With an elusive sundry of benefits scattered across each social media platform like gold nuggets among a riverbed—from audience engagement to heightened brand recognition and relevancy—the trick is to not only stick out among the myriad of content, but to also get over-saturated users to engage with your content. Yet like many things in the PR world, building a loyal following is easier said than done.
For example, take the recent outpouring of brand-love for the recently defunct bakery Crumbs. Whatever the reason behind its bankruptcy filing, there was an undeniably strong brand connection among consumers. Whether or not this sentiment was effectively mobilized within the social realm is another question altogether. Nevertheless, the potential for social media gold still glistens under the river's refracted light waiting to be sifted and polished.
Keeping with this spirit of utilizing social media to create an admiring audience, we asked the PR News community how to build a loyal following on social media. Content and engagement were the words of the day.
To check out the complete list of responses head on over to our Twitter page. Otherwise, here are a few standout tips.
Content
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Originality—give your followers something unique.
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Posting things that are of interest to you and your field. People are always looking for new perspectives and new ideas.
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Post informative, relevant, current, interesting messages about things you love. And people will love to read your updates.
Engagement
- If you are truly interested in your followers, they will be interested in you.
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Listen. Listen. Listen. THEN surprise and delight by engaging respectfully. If it's appropriate, humor always wins.
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Build relationships and conversations. "Following" sounds unidirectional; community is multidirectional.