If you’re reading this, you’ve probably heard of Crowdfire. If you haven’t, click here to read about this helpful tool. Crowdfire is an app that helps you reach out to the right people to build your social network on Twitter and Instagram. Sounds good, right? Of course it does – who doesn’t love gaining more qualified followers? But there is a specific strategy to effectively use this app that we recommend you research first.
The Benefits of Crowdfire
Crowdfire allows you to see a list of people who are currently following you but you aren’t following back. They call these “fans.” To help you engage with your followers who fit your target audience, you can review these user’s bios and choose to follow the ones who align with your target. The best part is that Crowdfire makes it so simple to follow back with a big green “+” button right next to their info.
On the back end of seeing who your fans are, you can also see who your fans aren’t. The Recent Unfollowers tab clearly lists people who have unfollowed you. It then shows you whether or not you still follow them, and offers you a big red “-“ button that you can use to unfollow. We recommended that you unfollow users who don’t follow you back, so that you can instead add people who, based on their bios, would be more interested in engaging with your brand.
My favorite tool that Crowdfire offers is the Copy Followers option. It is exactly what it sounds like – type in the account of a brand that you identify with (competitors work well!) and Crowdfire will bring up all of their followers. Quickly go through the list and click the green “+” button to follow their followers! I recommend following up a week later and see how many of these people followed you back, and then choose to unfollow the ones that didn’t.
Crowdfire’s Cons
The above features are excellent reasons to use Crowdfire, but it is still important to be aware of its cons. If you aren’t regularly reviewing who is following you and unfollowing you, you could miss out on opportunities to connect with people who could be interested in your brand. In fact, Crowdfire makes it so simple to add and delete users in less than a second that it is very easy to not pay attention to who you are following and unfollowing.
It is important to consider that while Crowdfire helps you grow your followers and network, it will not engage with them for you. This app helps you get new followers, but it’s up to YOU to outline a strategy on how to keep and engage your new followers. We recommend spending a week gaining new followers, and then designate the following week to engage them. Favorite and retweet their tweets, like and comment their posts, and make them aware they followed an active account who is ready to connect!
Like most apps, Crowdfire has a free version which is actually quite handy, but it also has the option for some in-app upgrades. These upgrades give you the opportunity to experiment with larger daily limits. On a free account you can only follow 25 users a day and unfollow 100. Different price levels offer different restrictions, but if you are persistent on checking back daily the free version is very sufficient.
Keep in mind, while tools like Crowdfire are very useful to marketers, they do not replace the most important aspect of social media management- engagement! If you’ve succeeded in building your social media networks but you’re struggling with how to keep your fans around, consider a social media assessment from the experts at DMA Solutions!
