15 Proven Tips To Get More Social Media Followers

In today’s digital landscape, social media has become an essential tool for brands and individuals alike. As businesses seek to expand their online presence, knowing how to increase social media followers has become more important than ever. 

With billions of users across various platforms, it’s no longer just about creating content, but creating a community and engaging with your audience effectively.

Building a loyal, engaged following on social media takes time and effort, but with the right strategies in place, the results are worth it. In this blog, we will explore 15 proven tips that will help you increase your social media followers, establish a strong brand identity, and grow your presence online.

1. Craft A Purpose-Driven Brand Identity

One of the first steps in growing your social media following is defining your brand identity. Your brand’s personality should be consistent across all your social media channels, ensuring that everything from your visuals to your captions reflects your values and mission.

When considering how to increase social media followers, it’s important to create a clear and purposeful brand identity. This helps to connect emotionally with your audience. 

Take Everlane, a sustainable fashion brand, for example. They have built a loyal following by focusing on transparency and ethics in their supply chain. 

Their social media posts often feature behind-the-scenes insights and share the stories of their factory workers, which resonates deeply with their target audience.

For businesses in the B2B space, such as Airtable, a platform designed to help teams organize and automate their work processes, the focus should be on simplifying tasks. 

Airtable’s LinkedIn posts, which share tips on workflow optimization and productivity, help them engage with their 155k+ followers, reflecting the brand’s commitment to making business operations more efficient.

Key Tip:

• Keep your content aligned with your values and consistently showcase your mission. Authenticity is key to building trust and gaining followers. 

2. Deliver Value Through Exceptional Content

To truly stand out on social media, you must provide value. This doesn’t mean constantly promoting your products or services. Instead, focus on offering educational, inspiring, or entertaining content that resonates with your audience’s needs.

There are several ways to diversify the content you share to keep your followers engaged:

• Short videos (Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts) 
• Carousels and infographics 
• User-generated content (UGC) 
• Polls and quizzes 
• Blog posts and articles 
• Behind-the-scenes content 
• Interviews with influencers 
• Live videos 

By mixing content formats, you cater to different preferences and encourage more engagement. For instance, Canva uses quizzes and behind-the-scenes content on Instagram to foster conversations, while Notion leverages product memes and reels to subtly highlight their products.

Repurposing content across multiple platforms can also help you reach a broader audience. What works on Instagram may perform well on LinkedIn or Twitter too.

Key Tip:

• Diversify your content and focus on providing value, whether it’s educational, inspirational, or entertaining, to keep your audience engaged and encourage them to follow. 

3. Be Consistent

Consistency is a cornerstone of social media growth. To maintain and grow your followers, you must post regularly and stay visible. A consistent posting schedule not only keeps your content fresh but also signals to your audience that you’re active and engaged.

When planning how to increase social media followers, it’s important to analyze when your followers are most active. 

Use the insights from your social media analytics to determine optimal times for posting. With a content calendar, you can plan your posts in advance, ensuring you’re always in front of your audience at the right times.

Automation tools can help you schedule your posts, but it’s also crucial to stay flexible and interact with your community in real time. Authenticity is key—don’t let automation make your content feel impersonal.

Key Tip:

• Stick to a posting schedule, use analytics to fine-tune your timing, and use automation tools to stay consistent, but don’t forget to engage with your audience personally. 

4. Engage Proactively With Your Community

Social media is a two-way street. It’s not enough to just post content—engaging with your audience is just as important. Responding to comments, messages, and even thanking followers for their support helps create a strong sense of community.

Spend time engaging with others in your industry or niche. Like and comment on their posts, share helpful content, and provide value in groups or discussions. This not only builds relationships but also exposes you to potential followers who are interested in your content.

For instance, Wise, a financial services company, replies to every follower’s comment, whether it’s positive or a product complaint. This level of engagement helps build trust and loyalty with their audience.

Key Tip:

• Actively respond to your followers, ask for feedback, and engage with others in your industry to strengthen your community and increase your followers. 

5. Embrace Short-Form Video

Short-form video content is arguably the most engaging type of content on social media today. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts have prioritized short, snappy videos, with algorithms favoring this format for organic reach.

Short-form videos are 2.5 times more likely to get engagement, making them a powerful tool to increase your social media followers. The key to creating compelling short videos is storytelling. Grab your viewer’s attention within the first few seconds and focus on a single idea.

Popular types of short-form video content include:

• Quick tutorials or how-tos 
• Product demos 
• Behind-the-scenes glimpses 
• Employee or founder spotlights 
• User-generated content 
• Influencer takeovers 

A great example is West Elm, a home decor brand that shares short videos offering styling tips and DIY ideas. Their videos are entertaining, informative, and subtly promote their products, increasing engagement without feeling like a hard sell.

Key Tip:

• Leverage short-form video content to increase engagement and visibility, and keep it authentic and entertaining rather than focusing too heavily on sales. 

6. Optimize For Search & Discoverability

Social SEO is essential for increasing your visibility and helping new people discover your content. By using relevant keywords in your posts, captions, hashtags, and profile bios, you can make it easier for people to find your content.

For visual platforms like Instagram and TikTok, hashtags are crucial. For more text-heavy platforms like LinkedIn, focus on including keywords in your posts and profiles. Social media platforms are becoming search engines in their own right, so optimizing your content can help you reach new audiences.

In addition to keywords, consider:

• Completing your profile with relevant information. 
• Using alt text for your images. 
• Adding location tags. 
• Encouraging user engagement through likes, comments, and shares. 

Key Tip:

• Focus on social SEO by using keywords, hashtags, and alt text to make your content discoverable and increase your social media followers. 

7. Encourage User-Generated Content (UGC)

User-generated content (UGC) is content created by your followers or customers that showcases your brand, products, or services. UGC serves as social proof, showing potential followers that real people enjoy and trust your brand.

Encourage your followers to create and share content by:

• Creating branded hashtags. 
• Running contests or giveaways that require sharing user-generated content. 
• Offering rewards for reviews or content shares. 

Airbnb’s #AirbnbExperiences hashtag is a perfect example of how UGC can help build a brand. Airbnb encourages users to share photos and stories from their unique stays, which they repost to showcase the authenticity of their offerings.

Key Tip:

• Encourage and share user-generated content to build trust, increase engagement, and provide fresh content for your feed. 

8. Collaborate With Aligned Partners

Collaborating with influencers and brands that share your values and target audience can significantly help you increase social media followers. By partnering with individuals or brands whose followers align with your target audience, you can reach new people and build credibility.

There are many ways to collaborate, including:

• Product exchanges or giveaways. 
• Joint social media campaigns. 
• Co-branded content, like videos or blog posts. 
• Affiliate programs or discount codes. 

When partnering with influencers, ensure their engagement rates and audience demographics align with your brand. A partnership with the right influencer can introduce your brand to a large, relevant audience.

Key Tip:

• Find aligned partners and influencers who can help introduce your brand to new, relevant audiences to increase your followers. 

9. Offer Exclusive Value To Followers

One way to incentivize people to follow you is by offering exclusive perks. When users know they’ll receive something special for being a follower, they’re more likely to click that follow button.

Exclusive offers could include:

• Early access to product launches. 
• Special discounts. 
• Exclusive content like guides, templates, or webinars. 
• Giveaways and contests for followers only. 

Slack does this well by offering valuable tips, product updates, and sneak peeks to its followers, which drives excitement and increases engagement.

Key Tip:

• Offer exclusive value to your followers through discounts, early access, or special content to encourage more people to follow. 

10. Incorporate Social Media Advertising

While organic strategies are essential, social media advertising can speed up your growth by putting your content in front of a wider audience. Ads allow you to target specific demographics, helping you reach people who are most likely to be interested in your brand.

To get started with ads:

• Create ads that focus on brand awareness, like Facebook’s “Brand Awareness” campaigns. 
• Use lookalike audiences to target users similar to your existing followers. 
• Retarget users who have already engaged with your organic content. 

Key Tip:

• Use paid social media advertising to accelerate your follower growth and increase brand visibility. 

11. Prioritize Social Listening

Social listening is the practice of monitoring your audience’s conversations about your brand, products, or industry. By paying attention to comments, mentions, and relevant hashtags, you can learn more about your audience and engage with them more effectively.

By responding thoughtfully to feedback and participating in industry conversations, you can strengthen your relationship with your audience and attract new followers.

Key Tip:

• Engage with your community by listening to their feedback, addressing concerns, and participating in relevant conversations to foster loyalty and attract new followers. 

12. Seize Timely Trends & Events

Capitalizing on trends and events is a great way to get noticed on social media. Participating in trending conversations or posting about timely events can help you gain visibility, as users tend to engage more with current topics.

Be mindful of trends that align with your brand’s identity and target audience. A well-timed post can significantly increase your reach and attract new followers.

Key Tip:

• Participate in timely trends and events that align with your brand’s identity to increase visibility and engagement. 

13. Embrace New Platforms & Features

Exploring new platforms and features can help you stay ahead of the curve and attract fresh followers. Early adoption of emerging platforms or features often gives brands a competitive edge.

For example, Shopify’s early adoption of TikTok Shop helped them reach a new audience and drive sales through social commerce.

Key Tip:

• Stay on top of new platforms and features, and consider integrating them into your strategy to reach new audiences and increase followers. 

14. Build Exclusive Communities

Creating private communities for your most loyal followers helps deepen relationships and encourages engagement. Whether it’s a private Facebook group, a Slack workspace, or a Discord channel, these spaces provide your followers with a sense of belonging and exclusivity.

Exclusive communities also allow for focused conversations and give you an opportunity to directly engage with your most dedicated fans.

Key Tip:

• Build exclusive communities where followers can engage more closely with your brand, providing them with special access and content to strengthen their loyalty. 

15. Analyze & Refine Your Strategy

The final step in growing your social media following is consistently tracking and refining your strategy. Use analytics tools to monitor key metrics such as engagement rates, follower growth, and content performance.

By analyzing what works and what doesn’t, you can optimize your content and approach for better results.

Key Tip:

• Regularly analyze your performance and adjust your strategy based on insights to improve your content and grow your followers. 

Conclusion

Building a strong social media presence requires more than just posting content—it’s about creating a community, offering value, and engaging with your audience authentically.

By implementing these 15 proven tips, you’ll be on your way to increasing your social media followers, boosting your brand visibility, and establishing a loyal, engaged audience.

Keep testing new strategies, stay consistent, and always listen to your community to ensure long-term success on social media.