10 Tips for Growing Your Social Following

People are always asking me how I got so many followers on Twitter and Tumblr, and I always kind of brush it off and joke around. I did a post on how I got Twitter famous, which you can find here, but I wanted to do a step by step list of tips that can hopefully help you.

#1: Be Yourself

It is so important that on any social platform, you are being yourself. All too often, people make fake profiles, and buy fake followers, likes, and comments. That doesn't do anything for you or make you look any better to potential followers. Be you. Tweet things you would normally say, post unedited photos to Instagram. People will appreciate the genuine you and follow you.

#2: Be Consistent

This is probably the most important thing when it comes to building a social following. Consistency is key! You need to keep all your profiles up to date in order to stay relevant and gain / retain followers. If someone sees you haven't posted anything in a while, chances are they will unfollow you. Schedule things in advance if you need to, just to make sure that something goes up.

#3: Interact with your followers

When you get people to follow you, you want them to keep following you. The best way to do that is to interact with people. Get involved in some dialogue with those who comment or reply to your posts. Send out different polls or other interactive content that can get followers engaged and conversations started.

#4: Post relatable content

Nobody is going to follow you if they can't relate to who you are or what you post. This is why memes are so popular, among other things, and why big social media accounts have posts that a lot of people relate to. Remember to be yourself, but to also post things you think others will find interesting and relatable.

#5: Don't spam your followers

Nobody likes scrolling through their timeline and seeing posts and pictures of the same person over and over and over again. They will probably unfollow you if you do that. If you choose to schedule tweets or other posts, make sure you spread them out so it doesn't look like spam.

#6: Have an appealing profile

The worst thing to have is a busy profile. Don't have a million emojis in your biography with weird fonts, or have a header that gives people a headache. You want to make your profile flow and be aesthetically pleasing. It looks more professional and people will take you more seriously.

#7: Don't get involved in drama

It is too easy to get into a stupid fight over social media due to everything that is going on in the world. BUT, it gets old quick... and people aren't really looking to watch you go back and forth with someone all the time. They go to social media to laugh and to read about interesting things, not to watch people constantly argue.

#8: Switch things up

If you always post a certain way, or about certain things, try something new. If you only ever post photos on Instagram, try posting one on Twitter. Followers will appreciate the change and you'll get to test out what people are actually interested in seeing. They will also be more likely to stay tuned for more.

#9: Utilize analytics

Many social media platforms give you the ability to check content engagement and other analytics. USE THEM! It is so important to understand your audience and know who you're talking to. You can see what people are actually interested in and target more of your content to meet that interest. You can also see if you're losing followers, likes, and so on.

#10: Use automated messages / content

I mentioned scheduling content earlier, but you can also have automated interactions as well. Just like when you sign up for an online retail store, you get an immediate email right after you press enter. There are various apps and tools that allow you to send automated messages for example, to all of your new followers. You can use this space to promote your other social pages, or just simply thank them for following you. Don't make this too busy though, you might turn people away.

Please reach out if you have any questions! I would be happy to help!