4 Sweet-Smart Ways to Keep Your Social Media Fans Glued to You – For Better, or Worse.

So, you have five million followers on social media… It’s thrilling, exciting, and the numbers are great!

But hey, how about your Fans? If from a pool of five million followers, there are not about a million fans (or at the least, 10% of your followers) that are truly excited, and passionate about your brand; then, ermmm… maybe the numbers are not, that great.

A great advice for anyone using social media to promote their business or organization, especially small business owners trying to make social media work for their business, is this  — the best way to succeed on social media, is to not get hung up on the size of your audience.

Don’t get so excited about having millions of followers – yet. Focus on the Fans, who are passionate about your brand. They’ll be your most loyal customers, and the key to finding new customers.

So, how do you find or identify these loyal followers / fans in the first place? If you’re yet to find or identify them, read our article HERE.

Or, if you have identified them, how then do you nurture that group of loyal, passionate followers? Here’s how, in some sweet-smart, 4 easy ways:

#Pro-Tip 1: Make Your Content Visual, Memorable, and Easy to Digest – All the Time

Right now, every human being on social media platforms is experiencing what Ekaterina Walter termed as “Infobesity” – Information Overload – with the influx of diverse information from all the social media networks we are subscribed to.

But, here is the good news! Your business can cut through the clutter and get noticed by sharing what your audience really wants — visuals. Walter mentioned that images and videos act like shortcuts to the brain, and capture people’s attention much faster than text. Images also don’t need translation; they transcend cultural boundaries.

Also, images are super easy to create. And they are a great way to share your expertise, products and services, customer success stories, and behind-the-scenes details with your fans and followers. At the same time, you can share visuals from other experts in your industry that are interesting to your audience.

In the end – Images, Images, Images – More Images. Keep your fans charmed by your brand forever, by thrilling them with high-ended personalized images showcasing your brand’s products and genius, in a sweet-smart way. Our next upcoming post, will show you exactly how!

#Pro-Tip 2: Dazzle Your Audience with Enticing Gifts

In other words – give your fans, something they truly want. Social media strategist Andrea Vahl, suggests that giving away prizes, awards and coupons for your social media contests, is a great strategy to getting your fans and followers glued to you. Also, the prizes that you give away needs to be relevant to your business, and it has to be something they really want.

Sure, an Amazon gift card is very useful, but is that a prize that represents your business? If you’re not sure what kind of prize your audience wants, ask them! Vahl spoke about one company that surveyed their Facebook fans before launching a contest, so they knew what prize would get the most engagement.

A brand or two, that currently offer its social media followers (and customers) rewards that are related to the business, and relevant to the audience are, Uber and Taxify. These apps seldom give away codes that enable free rides to its users for a day, or sometime a code that is valid for even a whole week.

A sweet example was the SMW2018 code for getting free rides up to N2,000 on Taxify during the just concluded Social Media Week in Lagos, Nigeria. In that week alone, Taxify recorded over 1,000 new users, who were first-time subscribers to their business!

You sure can get on with this too. Try running a Facebook promotion, InstaLive contest, Twitter polls, and give away a prize, downloadable content, or a coupon. Your fans’ excitement and engagement during the contest will help spread social word-of-mouth about your business.

#Pro-Tip 3: Again, Put the Spotlight on Your Fans

When Dunkin Donuts (an American global doughnut company and coffeehouse) joined Instagram for the first time, many of its loyal customers were already on there talking about the brand, posting coffee selfies, and photos of coffee cups dressed up for Halloween.

“If there’s a strong following and a passion for our brand on that channel, it’s like a party happening without us,” said Public Relations and Social Media Manager of Duunkin, Jessica Gioglio.

Dunkin Donuts then seized the moment, created the hashtag #mydunkin to easily find fan photos, and they share them across social media. The #mydunkin posts also inspired a series of commercials in a new marketing campaign.

Create a hashtag for your business and encourage your fans to post photos about your products or services. You could stick to one network, like Instagram, or ask fans to post photos across your different networks and you can then find them using a tool like Tagboard. Share your fans’ creativity and make sure you engage with their work — comment on, like, and share their photos on your business’ social networks.

Are your social media followers sharing photos of selfies taken in T-Shirts customized by your company? Or, are they sharing reviews of services launched by your business on their social media platforms?

Seize the moment! Put the spotlight on them; and keep them glued to your brand – for life. You would have just won yourself, passionate social media evangelists for your brand, by simply engaging with their current activity about your brand, on social media. How sweet!

#Pro-Tip 4: Solve Their Problems

People turn to Pinterest to find and pin products they like, but did you know that people also use it as a search engine to find information and get inspiration for their next project?

In the end, Pinterest did not just create a platform for people to find and pin products alone, it is also a tool that solves people’s problems and thirst for new inspiration and ideas.

According to Cynthia Sanchez of Oh So Pinteresting, if you use Pinterest for your business, you can connect with customers by asking the question: Who am I trying to reach, and how can I use Pinterest to serve them?

Sanchez said the best Pinterest accounts are ones that are useful, inspirational, insightful and engaging to their followers.

If you’re using Pinterest for business, go beyond sharing your products and services, and pin things that are interesting to your audience or will empower them to solve problems. Create and pin how-to information, guides, tips, eBooks, or videos. Share curated content like infographics, blog posts, and inspirational quotes.

Overall, on whatever social media platforms your brand is engaged in, win your followers’ hearts, by being Oh, So Interesting!

Your Biggest Fans Will Help You Grow

In conclusion, if you make your social media content about your fans, they will engage with you, talk about you, and recommend you to their friends and family, who will become your next customers.

When you nurture their needs and interests, you’ll be on the path to social media success – forever!