Have you ever found yourself looking at your social media following and thinking, “Hmm, now how do I get them to actually want to buy from me?” I am often met with this question when working with digital strategy clients who are looking to grow their business. With the ruling hand of social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, it’s more important than ever that you have a follower conversion strategy.

What’s a Follower Conversion Strategy?

A follower conversion strategy is just as the name says: a strategy for converting your followers into actual customers and raving fans for your brand. For anyone who has invested time and energy into building even a remotely successful following on social media, this conversion journey is key to connect all of that effort to your business and bottom line. Likes, shares, saves and comments are a great boost to your mood but the real opportunity is in converting these engagement signals into customers.

Here are a few tips I have learned over the years to turn your social media followers (and lurkers) into leads and customers for your business so that you can reach your business goals this year.

Here are my 5 Tips To Turn Your Social Followers into Customers:

Have genuine on-topic discussions with your followers in DMs

You’ve heard it over and over again – it goes down in DMs. Seriously. You should be speaking with people. Don’t sell. Don’t pitch. Actually talk to them like they did before the internet boom. When you see people posting relevant content (or just enjoying a Saturday morning lemonade), respond to their Instagram story and start opening up the conversation. The result is that these people will pay more attention to your posts in the future because you’re more than a username now. You’re the person who gave them a great recommendation on their next brunch spot. Attention breeds attraction and that’s great news for your brand.

Keep 20% of your content geared toward help and guidance

Whether your followers know it or not, they like free help. Who doesn’t? When you do your social content planning, ensure at least 20% of your posts are helpful. Don’t merely drop statistics or quotes. Drop nuggets that make the lightbulb turn on. This will allow you to establish expertise in your domain and you’ve positioned yourself as a solution before anyone ever approached you with a problem to solve.

Focus on credibility over memes

I know it’s tempting when you see a meme that makes you chuckle. There is absolutely no harm in sharing it with your following but I would always recommend that you ensure you’re building credibility as a leader in your space more than you are sharing funny material that people don’t remember. Sometimes, you can hit the perfect intersection and find a meme or relatable content that actually fits your niche. By all means – share, share away! That’s when you hit the jackpot.

Tell stories with a before and after

Everyone loves a good story. Most importantly, everyone remembers a good story. When you share stories from your brand, from your customers, people take notice. They feel closer to you and they begin to better understand the practical value that you offer in your service based business. A story doesn’t have to be robust. It just needs to highlight a beginning state, a point of conflict (hello journalism class), climax and a favorable ending. You’ll be amazed how many people read it and say, “hmm, that sounds like my pain point. And it looks like (insert your name or brand) solves that. Noted.” That’s what you want. That mental marker that you solve that problem, you’ve done it before and you can do it again.

Share social proof in an authentic way

Often times when we hear “social proof” we think, “oh that sounds so boring!” It doesn’t have to be at all. It’s a really powerful way to build connections and ignite action in your following. You can share user-generated content of previous customers who encountered your packaging, their reaction to receiving your services, testimonial videos, the list goes on. You’re putting a tangible view in front of your following and saying, “when you work with me.. this is what you get.” Beyond user generated content, you can explore sharing press and text tased testimonials with your audience as well to showcase others who have chosen you and been extraordinarily glad they did.

Turning your social media following into raving fans is essential if you want to connect your social media accounts to your business’ success. Remember, it’s top of the funnel but in that tier of engagement you have the greatest amount of opportunity to make connections that matter.