Reaching certain social media milestones, such as reaching a benchmark in your number of followers, can be very exciting for a social media manager. What’s more, you may be pleasantly surprised to discover how much your followers want to celebrate with you. That’s why it’s beneficial to plan ahead and prepare a mini content strategy that you will be ready to execute when you see those magical numbers.
I’m a bit of a screenshot-aholic and some of the photos I’ve collected are posts that my favourite brands published when they acquired lots of followers. Now I’d like to share some of my top picks with you and I hope they will inspire your social media marketing.
Justin Trudeau
Once Canada’s Prime Minister acquired 2 million Facebook fans, his team produced a short video to describe their demographics. Every Facebook page admin has access to these kinds of insights, so it was easy to create, but the average person couldn’t see this information until the video was released and probably found it interesting. By listing the distant locations of where his fans live, he cemented his position as a global leader while expressing gratitude for their support. The video was so engaging that even TV personality Jillian Harris liked it!
People
Celebrity stories aren’t just click bait — they can be highly entertaining and they have an addictive quality too. So it’s no surprise that one of the leading magazines hit 1 million Instagram followers in October 2015. They cross-promoted their Instagram channel by posting the news on Facebook too, which is where I saw their news. I like how their copy is short and sweet to appeal to their young audience and written like a mini acceptance speech. Plus, who can resist a Taylor Swift reaction image?
Smarties Canada
My favourite thing about Smarties is that they’re nut-free and my second favourite thing about them is the colourful artwork they create with food. This image is relatively simple compared to the complex designs they regularly share, but it succinctly communicates their excitement about reaching 1,000 followers on Instagram. I also think their caption about feeling grand is clever and cute.
Kernels
Kernels is a key example because I challenge you to take your celebration to the next level, such as by creating a contest to coincide with your milestone. That way, you can offer something to your followers to demonstrate your appreciation.
When Kernels acquired 25,000 Facebook fans, they launched a series of gift card giveaways for 25 days to commemorate the occasion. On each day, they posted a trivia question to encourage responses and fans who participated in under 24 hours were eligible to win a $25 gift card. They used the same image throughout the contest period and interspersed the contest posts with unrelated content, such as holiday posts.
Thanks for following the girl in the red jeans! pic.twitter.com/30UK0VXsan
— Sarah Prince (@ThatPrince) January 19, 2016
There are many different ways you can creatively celebrate social media milestones. When I worked at ChickAdvisor, I poured glasses of rosé for a photo and our Facebook fans loved it. It was one of the most popular posts that month, which says a lot, considering most of our posts were about opportunities to receive free beauty products. On a personal level, I also created a special post using birthday candles as props when I reached 1,000 Twitter followers, so there are many possibilities!
Update: When I reached 500 followers on Instagram, I shared lessons that I learned while trying to grow my audience. This offered value to my audience while acknowledging a new social media milestone that may seem small, but required a lot of hard work.