Getting your first 1000 followers can be rather challenging for first time startups or social media brand builders. You set up a Facebook page for your business, add some posts and invite your friends and a few weeks later you’re only at 12 likes (You, your employees, your friends and family). Having such a low follower count can be rather demoralizing and hampers your ability to get the word out.
That’s why we are starting a series on getting your first 1000 followers where we uncover the tricks of getting your first 1000 followers from successful startup entrepreneurs and social media experts. I like to tell people who have startup ideas to set up a page and get 1000 followers to prove to themselves that their idea is good instead of being an ugly baby idea.
Today we have Claire Jeong from StudentRDH and StudentCDA sharing with us her startup experience getting her first 1000 followers on social media.
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You have a new business or business idea but you don’t have any followers? That’s a BIG problem and should be addressed NOW. Social media is one of the most effective ways to create a brand fast, without substantial work or relationship.
My education startups offer amazing review courses for dental hygiene and dental assisting students to prep for the boards. Since our target audience is 19-30 females, I knew I would find them on social media. But the question was: How do I get my target audience to recognize my brand, trust it, and create sales. 5 steps for getting your 1000 followers here:
1- Know your target audience and get to know them, extremely well.
What does your audience read, eat, enjoy as a hobby, and even feel? Get to know them better than yourself. If you have no clue, visit someone who looks like your target, and examine their pictures and comments. It is spying on your date…
My target audiences are dental hygiene and dental assisting students who will take their board exams. For me, even if I went to dental hygiene school, I could not assume that my experience was everyone else’s experience. So, I studied other students in all over the US and Canada. I discovered that most of them relied on their family members to be their school patients (because it is difficult to find reliable patients).
We have a couple articles at YVRStartups that helps you understand your audience or niche.
2- Create a mix of fun and serious content.
Find crazy humor that makes people laugh; create your own meme; copy other people’s fun posts. Use imaging tools to out that image, your logo, and your website. But also, make posts that tell something about the QUALITY of your business. It could be informational, educational, or supportive.
In our case, we joke about bad teeth. But we also provide at least 2x/week “mini-reviews” that helps our audiences understand that we provide effective review courses.
3- Post at least 50 posts in advance before launching your social media page.
Nobody likes coming to an empty store. The same way an empty social media page is boring. Fill it up with contents to get the ball rolling
Before you launch your social media page, put at least 50 posts. Do NOT launch your page with 1 posts; nobody will take your seriously. It is like walking into a grocery store that just opened, but had only 1 item. Only when you have a legit looking page, start making yourself visible.
I did NOT use this technique when I started my first social media page. I had 1 post per week. And obviously, the page did not grow fast at all in the beginning.
4- Re-post those 50 posts and see which ones catch.
Scheduling your posts is a a good way to automate your social media postings.
Reschedule the same 50 posts, 1 post/day. This prevents you from doing too much work originally, but get good results. Then, MONITOR the number of likes and views. Also, pay attention to how QUICK the posts are being liked. Let your audience tell you what they want. It is like running a vote for a popularity contest without the work.
This step also gives you a little more information about your target audience.
Post every day, preschedule to save time
5- Infuse money with the one (or few) posts that caught on fire.
Numbers don’t lie, so let the most popular post win. Then, PUSH (advertised) the post with money. Use advertising tools (such as Facebook Ads). Put the post, narrow down a target (e.g., those who likes Lululemon), and let it sit. You will then drive hundreds of SUDDEN likes on your page/post. And yes, getting 1000 followers may take a little bit of money.
Recently, I saw that one post I created related to celebrating Dental Hygiene Month caught very quickly, within 2-3 hours. So, I added some money to it, and Voila! I was reaching the heart of hundreds of people of my target that could relate to this post.
Repeat this a few times, and you will get your 1000+ followers QUICK!
One last thing! Remember that social IS your business. The message that you send via Facebook or Instagram should reflect your vision and goals. So, get to know yourself (your business) first before creating an audience. Try to make a great first impression!
About the Guest Writer:
Claire Jeong is an entrepreneur who is striving to promote educational efficacy. She founded StudentRDH and StudentCDA – which offer review courses for board examinations for dental hygiene students and dental assistant students.
Jeong has a Business Degree in Administration from Yonsei University, a Master’s Degree in Administration from Boston University, and a Dental Hygiene Degree from Forsyth School of Dental Hygiene in Boston. Prior to her career in the dental field, Claire Jeong was an education specialist at the National Museum of Art in Korea and at Boston Children’s Museum.
She splits her time between Canada and the United States to grow her business in both countries. When she is not working, she writes articles and books related to dentistry, study efficiency, and businesses, or practices yoga.
