Need Help Marketing?

When you set out to engage your audience, or build a community of followers in social media you need to encourage them to start following your updates. Of course you probably have offer different ways to stay in touch, which could include options to Subscribe to a Newsletter, subscribe to an automated Feed for updates. Also known as RSS. Which are all universal ways to be able send updates to your readers in this social media context called followers or fans.

If you are using Twitter to engage your online audience you can send them updates via “Tweets” which is a coined term to mean short 140 character updates that are sent in real-time.  Twitter also has an option to integrate with your mobile phone so you can get text messages from the people and/or businesses you follow online.

How to get more Followers in Social Media

• Know your Audience
  This is one of those golden rules, but it is very true. You do not want to alienate a loyal following or fan base. So you need to establish a tone and regular updates that will interest your readers.
• Connect with your Followers
  This is an interesting topic, because you can not assume all your target market uses the same tools. Some age groups for instance are more likely to use Facebook vs. Twitter. And knowing what tools your readers use is very important. If you are marketing to a Business to Business crowd maybe LinkedIn makes more sense because that is a geared to professional networking.
• Build Trust
  You are trying to build credibility and to represent yourself as a trusted authority, so try to be as genuine as you would be if someone was to meet you in person. Remember your personality should and can come through in the way your write.
• All your Followers are Important
  This point can not be emphasized enough. Even if you just started and have a small following you still want to respond to your followers and let them know you are listening. If you do not interact with them then the benefits of social media fall down. The purest form of being social is developing a two-way conversation otherwise it is just promotion and that can tune out your readers. By joining your online brand or Facebook page, etc. they want to feel part of your brand experience.
• Followers are great Evangelists
  If what you are trying to build is a community of evangelists then there is probably no better place than online. Having loyal fans that will promote your business and brand to their friends online is the easiest way to get word of mouth advertising and referrals.
• Share other people’s ideas
  You want to be seen as open to new ideas, and sharing other’s content and ideas is a great way to do that. Whether it be linking or discussing another Blog post, tweet, etc. The more you share the more people will notice you and start following your blog, tweets and what you have to say. This helps to grow your following by discussing topics that readers are interested in hearing about.

In addition to the pointers listed above, you want to build your followers because that is who you will go to for feedback on product ideas, how to improve your business processes such as customer service. You might also just find your next prospect or customer is generated from first being an early follower.

Possibly Related Posts:

• eMarketer Reports on Twitter Message Content
• Need Help Marketing? Now available on Facebook
• KnowEm – Designed to help you get started in Social Media
• The Power of Social Sharing from Email
• How to collect email addresses on your Facebook Page

Tags: add followers, encourage followers, loyal followers, social media

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 11:57 pm and is filed under social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.