5 Ways to Achieve Organic Growth Across Various Social Media Platforms
Going organic is all the rage these days with people making a variety of adjustments to their lifestyle; what they eat, what skin care products they use, and even how they use their social platforms. In the increasingly artificial age of social media, it can be challenging to keep up with accounts that gain traction through inorganic means, but not impossible. Whether you’re looking to increase engagement on a personal account or a professional page, these five tips and tricks will help ensure your growth is achieved organically.
1. Get to Know Your Audience
The first step toward increasing engagement is understanding the viewers that will consume the content you post. Data sources like Facebook Audience Insights and Pew Research Center can provide valuable information, including what types of posts perform the best. Pulling analytics about your audience allows you to cater your posts directly to your viewers, which will increase overall engagement on yours or your company’s profile.
It is also important to keep track of what format works best on each individual social media platform. An intriguing graphic could draw in your audience on Instagram but be overlooked on Twitter. Each platform has a specific algorithm, and in order to achieve organic growth you have to post based on those guidelines.
This platform is a bit difficult because it is so ad-driven, but a creative caption or the integration of a short video can keep viewers engaged. Keeping track of how well posts with photos or videos perform, as opposed to text only, will help you determine what style of posting is most effective for your business. Asking questions in the post can also increase traffic because a “call-to-action” brings people into the conversation and gives them an opportunity to voice their opinion.
With Instagram, a vital tool to utilize is the Explore Page, which gives your profile more visibility from users who do not follow your account. There isn’t a single surefire way to get your account on the trending pages, but there are small things that can help. For instance, your username should be short and simple so that users can view it once and remember it well enough to search your account again. Your username should also reflect your brand and be relevant to the industry you are representing.
Your username should also reflect your brand and be relevant to the industry you are representing.
Another easy way to entice followers is an intriguing bio that is under 150 characters explaining who you are and what you do. On the app, there is an option to include one link in your bio — let that be to an official company website, portfolio, or any webpage you deem essential enough that you want potential followers to view. Lastly, integrate a hashtag that is industry related to increase the chances of your profile appearing on the “Explore” pages of people in your field.
Twitter is heavy on engagement, by liking and interacting with various accounts and posts you are more likely to appear on the feed of your followers. Consistency is more important than frequency on this platform, having an allotted time every few days to tweet from your own account, as well as interacting with other accounts within your industry, will aid in your organic growth.
2. Keep Your Friends Close, and Your Competitors Closer
By tracking the activity of other companies in your field of work you can gain a better understanding of how consumers respond to posts without subjecting your own page to being the guinea pig. Monitoring what trends your competitors have been posting, or accounts they’ve shared can provide additional information you otherwise wouldn’t have access to.
By utilizing the information you’ve gained from your competitors, your business can stay ahead of the curve and remain relevant. Having access to what platforms your competition is spending their time on, what accounts they follow, and who follows them will give you insight to what the recipe for success is, and how to replicate it on your own network. Each social media platform has its own system for tracking other users and can be essential to your success on those sites. On Facebook you can add your competitors to your “Pages to Watch” section of insights to monitor their activity. On Twitter you can create a “list” to keep track of your competition’s likes and posts as well as things they’ve retweeted. Even LinkedIn has a competitor analysis tool to track other users in your industry. For a more in-depth analysis you could bring in a third-party social listening tool like Sprout Social or HubSpot to know the intricacies of your competitor’s social media plan. Regardless of what method you choose, keeping a close eye on your opponents is a strategic gameplan when it comes to organically growing your social media.
3. Use Hashtags Effectively
It is crucial to use hashtags on all social media posts as a way to not only integrate your account into a community of similar users, but also to expand your reach beyond your followers. Hashtags are links to community pages with posts from all different types of users, therefore broadening your potential audience. However, the danger in hashtags is overusing them, which defeats the purpose of linking your post to a small audience and instead allows your post to be drowned out by everyone else band wagoning on a trending hashtag. Use ones that relate to both the post, and your field of work to better cater to your viewers. In search of great hashtags to use on Twitter or Instagram? Try this free tool from Hashtagify.
4. Post Evergreen Content
The internet lives forever, so let’s give our posts the same lifespan. Evergreen content means posting images, graphics, or information that has no expiration date, and is therefore relevant at whatever time the viewer sees it. Having content that is specific to a certain event or campaign is of course acceptable but breaking up your feed with industry related memes or educational posts can help keep your profile engaging for first-time or returning viewers. Making posts that are too niche, or time-specific, limits your options to a one-time use with no guarantee your audience will respond well to it. Having a plethora of evergreen content gives you the opportunity to evolve with each post, without going extinct.
5. Know When to Post
There are optimal times to post on each individual social media platform, varying in both time of day, and day of the week. Instagram experiences the most user traffic on Monday or Thursday from 6 to 9 pm, the lowest engagement is recorded on Sundays or between 3 to 4 pm any day. Facebook varies slightly with high user activity on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 to 6 pm. Twitter’s optimal posting hours are from 6 to 9 pm daily, while LinkedIn’s target time to post is 3 to 5 pm on Wednesdays.
These recommendations are for times when there is the most user activity on a certain app, the downside to this is its information anyone can easily access, and therefore abuse. If everyone is attempting to get the most traction on their post, then the feed is going to be flooded with content.
How do you prevent your post from drowning in all that noise?
Post during the slow hours. It seems simple enough, and also goes against what the typical social media manager might tell you, but in an effort to make your post stand out you have to be unique. People are on their devices all throughout the day, and the statistics above are guidelines to have social media behaviors, not the users themselves. Posting occasionally during the slow hours gives your account more face time with users who are active on obscure times of the day, widening the reach your post could have.
Conclusion
Understanding your target audience is the key takeaway in growing your social media platforms. Knowing who they are, what they are interested in, and what they respond well to makes all the difference. If you look at your followers, or the people who view your page, as individuals as opposed to numbers, they will be easier to connect with, and your follower count will increase organically.
Looking to stay ahead of social media trends so your brand can be at the top of its game? Appleton is an award-winning, full-service digital marketing and advertising agency located in Orlando, Florida. Appleton works with local, national and international clients to deliver custom content, persuasive online ads and expertly crafted campaigns. By implementing valuable and shareable digital content strategies, Appleton can create the perfect social and digital marketing experience for your brand and audience. Your internet advertising goals are worth a conversation: contact us at 407-246-0092 or info@appletoncreative.com.
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