Gain more followers by creating share-worthy content

Published June 11, 2014 at 9:17 am

When it comes to social media, the goal of many brands is to gain as many followers as possible. This point applies to Twitter, where more followers means your messages will be exposed to a wider audience. However, in today’s world of information overload, it can be hard to cut through the clutter and get your message in front of the audience that is most interested in what you have to say.

Creating content that followers consider to be worth sharing is one way to attract more of them. However, some brands have come up with more offbeat ways to increase their Twitter follower base.

For example, Newcastle Brown Ale has come up with a marketing gimmick to help the brand attract 50,000 new Twitter followers. To accomplish this, Newcastle is offering to send followers a check for $1 to follow its Twitter account, according to a recent Adweek article.

This marketing stunt may be an effective way to draw attention, but if it is successful, the brand will likely have to continue to provide valuable and interesting content to retain its follower base.

The ability to provide valuable content is a strong bet as far as gaining and retaining followers goes. The story of Business Insider writer Caroline Moss illustrates this point. Moss decided to create a Twitter account based on old AOL away messages, just for fun. The account quickly went viral, garnering 100,000 Twitter followers in a week.

The explanation for this is simple: Moss struck a nostalgic nerve and the account spread virally. Although this type of result cannot be planned, keeping a pulse on what an audience is interested in will help marketers develop sharable content.

As part of the value of a platform like Twitter is in having followers who are genuinely more interested in your product, creating sharable content creates opportunity to build stronger customer relationships.