You’ve been bad recently. You haven’t posted much on your social media channels. You’ve let your fans go stagnant. Hey, I get it. You’ve got a business to run and sometimes social media gets pushed down the later of your priorities. I’m not judging you, don’t worry! It happens to the best of us.
The problem however comes when you continue to do nothing about it. The longer you leave your social media channels to go by the wayside, the harder it is to get them active again. Then you are left with an unengaged fan base that doesn’t see your posts and don’t care if you never post again. I don’t want that to happen to you. And luckily I’ve come up with a method that might just turn your inactive social media following into one bursting with excitement again.
I call it REACH. I love a good acronym. Remember my CLEAT method. I guess I also love a good acronym with an “EA” in it. But that’s a different story. Back to REACH. Remember these 5 little letters and you’ll be on your way to a happy and engaged community and one that sees a lot more social media activity.
The REACH Method
R – Re-Engage Your Customers
After your fans or customers have been siting there not doing anything for a bit, you’ll want to re-engage them. I like to advertise to a custom audience of your email list. You have been growing that right? 🙂 These people already know who you are through email, now it’s time to show them you’re back on social.
E – Empower Them To Share
Sometimes people just need a reason to share. Your job is to give that to them. Contest work really well here or perhaps an incentive like a discount or free offer. By getting the ball rolling and giving your fans and customers something to share for you should be able to see a little momentum going. This of course is a good thing.
A – Acknowledge Their Activity
Once you see the activity coming into your social sphere you MUST and I mean must acknowledge them. People on social media need a little encouragement. We need to feel like there is a reason to share. By acknowledging their activity you are giving them that pat on the back and making them feel special. Retweet them, reply to them, like their stuff and do what it takes to show them that you are there and you are watching. If you do this right, it will lead you to the next step.
C- Create Fan Envy
Fan envy is something I made up which is basically a ripple effect. Here’s how it works. Your fans start posting something, you start giving them public acknowledgement and credit for it, their friends get jealous, they want some of the action, they start sharing, and it cycles. Because you give public credit, more people will want to get in the game and start sharing. The fans become envious of the people getting the credit and try harder to get your attention. See how that works?
H – Honor Your Commitments
And lastly you need to honor your commitments and make good on what you said you would do. Did you offer a discount? Deliver. Did you offer something free? Come through. This will help your credibility and keep the ball rolling. If you don’t follow through on your promises your fans won’t share because they know they don’t get anything out of it.
There it is. REACH! Use this method to increase your organic reach on Facebook, Twitter and everywhere in the social world.