In 2023, the social user base reached new heights, with the total number of active social users worldwide reaching 48800 million, or 60 percent of the world's population6%。
How can brands grow their social presence and reach this expanding audience base? We've summarized 10 strategic suggestions for optimizing the growth of overseas social** in 2024.
What is social growth?
Social growth is an umbrella term that refers to all kinds of social success. How you define social growth depends on your organization's most important goals and metrics. Some of the most common ways to measure social growth include:
Social fan growth: The number of new followers gained over a certain period of time.
Engagement rate: The proportion of people who actually interact with the content among the people who see it.
Traffic from social accounts: The number of visits to you through social posts or social avatar links.
Social account conversions: The number of people who made a purchase, subscribed to a newsletter, or any other conversion you want to measure after coming to you via a social link.
Social commerce sales: The total amount of revenue generated from social commerce activity through social accounts.
10 Effective Social** Growth Strategies.
1.Be active on platforms that your target audience loves.
You can create as many (or as fewer) social accounts as you want. But your audience will only connect with you on social networks that they already actively use. You need to put your brand where they can easily find it, rather than expecting them to come and find you on their own initiative.
There are two main points in this strategy:
Your target audience.
The most popular social platform in this user base.
To achieve effective organic social** growth, you need to understand these two points.
If you're not sure who your target audience is, this is where you need to start. Once you know the target audience you want to reach on social**, you can do a deeper segment by creating audience people.
Once you understand who you want to connect with on social, you can do your research to make sure you can find them. Keep in mind that different segments of your audience may be primarily active on different social ***. Or, people may follow you on multiple platforms but expect different ways to interact with each platform. This means that you need to optimize different content for each platform.
2.Establish a consistent release schedule.
Human nature dictates that people have stable expectations of things they are used to. If you post social content on a consistent schedule, your audience will know when they can expect your new content to appear in their social feeds.
This consistency makes it easier for newcomers who have just discovered your content through search or suggestions to click the "Follow" button. Conversely, if the algorithm doesn't show your new content directly to your followers' feeds, this consistency will also encourage fans to actively seek out new content in your profile picture.
In the same way that you choose which platform to post on based on your audience's preferences, you need to set a posting schedule that allows your audience's socially active time to point you in the direction.
Posting content at a time when your audience is most likely to go online using social can increase your chances of early engagement with your content, which is a key value signal for almost all social algorithms.
3.Make short**.
Short, such as Instagram Reels and TikTok, has become a key form of content in social growth. Producing this type of content is the easiest way to grow your social following. Why? Because they're most likely to reach people who aren't following you yet.
Instagram has made it clear that "most of the content in Reels** is coming from accounts you don't follow." Similarly, Facebook describes Reels as "content from creators you might be interested in that you may not follow." TikTok is designed to show users what they'll be interested in, not just the accounts they're already following.
Your short** content needs to align with your overall social strategy and brand style.
4.Focus on social SEO
We've mentioned the importance of algorithms a few times before. But when you're focused on social fan growth, social search engine optimization (SEO) can be even more important.
Social SEO helps the social platform's built-in search features better understand the topic of your content by using SEO strategies such as keyword research, copywriting, and effective text descriptions to get your content in front of users who are actively searching for similar content.
That said, people who actively search for similar content are more likely to find you, and you can attract more new eyeballs off the platform with your social content.
5.Engage with your audience.
Remember, social is more than just a simple content broadcasting platform. Your audience certainly wants to see your content. But they also want to engage with your brand (or creator) itself.
If you want to expand your social presence, you must be diligent in responding to comments, hashtags, direct messages, and mentions. It's not optional! If you ignore your audience, they won't continue to follow you. As a result, not responding to messages and comments can have a direct impact on the effectiveness of social growth.
6.Focus on accounts that are performing well in the same field.
We've talked about the importance of audience engagement before, and it's just as critical to research the industry. Here, you're looking for an account that already has a good performance in your field.
They may be your competitors, but they can also be potential partners. Regardless, researching these accounts can give you insight into what strategies in your industry have been proven to work.
In addition to strategic inspiration, you can also increase traffic and attention by engaging with each other. If a traffic account isn't your direct competitor, try liking and commenting sincerely. Getting their attention is likely to get a response or attention.
The connection between accounts is a powerful signal for the social ** algorithm. So, connecting with relevant accounts can help increase the chances of your content being featured as a recommendation by non-followers.
7.Collaborate with content creators.
This is another important strategy for growing your audience. By partnering with relevant content creators, you can tap into their already established audience base.
When your focus is on social** growth, it's important to choose your creator partners carefully. Their audience must be a good match for the target audience you're trying to create. After all, an influx of new followers will only help your overall growth strategy if they genuinely want to stay following you.
Again, hashtags and keyword searches are a great place to start. You can also see which other accounts your existing audience is following to help you identify the right people to work with.
8.Optimize your profile and bio.
It's true that creating content is the more exhilarating part of socializing. But building a strong bio and homepage is also crucial for social** growth. Before investing too much in other growth strategies, make sure that these two parts are already well done.
There are two reasons for this. First, your profile and bio show potential new followers who you are, where you're headed, and why they should follow you.
Second, the elements included in your profile and bio provide opportunities for people to discover your account. Most of the fields in your social profile are searchable and may be indexed into regular search engines as well as social search results.
A profile that's optimized for your target keywords can direct people to your social accounts before they even open a specific social platform.
Finally, your profile also provides the opportunity to direct people to follow you through the connected components of social platforms, such as hashtags and geotags. Address information can help algorithms match your content with users in your local area.
9.Build a unique brand identity.
Have we emphasized enough times the importance of content consistency for social growth? Again, consistency applies to your brand identity, not just the release schedule.
We've just talked about how profiles can drive traffic from beyond social. If they scroll down and see a coherent and consistent content in the resource bar, it's easier to understand where you're located and generate a desire to keep paying attention.
It's also important to have a clearly recognizable style when your content appears in your fans' streams. If your content is highly consistent in layout, visual, and linguistic style, it's easier for fans to recognize your posts at a glance across a variety of sponsored and recommended content.
10.Try social ads.
While the organic growth strategies discussed earlier are essential for building a strong social presence over time, social advertising can quickly increase your volume in front of a whole new audience, which can boost your growth rate.
Most social platforms allow you to choose a growth-oriented advertising objective. Focusing on advertising objectives such as "volume", "engagement" and "consideration" can drive growth through a social advertising strategy.
Planning a social campaign may seem daunting, but getting started is simple. The easiest way to do this is to allocate some budget to organic content that has already met its desired growth goals and turn them into social ads.