Previous posts in this series:

• Incentivize Everything! New Hires
• Incentivize Everything! New Customers
• Incentivize Everything! Product Evangelists
• Incentivize Everything! Customer Loyalty
• Incentivize Everything! Consumer Feedback

If you want something to happen, don’t just sit around and hope for it. Go out and do something to make it happen. That’s the entire philosophy to the Incentivize Everything series.

These days, companies of all shapes and sizes are exploring social media. How can we use this phenomenon to attract new business, satisfy past or current customers, or generate something newsworthy about the brand?

There are few “tried and true” strategies in this still-developing space. Many companies have had success within the various networks, either sharing an idea, getting customers involved, or offering special deals to followers. But one thing is true, before you can capitalize on those people who follow you in the social media world, you need to go out and get those followers.

Give people a reason to Follow you on Twitter, or Like you on Facebook, or subscribe to your blog, or your YouTube account. Sure, producing interesting, shareable, and relevant content is a great start. But don’t just sit around and hope that people come out of the woodwork and discover these networks on their own.

Direct them there. Provide links in your email, on your website, across the various networks. And give them an added incentive to join.

You can offer a free prize to your 100^th, or 1000^th, or 1,000,000^th follower. You can host a trivia game in which your followers answer questions for a chance to win prizes. You can offer a free download, something of value, to everyone that likes you on Facebook. Whatever it is, people will be drawn to getting something for free. It will give your company a chance to drive up your “social audience”. And then you can decide what the best strategy is for capitalizing on that army of followers.