When we’re trying to build a big following on social media, often we will ask our website visitors and customers to follow us and thereby imply that they’re doing us a favour.
“If you liked this video, then please consider liking us on Facebook – it really helps!” This is a good strategy and it can certainly lead to a few more likes and shares.
But it’s not the best strategy.
Because if you’re asking people to follow you on social media, then you’re implicitly suggesting that they’re doing you a favour and thus there’s nothing really in it for them.
To get a HUGE number of followers, you need to make them WANT to follow you.
One way you can do this is to do what we’re always taught to do as marketers: to supply value. If you’re posting useful or interesting content, then people should automatically want to follow you to see more of it.
But to go further than this, you need to suggest that following you makes someone a VIP – that they are becoming part of an exclusive club or group.
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People love to belong and they love to have things that other people can’t have. We love feeling like a part of a privileged group and this is why ‘Gold Memberships’ are so important. It’s not just about what that gold membership gets you: it’s about the status and feeling of importance and belonging that comes from it.
You can create this same kind of identity through your social media by making your brand into more than just a product and instead making it a movement. For example, you’ll find that a lot of fitness and weight loss brands will talk about themselves as ‘The New Fitness Revolution’ or something comparable. Of course people will want to sign up to that! Who wouldn’t want to tell people they’re part of a new revolution? Or to feel like they’re a part of a big movement?
And this has another amazing benefit too: you’re making people feel as though they’re taking a step closer to their goal simply by following you.
When someone makes the decision to get into shape and to look and feel healthier than ever, they will want to do something to cement that decision and to make a statement to that end. Following you is the perfect way to do this!
