Establishing a strategic social media following is essential to building a strong digital presence. Following accounts should be done through a networking perspective to build relationships within your industry.
Benefits of a Strategic Social Media Follow Strategy
1. Lets the accounts you are following know you exist on that platform.
2. Draws immediate attention to your profiles and demonstrates your interest in their account.
3. Encourages reciprocal behavior.
Quality over quantity
Rather than focus on building a large, indiscriminate follower base, focus on strategically following industry-related accounts and thought leaders that have maximized follower ROI. This will help refine your algorithms and keep the most desired content visible in your newsfeed - helping you stay abreast of news most important to your goals.
PRO-Tip: Keep this in mind. Who you follow is a reflection of you, who you deem to be your peers and want to be associated with, and how you want to be perceived.
Intentionally work your way up the ladder
Start by researching and creating a list of target accounts you wish to follow. Then rank them from lowest priority to highest priority. Begin following the accounts on your list starting with the lowest priority targets and working your way up. This will incrementally build your follow clout. The goal is to encourage reciprocal behavior and get these accounts to follow you as well. If the accounts you are following review your account and recognize your community – they will be more likely to click the follow button.
PRO-Tip: Only follow a few new accounts at a time. If you follow too many at once, you increase your risk of being flagged as a spammer.
Groups and communities
Joining and interacting in very specific industry-related groups on Facebook and LinkedIn create exposure and expand your network. Pay attention to and follow relevant hashtags used within these groups, and incorporate those into your social messaging as frequently as possible.
Follow other internal/external executives, relevant companies, industry thought leaders and influencers
As you build your community of followers, you’ll discover others in your industry not only share the same audiences, but are also competing with you for their attention. Take note of who other prominent accounts are following, and who is following them. Engaging with accounts in this way will further connect you and help you tap into their established community of followers.
Research and compare
Check out the accounts of your competition and allied organizations in your industry. Analyze their account by seeing what is working or maybe not working for them. The accounts your friends and competitors follow might help inspire priorities for your follower list.
Engage with trade media accounts, editors and bloggers
Find professionals who promote your industry-specific news. Interacting with their social media accounts keep your account top of mind and helps build relationships with them.
Engage with academia, professors, universities, researchers and URP recipients
Strengthen and expand your relationships in this unique community that TMHNA has fostered by engaging with them on social media.
Remember to follow up and engage
Clicking the button to follow an account should not be the end of it. Be intentional about reviewing each account. Find something of note that account has published or engaged with. Then start interacting with them. A simple comment, like or post share will do. This might spark a conversation that you can carry on further, and help build rapport. It also creates an opportunity to be “visible.” Commenting or adding to a shared post is also an opportunity for you to promote a link to your own relevant content. This also helps strengthen your positioning as a thought leader.
PRO-Tip: Be mindful of commenting too much, not enough, and superficially. Find a happy medium in frequency. Too much will cause people to ignore. Too little and people won’t take notice. Most importantly, if you don’t have something of value to say – don’t say it.
Be prepared for reactive following
Don’t feel pressured to follow every account that follows you. If you get an incoming follow, review the account and vet its credentials. Is it worth you reciprocating? If so, what’s your next step to building a meaningful relationship with this new contact? Consider thanking them for the follow with a direct message or even publicly with a post tagging them. If it is a potential promoter of your cause, consider researching their recent activity, comment to them about something that aligns with your platform and maybe share some links pointing them to owned or third-party content that illustrates your position on the matter.
PRO-Tip: Limit welcoming or thanking followers publicly to only very high value targets that are worth advertising the fact that they chose to follow you.
