Starting social media profiles from scratch can be a real challenge, especially if you don't use paid advertising. Organic growth is possible though! Here are 7 key tactics for building your social following.

2. With so many businesses marketing on social
media these days, it’s always a bit of a surprise
when clients come on board without so much as a
Facebook page. But then again, I can understand.
When you’re just starting out, having few (or zero)
followers can make social media feel like a waste
of time and resources. You posts photos and
updates, but nothing happens. The lack of results
causes a lot of business owners to throw in the
towel without ever really seeing what social media
marketing can do.
Is social media marketing a
bunch of malarkey?

3. I get excited about starting social media accounts from scratch, but I’m not gonna
lie– getting them off the ground can be a challenge without paid advertising, and
not everyone wants to go that route.
So, if you’re creating brand new social profiles, or you’ve hit a follower plateau,
here are...
7 Ways To Gain New Followers
Without Using Ads

4. 1. Follow and interact with other users
Start by following other users in your industry,
niche and/or neighborhood. Following major
publishers and news outlets will certainly help
you stay up to date, but those users aren’t as
likely to follow you back. So, focus on following
as many real people and highly interactive
businesses as you can.
Next, invite your target audience to follow you
by interacting with them. The most important
tip I can give anyone who’s marketing a
business on social media is to actually be
social. When users realize there’s a real person
behind your business page they’ll be much
more likely to follow and engage with you.

5. On most social networks, finding and interacting with
real people is pretty straightforward. But on Facebook,
business pages are prevented from interacting with
personal profiles that way. It makes building an
organic following more difficult, but it keeps Facebook
bearable on a personal level, so no complaints here.
One of the only ways to interact with real people then,
is to “use Facebook as your page,” scroll through
your home feed, and interact with people by liking
and replying to comments they make on other posts. If
you reply, just be sure you’re adding real value to that
person’s life or your efforts to gain a follower may be
in vain.
The reply is also a function of Twitter that’s highly interactive but doesn’t get used as
often a it should. If you reply to someone’s tweet with a relevant question, you could
spark a conversation and wind up building a beneficial relationship.

6. 2. Add social widgets to your website
You see social media buttons on almost every site you go to asking for a Like, Tweet or a Follow.
Adding social widgets allows you to tap into your existing audience for social followers, and it allows
your website visitors to follow and engage with your social media pages without having to access the
networks and search for you.
3. Invite your followers from other networks
Let’s say your follower numbers are growing more rapidly on Twitter than on Instagram. To even the
scale, send a tweet inviting your Twitter followers to find you on Instagram. You can do this
regularly and more casually by simply sharing your Instagram posts to your Twitter account.

7. 4. Tell people about it in real life
The people who follow you “irl” are the most likely to follow you online, so invite your friends, family,
co-workers and customers to like your Facebook page and other profiles. You’ll build a firm
foundation of users who already support you and who’ll be glad to give you a like, comment or share.
Try putting a decal, flyer or sticker in a storefront
window, near your cash register, on company
vehicles, or any other prominent place where the
public might see it. The social networks don’t
supply these, so you’ll likely need to have yours
made, which gives you some creative freedom.
As KissMetrics suggests, consider including your
company’s unique value proposition in there
somewhere to give your potential follower an
idea of what’s in it for them.

8. 5. Join groups and participate in online communities
There are groups of users on every social network discussing
the very things you joined social media to talk about. These
groups are a goldmine of potential new followers, so find
them and join them!
In some cases, the best way to connect with members of
these online communities is to use hashtags. For example,
if you want to reach people who are interested in eco-friendly
products, you might use hashtags like #ecofriendly or
#green. I like to use Topsy to find out which hashtags get
used the most.
On Twitter, users gather to have regularly scheduled “chats”
organized by hashtag. To go along with our eco-friendly
example, you could join the #greenchat conversation, which
happens every Sunday at Noon. TweetReports.com has a
pretty good list of those tweet chats here.

9. 6. List your profiles on social media directories
When in search of popular users to follow in any given industry, there are a number of
helpful websites and directories you can use to find them. If you also wish to be found, it
wouldn’t hurt to list yourself in the same places. So, take a few minutes to add your social
media accounts (and a bit about yourself in most cases) to these sites and others:
● About.me
● Klout.com
● Knowem.com
● Twellow.com
● TweetFind.com
● Twitaholic.com

10. 7. Run campaigns and offer incentives
One of the biggest opportunities for new followers
lies in your second-degree connections. Your
followers’ followers. To reach them, encourage your
followers to engage with their friends directly on
your post. For example, you could post something
funny and say “tag a friend who needs a laugh.”
You could also run a campaign where you come right
out and politely ask your followers to invite their
friends to like your page. Most people won’t
participate unless there’s something in it for them, so
consider offering an incentive. You could say “Tag a
friend in the comments and if they like our page, we’ll
send you both a promo code for 10% off!” This tactic
is obviously the most involved, but it could prove to
speed up that follower-to-customer sales funnel.

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Even if you don’t have a budget for paid advertising, you can still build a social media following. It will
just take time instead of money! If you don’t have the time either, consider working with an experienced
digital marketing professional to create and expand your online presence.
Need help creating a social media
marketing strategy?