Getting 50 leads in a month, over 1,000 followers in a week, and 100,000 impressions in a month.

You’ve probably seen social media marketers boasting these kinds of results on Instagram. But how do they do it?

Their strategies can help you grow your online business to unimaginable heights.

In this blog, I uncover unique tips from top social media managers who’ve revived defunct accounts and increased their clients’ reach to thousands of followers within a few days of working with them.

They share their secrets and unique tips to make the algorithm dance to your tunes to gain followers and leads.

We go into how top social media managers achieve tremendous growth for their clients’ businesses on social media. Let’s jump right in:

Say ‘No’ to Fluff Content

Fluff content is light-hearted, entertaining, or generic, often lacking meaningful information. It doesn’t add any value to your target audience.

Here are examples of fluff content in the finance niche:

See how these posts provide common knowledge. Everybody knows they should save money, learn to invest, and remove high-interest debt.

Such posts fill the creativity gap when you can’t think of anything interesting. But if continued for a long time, they hamper your business growth. Since these posts don’t add anything to the knowledge of your target audience, they don’t take your content seriously.

You may gain a few followers but hardly any leads. What’s the solution?

Focus on quality content that adds to the knowledge of your target audience. Whenever they visit your account, they must take away some new information. This can be daunting at first, but it’s a sure-shot way to build your expertise on social media.

I talked to Astha Duggal, a social media marketer who’s an expert in reviving Instagram accounts from trash to treasure. She says,

“My goal is always greater visibility, followers, and bookings/ leads. I always create no-BS content for clients that directly helps their target audience. I hate fluff, and it’s the first thing I remove when working with my clients.

For one client, things started looking up only after 10 days:

Accounts reached went from 4 to 81,500
Engagement went from 2 to 341 accounts
Followers went from 611 followers to 694 (79 followers)

And on top of that, we booked four more exhibitions for my client (a painter) in the same year.”

How to get over fluff content?

Conduct in-depth research: Find industry trends, news, and topics that interest your target audience.
Use storytelling: Incorporate narratives, anecdotes, and real-life examples to make your content more relatable.
Focus on solving a problem: Find popular questions in your niche and answer them with your content.

Build genuine relationships

Your network is your net worth when it comes to social media. I get it – you have a business to run on social media, but you should also build relationships beyond buying and selling.

Still, many people send messages and requests with only one intention – leads. This method is not sustainable in the long run as you can come across as pushy and spammy to your connections.

On the other hand, building relationships allows you to foster loyalty. Customers keep coming back for repeat business and become brand advocates. When customers feel valued and connected to your brand, they are more likely to recommend your products or services to others.

I talked to Keyur Kumbhare, the founder of GrowedIN, a LinkedIn personal branding agency. He helps C-suite executives build their personal brand on LinkedIn and generate leads through it. He says,

“It is sad to see most people just putting out generic intro messages. Only a few care about building long-lasting relationships. The best way to use your LinkedIn presence is to talk to real people and support each other in their content creation journey.

LinkedIn might not exist tomorrow, but people will. Focus on building good relationships; some will turn into business deals.”

With this ideology, Keyur has gotten excellent results for his clients within days. See for yourself:

Impressions are up by 1,029% in 16 days
451,338 views in only two months
1887 likes in 16 days

Interact genuinely with your audience: Respond to comments and take time to have meaningful conversations. Get on calls with some people to build deeper relationships.
Support and collaborate with others: Engage with influencers, thought leaders, and other businesses in your industry. Share their content or collaborate on projects to let them know you support their business.
Monitor and respond to feedback: Pay attention to positive and negative feedback. Genuinely solving your customers' queries builds trust and strengthens your relationship.

Focus on building a community

The closer you are to your audience, the more sales you’ll get from them, and what better way to do that than building a community?

social media manager advice — *Source:* *Twitter*

A study by HigherLogic found that 68 percent of brands say that communities have got them new leads, while 55 percent have confirmed that communities led to increased sales.

Many online businesses – service and product-based – have built online communities despite having a thriving social media presence. Why?

To spark more conversations
To connect with their users more closely
To create a sense of exclusivity for community members

Your community can be a simple Instagram or LinkedIn group. Once you grow your community, you can move to a different platform like Slack. Check out these online communities for reference:

I spoke with Mansi Chaudhry about community building. Mansi works as a social media manager, and she provides exceptional growth for her clients’ Instagram accounts. She shares how an engaged community leads to business growth.

“I've witnessed remarkable results by nurturing a sense of belonging and actively involving the community in the brand's journey. This approach boosts engagement and loyalty and generates organic word-of-mouth promotion, leading to increased leads, conversions, and sustainable business growth.”

Mansi is right. Her strategies have increased her client’s reach by 406 percent in six days.

99.5 percent more accounts engaged
37,446 Reel plays
10,099 content interactions

Find your X Factor

“When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.” - Seth Godin.

Identifying and promoting your unique quality sets you apart from competitors. It highlights what makes your offering unique, giving potential customers a reason to choose you.

When you consistently share valuable content around one niche, you position yourself as an expert in that area, making it harder for competitors to replicate your offer.

See how Shreya Pattar, a LinkedIn personal branding expert, calls herself “The LinkedIn Girl.” She stuck to one thing for several months and found immense success. She has 134,626 followers and makes multiple six-figures in revenue.

I talked to Jerry, a personal branding expert on LinkedIn and Twitter, about how he uses his clients’ USP to bring them leads. He says,

“All clients are unique and should be known for one thing in the digital space. For example, I am known for being the pizza guy, and I know of people who are known as the SaaS guy, MEME guy, and Notion guy.

Building such a unique presence on social media is not a one-day or one-week task. I take them on a 90-day journey that helps them get started on improving their personal brand on social media with consistent results.“

With this strategy, Jerry gets fantastic results for his clients within 1 month:

440 percent increase in views
192 percent increase in comments
339 percent increase in likes

How can you position yourself as an expert in a niche?

Define your niche: Narrow down one niche to become an expert.
Share authoritative content: Get your content published on reputable platforms. Try guest blogging, podcasts, and events to build authority in the industry.
Leverage social proof: Share testimonials, case studies, reviews, and results - especially numbers to establish your credibility and build trust among your audience.

These tips work - you’ve seen proof.

Cutting the fluff and creating precise content goes a long way to attract your target audience.

Once you find your USP, stick to it. Build a community and engage in genuine conversations so your customers keep coming back to you.

Now take the initiative to implement these tips to distinguish yourself from the competitors on social media.

Pooja Uniyal

4 Tips from Top Social Media Managers to Grow Your Online Business