Further, when it comes to achieving value in your marketing efforts, it’s hard to beat organic (i.e., non-paid) social media growth. After all, developing an organic following on social media takes a minimal toll on your marketing budget (though it does require a substantial investment of time and effort), and it tends to yield genuine connections with a community of consumers with an inherent interest in your brand and its offerings.
8 ways to achieve organic social media growth
Is your outdoor brand looking for ways to organically grow its reach, its number of followers and the amount of consumer engagement it receives on its social media channels? Consider employing the following eight tactics to elevate your brand’s organic social media strategy:
1. Choose the right channel(s)
With plenty of options to choose from on today’s social media landscape, the best social channel(s) to employ for your business will depend largely on your brand, the audience you’re looking to reach and your specific goals. (And of course, it can’t hurt for your brand to have a consistent presence on multiple social platforms, along with different primary goals for each.) The most popular social platforms used by businesses today each offer their own advantages, and to choose the right platform(s) for your business, you’ll want to understand all of them. For some background on all of today’s leading social platforms and what each does best, check out our sister agency Brandon’s blog article titled “All Social Platforms Are Not Created Equal — Which Ones Are Right for Your Business?”
2. Build a firm foundation
Whichever social platform(s) you choose to use for your business, you’ll want to take a few initial steps to set yourself up for success. First, make sure that your brand’s profile on any platform(s) you choose to use is complete and up to date with accurate and relevant information provided in categories such as your business location, business hours, website address, phone number, business description, etc. Also, ensure that your brand bio is compellingly written and communicates your unique value proposition clearly, and that your visual identity and branding are consistent and current with up-to-date logos and recent profile pictures.
3. Post high-quality content
Of course, to attract and keep followers on your social channels, your outdoor brand will need to create and share content that captures the right consumers’ attention and provides value to those who follow you. To achieve this, strive to always keep your target audience top of mind when brainstorming and creating your brand’s social media posts, and craft posts tailored specifically to serve them. Look for ways to share content that’s informative, insightful, entertaining and/or inspiring, especially for the group of consumers you’re looking to reach.
4. Maintain a consistent posting schedule
To keep your audience engaged and your brand top of mind with its members, post your content regularly, and try to avoid lengthy stretches without any posts. (That said, be careful not to oversaturate your followers with posts, as this could quickly get annoying and won’t play well with the social platforms’ algorithms. Try to follow expert guidelines for post frequency on your platform(s) of choice.) To help ensure you have fresh and timely content on tap, consider creating and following a content calendar that maps out what and when you’ll post on the various social platforms your brand uses. And to get the highest possible exposure and engagement for your posts, put them out at the right times. (To help with all of this, consider leveraging a social media management tool such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social for your brand.)
5. Encourage engagement often
Some types of social posts prove consistently more effective than others at spurring consumer engagement such as likes, comments, shares and click-throughs. And with high engagement rates, you can reap a range of rewards. For one, you can feel encouraged that your posts are resonating with your followers when lots of people are interacting with them. Further, you’ll be gaining more exposure among consumers (thanks to the shares, likes and comments spreading to the feeds of your followers’ friends) and enjoying a boost in reach from the platforms’ algorithms. That’s because the platforms like for users to engage and spend more time on their channels, too. According to research, some of the post types that tend to garner more engagement from followers include short-form videos, images, live videos and GIFs/memes. Further, questions and polls posted on social media can inherently spur added engagement by asking for user responses, and sharing user-generated content is another popular way to attract above-normal audience attention and engagement.
6. Embrace video content
Time and again, research has shown that videos excel at capturing and keeping an online audience’s attention. In fact, it suggests that half of the users on social media prefer video over any other type of posted content, and nearly 60% of social media users will watch all of a business’s video if it’s under a minute in length. (Further, by employing the right tactics when creating your brand’s videos, you can increase the chances of them going viral and exposing your brand to broad new online audiences.) So obviously, for brands looking to grow their social media following organically, well-made videos can be a key contributor.
7. Harness the right hashtags
Hashtags were created to make it easier for social media users to find and follow posts on topics that they may find interesting or subjects that are especially relevant to them. So by employing them, your outdoor brand can expand the reach and visibility of its posts — and get its content in front of new audiences who may already have an interest in what you’re sharing. To learn more about how and when to use hashtags effectively in your social media posts, check out our sister agency Brandon’s “A #Hashtag How-To” blog article.
8. Optimize with analytical insights
Using a social media analytics tool like those available from Sprout Social, Hootsuite and HubSpot, your outdoor brand can keep an eye on how your posts are performing across all the social platforms you use. And by measuring key metrics such as reach, engagement rates and conversions, you can gain added insights about what your audience enjoys and what’s working best, then apply them to your future posts to gain even more traction. That can also further boost your social accounts’ organic growth.
Looking for expert help growing your outdoor brand’s social media following organically? Want to more consistently and creatively engage with your prospects and customers on the social platforms where they spend their time online?
The marketing pros on the social media team at TBA Outdoors can help you take your social success well beyond the “like” with services like content development, fan engagement, tracking and reporting, online reputation management, fan acquisition, and more. Further, as part of a fully integrated marketing firm, we can cover the full spectrum of your outdoor brand’s marketing needs — all in one place. Whether you’re looking for help in areas ranging from social media and branding strategy to research, analytics, creative, e-commerce, public relations, video production and more, we’ve got you covered.
To explore how we can help your outdoor brand elevate the effectiveness of its marketing campaigns and lots more, reach out to our team of outdoors-obsessed marketing pros today.
