This is a guest post from Steven P. You can read the full bio at the end of the post.
Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are among the hottest social networking sites in the cyber space, and many of us, if not all, probably have an account with each of them. If you have been using these platforms, you probably know that you can’t achieve anything if the attention of your friends and followers are yet to be completely captured and nourished. Chances are, your Facebook friends are also friends to hundreds of other people; likewise your twitter and Pinterest followers are following many others. To this end, you must surely define why they should stick with you and give you the attention you deserve – so you can build your brand and business.
How Can One Do This?
Did you just ask that? Well let me start with this. Recently, I had to de-friend (unfriend?) a few of my facebook friends not because I suddenly hate them, and no, they did not refuse to return a favor either (J), but because I realized that these group of people have nothing of value to offer their friends. And worst still, my wall kept getting filled up with their auto-updates. Have a facebook friend that subscribed to one of those apps that will periodically ask you who you love most or who would save your life in life or death situations? Well, if yes, I doubt if you do enjoy that. When coupled with the fact that no personal update comes from these friends, I had no option than to let them go. I believe you get the idea now; to effectively gain the attention of your friends and followers on the social web and attract a ton of shares in return, you need to show your friends why they should stick with you and share your updates. To achieve this, you need to:
Be Consistent With Updates
Post-today-wait-a-week won’t get your feet settled on any social platform. Your friends and followers expect something from you on daily basis, especially if you offer value, and please don’t disappoint them. They want to know what’s up with your day, what happened to the marketing experiment you conducted yesterday, how the seminar/webinar went last week, is there any new thing you are trying and why, and the list goes on. Don’t bother about hyping your words; the people that get the best attention on the social web are those that speak as natural as possible – showing and proving to their audience that they are but ordinary humans like them. There must be something to share from your personal to professional lives, new challenges, decisions, findings, etc. If you enjoy sharing your personal experience, this won’t be that difficult!
Deliver Value
Well, you read how I de-friend few of my facebook friends’ recently, right? The hard truth is, one of those people might just be you if you don’t deliver value with your updates. Your audience will get bored and may be tempted to hit the de-friend button on you as well. On the other hand, if you provide them with valuable updates spanning across several topics from finance, humor, parenting, to gardening, self development, entrepreneurship, and many other interesting topics, they will be glued to you and will await your updates on daily basis.
Don’t Ignore Your Friends and Followers
I read an article sometime ago that advised readers to un-follow anybody that did not reciprocate on twitter. This highlights the anti-social nature of ignoring your friends and followers. They need to know that you care, and one way of doing this is to respond to their comments, follow them back on twitter and re-pin interesting images on their boards, etc. Additionally, to widen your social horizon, find and join interesting social groups, follow relevant companies and get yourself familiarized with other networks. This alone has gained my software blog, (on Mixbook review, promotional coupon for Pinnacle and other digital products), more exposure than I anticipated at first. It is all about exploring new places to find people that may be interested in your business or blog.
Author Bio
One of Steven’s online ventures is the Verybestsoftware.net where he provides a bunch of cheap digital product creation options like Mixbook discount news and Pinnacle discount codes. You can save a lot more with these Mixbook discounts and promotional coupon for Pinnacle
- Anti-Social Networking. Why Affiliates Should Avoid the Social Sphere.
- How to Really Tap Into the Power of Social Media. (No, it’s not just about Traffic)
- Use Buffer and Increase Your Impact on Social Media, Tweriod.
- Use Thumbnails to GRAB Attention on Twitter and Facebook
- The Two Sides of Twitter Followers Software
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I love this article, but I’m left wondering why in the world it doesn’t have a Pinterest-worthy image at the top of it? Ironic, don’t you think?
haha nice! Very clever Nikol – and good point mate!
Hey Nikol, I am glad you love this post. However, about the image, Alex decided to use the one above because it also fits into the picture (only that it is not big enough). Lol!
Great Post for attention seekers especially bloggers!
Definitely following the tips which you’ve provided can contribute significant amount of traffic to business blogs. I will definitely try and implement this techniques for my blogs.
Glad you gained something from this post, Kenny. Lets us know how the campaign goes.
I was trying to link to my site but facebook said I was spamming anyway to avoid this?
I have never heard of this happening, I guess it depends on the contents of your site, but assuming it is not gambling or porn or something i would suggest just linking to it by using the FB share options within the page itself, thus sharing links to your site via individual posts. Surely they cannot stop you doing this ?!?
I think I can agree with your article here. Creating a business brand is important, specially when you want to promote it on Facebook. Unfriending some of the isn’t rude in these cases. A clear definition on what they should stick with your is actually important, I agree. Thanks for the article!
Hey Steven, very nicely written! Great tips on increasing followers on social media sites. I completely agree with you on your point of being consistent with updates, but delivering quality and relevant content consistently is also essential. Nice read!
i really don’t use twitter and facebook, but i use pinterest and tumblr most, and i really found that being consistent and sharing quality content do make some impact.
Hey Hemu,
Nice work, that’s exactly the right approach to … well anything online really
Of this list here, the one that I focus on the most is deliver value. Instead of doing hundreds of random posts and sharing random links, I like to post less often and provide value added insights whenever I communicate to my readers. By delivering something that is valuable, it helps me connect to the audience and builds a sense of trust! -Brian.
You only have to socialize if you want to be noticed in social networking sites like Facebook, twitter and Pinterest. Keep in mind that people join these sites to socialize. Hence, you have to constantly update your profile, regularly add new post about you or your brand and communicate with other users.