The Unwritten Rules of Social Media #4 - How to increase your followers

So far in this series, we have discussed profiles, how to write updates and why you shouldn't sell via social media.

Now, we turn our thoughts to Unwritten Rule #4 - How to increase your followers.

But before we think about attracting people to your Twitter, Facebook and other pages, you need to think about what they will find when they get there.

Just like a website, they need to find something of interest to attract them to you, browse a while and then decide to follow you.

Be prepared! So, fill in your bio/profile. Add a photo. Post regular comments. Your profile description is the only place that you can tell the world who you are and what you are about. So make the most of it.

Publicise your pages
People won't look for you unless you tell them where you are. Add your twitter address or facebook page to your website, your email signature and your business cards.


Link up your on-line presence
Make sure your followers on one social media site, such as Bebo know where to find you on Facebook and Digg. Ensure you tell your LinkedIn followers who you are on Twitter and where to read your latest Blog .


Retweeting and Forwarding
Just as emails get forwarded, so can tweets and facebook posts. Encourage your followers to forward what you say. This gets your messages to a whole new set of followers, causing a ripple effect across the internet. On Twitter, set and follow trends by using the #hash tag


Talk about your interests outside of work
We all love having a common interest with someone. So finding out that you are a fan of baseball, a passionate cake maker or a supporter of a particular charity will help those with similar interests to follow you and forward your posts to their contacts.


So to summarise:
Be prepared, so people know who you are and what you are about. Publicise your social media addresses on-line and in your other marketing so people know how to find you. Encourage your followers to find you other followers by forwarding and retweeting your posts and find common interests by talking about your passions.


Next time: Unwritten Rules of Social Media #5 - Top tips to make it work for you