Follow the Leader

“How do I get more followers on social media?” It’s a question Orange Label Account Strategist Michelle Regrut and Social Media Specialist Chelsea Ragland get all the time, and, in this episode of The 19: Retail, they’re giving us the answer. The 19: Retail – Episode 6 Follow the Leader MUSIC intro Recorded Intro: This is The 19. In 19 minutes or less, game-changing Insights in Retail from Orange Label, the leading response marketing agency for established brands that are driven by a fearless entrepreneurial mindset. Host Intro: Hey, it’s Marcus Johnson, Art Director at Orange Label, and I hate to start the episode this way, but I have some bad news. Remember that follower you added the other day? You know the one with like  thirty thousand followers but only thirty likes per post. Yeahh…that wasn’t a real person. No, I’m not joking. That wasn’t a real person, it was a robot.  And I’m not talking like you know, Sarah Connor, Terminator robot.  But you  were swindled by a fake profile, a spambot that won’t like a single post, start a single conversation or provide any real value to your brand at all. So why do these spambots exist in the first place? Well, believe it or not there’s actually a market for fake followers and purchasing them in the thousands is a pretty common occurrence for some brands and celebrities. Don’t worry,  don’t worry! This sort of thing happens all the time and there are lots of ways to identify fake followers and grow your loyal follower base, so you never have to deal with the bots again. Host: So, today we’re focusing on how to grow your follower base in a way that maximizes engagement and brand value, and here to answer your most pressing questions is Orange Label Account Strategist Michelle Regrut and Social Media Specialist Chelsea Ragland – Michelle, Chelsea, welcome back. Alright, let’s jump right into it. You two get this question all the time I’m sure: How do I get more followers right now? Is there really a get-followers-quick strategy? Or is it a little more complicated than that? MR: You know what they say, nothing worth it comes easy. An that’s true with social followers as well. HOWEVER there are some quick campaigns that you can run to spike the growth. In my opinion, dedicated “Like” campaigns with the specific Call to Action (CTA) to follow the page is really the FASTEST way to increase followers. The message is clear and there’s only one action a user can make on the actual ad is to follow the page. We have historical data also that proves it’s true. When looking at all of the charts across our clients’ social analytics, there have ALWAYS been spikes in growth during months of “Like” campaigns.  So that’s kind of the quick fix for that. HOST: Okay, so is quality more important than quantity when it comes to followers? C: BUT OF COURSE! Though follower count is impressive and can add credibility to a brand, it’s much more of a vanity metric. If this is your sole goal for social media, go for it, but we think a steady increase wins the race when it comes to follower growth. Quality followers engage, which enhance brand relationships, value and influence. These results only come with a follower base of true fans. HOST: So, what’s the tell-tale sign for a fake follower profile? MR: If they’re following WAY more profiles than the number of people who are actually following them back AND a lot of these fake profiles have zero posts themselves.  So, if you go to their page they have a giant number of people that they’re following not that many people following them.  And not that many posts to begin with.  You can kind of assume that they’re probably a robot. C: Another tell tail sign are Spammy comments! These are super generic and mass-produced like “Cool!” or “Great post. So, it’s nothing specific to the actual post, but more mass produced. HOST: