154: Four Simple Steps To Gain Your First 1000 Facebook Followers

Are you struggling to grow on Facebook? Does it feel painfully slow watching your following count rise? I've been there. On this episode, I've got 4 simple steps to getting some growth, and I even go in depth on what you can post before you start selling your product. Come join me.

Welcome to the Launch Your Box podcast with weekly tips, tricks, and strategies to start, launch, and grow your subscription box. Now here's your host, Sarah Williams.

Starting a Facebook business page from scratch is hard. It's really, really hard. Even growing an existing page can feel really hard too, but it's a critical part in audience building. And today I want to talk to you about 4 simple steps to help you gain those first 1,000 followers. I feel like that's such a sweet spot when we think about growing social media, getting to that first 1,000. I feel like the next 1,000 comes a lot easier. And then pretty soon you're at 5, 6,000, and then you're at 10,000. So getting to that first 1,000 is the hardest. It feels like you're watching your grass grow. And I've done it more than once. And so I want to talk to you about that. When I built my first Facebook page back in the stone ages, it just really came organically. Facebook was newer and I was able to get a lot of traction very easy on my my retail page. But then in 2020, when I started my second business, I started my How to Start a Subscription Box page. It was early 2020, and the— you think about where we were in 2020, you would have thought it would have been easy for me to grow in that year because everybody was on social media like crazy. Everybody had all this time on their hands because they were at home flattening the curve. But it was hard, and I knew who my ideal customer was And I knew I could create content for my ideal customer, and I wanted to find my ideal customer. I wanted to find lots of them, but it meant that I had to really gain followers. And so I spent basically 6 months in early 2020 kind of spinning my wheels and not gaining a ton of followers. And at the end of those 6 months, I took a step back and I took a really close look at what I was doing and what I wasn't doing. And I came up with a 4-part action plan on how to get to my first 1,000 followers before the end of the year. And don't get me wrong, things were rocking and rolling for my business in 2020. And there was a point where I actually had more members than I did have followers for my program because I was building that email list simultaneously. But I learned a lot in that year that I was trying to grow my Facebook page from scratch. And I want to pass that on to you because I think that we get in our head about this a lot. It's a number thing. I don't want you to think about it as a vanity number, but I want you to think about it in a way that finding your perfect person, finding the person that's going to buy your subscription box, getting to 1,000 followers in a relatively short amount of time is possible. So I'm going to walk you through 4 things that you can do. And if you really put some structure behind this, you're going to see progress and you're going to see growth. And when we can build our following, when we can build our audience, That's how we're going to build our businesses. So many people prioritize building the box before building the audience, and that's where they struggle to make sales. So let's dig into these 4 simple steps and really get some traction with these so that we can build your first 1,000 followers or your next 1,000 followers on your social media platforms. Still to this day, Social media is one of the best and easiest ways to reach our ideal customer. I say this often, and I don't know if you've heard this from me, but back when I started my business in the Stone Ages, we had TV commercials, we had billboards, we had— we didn't have social media. And so when you think about the power of getting yourself in front of the people most likely to buy in a way that's so streamlined. That is social media. So I don't want you to take it for granted. I want you to use it to your advantage. A lot of people have negative feelings about social media, but I need you to tell yourself right now, this social media is not negative. Social media is an asset to your business, and we're going to talk about how you can grow that asset. Okay. All right. Number 1, like I told you, these are 4 simple steps. This seems like the most simple, but you've got to post regularly. Number 1, post regularly. Consistency is the key here. If you want to build an audience, you have to post consistently. You can't post 3 posts today and then ghost your page for another 4 days. Like, you have to create regular posts, regular content. You cannot just flood it, feast and famine your social media. The algorithm needs you to to really be consistent with your content, and it needs engagement too. So I want you to really think about posting regularly. When I started my How to Start a Subscription Box page, I realized I hadn't been posting regularly. I was so busy building content for the membership, I was working in the business, I would throw up a post or two each week, but it wasn't consistent and I didn't have a plan. I was really doing the bare minimum, and I realized the bare minimum wasn't going to get me where I wanted to go. And 6 months of doing the bare minimum got me very few followers. So I had to step up my game and I created a template of what I was going to post every single day. I created a— I was going to share a win from my community. I was going to share an idea. Like I created a template that was my content plan for the week. So I didn't have any excuse not to be posting. And when you can create a content plan, it's going to save you so much time and brainpower because you won't have to sit there and think, okay, what am I going to post today? Keep it simple, create a template, batch schedule your posts, and don't forget to come back and engage. Now I want to talk through— I've got some post ideas for you. So when you're starting your business and maybe you don't have your offer ready and you're like, Sarah, I don't— I'm not selling anything yet. I'm still in the building my audience stage. I don't know what I should be posting. And so I've got 10 post ideas for you when you're starting your business. Okay, so this is going to help you get consistent, and if you could post one of these every single week, you've got a template already, and then you can add to that. So automatically, I'm going to give you 10 posts that you can share right now and just build them into a template every week. Okay, so grab your notebook, let's write this down. Number 1, I want you to share pictures of you. Your audience wants to see you. They want to get to know you. Let them see your face. It's going to help build your know and trust factor. When they get to know you, they're so much more likely to be ready to buy when the time comes. I think about all these behind the scenes things that we're doing. Like right now, I'm recording a podcast. I could take a picture of me in front of my microphone and tell people what I'm doing. Hey, I just recorded a podcast. On ways to get your first 1,000 followers on Facebook. Just do that. Share a picture of you and what you're doing. Your goal with these posts is to establish a connection with your audience. So share the story of your business or your brand. Introduce yourself or your business. Share your why. Share a behind the scenes. Get personal with this. Okay? So every week, share a picture of you. Number 2, share quotes or memes that align with your ideal customer. Everything you post should speak to your ideal customer. If you're not sure what that is, you've got to align that before you start posting. So for me, it's funny memes. I posted something the other day where I was at the hair salon and it said, hey Alexa, wash my hair. And do you know how many engagements I got on that? My ideal customer is a busy Southern woman. Everybody's washing their hair. It doesn't have to be about my box. It doesn't have to be about my product. It just has to be relatable to my ideal customer. I've also posted recently a meme of— there was a making fun of the way I park and there was like a meme of like me doing something alone and I've parked perfectly. Me doing something when somebody's watching and I'm all crooked. Okay, so it got so much engagement. It's just, it's not about my product. It's not about what I'm selling. It's about attracting my ideal customer. Okay. Number 3, ask questions. People love to answer questions and get their opinion. So now that you know your ideal customer, ask questions that relate to what they're thinking, feeling, and doing in any particular week or month. The goal with these posts is to engage with your audience and get them talking again. This does not have to be about your product. I posted a picture recently with my birthday cake. I left my birthday cake sitting on the counter. My dog came up and ate part of my birthday cake. I had a picture of my half-eaten birthday cake that my mom made me, and I said, I want to know what you would do. Number 1, toss the cake. It was great while it lasted. Number 2, trim the edge and move on. Number 3, it's just a few doggy licks. It's fine. I'll eat the corner piece. So I'm just engaging with my audience, like how many of my audience members have had their dog eat something off the counter? It's just something like that. You don't have to worry about the product. Okay. Number 4, take them behind the scenes. This is not your face. So do one behind the scenes of your face or just do something that doesn't have your face in it. I like to do a lot of— I do some work on my computer with monogramming machines so I can take pictures of what I'm working on all the time and take them behind the scenes in your business. Your work is fascinating to others, like whether you're cutting something on a machine, whether you're folding boxes, whether you're packaging something, whether you're working on your website, like whatever it is, this could make great daily content. You could literally do a behind the scenes picture or a picture of you working on something every single day if you don't have a post idea. Take them behind the scenes. That's number 4. Number 5, share an opt-in or an email signup. We talk about this a lot in Building Our Audience inside Launch Your Box, but I want you to create opt-ins and lead magnets to attract your customers. So once a week you could share your current opt-in and get people on your email list or your waitlist for your subscription box. Number 6, share a giveaway. This is one of the first actions I tell you to take inside the Building Your Audience module inside Launch Your Box. But share your giveaway, show pictures. You want to attract the person that's going to like your product. So this is where products come, and you don't need to have your products in order to run a giveaway. You could go shopping and create a box of products that are going to be similar to what you're going to sell. Like, I could run over to Target and Hobby Lobby and Walmart and put together a cute little gift basket of products that— similar products to what I want to sell in my subscription box. Because if they like those products, they're going to like my subscription box. So then I can share about my giveaway and I could do this. I don't have to do this every week, but I could do it a couple of times a month while I'm working on my giveaway. Number 7, share quick tips or advice. What would make your ideal customer's life easy? What problems are they seeking solutions for? And again, this doesn't have to be about your product when you're just starting to build your audience. I shared, I was making meatballs about a month ago and I have a handwritten meatball recipe and I was getting them out of the oven and I just took a picture of them with my handwritten recipe and I said, I love this meatball recipe. It makes my life easy and we have leftovers for days. And that speaks to my ideal customer. They're busy moms. They want a quick, easy meal. And I don't cook a lot, but when I do, like when I have something like this, that makes my ideal customer's life easy. I just gave them my meatball recipe. It's quick, it's easy, and that might have helped them with dinner this week. Again, I don't sell anything for your kitchen, but it speaks to my ideal customer. Okay, number 8: give them a peek into the life of a small business owner. We've talked about sharing a picture of you, and recently I shared a picture of me standing by the monogram machines monogramming something. We talked about behind the scenes I just shared a screen of my laptop where I'm programming monograms for the upcoming box. But give them a peek into the life of a small business owner. What do we struggle with? What do we make fun of ourselves for? What do we love about being a small business owner? Let them in. Let them see you struggle through it. Everybody has this vision of maybe small business owners are like, they just have it all together. Everything looks good on stage, but It's not that way. We're a hot mess on the back end, and when we can show our imperfections, that's when people relate to us. So let them know how they can support small businesses. You could highlight other small businesses. You could share, you know, what it's like to be a small business owner. The fact that I haven't washed my hair in 3 days and it's full of dry shampoo. Those are kinds of funny things, but you want them to feel like they know you. That's what it is. Number 9, celebrate national days. You can go on and find a national calendar. You can celebrate holidays, do posts about holidays. Spring break is coming up for my kids. We've got Easter, Mother's Day, Fourth of July, all those things are coming up. And so you can create graphics and posts celebrating those days, and that's an easy thing for you to do. And then number 10, share content from another page. So you can take somebody else's content and share that. Now you want to share it via their page, not take their graphic and content, but share it via their page so that you get some juice from their business as well. It just expands your reach when you can share something from another page. So you hit the share button, you share it onto your page, it has their social media and their copy there. That's how we want to share posts from other pages. But let's just quickly review those 10 post ideas. So if you missed any of them, you can jot them down, but we've got to post regularly. So if you could take these 10 ideas and just work them into a template, I just helped you with that regular content. Number 1, share pictures of you. Number 2, share quotes or memes that, uh, align with your ideal customer. Number 3, ask questions or do a poll. Number 4, take them behind the scenes. Number 5, share an opt-in or an email signup. Number 6, share a giveaway. Number 7, share quick tips or advice. That's the meatballs. Number 8, give them a peek into the life of a small business owner. Number 9, celebrate national days. And number 10, share content from another page. So Batch schedule your post inside Meta Business Suite. Don't forget to come back and engage on these posts so that we can create conversations. And keep your content plan simple. You don't have to, you don't have to overdo it. Consistency, good quality content with a simple template is going to help you. Okay. Number 2. The way to really increase your following is to provide content that encourages people to follow. We talked about 10 pieces of content, but I don't want you to just post memes and quotes all day. That's going to help attract people, but it's not going to help you connect with people. Your goal with posts is to gain followers and to connect and engage with them. So asking questions, sharing blog content, posting quick tips and advice, sharing— once you get into having a subscription box, sharing user-generated content from your members. But we need to reach new potential followers by creating content that encourages shares. What can I post that somebody following me would want to share on their page? Okay, that's what we want. We want shareable content because if I see something on your page and I'm like, oh, that's awesome, them, I'm going to hit share, I'm going to post that on my page, and then all of my followers are going to see it. So we want— that's going to help us increase our following if we can create content that encourages people to follow us. So quality content, okay? Number 3, create video content. And I know as someone starting out that this is hard. It took me a while to get comfortable going live, and I've talked about this a lot, and I've written about it in my book. I had all the fears, all the doubts, all the insecurities about the way I looked, and you might have some of those too, all of them. But I got over it slowly because I understood how important video content was. Okay, Facebook favors video content. So people will see your video content over static posts. I'm a firm believer that you need both, but I need you to work on some video content. You can start this by doing some reels. Okay? You could do some short reels. You could do some voiceovers. Short video is really huge for visibility and engagement right now. You could go back and listen to episode 37. I'm doing an episode there about using short video to build your audience. If you want to dig into that a little bit more. Go back to episode and listen to episode 37 on the podcast. But I'm even talking about lives. Even if your live was 10 minutes, even if your live was 15 minutes, and maybe you could go live talking about what you're working on, talking about behind the scenes, talking about what's coming up. Creating live content early on is really going to help your business and your following. When I was growing my new Facebook page. Once I kicked in the live engagement, the live, um, video, I could see an instant explosion in my followers. So that's really important. Don't discount it. Don't say, I don't want to go live, so I'm not doing that. You might need to go live, but if you're nervous about that, start with some short videos. Start with some reels first. Get comfortable with some of the video. And then plan your first live. All right, I promise if I can do it— listen to me, if you're sitting there saying, I don't want to do that, Sarah, I literally had tears in my eyes the first few times I went live because I was so nervous and scared. And you would never know that about me now. So if I can do it, I know you can do it. Okay, that's my TED Talk for today on the podcast. Number 4, This is something that I didn't do right away that if going back now I wished I would have done, but running a Facebook page like ad, running page like ads on Facebook, super effective way to introduce yourself and what you do to new audiences. It's just a simple ad that will link your Facebook business page with a call to action. So your post will have that little thumbs up in it when you run a Facebook like ad, page like ad, and all they have to do is click that thumb and they're now following you. It can generate hundreds of new followers in a matter of days and or weeks depending on your budget. So maybe you've been sitting there around 300 or 400 followers, or maybe you've been sitting around 2,000 to 3,000 followers and you're like, I'm just not making any progress. Do a Facebook page like ad. I'm telling you, these work. I had my mastermind do them A little over a year ago when we were together and we sat in the room, we set them all up. And here's what a page-like ad looks like. It's a picture of me. And for me, it was like, I'm going to wear something that's monogrammed because that's my business. And I think I either have— I have two page-like ads. One is me in front of all my subscription boxes with a monogram shirt on. The other one, I think I have a monogram pullover on and I'm holding a tray of earrings. Both represent what I sell. Okay. And they both have a picture of me in them. And they're— and the caption is really, hey, my name is Sarah. I'm from a small town in Texas. I love Mexican food, margaritas, and monograms. And I just tell a little bit about my business, what we do. If you love monograms too, I would love for you to follow my page. Super simple. I'm not selling anything. I just— if they align with who I am from that ad, I want— they're going to follow me. If they like my monograms, if they like the earrings, if they like the idea of having a subscription box and they come follow me, they're more likely to become a buyer. Running those Facebook page-like ads— and you don't have to have a big budget. You could literally do this for $5 a day. That's $150 a month. If you can't invest $150 a month into your business right now, you probably shouldn't have a business. It takes money to run a business, and this is one of the easiest, best ways to do this. I run $10 a day, so I have a $300 a month budget for this, and I'm getting page likes for less than $0.50. I want you to think about it like this. Say you're walking down the street and I have a monogram shirt on and somebody says, oh my gosh, I love your monogram shirt. Where'd you get that? And I hand them $0.50 and I'm like, will you go like my Facebook page? That's my ideal customer right there. They love my monogram and they're asking me where I got it. That's my ideal customer. Would you pay them $0.50 to go like your page and follow you? Heck yeah, all day. That's what a page like ad is doing for me. So for $0.50, people are liking my page. And so if I'm spending $10 a day, you can tell that on average I'm getting 20 new followers a day. If you multiply that by 30 days in a month, I'm getting 600 new followers in a month. You could be at 1,000 followers within a month with a $10 a day page-like ad. And so many people, so many ladies in my mastermind are getting them for 15 cents and 20 cents and 30 cents. They're more in the crafting space, so their page-like ads are a little bit cheaper than mine are because mine's in a different space. But anything under a dollar is a really good acquisition for a page-like ad. So I want you to think about that. You don't have to do this alone. Let Facebook work for you. Let's go back through those 4 simple steps to getting your first 1,000 Facebook followers or your next 1,000 Facebook followers. Number 1, post regularly. You've got to be consistent, and I gave you 10 post ideas to post before you even start your business. So go back and listen to this and make some notes. Number 2, provide content that encourages people to follow. So what will people want to share on their own pages? That's what you have to think about. That's going to get you in front of more people. Number 3, video's where it's at. How can you create video content? Reels, lives, we've got to do video. And number 4, run those page like ads. If you can focus on these 4 things, you'll be at 1,000 Facebook followers really soon. Make sure you subscribe to the Launch Your Box podcast. I'd love for you to take a minute to rate and review it. Let me know which episode is your favorite so far. Don't forget to join me next week right here.