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With so many people constantly posting on social media, filling Facebook and Twitter feeds with everything from blurbs to video clips, businesses struggle to attract clicks. To attract customers on social media, there are a few things businesses can do to maximize the appeal of their posts.
First, the visibility of posts on social media sites depends on the level of activity they receive. Posts with more likes, comments, reposts, retweets, forwards, +1s, and shares appear more prominently on users’ news feeds and home pages, rendering them more likely to attract attention. If you want potential customers to check out your business based on its social media posts, those posts need to get user interaction. There are two ways to get this user interaction on your business’ social media posts: Pay for it or develop a genuine following.
Paying for social media prominence can be achieved by either paying the social media site itself for promoted posts or buying artificial followers and their assorted interactions from a click farm. Sites like Facebook and Twitter allow users to pay to promote posts, placing them high up on users’ news feeds. This is a guaranteed method to boost a business’ online profile, but will definitely give the posts the feel of an advertisement. Click farms involve users paying a third party to provide lots of fake followers and subsequent likes, reposts, retweets, and favorites. This is a controversial practice and is banned by social media sites, making it a risky tactic.
While successful click farming may give a business’ social media posts the appearance of bandwagon popularity through mass customer interaction, businesses may not know whether they are getting high-quality fake users. Click farms using bots, or computer software to mimic users, can get businesses banned from social media sites by having their posts flagged as artificial. Social media users may also distrust a business they feel has purchased its friends and followers.
To create a genuine following on social media, a business can use good marketing tactics and offer discounts, prizes, and gifts to loyal friends and followers. Businesses that create pages and profiles on social media sites can set up contests that allow friends and followers to enter drawings for prizes. In exchange for mentions, retweets, reposts, shares, likes, and favorites on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, businesses can promise appealing prizes from weekly or monthly drawings. This social media interaction will boost the business’ posts higher in news feeds and allow it to attract more potential customers. Additionally, positive word-of-mouth regarding contests and prizes will attract more users to the business’ social media pages, where they just might decide to purchase the products or services outright!
