Getting Followers and Boosting Engagement – Step by Step Social Marketing Process

Once you have learned how to set up accounts on all of the major social media sites, the next step is to learn how to get followers and boost engagement. Many people will approach social media marketing with a step by step process that has to be carried out each day. For this reason, you will see many webmasters posting a set number of status updates and sharing a set number of articles each day.

Social media is more about engaging with your followers to generate lifelong customers. It is also a way to gather market research that is necessary for keeping your products and services new and fresh. Here are a few ways that you can use your social media accounts to gain more followers and boost your engagement on each site.

1. Add featured stories to the timeline of your company on Facebook. The stories that run across the width of your profile’s timeline tend to generate more interest and engagement than a standard post. This is a good way to highlight the milestones of your company.
   
2. Offer Incentives for likes: create an app that will lead your visitors to a special discount code or a free product in exchange for liking your page on Facebook.
   
3. Rotate your Ads: when you are running the same Facebook ad day in and day out, people will get tired of seeing it. Make sure that you create several different ads that can be switched in and out regularly to avoid burnout.
   
4. Customize your graphics: adding your own images to your Facebook Timeline will create a consistent brand image for your company. Make sure that you use these same images across your social media accounts to ensure brand recognition.
   
5. Respond to Comments: show your customers that you are listening to what they say. Try to respond to all of the comments that are left on your page in a timely fashion. Host question and answer sessions on Facebook or create an event and invite your followers to join in.
   
6. Follow new people daily: on twitter you should use authority figure follower lists and choose new people to follow in your industry each day.
   
7. Pre-Load Tweets and Posts: even if you cannot be on your social media accounts each day, you should pre-load tweets and posts so that you keep your engagement on the networks high. The Buffer App as well as several others can help you schedule these posts to occur when you want them to.
   
8. Discover users most active times: an app such as Tweriod for Twitter will allow you to view your users most active times of the day. You can use this information to schedule your tweets and posts accordingly.
   
9. Use follower lists: segmenting your followers into different lists is a great way to be able to send out unique messages to each of the groups. This can result in higher levels of engagement on your social media sites.
   
10. Customize your Landing Page: each of your social media accounts should lead to a customized landing page on your website. This page can provide offers, deals, discounts, etc. to the consumer for following the link from your social media site to your website. This is also a great way to get followers to sign up for your mailing list.
    
11. Industry Hangouts: on Google+ make sure that you are participating in hangouts that are hosted by others in your industry. Engage with new people during these events. You can even host your own hangouts to provide followers access to your experience and knowledge in the industry.
    
12. Hangouts on Air: to build your following on both Google+ and YouTube at the same time, consider trying hangouts on air. This will allow you to stream hangout footage to YouTube. This is a quick and easy way to get some videos on YouTube.
    
13. Content Recommendations: look through the content that is being recommended on your social media sites and share them on your profile. Sharing unique, quality content with your followers is a great way to engage with them and can also help increase your credibility.
    
14. Comment on Content: not only should you share content with your followers, but you should also make sure to comment on other people’s content. On Twitter use your hashtag so that a person who reads your comment can follow it back to your account. You can also link to your information in your comments.
    
15. Monitor Activity: this is perhaps one of the most important things that you can do when it comes to your social media account. You will want to closely monitor your activity on each of your social media sites to learn more about what is working with your target audience and what is not. You should always be changing things to make it more engaging for your consumers. Additionally, these analytics can provide you with new and interesting ways to engage with your consumers.

These are just a few of the simple steps that you can take to make your social media sites more engaging. When it comes down to it social media is about one thing, interaction.

Treat your social media sites like networking events.

You want to get your name and information to as many people as possible. The best way to do this is to start conversations with people who might be interested in your company’s products and services.

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