One of the most amazing advances in global communication and marketing has been Facebook. The amount of money generated and fandoms created are astronomical. To take advantage of this people and marketers need to expand their following and there are ways to do so.
Primarily, a Facebook following is comprised of several factors. There are “likes” from a Facebook Fan Page, “joins” regarding group pages, “friends” where people become your friend and read your newsfeeds. All these are important and the smart person should recognize the value and how to increase their numbers for better results overall.
Build your Facebook friends the smart way
The basic following are Facebook Friends. These are people you know or may be associated with. You can request their becoming your friend or they can request you. There’s a limit of around 5,000 friends and many people in marketing use this as a basic but realize they need more room for thousands more. Friends are a good source of a following because of the math involved. Five thousand friends who have thousands of friends each can translate into something you post going viral and quickly. Fine tuning your friends is essential. You’ll need to do some gardening and culling of the herd as you don’t want inequitable relationships clogging up your routine. You want friends who will re-post and participate so you’ll expand your reach and make money, not friends who’ll sit there and flood your newsfeed with silly pictures of puppies and people falling down. You need Facebook friends that you can call to action not linger around and loiter.
Pick the people who are like minded. Are receptive to your posts and take the time to comment and “like” and “share” your posts. Those that don’t, just remove them and hunt for more. One good trick is to see who shares your posts then their friends who like or share that post. Contact them as friends and you’ll see your stats rise.
Be exciting and engaging
If you want more followers you’re not going to get them by sitting on your butt. You have to be exciting and engaging. You need to make posts that catch the eye, engage the reader to participate and go into action. These kinds of posts sometimes might call for an interesting picture or video. You can find them all over the web. You can make your own creative and exciting posts easily with free imaging software like Gimp. Gimp can do what Photoshop does and is free. You can get some royalty free pics, slap a funny slogan or philosophical quote. These are the ones people like and share and you’ll build up your following. Sometimes you can post one post and it goes viral and the next thing you know on your Fan Page you’ve got thousands of people showing up. You never know what will happen but you can hedge your bets by taking the time to create quality posts.
Be prepared and responsive
One of the main ways of losing a following is not being responsive. If you’re posting to attract people to take action then when they do, acknowledge them for it. It will show them that you’re a real and caring personality behind the page. People might comment and you should like their comments or respond. One good trick is to respond with another post using a picture or video. Pile it on as the Brits say. Don’t let anyone get away who is responding to your profile newsfeed, group, or fan page. These people are valuable and are assets.
Use innovative techniques
There are some tried and true methods of increasing your Facebook following but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for innovation. The social media landscape changes weekly and being on top of those trends means you’ll be a step ahead of the competition. If you see people suddenly posting about surfing and penguins then create posts and other media containing this topic and niche. Make the posts so interesting that people will share and comment. Don’t go for every shiny technique others are using because by the time that approach is public it’s usually already saturated. You’ll have to be sharp and strike while the iron is hot.
Use popular trends smartly
Trends ebb and flow. Being ahead of a trend is always a goldmine. Capturing and exploiting a trend at just the right time can be the difference between success and failure. You’ll need to keep a sharp eye out and watch the news. Especially what the young people are watching and imitating. Those catch phrases, fashions, quotes and such can be great content for your Facebook pages and vault your following upwards and onwards.
Make the right friends
Here’s a task that if done properly can be a major boon to your following. Look for those people, those friends, likes, that are popular in their own right. Gt in contact with them and then build a relationship. A real neat trick is to tag them in a post that suits their interests. For example, let’s say one of your friends is popular with their own band. They have 5,000 friends and 50,000 followers on their fan page. You whip up a funny graphic and post it and tag them in it. They’ll see it, post it, their fans will share it. Followers are bound to migrate to your pages this way. Sometimes a few and other times a multitude.
Always be supportive regarding action
Whenever someone posts or likes or shares, you have to be supportive. Don’t get into arguments or conflicts. Always keep a smile on your face when someone does you a favor and they’ll feel comfortable coming back again and again and bringing more people with them.
Link up with other social media
Don’t just fish in the same spot. Use other social media like Pinterest, Twitter, and the rest to guide people to your pages. In some cases with a funny graphic or pic you can post them on your blogs that lead to your Facebook pages. Use a bit of tease here and cross reference. It increases your visibility greatly and you can count on someone sharing at any given time.
Finally, growing your following is a two-way street. You’ve got the platform in front of you but you need to engage it wisely. Your goal is to increase and expand not put your interests in jeopardy. You don’t want a bad reputation for your brand or yourself so take things slowly, you can do things on your own and see the wonders for yourself.
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