Making the Most of Your Following
When it comes to social media, the number of followers you have is crucial, but the amount doesn’t matter if you’re not engaging with the followers or giving them content they find intriguing. Getting more followers is easy, but keeping them is the hard part. If you aren’t engaging with them or keeping your content relevant to them, they wont have a reason to continue following you.
Ready to make the most of your following? Let’s dive right into some tips and tricks that will keep your follower count up!
1. CTAs (Call to Actions): CTAs engage your followers by inducing them to perform a specific act. This can be within the photo itself or in the caption. For example, “Click here” or “Click the link in our bio.” By clicking on the link or directing them to your page, they are engaging with your post and getting involved with your page. An example of a CTA on a photo itself would be “Double tap if you agree.” You can also use the custom location feature on Instagram as a CTA to insert your company’s URL and guide others to check out the location hits.
2. Run contests: Contests are the perfect way to engage with your followers and potentially get more. You can do a giveaway contest where the individual will follow your account, like the photo and tag a friend to win the giveaway. The friend tagged will then will be inclined to do the same, thus, more followers. There are several different ways to run contests on Instagram and it is a really good way to get your followers involved and excited. Not only will this allow you to gain more followers, but it will increase your engagement and want your followers to keep coming back for more.
3. Participate in your comment threads: A great and easy way to engage with your followers is to monitor and reply to comments on your posts. Thank people for their positive comments and respond in a kind way to the negative comments. Answer questions people may have on your posts. This gives a personal touch to your page that will build your brand in a positive way and show your followers that you care about what they are saying. Not responding to the comments could make your followers feel like you don’t care about them or what they have to say.
4. Prompt discussion through your caption: An example of this would be a question such as, “Eating an acai bowl for breakfast. What’s your favorite breakfast?” This allows your followers to do the talking. People love sharing their opinions and preferences, and they will feel valued that you care about their responses. When a follower feels like you care, they will in return care about your page.
5. Use Hashtags: Hashtags are a great way to show your followers how they are relevant to you and how you are connected to other accounts. Use popular hashtags that relate to your brand. If your posts are food-related, use hashtags such as “#foodporn” and “#foodie.” Make the hashtags relevant. Don’t just hashtag anything or your brand will be confusing. A great thing about hashtags is that your followers can click on the hashtags to see other accounts associated with that hashtag and in return other accounts will do the same and lead to your page.
