Mercy Communications Café: How do I get more followers on social media?

One of the aspects of our new Mercy Communications Café is to be a digital hub or resource for those working in Mercy Communications.

As well as meeting together on Zoom to hear from guest speakers and to unpack common communication topics, we will also be offering tips, advice and best practice here from time to time.

One of the questions asked by those managine social media accounts is how to get more followers or Likes.

How do I get more followers on Social Media?

The answer is if you build it, they will come! [Thanks to Field of Dreams for that quote]

Managing your social media is not like building a house or writing a book. You put all the effort and energy into the build or the writing and then you can sit back and admire the work. While you most certainly do have to put a lot of effort and energy into building a social media presence, you never quite get to sit back and admire the pages when thy are done. That’s when your work really begins.

You build followers in four ways. With Content, Conversation, Cross-pollination and Creativity.

Some questions to ask yourself about your social media presence:

·        What sort of materials are you sharing on your social media?

·        Is your content frequent or ad hoc?

·        Are you broadcasting one way or having a conversation about Mercy?

·        Are you sharing other Mercy stories into your timeline and social media streams?

·        Are you Reposting and Sharing relevant content from other Mercy sources?

·        Finally, how creative are you being with telling the story of Mercy and your organisation?

Whilst routine and factual information is important in the age of fake news, sharing carefully curated creative content is what wins people over onto your social media  streams and what makes them stay.

The visual is also really important when it comes to social media. What is unique about your work that no one else has? What visuals and treasures might you share. The old adage ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ is true. A picture can draw people to your stories in a way that a long set of paragraphs initially cannot.

It’s important never to lose sight of the Mercy aspects of your social media accounts! As Mercy people how are you ‘mercifying’ the world of social media? What are you saying and sharing about the very essence of Mercy?

Gaining more followers can be a slow and methodical process and can seem at times to be far less attractive than going viral instantly.

Remember, if you build it, they will come and they will stay!

Ends

The Mercy Communications Cáfe will meet online shortly to look at the topics of Social Media as well as Artificial Intelligence. Dates will be confirmed shortly in April, June, September and November.

If you would like to be added to our email list for the Mercy Communications Café please let us know. If you would like to suggest a speaker or a topic you can also do so by email. Finally, if you would like to share some tips or best practice in our Communications Café please get in touch. Email: brendadrumm@mercyinternational.ie.