How to re-engage lost social media followers – five actionable tips with examples

Understand your target audience

If you don’t know who you’re talking to, there is no point in talking. Do you know what they like? How they like to communicate? What they like to eat? To wear? To watch? Do in their leisure time? Read? Having these seemingly random answers can go miles and miles to getting and keeping followers.

Retail giant, Target, has figured out the nitty gritty of their ideal customers and parlayed that knowledge into a massively popular Pinterest account. Their boards and pins cover all their customer bases while also linking back to their products.

Create epic content

When you look up the word (two words?) Merriam-Webster in its own self-serving dictionary, it should say “Master of Epic Content”. Merriam-Webster, or MW if you’re trendy, has conquered Twitter with one million followers and counting. Yes, you read that right, a dictionary has over a million followers. Why? Because they create unique, timely, and hilarious content that keeps followers coming back for more. Daily in fact, with their ‘word of the day’ that often has a snarky spin.

Quizzes, current event posts, word-of-the-day, and other delightful content puts the 100 year old company in high social media demand. They also score an A+ for consistency, never missing a day to post. If your brand doesn’t keep talking, neither will your customers.

Engage followers

Customers don’t just want to know what your brand is doing, they want to know what each other is doing as well, especially if it involves followers interacting with your products. Depop often promoted as ‘part Instagram, part eBay’, is a social app that allows patrons to buy and sell re-worn fashion items. Depop relies heavily on user generated content, with paid and influencer marketing sprinkled on top.

Depop’s social media strategy is obviously hitting the right chord because it has amassed 15 million users and growing. In doing so, they’ve also created a tight community who follows their every move and stays engaged with the brand and each other.

Open lines of dialogue

Are you talking at your customers or to them? If they are being inundated with ‘selling’ they can get turned off of brands very easily. Open lines of communication where you can have actual conversations with customers. Ask them what is working for them and what isn’t, as well as how you are doing as a brand. Get their insights so they will feel connected to the outcome and will emotionally invest themselves in your company.

Dove beauty brand has put forth impressive efforts to open communication with their customers leading to a rising influx of younger customers. Their Real Beauty campaign, one of their greatest marketing achievements, increased sales by $1.5 billion since its inception.

Think laterally

Do as Fender does. Fender Guitars has made a wide sweep of social media by creating lateral accounts on the same channel for each of its company’s arms. Or necks, as the case may be. Their main Instagram channel @fender has 3.6 million followers and is strictly ‘guitar’ with a capital G. The wisdom of their lateral accounts is that they cover the other elements of Fender also. With the tagline “Fender’s finest is the world’s finest” @fendercustomshop highlights Fender’s custom shop based within their headquarters, while their online learning app @fenderplay takes followers through simple lessons.

If your brand has several components to it, take a leap and create each its own channel. This stretches your brand into the minds of new followers, brings attention to additional products or services, as well as helps you cross promote.

Re-engaging followers doesn’t have to be complicated or boring (just ask Merriam-Webster) but it does have to be consistent and aligned with your brand. Think far, far outside of the box to keep the attention of sometimes distracted followers. Engage, entertain, and enlighten and you’re good to go.

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