Growing your online circle isn’t a popularity contest. Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and email subscribers are all potential customers, so growing your database of people is a great way to grow your business and spread the word about your company. However, you don’t want just anyone on your list in order to be truly beneficial for your company. They need to be people that might be interested in your services, your target audience. You don’t just want to get a ton of people but you want quality people on your list. There are tons of ways to spread the word and promote your online profiles, but today we’ll focus on one awesome tip in particular.

As a small business owner, getting people to click the like, follow, or subscribe button can be a challenge at times. But a great way to entice people in is to give them something of value. Give them something that is relevant to your company and its services, something that will benefit them, and make them want to join your group of followers. It could be a pdf download with tips, a $10 off coupon, or access to a special page on your site that only fans can see. It can be something different for each of your different social media areas, but it’s a great way to show what you’re about and how your company can provide value to them.

For example, Snoack Studios provides a free pdf download when you sign up for our email newsletter. It’s something small, but we feel it provides some valuable information for business owners and professionals, and it’s relevant to our company. We promote it in the sidebar of our blog, on our Facebook page, and on our site where you can sign up for our email newsletter.

Make it valuable

I’ve seen this trick used quite a bit, although sometimes in a not-so-elegant way. Don’t make it spammy or cheesy, but give them something they can use. Resources, tips, tricks, or knowledge are great things to give away. They are free and simple to put together, but your potential customers will appreciate the gesture and in turn they will appreciate your company. If you’ve made it valuable for your target audience, and someone wants to download your freebie, chances are they might make a good customer for you.

Make it easy

The best thing you can do is to make it super simple for people to get. As soon as they sign up, there’s the download. Don’t make them jump through 5 hoops to get it, or wait a day, or anything like that. If they don’t get immediate satisfaction, or it doesn’t work out, they will likely be disappointed and that feeling will carry over to how they feel about your services.

Make it worth their while

Once they sign up for your email newsletter, or fan your Facebook page, keep the great stuff coming. You don’t have to continually give away great free stuff, but don’t fall flat either. Make them feel welcome, involved, and grateful that they signed up to get more information from you.

This trick isn’t new or revolutionary, but it does work well if you execute it properly. Growing your online circles is a great way to grow your business, so try this out today!

Have you used this before? How did it work for your company?