EPISODE 25 OF THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS PODCAST: STRATEGIES TO GROW YOUR PAGE FOLLOWING

Sonya McIntyre-Reid:

If you're starting a new business or have been around for a while, but, oh my God, the horror, don't have a social media page yet, I bet you're thinking, "Okay, well, how do I start and get that following built quickly so I'm not talking to crickets?" Excellent question. And I've seen this done a couple of ways, and I've done this a couple of ways. In this episode, I'm going to take you through three different techniques to build your page following when you're starting from scratch or from a low follower base. So number one, and this is kind of obvious, but competitions. These are amazing for growing followings, for both local businesses and e-commerce businesses. I run competitions regularly for clients, and recently with Mr. Business, who I did a pick my brain session with, who had no following, go from zero to over 3000 local followers using just two competitions.

Here's how to make it work for your business if the goal is to build a social media following. Number one. Pick your prize carefully. Please don't make it a Woolworths voucher because hello, boring. But on the other hand, it's kind of relevant right now during the time of corona. So hey, maybe that would perform a whole lot better than it has in the past. If you can make it one of your goods or services, excellent. It means you're going to be attracting the people that are likely to become clients down the track. If not though, think about how you can collaborate with other local businesses that offer complimentary or adjacent products and services. So I've seen businesses offer free dinners at local restaurants, Gold Class movie tickets, pamper packs, that kind of thing. Think about what would be great to win that you might not normally splurge on yourself.

Now that you've got your prize, go and create some kick-ass graphics to promote it. I recommend an Instagram story size graphic, and a square graphic. You can do this easily in Canva, but keep in mind you need to keep the text on the image below 20%, as we'll be popping some ad spend behind this down the track. Step three. Go ahead and write your copy for the post. So this is the competition post that you're going to be putting onto your timeline and onto your Instagram grid. So make sure this is super, super clear. And so all of the crucial questions in points without waffling. What can you win? What do you have to do to win? When will the winner be announced? And how many times can you enter? People have a short attention span so keep it stupid simple for them.

If you're going to try and grow your page following, I recommend that you ask them to like the post and tag three friends who would love the prize. In my opinion, there's no point in asking for a share. These rarely pop up on feeds now, and you can't share on Instagram anyway unless you're doing it to a story. And if they haven't added an additional caption once they click to share... So you know how you can write a little blurb before you post the share.... a lot of people won't actually see this. So people tend to not read competition posts super closely and end up sharing anyway because that's kind of what we've been conditioned to do. So you'll get them as a bonus regardless.

So now that you've got your image and your copy, post this directly to your Facebook page and pin it to the top of your page. You've got two options here. You can use Instagram to either drive people to the post on Facebook, or you can run the competition on an Instagram post as well. I actually like to have it going on both, and I use the tactic of, "Head over to my Facebook page to enter again." This gives people the chance to enter twice and follow you on both Instagram and Facebook. That means that if they use their behavior changes when it comes to social media consumption, you can still reach them on the other platform. So if you're doing this, make sure you change the link in your bio on Instagram to the Facebook competition post. To get the exact URL for the competition post on Facebook, click on the date of the post and it will open a new window, which you can then grab that URL from.

Step six. Go and share this on your Instagram stories to promote it. So I think a lot of people think that you can just post in one spot and people are going to see it. No. Post on your stories multiple times, and make sure that you're sharing across all platforms. Send it out to your newsletter list. Have it in your brick and mortar store, if you've got one. Share it everywhere. So what I want you to do once you've actually posted this competition is grab the link to the post and ask your friends and family to go and engage with it to enter. This will actually kick-start the engagement and add some social proof to the post. No one likes to be that first person writing a comment on a post. You feel like a bit of a weirdo. Once you've got some engagement on it, go ahead and boost and promote the posts on Instagram and Facebook. Around $20 across one week should be plenty to kick that engagement up a notch and get those entries and page likes and follows rolling in.

Now this is a really important step. For anyone that likes the post but doesn't actually like your page on Facebook, you can then go through the list and invite them to like your page. Super, super quick win. And you can do this for all of your posts. So often people forget it. So once the competition is over, randomly select the winner and announce it. You'll actually see a massive spike in followers, but the success of this really does come down to the prize that you're offering in your ad targeting.

Okay, so moving onto my next tip on how to get your page following started. Draw upon your existing contacts. When it comes to anything social media related, I always say draw upon your existing clientele. And here's what this can actually look like. Putting signs up within your brick and mortar business, offering a discount for anyone who checks in or tags you on Instagram stories. Have your hashtags and Instagram handle on this sign. Better yet, make your venue totally Instagram-able so that people are drawn to sharing and posting the content. Make sure if you do have people doing this, repost the content and follow and engage with these customers. It's a great way to continue to build that relationship and brand loyalty.

If you're an online store, how about a cute postcard with these details on there? So that goes into every delivery and it encourages them to share. It may sound like really obvious, but sometimes people just need that prompt to post on social media. And I always like to say that social media is just like word of mouth, but on steroids, right? Start with those existing relationships and continue to build them and it will spread from there. It's all about relationships when it comes to marketing. Do you have an email list, a newsletter full of contacts that you're not really using? Find them on Instagram and follow them as your business page. Send them an email with some form of incentive following you on social media, and a direct link to your pages to get them following you on socials as well.

So it's step three, and this is a little bit more evolved in this tactic, but it is incredibly, incredibly effective in growing a really targeted following of people that are going to be potential clients. So what I want you to do is create a really specific piece of content and advertise it to that audience that you're talking to. So Facebook is more likely to show your content to people that engage with it previously. Instead of running page-like ads, which are going to result in crappy organic reach, instead, invest in boosting your best content and showing it to your target audience. This works best when it's something super visual.

So a great image, watch the amount of text here as you'll be penalized by Facebook if it is more than 20% of the image. Or bonus points for a video and catchy copy. Avoid adding any external links and also avoid hashtags as this will reduce the effectiveness of these posts. Also avoid being salesy. Make it something informative or entertaining that your target customer will find useful or enjoyable. There's a great clip actually from Gary V that I use in my workshops, where he says that once you start creating specific content, such as five wines under $30 perfect for moms with three kids under 10, and then advertising to moms with three kids under 10, then you're playing at a whole different game. So you can be that specific, and call out your audience. Once you've created this great piece of content, post it and send it to your friends and family to like. So again, this is kick-starting that engagement on a post.

Once you've done so, boost it for three days to your specific target audience. Once those likes start rolling in on the posts from strangers, i.e. your target audience, then go ahead and invite them to like your page. Another tactic you can use is to set up a page-like ad that actually retargets anyone who visited your website. You know that these people are interested in your business because they've taken the time to peruse your site. They're not a total random, so setting up page-like ads for these people is likely to result in a low cost-per-page like and higher engagement levels, a great way to continue building that relationship with them. So there you go, guys. Three ways to build your page following, even if you're starting from scratch. Thanks for listening.