I’m coming at you with a very quick and easy win this week: Welcoming new followers. 

What do I mean? Quite literally, sending a personal message to any new person (aka potential lead) that hits the follow button for your business on social media.

It could look something like this: 

Hey {person’s name} 

Thanks for the follow!

Let me know if there’s ever anything I can do to help you. 

Have a great day, 

{your name}

And yes, I highly recommend taking the extra 30 seconds to click through to their profile or website and find their name so you can personalise the message. (Or in some rare instances, decide not to send a message if they don’t appear to be a good fit for your business.)

This super simple gesture takes less than 2 minutes to do but gives you so many “wins”. 

Here’s just 5 of them: 

1. It’s on-the-spot market research to help keep your finger on the pulse of the types of people who are following you. If you notice your new followers aren’t in alignment with your ideal client, perhaps this is a cue to switch up your content strategy. 
2. You make a personal connection with a new follower, letting them know you appreciate them. 
3. You surprise and delight a potential client, exceeding their expectations from the outset and giving them an insight into your customer experience.
4. You create another touch point. Knowing it takes 8+ touch points to convert someone into a paying customer or client, take the easy touch point when you can! 
5. You can win more work! This approach has led to many genuine inquiries both for myself, and to the clients whom I’ve shared this idea with. 

And to answer what you’re probably thinking: “Should I follow them back in return?” I’d say that’s personal preference. Make a strategic decision as to whether that’s beneficial. If you’re a retail store, for example, a customer might find it weird to have a brand request to follow their personal account. But if the follower is in your circle of influence, or if you have a B2B service and they are a fellow business owner, there could be great value in returning the follow favour.  

Give it a go and let me know the response you get!