Increasing a social media fan base

1. Share useful and valuable content - Many startups make the grievous mistake of confusing the art of making their social media pages attractive and fun with posting "junk" or otherwise unnecessary content. Not everything is worth putting out there. Social media followers are such that they expect companies, especially startups, to post more promotional content. Surprise them. It has been observed that a 80/20 rule works for most startups to rapidly increase number of followers and get their brand name very well known. Posting about 80% non-promotional useful content and 20% promotional content will significantly improve how the official page is observed in the eyes of followers. Posting a variety of content also makes the page not boring, but very interesting. Sharing visual content is also the most effective way to get attention from fans on social media. What they see is what gets them interested. People are interested to see other people hence sharing messages in a picture will get more views than written messages.

2. Giveaways -

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‘’Answer to win’’, ‘’Predict and win’’, ‘’Like and share to win’’ are few of the many things that get social media fans to like and follow official Facebook pages. When they have no idea what your startup page is, the best way to get their attention is to give something away free. A quiz or predict and win competition is usually a good pick. It gets people interested in the brand and gets them to like and follow the social media page. Occasionally it is very effective to give out free things or discounts to increase the number of followers. The more free stuff people can get from being on your pages, the more they are interested to stay on the page and share the page.

3. Promote social media presence everywhere - Many startups are content with the few thousands of fans they acquire in a short while. Do not stop! Make sure you promote the pages everywhere. Cross promotion helps a lot. For instance, you can promote your Facebook page on Twitter and your Twitter page on Instagram and vice versa. Also at events, in email signatures and other branded paraphernalia, you can promote the various pages. Let people know these pages exist. They have a medium to reach you through this.

4. Collaborate other bigger brands/personalities - The world of social media does not exist in isolation. All the big accounts with millions of followers and likes started with a few tens and hundreds. In order to get a strong foundation, you need to collaborate with some of the bigger companies with huge social media fan base through events or projects. By doing that, their fans automatically become your fans. Whoever trusts their pages, trust your page as well. Use influencers, celebrities and people with big accounts to increase the popularity of your brand.

5. Interact - social media is all about interaction - Always be in the position to respond to fans' comments, messages and posts. Whatever their concern may be, you should be there to help them find solutions. Also, make sure to find and interact with people or brands that have similarities to your franchise. Chat, comment and let them feel you are not too far away.

6. Hire a dedicated social media manager - This may not be so economic after all, but the benefits are just overwhelming. Hiring a dedicated social media manager means that you have someone in charge. In the past, social media was not recognised so much, thus there was no need to dedicate one person to managing these pages. However, in the modern day business world, it has evolved into a very useful marketing tool. With workload and expectation at very high levels, getting someone whose sole job it is to ensure the growth and sustainability of your pages seems a great bargain. Social media trends change regularly, hence instead of getting someone to handle it as a part-time side project, dedicate a member of your staff to it. It is rewarding.