Social Media Growth Hacks: 21 Social Media Tips for 2021

2020 is behind and we have a fresh start! With a new year, it's time to crush your Social Media Growth! Here are 21 tips that have helped me grow thousands of followers across several niches. 

1. Plan out your content ahead of time using “Content Buckets.” or categories such as testimonials, employee highlights, product or service highlights, thought provoking questions, reposts of other like minded accounts, etc. 

2. Don’t overthink captions. While good captions can be a huge way to communicate using your voice, most people on social media scroll right on through. In fact, I tested several different ways of writing captions with various calls to action in different parts of the caption. 

3. Use a posting platform. If posting directly on the platform doesn’t suit your schedule, use a posting service like Planoly, Buffer, or Creator’s Studio.

4. Add hashtags to the bottom of your captions after several dots. I was a huge proponent of adding your hashtag list to your first comment on Instagram but have recently seen a decline of reach on most of my counts while doing this. 

5. Remember your target audience...always! Most of the businesses I help on social media don’t have a solid idea who their target audience is. Without this, it’s hard to measure success if we don’t have a narrow enough target. What hashtags are they using, which platform best suits them, etc?

6. Don’t get overwhelmed with new features. There will always be “early adopters” that utilize new features but most people don’t switch over to leveraging them until they catch on more. There is, however,  opportunity in using new features like Instagram Reels because the algorithm will reward the behavior the platform is trying to focus on. 

7. Be social. No matter what the platform or the latest algorithm, social media platforms will reward you for, well, being social. Comment on other people’s pictures, respond to every comment on yours, direct message people to connect with them, etc.

8. Be professional. Unless you’re a celebrity chef,  food blogger, or the Kardashians, no one really cares what you had for lunch or who in your family you’re mad at. Keep your accounts professional as social media is increasingly becoming your resume for future employers. 

9. Poll your audience with stories. Not sure of what content your audience likes and wants more of? Ask your audience through a Poll on your Facebook or Instagram Story for real time feedback. 

10. Track Your insights. The madmen era of advertisers would be blown away at the information you can see on your content and the ease of communication through social media these days. I remember one post that hit me hard early in my growth journey on Seymour Cycle Works. Within a few hours, over 100k people had seen a picture posted. I remember pausing in amazement and commenting to my wife, “In what other time in history could someone get that much exposure to the world without paying a single dollar?” Some important measuring tools to track are Reach, Impressions, New Followers/ Page Likes, Profile Visits, and Engagement (likes, comments, shares, etc)

11. Look up your accounts. I use socialblade.com to check the progress of account growth. Be sure that your Instagram account is public and a Business or Creator account so you can see the results.  

12. Try a cross-platform promotion. Have more Facebook page likes than Instagram followers? Most likely, some of your audience is on more than one platform. Feel free to create a post letting one audience know you’re on the other platforms. If you’re just now creating your accounts, make the handles as similar as possible. 

13. Add a ton of value to your audience. Most likely, you’re an expert in your subject field. Educate your audience on how to solve their problems related to your business. 

14. Be funny. Humor is one of the most engaging types of content. Whether it’s memes, jokes, sarcasm (appropriate), or just funny caption copy, your audience craves a good laugh.

15. Utilize a hashtag in your Instagram Stories. Instead of just focusing stories for your audience to see, 

16. Invite your customers to help. Remind and incentivise people to post pictures of them utilizing your product or service, give a review, or write a short usable testimonial for social media captions. 

17. Leverage a giveaway. Get your audience engaged by giving away a relevant product or service to your niche. If you sell a product, giveaway a desirable item. Maybe you have a service that you can give away. Make the instructions simple and easily obtainable (i.e. “like this post and tag three friends in the comments for a chance to win this giveaway”)

18. Try one new platform. Does the latest or newest platform overwhelm you? Give it a try and get familiar with it enough to have an intelligent conversation about it. Who knows, it may be where your target demographic is heading next. 

19. Don’t sell too much. People love to buy but no one likes to be sold. Don’t be slimy in only asking people to buy your product or service. Provide value, add to people’s lives with nothing expected in return. 

20. Post consistently. Notice I didn’t say every day. I’ve found many people struggle because they have an expectation to post everyday and when they can’t hit it, they feel overwhelmed and post even less consistently. Although it’s great to post daily, 3 times a week or even weekly can make a difference more than once every six weeks or having several months in between posts. 

21. Set goals. Realistic yet bold ones. I have a friend who I’ve learned a ton from on Instagram. He set a goal to make a million dollars from Instagram in one year. Needless to say, he didn’t reach it because it was simply not realistic for him at this point in his journey. It was bold enough, however, to push him to raise his income higher than he would’ve sans a bold goal. Maybe for you, it’s to get to 1000 followers by XYZ date. Maybe for you, you want to connect with 10 new potential customers in your niche through direct messaging per week. Whatever it is, make it a SMART Goal. 

And there you have it. 21 tips for 2021. Which one sticks out to you the most? I'd love to know in the comments! 

-Keith