Technology Marketing in the Digital Age: How to improve traffic and engagement on your social media platforms in 2017 (Part 1)

It’s the first question company communicators and marketers ask: “How do I get more followers on our company social media sites and drive engagement so they see our stuff and remember our brand?”

To answer this question, we’ll need to look at it from two key perspectives:

1.     Quantity: How many people are seeing what you put out there?   

2.   Quality: How good is what you’re putting out there?

In this two-part series, I’m going to break it down even further into steps that make sense. Today, we’ll discuss the numbers: how can you go about driving more people to your social media sites?

Cultivate an audience or following

You can have the best, most informative posts and content in your marketplace, but if nobody sees them it won’t do you much good. It is imperative you reach out to grow your following. You cannot simply sit back and wait for them to come to you.

It may sound like a daunting undertaking, but I assure you, its’ quite simple:

•  Locate your customers, partners and colleagues on whichever platform you’re using and follow or like them.

• Engage by commenting and reposting their content.

• Check your top B2B platforms on a regular basis to identify who your followers are. If they’re relevant follow them back.

Many will eventually notice your efforts and follow you back. I have been using these strategies, myself, for many years for my own company, and have seen great success.

Make your employees your brand advocates

In last month’s article , I discussed encouraging (and in some cases even mandating) your employees to use social media for their business communications.

The easiest way to accomplish this objective is at the time of onboarding. With each new hire, require them to become familiar with your social media platform, then ask them to Follow/Like and repost your content. Through that activity alone, your content and brand can be multiplied.

Organizations that consistently leverage employees as brand advocates report increase in reach by 1000’s of percentage points. Many use apps that can help them amplify with one click to have their company posts automatically posted to their social followers as well.

The above steps are critical components to any effective content strategy, and, frankly, often the most forgotten. Attracting followers and driving engagement takes a little bit of work, but your efforts will pay off in spades.

Next month, we’ll discuss how to drive value with your audience through informative and engaging content.