5 Best Tips for Increasing Your Followers on Facebook

First, let’s review why a business may even want followers on Facebook. This seems like a simple question for most to answer: the more followers your business has, the have the larger the “free” audience reached by the information shared on your Facebook page. Followers are free so the more you have, the wider your net of information about your business will be spread. Here are a few steps to follow that will help increase the number of followers your business has on Facebook:

1. Before you do anything else invite any and all of your friends and family to like your business’s Facebook page. This is sometimes known as a “shameless plug,” but hopefully your friends and family want to support what endeavor you are on and will follow your page. (Don’t be surprised if in the future, you receive the same request from them!) Shameless or not, this type of plug provides an ever-growing audience for you to reach through your connections. If they are following your business on Facebook and like your posts here and there, these likes will show up more frequently in their Newsfeed which, in turn, allows their friends and family to see your posts, too!

2. Grow organically by engaging your current customers. Ask your customers and clients to like your Facebook page from the moment you begin doing business with them. Clients love following business pages to be “in-the-know” of deals. Many businesses use Facebook as a spot for posting announcements and upcoming events, too. By adding the Facebook icon to your receipts, forms, and signs posted in your office or showroom, your customers will know that finding and following your business on Facebook is possible.

3. Ask your current customers to write you a review on your business’s Facebook page. As social media continues to increase in popularity, it’s becoming more and more of the one-stop shop for company research -- including ratings and reviews. Don’t be surprised if prospects spend time looking through as much of your history as they can before they decide to do business with you. The more positive things they can find about you - the better! And who better to leave positive feedback or a current testimonial for you than your customers? Don’t be afraid to ask or encourage them to do so!

4. Post content consistently on your Facebook page --- doing so gives people a reason to follow your business! A good mix of informational posts and fun, personality-revealing posts give followers something to like and/or share, which will also increase your reach. It’s also good practice to tag others in your post if appropriate. For example, if you are organizing an informational seminar on your industry, post a picture or video of the event and tag the attendees - either as individuals or as the business they are there representing. Your post will then show up on their Facebook feed. This again helps share your happenings with a larger audience and encourages them to follow your business on Facebook so they can be informed on events you may have coming up next.

5. Provide information that is usable for others. Your industry certainly has tips and tricks that you can share with the public without giving away all your trade secrets. Potential customers will find this information useful and will most likely begin following your business page after reading the article. That way, they’ll be the first to know of additional information you share that might in the future. Additionally, if the information you’re providing in intriguing, it’s expected that these new followers will like your post and possibly share it with others --- which then increases your reach even further!

There is substantial opportunity in the social media realm for engaging customers, getting your messages out to a larger audience and attracting potential, new clients depending on your business’s ability to output quality content that individuals WANT to read or watch. Through Facebook you can reach a wide audience with little to no-cost through some simple, consistent practices like Digital Advertising. With the above steps, you can help expand this audience to even larger than it may already be.