How to Grow Your Social Media Presence for Free

Boosting your social media following doesn't have to cost you a ton of money.

• 80% of global internet users have at least one social media account. 
• Learning your customer's pain points can have a significant impact on your social traffic. 
• Diversify your content and use interactive events to encourage engagement and sharing. 
• 96% percent of B2B marketers say Facebook is a valuable marketing tool. 

Do you want to grow your business social media presence without paying for ads? If so, you're not alone. Business owners and marketers agree that social media is one of the fastest ways to grow your brand presence in 2020. In fact, 96% of B2B marketers say that they consider Facebook a valuable marketing tool. 

There are more businesses on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram than ever before. As a result, some companies are using paid ads as a way to reach their target audience. The truth is, this tactic might help you see an immediate boost in your sales and traffic, but the growth is not sustainable. 

Organic growth is the best way to evolve your business because it gives you a chance to learn more about your target audience, build rapport by sharing valuable content, and turn visitors into lifelong customers. 

We are going to take a look at several ways you can expand your organic reach using your social media profiles. These tricks will help you build credibility in your industry and improve your business through gradual, consistent growth. 

Align your brand with consumer pain points

First, you have to make sure your products and marketing material aligns with the pain points of your target audience. If your goal is to sell a product without using paid ads, your brand message needs to be crystal clear. When someone stumbles across your profile or sees that their friend shared one of your posts, will they know the purpose of your product or brand?

The key to reaching your target audience is understanding the problems they are facing and creating content that is designed to resolve their pain points. For instance, if you started a business that specialized in helping online companies with email marketing, you would want to regularly publish content that tackles the struggles of novice email marketers. 

The best way to create content and posts that hit on the pain points of your target audience is by researching what they are saying online. Look in Facebook groups and on trending Twitter hashtags to see what kind of issues people are facing, and use that as a reference for your future posts. 

Alternatively, you can conduct a poll and ask for customer feedback on your profile. Ask users to talk about the most significant struggle they face in your industry and take notes. Once you have compiled enough data, you can start planning your content marketing strategy around their feedback.

Diversify your content

Believe it or not, 80% of global internet users have at least one social media profile. This diverse audience has distinct tastes in the kinds of content they consume. Some people love watching videos, others like the visual clarity of an infographic, and there's another demographic that prefers text-based content. 

If you want people to discover your brand, you have to create content that caters to all of these different types of consumers. One trick that many marketers are using is called content repurposing. For example, they take a blog post and create a video that relays the same information and publish the video on platforms like YouTube. Even though the information is the same, this difference in media will pull in a broader audience. Research shows that about 45% of marketers plan on using YouTube as a content distribution platform in the coming year. 

Encourage engagement and sharing 

There's nothing that will help you spread brand awareness like consumer engagement. When people share your content, comment on posts, or write a comment about their experience with your company, they are starting the process of engaging with your brand. It's up to you to keep them interested by interacting with the community. 

For instance, you could create an ask me anything (AMA) video. AMAs are typically videos and hosted by the business owner or a social media marketer. Use this time as an opportunity to talk to the people that love your brand and want a better understanding of the team behind the business. 

Not only are AMAs a great way to keep consumers engaged in your brand, but it's also an excellent resource for learning about customer pain points. Once you have learned their pain points in the first tip we mentioned, you have to keep your eyes out for changes in consumer behavior, such as a new interest in a sub-niche. 

Giveaways are also a powerful way to encourage new visitors to follow your page and get more social shares. Typically, online contests have a simple prize like an Amazon gift card or a sample of your product, but you have to tweak the rules for maximum engagement. You could create a rule where followers have to share your post and tag three friends to enter, which encourages organic growth and spreads brand awareness. 

Once you pick a winner, you can send a small discount to everyone that participated in the event. If you managed to attract your target audience, they will likely take advantage of that coupon and follow your brand on social media.

Build social proof 

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people are more likely to show interest in something if they see other people enjoying the same thing. There are countless ways you can showcase social proof on your website, but it's equally vital that you build proof on your business profiles. New consumers should feel like they can trust you after landing on your social media profile and having strong social proof can bridge the gap. 

One of the most common forms of social proof is user reviews. If someone leaves you a favorable review and tags you on Twitter, make sure you retweet that post to your followers. You can take it a step further and share that tweet across all of your social media platforms. When a new user finds your profile, this positive review could encourage them to dig a little deeper into what you do. 

Don't forget to respond to the person who left you a review, and you can even send them a coupon code for sharing their feedback. As your business grows, you'll find that the best customers are also brand ambassadors. These people will openly tell their friends and family about your product or service, which contributes to growing your brand. You can multiply the effect of this tactic by fining an influencer on Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube that found your product and found value in their purchase. 

Social media marketing is here to stay. Online businesses are popping up all over the world and fighting for the attention of the consumers that spend their time on their social media accounts. The result is a flood of ads that cause the average person to glaze over the promotion. If you want to see steady and reliable growth, make sure you build organic traffic over paid advertisements.