When it comes to social media marketing, one of your goals should not be just to increase Facebook fans and Twitter followers.  It should be to increase targeted Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and other social connections.

When it comes to social media marketing, one of your goals should not be just to increase Facebook fans and Twitter followers.  It should be to increase targeted Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and other social connections. This way, you will begin to see an actual return on your social media investment.  The following tips will help you build your fan base and reach across the top social networks.

Increasing Fans Across All Networks: Sharing Your Social Profiles

The first thing you should do to ensure that you are consistently growing your fan and follower base across all of your social networks is to share your social profiles whenever possible.  This includes:

• Adding social icons on your website – most businesses will add them to the header, footer, or sidebar of their website’s template.
• Adding social profile links to your email correspondence – if you are sending regular emails to clients, newsletters, or other regular mailers, be sure to add your main social profile links to those emails.  
• Adding social profile links to other social profiles –networks like LinkedIn allow you to connect and link to your Twitter profile.  Google+ allows you to add links to your other profiles on your About tab.  Interlink your profiles to give visitors the ability to connect with you everywhere.

Increasing Facebook Fans & Reach: Interact as Your Facebook Fan Page

One of the best ways to promote your Facebook fan page beyond just linking to it on your website with an icon, Like Box, or Like Button is to reach out using your Facebook fan page itself.  You can use your Facebook as your fan page meaning that you can like other pages and then comment on them using your fan page.  To do this, go to your Facebook fan page and click on Use Facebook As (your corporate page).

Once you’re using Facebook as your page, you will want to start searching for other pages on Facebook where your target audience likely interacts using the Facebook search box.  Like those pages (assuming they are not direct competitors) and start commenting on their posts along with the pages’ fans.  This will increase exposure of your page to your target audience, demonstrating your knowledge of the industry and leading to increased fans.

Increasing Twitter Followers & Reach: Setting Up Keyword Searches

Want to take your brand’s Twitter reach to a new level and increase your followers?  The beauty of Twitter is that you can communicate with anyone by simply mentioning their @username.  Use Twitter search to find people talking about your industry and asking questions.  Then simply jump into the conversation!  The best part is that you don’t have to go in-depth – jump in with 140 characters or less.  By being helpful to others, you’ll greatly increase your reach and your followers simultaneously. If you use Twitter management tools like HootSuite, save your searches as columns.  Then you can integrate industry discussion into your daily social media routine.

Increasing LinkedIn Connections & Reach: The Company Page

Most of the focus when it comes to LinkedIn is on the professional profile.  But brands can get exposure as well by listing themselves using a company page.  While the average follower count may not be as high on LinkedIn compared to Facebook fans, the quality of following on LinkedIn will be of a higher caliber.  Since LinkedIn caters to professionals, you can be assured that your following didn’t just like your page because of a social campaign.  They did it because they are truly interested in what your company has to offer.  So be sure to addyourcompanypage to LinkedIn, fill out all of the important details, and watch the professional following roll in.  Use the CompanyInsider or CompanyProfile plugins to integrate your company page onto your website.

Increasing Google+ Followers & Reach: Pages Commenting on Public Profiles

One of the big differences between Facebook pages and Google+ pages is the level of interactivity.  With Facebook pages, you can only comment on other Facebook pages.  But with Google+ pages, if someone is following your page, your page can comment on their personal profile.  To increase your following and reach, find the top users following your brand’s page, make sure they have public profiles, and start commenting on their Google+ updates.  By doing so, your comment could be read by any of the user’s followers.  Guy Kawasaki, pictured above, has 1.2 million followers on Google+.  Imagine if his following could see your page’s comments? 

Meta Description: Learn how to increase your Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and overall reach on social media with these five tips.