How to grow your following

Growing your following on social media can be frustrating, especially when you think you’re posting quality content. If you’re struggling to grow your followers and engagement, hopefully the tips below can break you out of your slump.

 Be consistent

• Don’t take long breaks from posting
• This can be difficult in the off-seasons, but try to have at least three original posts each week

Include a visual in your posts

• Posts with images or videos gets more engagement than ones without
• Be sure to post media that is in the best quality possible
  • Posting blurry/pixelated media will decrease engagement
• Take the time to create great graphics
  • If you don’t want to pay for Photoshop or Illustrator, check out our article on cheaper or free alternatives

Use proper hashtags and in the right amount

• Hashtags help you get found by other accounts
• Only use 1-3 hashtags in your post on Twitter
• Use 5-15 hashtags in your post on Instagram
• Use hashtags sparingly on Facebook
  • No more than 1 or 2 as they can often decrease engagement

See what other successful uniform trackers are doing

• Don’t copy them but see what’s working for them and see how you can incorporated similar content on your page
• You see a lot of NBA uniform trackers just posting the images from NBA LockerVision with the uniform records
  • Take the time to create a graphic that is personalized to your account
  • Don’t just copy the same text and images as everyone else

Engage with your followers and similar accounts

• Ask questions
  • Posts with more comments and replies help with your engagement
  • Consider having a Q&A or “Ask Me Anything (AMA)”
• If someone replies back with a comment or question reply back or like the comment

Tag relevant accounts

• Using text and/or image tagging let people or brands relevant to your post know about your content
• Use with caution
  • If you tag the same account too many times they might block you or possibly report you as spam, which could lead to your account getting suspended 

Know the best time to post your content

• If you post at 10pm (especially on the west coast), what percentage of your followers will be online? Probably not a lot

Cross promote your accounts

• If you have a decent following on one platform but are struggling to grow on another, let you followers on your decent account know you’re on another platform

Consider have a contest

• Once you have at least few hundred followers post a contest
• There are many types of contests but the most common contest is picking a random person who is following you and that also retweet a specific tweet you directed them to
• Winners could receive a jersey, t-shirt or other merchandise

Understand your audience

• Who is currently following you?
• Create what your followers want to see
• Are you posting the right content?
  • If your profile name or username includes “Uniforms” or “Tracker” but you’re posting more like a team fan page, you may be limiting your audience. The uniform tracking community usually likes to support each other, but the more you move toward becoming a fan page that occasionally posts about uniforms the more likely you’ll lose that supports from the uniform tracking community. If you find that being a fan page is more in your wheelhouse, consider re-branding your account to better portray your content.