I noticed today a post on LinkedIn from someone that was connected with me but was not an internet marketer per-se, stating “How to increase followers from 30K to 225K followers” in five minutes per day by commenting #yes

The first thing that came to mind is he has no authority to advise considering he is and what I saw was a clever click bait hack and nothing more. This is a disappointment when people are genuinely looking for answers and come across someone just looking out for him/herself, simply having people click the post for the post to go no where.

Therefore I have taken upon myself to write this post to help individuals increase followers/business. This method can be applied to all social media platforms:

1: Optimize Your Profile Pages, optimise your cover photo and also your profile picture. Make your profile picture look professionally done. Remember to be aware of your background in the photo. A picture says a thousand words. Try to get a professional head shot done at a local photographic studio (when they are open again) or get a friend to take a photo without any distractions in the backdrop.

2: Start with connecting with people, most social media platforms say only connect with the people you know, but what if you have a genuine enquiry, the best thing is to find their email addresses to write to them first before sending them a connection request, especially of you do not know them.

3: Write articles on your pages and link back to articles you have written on your blogs and share these articles with your connections.

4: Make your post intriguing only give a little away and entice the reader to click you post for more information.

5. Share photos on your social media platform pages, instagram is good for this or do infographics and add titles to your posts.

6: Be creative and publish videos, add captivating content that people will be willing to watch. Add humour, funny videos attract peoples attention.

7: Go Live. Livestreaming is not for everyone but if you are happy broadcasting an event or milestone as long as it has good content you will get people watching.

8: Advertise your brochures and share your pdf’s on your business pages.

9: Use hashtags when closing your post text.

10: Don’t forget to tag your connections and companies that may find your post useful.

11: Give your followers valuable advice. Everyone is a guru these days and some can be better at it than others but you only have one chance of being an expert in your niche and the more followers you have the more well known you will become.

12: RSS feeds are a good way of finding trending posts, create “breaking news” posts that perhaps people outside your region may not have heard of. Do not copy posts word for word as that is called plagiarism and you will be penalised by search engines. For me I always use one of my blogs to write articles which I then share with my connections and although I may read something I will scramble it into my own words, even giving my own perspective.

13: Be consistant and active everyday on all your social media platforms. I am perhaps the world worst as I only seem to hang out on LinkedIn because most of my work is B2B but recently I have been asked to do B2C hence I need to alter my mind set and concentrate on Facebook pages and groups more.

14: Create viral posts this could be something like a give away or a competition with a deadline.

15: Join groups on your social media platforms.

16: Create your own groups for your different niches.

17: Create your own business pages on all your social media platforms, keep your professional and personal pages seperate.

18: If you have an event coming up or thinking of creating one, social media is a good place to advertise and market yourself.

19: Once you have a following on your social media platforms do reach out and collaborate with your connections.

20: Set the buttons on your profiles to a “Follow” button.

21: Create a call to action in every post.

22: Promote your social media profiles everywhere, including your website, blogs and email signatures.

23: Cross promote your profile on your other social media channels. For me I have on default business card website that I point people to, this saves time typing out each social media platform I am connected to.

24: Pay per click advertising campaigns are not only good with Google & Bing but they are also is a good way of connecting with people through your social media platforms. Facebook & Instagram is a place where you can connect B2C, this is good if you are targeting a specific category or people. You can fine tune your specifications to the location, age, gender and interests.

25: Try to update your profile page frequently, a stagnant page is boring and will show your audience that you are frequesnt at updating. If you have new services, always keep them updated.

26: Always reply to comments, no matter how trivial, ignoring a comment makes the person who wrote it worthless. Obviously if you have hundreds of thousand of comments pick out the ones that stand out and thank everyone in a generic comment.

27: When people share your posts and pages, thank them.

28: Get your biggest fans to endorse you, this applies to LinkedIn more so than any other social media channel and visa versa, you will be amazed how may people who you endorse will endorse you back. The same goes with review ask your customers to write a review about your brand.

29: If you have businesses that wish you to promote them, do offer to write recommendations, this gives you exposure aswell as exposure for your client, but if the businesses wish more exposure you could offer other marketing strategies which you could potentially charge for the service. I do this free of charge by adding banner ads to all my social media pages and groups I am connected on. This is short lived advertising but for a permanent fixture on my blogs I charge a monthy/yearly fee.

30: Exact match searchable keyword and phrases are so important not only in your domain name but on your website, meta tags and social media pages. When choosing a Facebook page for example use words that people would use to search for your product or service rather than your unknown brand name. Your brand name will become popular over time and it will not be an overnight success unless you spend a lot of money on advertising, I just do not mean Google Ads I mean in publications, newspapers, radio and TV.

31: Make your social media profile searchable, make them public.

32: When commenting on other peoples posts, do not get personal and do not get into trolling arguments if someone does not see the value of your comment. Be professional and do not sell things on peoples posts. You could add a backlink to your company as a signature or hashtag but thats it, don’ be the pushy sales person.

33: Give incententives to get people to share your posts. This could be a free e-book or a discount voucher.

35: Become an influencer.

36. Become a public speaker.

37: Create educational webinars, podcasts, tutorials, use youtube and share your content on all social media platforms.

38. Create a SEO link wheel, of your websites, blogs and social media platforms.

39. Start a blog and add RSS feeds so that in engages people’s interests.

40. Have a subscribe widget or pop up so that you can capture peoples emails and then send them updates or newsletters. Do not install the popup until a person is about to exit your site and not before. I believe it is off putting to have a subscribe popup the moment you attempt to access a site. You need to earn my trust and loyalty before I give my email away.

41. Integrate a chat widget into your websites and blogs so that when visitors visit your sites you can engage with them.

42: Guest blog on other notable websites.

43: Become a podcast interviewer. Invite people to join you in a discussion.

44. Write a book about you and your niche and publish your services and products.

45. Leave business cards on noticeboards in supermarkets, cafes (when they open again).

46. Make flyers and post them through peoples doors.

47. Consider giving out freebies, such as buy one get one free.

48. Start a competition.

49. Consider getting people to market you using affiliate links. https://rakutenadvertising.com/en-uk/

50. Advertise in Magazines and in Newspapers.

51. Offer to do something for free, this could be free web hosting in my case or free marketing or promotion.

52. Wear promotional clothing.

53. Give away promotional merchandise.

54. Word of mouth advertising get all your family and friends to promote you and get their family and friends and before you know it you have a network of connections.

55. Do outbound marketing, like picking up the phone and calling or writing snail mail letters.

56. Enlist the help of other advocates in your industry, find a mentor.

57. As your employees to engage in your social media pages, make them contributors.

58. Post your articles at ceratin times of the day. I find that during working hours people are busy getting on with business. So you have to pick times that appeal to your network browsing times, otherwise you posts may not get a look in. However according to LinkedIn’s their busiest hours are in the morning and midday from Monday to Friday. This will ensure your post to get maximum reach.

59. Add multiple admins to you pages and ask your colleagues to help you.

60. Join all the social media platforms and follow companies and people of interest.