in some cases). However, the MAJOR downside to this approach is that it severely limits your Reach (Engagement/Followers = Relevance & Further Reach) for actual content and often forces you to be shadow-banned (not coming up in regular searches, only hyper-specific searches - ie. typing out your full username).
At the end of the day, you have to always remember that Social Media is just another layer in your overall marketing strategy. So, which of the 3 P’s is the best approach for you? That really depends on your desired outcome.
Do you want to build perceived clout? Choose Option 3 and make your account private. Or better yet, choose Option 3 and either post nothing or only post Stories (you can’t see engagement on Stories)—this is actually common practice for a few artists (for example: check out Kendrick Lamar’s instagram account - though, depending on the time you read this, that might have changed). Since there’s nothing to gage the actual number of real followers against, your automatic subjective bias is that he must be a notable, influential figure since he can post nothing, but attain a high number of followers. Alternatively, by purchasing a ton of followers and keeping your account private, you leave people guessing as to your actual level of engagement, while still keeping them assuming you’re important.
Do you want to build a steady stream of valuable leads? Choose Option 2 and invest most of your growth strategy on building Performance and Networking connections. However, should you choose this approach, then you wouldn’t need a Social Media strategy at all. Look at tech start-up companies like Engineered Arts. Prior to unveiling their new product at CES 2022, they had an abysmal following in the 100s (I’ve been following them for a while now), but post-CES 2022, they’ve suddenly jumped up to 31k followers and counting. They didn’t rely on a Social Media growth marketing strategy; rather, they let their Performance as a company and Networking at events grow a following for them.
Do you want to make a real difference and provide value to this world? Choose Option 1 and either pay into advertising dollars or wait until you get noticed. For the true artists out there, it won’t matter how long or if your Social Media feed ever takes off. For you, it’s all about creating the kind of content that you’d like to see online and letting your voice be heard. This “starving artist” approach is highly admirable; however, not always highly lucrative. If content for you is king, then to hell with the followers—just do you!
Remember, these 3 P’s can always be used in tandem with one another, with the real question being: what is my end marketing goal? Then work towards that utilizing the best combination of the 3 P’s (given their pros and cons) as you see fit.
-happy hunting.