How to grow your following - organically! The Facebook Edit.

It is widely understood that you need to spend money to make money, and this is also true for Facebook. If you use paid social media for advertising, your advert will reach more people which invariably will cause your following to increase. However, smaller businesses don’t always have the money to continually carry out paid social media, so how can you continue to grow your following on this platform? Continue reading to find out!

Join Groups

Facebook is a really great place to meet new people and engage with them. Join Facebook groups that really speak to your brand and allows your brand to contribute relevant conversations within them. By staying true to your brand’s values and choosing relevant groups will mean that you will be engaging with your target audience. Naturally, your page will gain more followers as you engage with new people and new communities.

Other Social Media Platforms

If you find that you get more engagement and have more followers on your Instagram page or your Twitter page for example, then why not let them know that you also have a Facebook page? Don’t continually remind people, but just remind them from time to time.

Also utilise your website, your email marketing and other marketing materials that you produce. On your website, make sure you’ve got the Facebook icon linked to your Facebook page so that website visitors can easily find your Facebook page. At the bottom of your email campaigns, also include a link to your Facebook page. Wherever possible on your other marketing materials, much like you would always include your contact details, also add your social media handles. This lets customers know that you are on social media and can access your brand from that avenue too.

Engage

Don’t forget much like you want people to engage with your content, it’s just as important for you to engage with other people’s content too. By commenting and liking other people’s posts will mean that your brand will be put in front of their followers and anyone else that engages with that post. This not only increases your brand awareness (always important!) but you’ll garner new follows too. Try and ensure that the posts that you are engaging with, again, are relevant to your brand as you’ll be more likely to gain more follows if they already have an interest in a brand similar to yours.

Follow Brands

Facebook will often suggest other Business Pages for you to follow based on the other pages you follow. Keep tabs on these and check out any that you think are relevant to your brand. Sometimes it’s not always about following brands in the same industry as you – you may also want to consider other brands in your local area. If you’re a small business, follow other small businesses to show your support. By following these brands, you’re likely to get a follow back, but the more connections you make, the better your page will be suggested to other brands and followers.

Post Regularly & At The Right Time

Make full use of your Insights. Find out when the majority of your audience are online and schedule and/or post at this time. If you’re posting at peak times more of your followers will see your content. Be mindful to only post once a day, as accounts that post more than this commonly see unfollows as they are viewed as being too “spammy”.

In order to grow your following, it’s important to post regularly and consistently. Aim for once a day or every other day as a minimum. Growing your following is built on an element of trust. People will follow you if they trust you and want to see your content. So, if you are only posting once a week, people will be less likely to trust you and won’t follow you.

Collaboration Giveaway

The final method for growing your Facebook organically is to collaborate with another brand and offer a giveaway. Collaborations are a fab way to get your brand in front of another audience and also offers a way for both brands to benefit. By coming together and offering a giveaway means that you can state the rules for entering. Often, these terms will include following both brands that are put of the collaboration so it’s a fab way to gain lots of followers in a short space of time! Don’t forget, you’ll want to make sure the brand you’ll collaborating with is in line with your brand’s values so as not to confuse your customers.

So, once you’ve gained all these new followers, make sure you continue to post regularly and at optimal times. Continue engaging with brands and your customers and you’ll be on your way!