Your potential customers spend almost two and a half hours daily on social media, scrolling through news feeds and your business's ads and posts. This tempts companies like yours to leverage the opportunity and gets quality leads and conversions.
Data tells us that a business’s social media posts impact the purchase decision of approximately 78% of consumers.
The challenge here is to get relevant followers on your business account. Everything seems pretty favorable until you think about getting followers who eventually become the advocates of your business (provided they have had a great experience with you!)
Here, I will address this concern and tell you some of the most effective ways to earn local social followers.
Hashtags are the words or phrases written after this symbol '#' without any space or special characters. These, when put in any post, make it more relevant for the audience it is meant for.
Here, using the phrases or words for hashtags that are more in sync with the local community will improve the reach of your post. This will result in increasing your chances of gaining more local social followers.
Hashtags label and categorize the social content to increase the outreach.
Pro-Tip
Quality is more important than quantity. Use only relevant hashtags for your posts to make them visible to the desired audience.
Here’s a screenshot from Ritetag that you can use to find the most relevant hashtags for your Instagram posts
Read: How to Promote Your Business Locally Using Instagram
Associating with local influencers is one of the best ways to increase your brand's awareness, especially among the local audience. This happens because influencers have a loyal fan following consisting of people who take their recommendations seriously.
So, if any of the local influencers are promoting your brand, chances are their followers will likely follow you, in fact, purchase from you! This saves your time and effort, otherwise invested in creating a huge local fan base.
Pro-Tip
Make sure that your influencer's ideology matches with your brand's values for people to establish a better and deeper connection.
Have a look at how Heepsy lets you find influencers on different platforms for your social campaigns
Identify your local market and narrow down your search. Then, find specific social accounts on different platforms and send them messages about your brand and business. You can also engage with them on their posts to make them feel noticed.
Let them know that you appreciate what they are doing.
This behavior will most likely develop a connection, and ultimately, these people will follow you back. This will give you a chance to get yourself exposed in front of their followers and friends, thus expanding your visibility.
Pro-Tip
Once you have identified the relevant accounts, send a personalized message to them and sound more humane than talking only about your business.
You can use Mention to monitor and respond to your social mentions, as shown below.
Data shows that tagging locations in your posts result in approximately 79% more engagement than those without them. This gives a feeling of belonging to any native person coming across your post, and they will likely follow you.
Moreover, they can see other images of the same place in just one click, thus giving your account better exposure.
You can add to your local audience's interest in your business by showing that it has been creating an impact in their area. This will pique their curiosity in your business, thus ultimately benefiting you.
Pro-Tip
You can tag locations even when you are not physically there. But make sure that your business functions in that location. And it is on the map!
Local ads are the ads that are specifically created for the local audience by targeting the topics that they can connect with. Running local ads on social media platforms allows you to target specific people by increasing your brand's exposure in front of the relevant audience.
This contributes to building your reputation and registering your brand in your target audience's long-term memory. This is a budget-friendly way of increasing your brand awareness among relevant people. This ultimately leads to better SEO and more local social followers.
Pro-Tip
While creating a brilliant ad for your local audience, do not forget to provide a call to action button not to leave them in the middle of nowhere.
Here are a couple of screenshots from LinkedIn and Facebook Ads manager that you can use to run, track, and monitor ads on these social media platforms
Read: Social Proof: What Is It, and Why Is It Important for SEO?
People have a short attention span of 8 seconds or even less! This makes it essential for your social media accounts to be on point to capture the interest of your local audience. Here the trick is to keep your social media bios complete and updated.
Using relevant keywords here especially, location-specific will also add to the results. But do not overuse, or they will drain out the human element. Add links to your products or website to keep the visitor engaged, thus increasing the chances of them following you.
Pro-Tip
Do not be modest in your approach here, as people are looking for something extraordinary and different. Be individualistic!
You can use Rytr to create personal bios for your social media platforms, as shown below
Read: Social Media SEO
Giveaways are the competitions that the businesses organize to receive engagement on their social profiles. It is considered the easiest way to increase the social media following as one of the first conditions of participating in the contact remains this.
Giveaways also increase your brand's awareness among relevant audiences and gain popularity. When carried out with a proper strategy, these giveaways build a positive and strong relationship between you and your customers, thus creating a community.
Pro-Tip
When you are planning a giveaway, intending to improve your followers’ base, make sure to pick the rewards that interest your target audience.
Here’s how you can use Rafflepress to plan all your giveaway campaigns with ease
Social media posts that have people linked to them perform better. They also have a better reach among the relevant audience.
Tagging people also motivate them to share your social content and tag you in their future posts. This happens because getting a mention in a brand's post gives people a feeling of exclusivity.
Here, it is essential to provide value through your tags.
Do not just mention people without any relevance. It is one of the best ways to capture other's audiences without putting in much effort and resources. This holds the potential to create a significant fan base.
Pro-Tip
Ensure that the people you tag in your posts have something in common with your business to ignite their interest. Otherwise, it may create a wrong impression.
Here’s a screenshot from Social Searcher that you can use to find trends around local topics relevant to your business
Although visual content plays a significant role in gaining your visitor's attention, captions enhance it by adding context. It also mentions the details that otherwise would have been missed.
Here, you can leverage this opportunity to show the impact that your business is creating in the local area and connect with your audience on an emotional level.
This will improve your chances of gaining local followers who eventually will hold the potential to become the advocates of your business.
Pro-Tip
Always try to include a CTA in your captions to make your posts more than just entertaining. It will also help you increase the chances of converting the visitors.
Have a look at how you can use Cliché Finder to come up with unique captions that improve audience engagement
Social media listening refers to the practice of identifying what people are talking about your brand and the industry as a whole and then designing your strategy based on the insights obtained.
Here it will be relevant to limit your analysis to the local people.
This helps you create relevant posts for your target audience and bring better engagement. It will also improve your chances of gaining more local social followers. Social listening, when done right, allows you to leverage the opportunity of learning from your competitors.
Pro-Tip
Listen to the right words and phrases that are most relevant to your business, rather than going wide in your approach. Just maintain your focus.
While preparing your social media calendar, block strategic slots for posting local content. Here, you can post blogs or even cover some newsworthy stories that happened in your local area.
You can consider altering the content for your target audience to grab their attention and encourage them to engage with your posts. And, when your audience remains entertained, your chances of getting more social following increase.
Sharing local content also keeps your existing followers coming back.
Pro-Tip
Do not try to cover everything in your area to get the attention. Instead, select the topics relevant at least to your industry, if not particularly to your brand.
Have a look at these Buzzsumo results for the local search term “tattoo artists San Antonio.”
The best thing you can do to gain more local social followers is to identify your market and put maximum effort into capturing that without distraction. A dedicated and consistent effort with pre-defined success metrics will make you achieve what you desire.
Yes, it works in favor of improving your fan base. Here, the thing that may impact the result is which influencer you are collaborating with. It is recommended to get an influencer with whom people personally and emotionally connect while tapping the local market.
A local social media follower is someone who has subscribed to or followed your social accounts to receive updates about your brand. The only condition here is this person must live in the same area as the operations of your business.
When you tap the local market through social media, it builds a huge follower base consisting of people living just a short drive away from your business. This improves the chances of conversion because of the approachability.
Brice has been handling marketing projects for more than 12 years and he is providing consulting services on SEO, Social Media and PPC. He has a huge expertise in working at large corporations including Accenture Interactive & PwC Digital Services.
Tips to Choose Local SEO Agency
Common Google My Business Mistakes
Effect of Covid on Local Marketers
Video Marketing for Local Businesses
Pr Outreach for Local Businesses
Tips to Rank on Google Local 3-Pack
Metrics to Track in Local SEO Audit
SMM Benefits for Local Businesses
Local SEO Tips to Drive Foot Traffic
How Local SEO Firm Save Your Money
Local 3-Pack for Small Businesses
Content Type That Helps Local SEO
Offline Advertising Tips for Local Businesses
Tips to Handle Local Competition
Tips to Gain Quality Links for Local SEO
Promote Local Businesses Using Instagram
Increase Site Speed of Local Businesses
Do Local Businesses Need a Website
Business That Benefit From Local SEO
Technical SEO for Local Businesses
Optimize for Google Local 3-Pack
Hyperlocal Marketing for Business Growth
Tips to Promote Local Biz on Facebook
Local SEO Mistakes Moving Companies Make
Local Business Directories Benefits and Tips to Use
Blogging Tips for Local Businesses
Brice has been handling marketing projects for more than 12 years and he is providing consulting services on SEO, Social Media and PPC. He has a huge expertise in working at large corporations including Accenture Interactive & PwC Digital Services.
Tips to Choose Local SEO Agency
Common Google My Business Mistakes
Effect of Covid on Local Marketers
Video Marketing for Local Businesses
Pr Outreach for Local Businesses
Tips to Rank on Google Local 3-Pack
Metrics to Track in Local SEO Audit
SMM Benefits for Local Businesses
Local SEO Tips to Drive Foot Traffic
How Local SEO Firm Save Your Money
Local 3-Pack for Small Businesses
Content Type That Helps Local SEO
Offline Advertising Tips for Local Businesses
Tips to Handle Local Competition
Tips to Gain Quality Links for Local SEO
Promote Local Businesses Using Instagram
Increase Site Speed of Local Businesses
Do Local Businesses Need a Website
Business That Benefit From Local SEO
Technical SEO for Local Businesses
Optimize for Google Local 3-Pack
Hyperlocal Marketing for Business Growth
Tips to Promote Local Biz on Facebook
Local SEO Mistakes Moving Companies Make
Local Business Directories Benefits and Tips to Use
Blogging Tips for Local Businesses