Boost followers with these hot tips from #SMDayPhx

Social Media Day Phoenix brought the heat to our thumbs on Tuesday as social media enthusiasts from around Phoenix gathered to learn more about boosting their presence on Twitter, Instagram, and more.
Social Media Day was launched six years ago in 2010 by Mashable as a way to recognize social media’s impact on communication. Cities from around the world now celebrate the day in a variety of ways.
This is the third year that the event has been organized by nutrition specialist and digital marketing consultant MoniQue “Q” Hoffman, founder of Q the Brand.

Here in Phoenix, social media influencers like Matt Gottseman and Kevin Spidel talked about their experiences with social media and its role in their brand or business.
Here are a few of our takeaways from HDF Magazine founder and entrepreneur Matt Gottseman and his talk on content creation and increasing followers organically on Instagram:

  • Content is still king and it’s growing. Brands should know who their audience is, be flexible, and give away value in their content.
  • One growth hack is using this new “connective culture”. Connective culture allows a person or brand to use social media to connect with their audience personally. “You can actually grow and scale things much faster,” he said. “You’re being looked at. A lot of people, a lot of agencies, they are looking at your stuff and asking you about it.”
  • “People want long form content, they want narratives, they want videos,” he said. “They don’t want the same interview over and over again.”
  • Gottseman’s Instagram account went from 500 to 35,000 followers in four months. Some of his tips include having distinct content, treating the bio section as real estate (there are only so many characters in a bio, so it needs to be treated as prime real estate and made concise), using hashtags correctly, engaging followers, tagging people in posts, and having consistent content.

RELATED: “Phoenix Mayor talks tweets, posts, and Periscope — Social Media Day Phx”
Managing director of Voice Media Group and digital advertising expert Kevin Spidel shared some tips on using gamification to engage followers. Here were some of our favorite points:

  • Lead generations should be made to be fun, not spammy.
  • Quizzes are becoming a way of branding because they can draw someone to the page and keep their interest. Plus, the brand will receive breakdowns on the effectiveness of the game.
  • The secret sauce of gamification is paying attention to what followers care about, not so much what you care about. Ideally, you need to find a balance between the two.
  • When coming up with engagement and advertising schemes, play to the ego, nostalgia, the entertainment value, humor, discounts, and prizes. People will always ask “What’s in it for me?”

The last presentation was a panel of some of the top social media influencers in the Valley. Some of the main takeaways:

  • When it comes to social media, put some of your personal life out there to add authenticity.
  • Live your life and put stuff out there, but tailor it for different social media channels so your followers aren’t seeing the same picture on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
  • Building relationships with your customers or followers will help build your brand.
  • Quit talking about everything, talk about what you’re passionate about. People with the same passions will follow and engage.
  • When you add value, you grow an organic followership and create community.

For more coverage on #SMDayPhx, click here.