Stand out from the crowd
One of the biggest challenges for brands trying to gain a firm footing on social media is rising above the sea of tweets, posts, snaps, stories and more that are added to the great swirling social mediasphere every day with something original. Businesses must offer a tangible reason for people to follow them. And what’s more, with so many others vying for attention by swamping timelines all around the world, that reason has got to be better than everyone else’s. As your first step, it’s worth taking time to think hard about what distinguishes you, and how that can translate into an offering that social media users can’t do without.
Comment on topical trends
Many will know about the runaway success of Oreo’s iconic reactive post during the 2013 Superbowl. In the midst of a power outage inside the arena, the landmark moment in real-time marketing racked up over 15,000 retweets with some quick thinking and a speedy deployment of a well-thought-out caption: “You can still dunk in the dark”. It’s not easy and you can’t force it, but a reactive post during a major event or cultural moment can take your reach to different heights. One effective route you can try is posting in the comments on rapidly escalating posts with a unique take, putting you in front of a big new audience who are interacting with that post.
Paid promotion
If you want to scale quickly and have some budget to set aside for paid promotion, it can reap big rewards. Promoting your page on social media can be very effective when detailed targeting options are implemented and your promotion is based on some strong creative. For getting your page out there on a large scale and with fairly guaranteed results, there are few better options. Just make sure to keep an eye on how the promotion is delivering to see how you can optimise it.
Retweet and follow competitions on Twitter
Competitions can sometimes attract a dedicated brand of Twitter user who are out to win any prize that’s going: there’s a big tribe of ‘compers’ out there who are ready to pounce at any hour of the day. But if you choose a giveaway that’s relevant to the type of audience you want to attract and it’s accompanied by an eye-catching graphic, you can pull in huge numbers of valuable new followers. If you are looking to attract keen sports gamers, offer up some FIFA Coins. Think your content will resonate with stat-hungry football obsessives? Give away a copy of the latest Football Manager game. A final tip: add #win to your competition post to reach a giant audience on this very popular hashtag. Competitions that we have run for our clients have sometimes doubled their following in one hit.
Partner up
Sometimes it pays to ask for help: on social media, two are more powerful than one. Get in touch with a similarly-minded account and ask them if they’d be interested in a mutually beneficial partnership. Take your retweet and follow competition for example. If a partner with a large following promotes your competition (you could return the favour down the line), you could be onto a winner. Cross promotion is an easy way to tap into large audiences quickly: if you find a suitable partner, it could be the start of a beautiful friendship.
