How to grow your social channels and expand your community.
Follower counts aren’t just a vanity metric that you can brag about over coffee. They are a direct reflection of how interesting and valuable your social media content can be. In fact, some might go so far as to say that follower counts are more significant than engagement rates as a success indicator of social media performance. This is because following a social media page is so much more than just appreciating one piece of content; following a page is like subscribing to your content and opting in to have that future content in your feed.
Let’s take it back to the basics – what actually is a social media follower? Well, a social media follower is an individual user who has chosen to follow your social media profile. This means that they want to stay connected to your page so they can see more of your content appearing in their newsfeed over time. Your followers are people who like your page as a whole — not just a single piece of content — and want to see more of what you post. If your account is for your brand, your followers are often made up of your customers, people who are interested in your business (such as leads or partners), and those who simply enjoy your content. If you’re an influencer, your followers are generally invested in you as a person — what you have to say, what you’re doing, and what you like, as well as the content you create.
There are many benefits to having a high follower count. Not only is having a large following good for your reputation — as it makes you look more legitimate within your industry — but it can also help to increase other metrics such as engagement and reach. Followers can also lead to more followers if your content is regularly being shared with non-followers.
When it comes to your goals outside of social media, a high following is still desirable. Your followers are essentially a large group of people who are invested in you or your brand who you can influence into making purchase decisions, or direct to other sources such as your blog, website, newsletter, or other social channels.
Having lots of social media followers can also come in handy if you need to carry out some research regarding the direction of the business, or just some feedback on what content they’d want to see more of.
For influencers, growing a following comes with an extra layer of pressure. This is because follower counts can have a direct impact on their income. Fewer followers, or a loss in followers, could mean losing out on brand deals, sponsored content, affiliate deals, or revenue earned directly through the social media platforms. The number of followers an influencer has is also used to categorize what type of influencer they are, which also influences what opportunities are available to them.
Mega-influencers – More than a million followers (often celebrities)
Macro-influencers – Between 100,000 and 1 million followers
Micro-influencers – Between 1,000 and 100,000 followers
Nano-influencers – Fewer than 1,000 followers
We’ve covered the “why” but now let’s talk “how.” Increasing your follower count takes patience, and there is no quick fix. While it is possible to buy your followers, this is a tactic that no serious business or influencer should employ.
Buying your followers will help your page look more legitimate and popular at a glance, but it won’t bring any of the benefits that come with having a genuine following made of real people. When you buy followers, what you’re often buying is actually an audience made up of mostly bots and inactive pages who won’t engage with you, won’t convert to leads, can’t be influenced, and frankly, won’t really bring you any benefit at all. What they will do is skew all of your social media metrics, making it harder to judge how you’re truly performing, and potentially even damage your reputation if anyone notices your page climbing from 300 to 30,000 overnight.
Now we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get into the legitimate ways you can increase your followers:
If you’re missing a profile picture, a bio, or any other crucial profile information, you’re immediately giving users a reason to doubt the legitimacy of your page. People want to follow real people, and real brands. Your profile is a reflection of how much effort you put into your social media in general so any missing information will significantly reduce your chance of gaining followers.
Social media is filled with competition and alternate profiles similar to yours so it’s important not to give a user any reason not to follow you, however minor it may seem. Furthermore, for those of you who don’t have a website, your social media accounts will often be the first thing that appears if anybody uses a search engine to find you. As a result, you need to think of your social media profiles as if they are landing pages and focus on using them to make the best possible first impression.
Make sure that all of the following (where applicable to the social channel) are completed and fully filled in:
Profile picture
Bio or description (try to include searchable keywords if possible)
Header/cover photo
Choose a display name and a username (these can be the same or different — just try to keep some consistency across social channels)
Add a link to your website (or any preferred link)
Add a CTA — Instagram business profiles, for example, allow you to add CTA buttons to your profile
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The difference between engaging with a single post and choosing to follow an account is dependent on whether they’re consistently producing similar content. For example, if somebody has an interest in cooking, they might engage with a cooking video. But if they visit the page belonging to this account and find that only a small portion of the content is about food or cooking, and the content that is there isn’t of interest, then they won’t choose to follow this account.
We’re not saying that you can only post about one topic, but you do need to find your particular lane, and then stay in it. Focus on who your target audience is, find out what their interests are, and keep your content centered around these topics.
Following an account is like subscribing to a service. The main purpose of following is to make sure that their future content will land in your feed. If a page is very inconsistent or infrequent with posting content, this could deter any interested users from following. After all, would you subscribe to a newsletter that lands in your inbox only every couple of months? The standard of content would have to be extremely high for it to be worth your while.
Already put the work in somewhere else? While specific social channels can attract slightly different demographics, the average social media user engages with an average of 6.6 various social media platforms, so it's highly likely you can find more of your target audience by exploring other platforms. If you’re looking to grow on another social media channel, notify your existing audience and encourage them to follow your other social channels. Make sure to highlight the exclusivity of your content for each channel to entice them further.
Similarly, if you’re not finding success trying to grow your following on your current social media channels, it’s worth exploring the possibility that you could just be looking for your audience in the wrong places. Either carry out some research to discover which social channels your target market is using most — this could involve asking the social media following you do have about what other apps they use — or for businesses, this could mean asking your customer base for their favorite social channels via survey. Additionally, you can make some educated assumptions about where your target audience might be based on information about which demographics are most popular on each social media channel.
Facebook: According to research, Facebook is favored most among men and women aged 35 – 44 and is least popular among women aged 16 – 24.
X (previously Twitter): The most common demographic of X users is those aged between 25 and 34, with those aged 13 – 17 ranking as the least.
Instagram: Those aged 18 – 34 are the most common demographic that you’ll find on Instagram, with usage decreasing with age.
LinkedIn: LinkedIn is most popular among those between 26 to 55 with both men and woman equally represented globally (57% male and 43% female).
Pinterest: 60% of Pinterest users are women, although more men have joined the platform in recent years. Women aged 29 – 34 also represent 29.1% of Pinterest’s ad audience (the largest of all the demographics).
TikTok: TikTok’s user base is 57% female and is very popular among Gen Z audiences.
If you want to increase your following you need start putting yourself out there. Follow relevant brands and influencers of a similar niche or industry to connect with and engage with their content to bring more visibility to your name.
Engaging with other pages could be a matter of leaving the occasional comment, liking their posts, and giving them a follow. When it comes to comments, don’t be spammy, don’t be attention seeking, don’t be basic, and don’t leave the same comments on a number of different posts. Put real thought into your comments and make a genuine effort to say something relevant to the content you engage with. After a while, the favor is likely to be returned.
Micro influencers can be great for collaboration if you're looking to grow, particularly as an alternative to larger influencers. The benefit of working with a micro influencer is that their audience (although smaller than that of other influencers) is very engaged with their content and has developed a genuine and trusting connection with the influencer. This means that if a micro-influencer recommends a product or another page to follow, a large percentage of their audience is likely to bite. Due to their small size, their rates for collaboration are also likely to be lower and more affordable compared to that of larger influencers.
Collaborating with any influencer is always a good idea if you’re looking to gain exposure to a new audience and pick up some new followers in the process. Begin by finding an influencer whose audience is similar to yours and has the same interests, and then reach out to said influencer. Be clear on how they can benefit from collaborating with you, whether it’s by allowing them exposure to your audience in return (if you have a high enough following), by offering them your products or services for free, or by simply offering to pay them.
Good things come to those who wait. Put your focus into creating great content and as your engagement levels rise so will your follower counts. Put the above advice into practice and you will no doubt see steady growth. If it helps, set yourself realistic and achievable follower count goals for you to hit over time. This will encourage you to stay motivated and continue to be consistent in your efforts for growth.
Whether you gain your followers slowly over time, or become an overnight sensation, it’s important to be consistent and celebrate the small wins. Every follower is somebody who has committed to your content, so keep at it, put the work in, and enjoy the growth.