This tactic may be a little bit controversial but here we go…

There are three main scenarios that illustrate how to build a following on social media as a product of several factors.

1) You might be a celebrity so people already know you and are ready to follow you.

2) You post legitimately interesting content on a regular basis, you’ve carved out a niche, and you are worth following in a way that just about anyone can see.

3) You are just like everybody else and trying to figure out how to grow your following.

If you fall into that third camp, which most people do, then your method of growing a following is a much more difficult, uphill climb. One of the most common ways that people build a following, though generally frowned upon in social media circles, is to follow people and wait for them to follow you back. Those that don’t follow you, you unfollow. Rinse. Repeat.

This process can be quite arduous when done manually, but can become quite easy when using automation. I’m not advocating for this approach, I merely letting you know that it exists.

Some examples of software are re-follow for Twitter and Gramista for Instagram.