13 Tips to Grow Your Social Media Audience

With the evolving technology, social media platforms have become one of the most effective ways to connect with the target audience, drive more leads and raise awareness. Big brands, as well as start-ups, can easily spread the word about any new product launches, ongoing campaigns or new initiatives being taken with an engaged following.

However, it is important to note that just having 2000 Twitter followers or 5000 Facebook fans is not an indicator of your success on social media. This is because some of them might not even check out your posts or links. The key to success is to build a community of ideal followers and loyal fans who not only engage actively with your content, but also go ahead and share it with their network, increasing your base of paying customers.

In this article, we would be looking at the 13 simple and effective social media tips in 2020 that can help you to increase your audience on social media. Keep on reading to find out more!

1. Research Your Target Audience

   Before learning how to grow social media audiences and taking steps towards it, you should be able to understand the people for whom you would be creating posts and different kinds of marketing material. For example, in case you have an eCommerce pet supplies store, there is no point in targeting people that do not have any pets.To research your target audience, you can look up online at what the customers are talking about. Additionally, you can go a step forward and also track their on-site behavior if they have already launched your website. Joining and checking out Facebook groups around your niche is another way. Resonating through the pain points, goals and needs of the audience through regular updates and blog posts is an important step to increasing your social media audience.

2. Create Engaging Content

   After you have identified and researched your target audience, you need to engage the potential customers with the help of social media. This is done by creating valuable and interactive content that can immediately grab the attention of your audience. It should be able to offer something new or give the reader a peek into something that hasn’t been seen or shared before. Creating such content and marketing it to the correct audience is sure to increase your social media following. Creating engaging content sends out a clear message to your audience that you want to build long-term relationships with them. For example, one great way for a beauty product brand to engage its followers is through Instagram stories. Loyal followers would also share these stories further with their connections, increasing your social media presence.

3. Go For Visual Posts

   Today, visual or video marketing can be called one of the most engaging and interactive forms of marketing. By creating videos that are centered around your niche, you would be able to better attract and engage your audience. Visuals are considered to be high-performers in the world of social media, hence do not forget to include a colorful image or an eye-catching graphic with every post.For engaging with your audience on social media, you should upload the video directly to the social media platform, rather than just posting a link to an external website such as YouTube. In this way, the video would grab more attention as it would autoplay when someone lands on it.

4. Update Your Page Cover Photos and Profile Photos

   The cover photos and profile photos are the most-viewed elements of your social profile. These should thus be used to showcase your work or highlight the products or services that you offer. On the growing social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc, you should change your cover photo and profile photo at least once in a month and accompany it with a great caption.While uploading, take care to personalize and customize the image according to different channels. People would not like a stretched out and pixelated version of the logo, rather they would prefer a visual image that can speak volumes. It is equally important to use the correct image size for each of the social media platforms.

5. Share Relevant Content From Other People

   You should make use of the content that can provide answers to what people are looking for. This content can also be from other individuals, bloggers or your customers. Readers appreciate when you are more focused on giving them what they need, irrespective of where it comes from. Your social media feed needs to contain relevant information for the readers, as it will directly impact your brand value and would encourage more people to follow you.Diverse and relevant content from different contributors is sure to keep your readers engaged and entertained. It can sometimes become boring to hear or read about the same person talking about the same topic on a regular basis. Some of the ways in which you can share content from other people are as follows:

   • Repost relevant posts from your followers or customers
   • Use social media influencers to share content
   • Go for guest postings

6. Hold Contests and Giveaways

   Contests and giveaways can turn out to be a great way for gaining followers and at the same time keep the present audience engaged with your page. Offering your customers and readers something in return for sharing your posts or tweets is a great way to reward them and acknowledge their engagement. The rewards can be in the form of a discount code or a freebie. You can experiment with contests and giveaways on different social media platforms to encourage more people to participate and ultimately gain more followers on social media. Some examples of contests are as follows:

   • Best Caption contest
   • Comment/Answer to win
   • Multiple Choice Questions contest
   • Best Photo contest
   • Fill-in-the-blank contest

7. Create Surveys and Polls

   While discussing how to engage an audience on social media, another effective trick is to include surveys and polls in your social media feed. They are a simple and quick way to obtain feedback from your customers and readers. The data gained from these surveys and polls can additionally be used for future marketing. For example, a poll was created by Airbnb to find out the places where the customers prefer going for short breaks and tours. It was found out that people prefer mountains the most for a small escapade.

8. Add Hashtags to Your Posts

   For engaging a greater number of people and making your social media profile more attractive, hashtags can be another form of social media engagement. With the help of hashtags, your main target keywords easily stand out in your post. You can track the discussion around your desired topic and connect with your target audience and like-minded people using these hashtags. This way you can not only reach your own followers but also connect with non-followers who are looking for similar information.

   Hashtags can be used in two different ways of engaging with your audience on social media. Firstly, you can make use of popular hashtags in a strategic manner. However, they should also be used sparingly, such as one popular tag should only be used in a post or a tweet. Secondly, hashtags can be used for participating in current events and trending topics.

9. Encourage Tagging

   Tagging on social media basically refers to connecting the content on your social media profile with other social media accounts such as a company, individual or event. You can even encourage your followers to tag other people who can enjoy or benefit from the post. With this, you would get a whole new audience, one that you would not be able to access on a normal basis. Ideally, these people can become your loyal social media followers in the long run.

   In case you are tagging a company, the size of your social media audience would increase by a large amount. With a wide reach, you might even be able to obtain some long-term or loyal followers. However, this method needs to be used sparingly, or it might be taken as spam.

10. Proactively Listen and Respond to Your Audience

    To gain and maintain your social media audience, it is imperative to provide your readers and followers with great user experience. On average, 71% of Twitter followers and 83% of Facebook followers expect you to respond within 24 hours of posting a question or a query. It is important to listen to the needs of your audience and proactively respond to them. You should also recognize people who share your posts or mention you or your page on different social media platforms.

    Making your online community feel acknowledged and heard is sure to help you gain a greater number of fans and loyal customers. This strategy is also followed by a number of brands, such as Starbucks, with the idea to connect with the audience and make them loyal to the brand. Being proactive can increase your social media following greatly.

11. Try Paid Social Promotions

    One of the best social media tips for individuals who are looking to increase their social media audience is to invest a decent amount of money into paid social promotions and advertisements. If done properly, paid ads can not only grow your audience but also enhance the number of conversions while helping you target a greater number of people.

    With the help of paid promotions, you can target your audience based on their demography, location, interests, and gender. Paid promotions can be used to boost engagements, increase the number of page likes, drive sales and ultimately increase your social media audience. This type of marketing is also generally cheaper as compared to other types of marketing tactics.

12. Join and Conduct Questions and Answers

    Q&A sessions are a great way to provide your users with useful information and increase your social media audience. Not only can you offer relevant answers to the queries from your customers, but it also adds a spark to your social media discussions. This will also help you in staying ahead of your competitors. With the evolving technology and fast-paced world, customers look forward to receiving an immediate response to their questions and hence, a quick response is well-appreciated.

    While conducting Q&A sessions in your niche, it is a good idea to create an in-depth guide or a detailed post to give effective insights to the customers. While answering a question, you can add links to these guides and posts to support your answers and go one step ahead to help your customers. This way you can also attract more followers and buyers, which will ultimately enhance your social media audience.

13. Post and Update on a Regular Basis

    It is a great idea to post regularly on social media. It keeps your followers engaged and at the same time helps in attracting new followers. Along with being regular, it is also important to maintain the frequency of posting on different social media platforms. In case you post regularly, your audience might lose interest ultimately. At the same time, in case you post too often, people might feel spammed.

    It is important to strike the perfect balance to enhance your social media following and post consistently. You can also start scheduling your posts in advance so that they are posted at optimal times.

To Conclude

In the end, we can conclude that there are a number of social media tips and tricks that you need to apply to increase your social media audience and gain success in the digital arena. With the growing importance of social media platforms, it is imperative to learn how to keep your online audience engaged.

Applying some or all of the above tactics are sure to help you gain a greater number of followers and loyal customers. Try out these social media tips and tricks 2020 to grow your social media audience today!