There are thousands of articles on how to rapidly grow newsletter lists through opt-in incentives. But what if another email subscriber isn’t what your blog or business needs? What if you have an active Facebook group that produces more sales than your email list? What if your goal is engagement, not list growth?
That’s where social lockers come in. Instead of having your readers give their email address to you for a freebie or opt-in, you’re asking them to do a specific social action.
Newsletter freebies aren't everything. Social lockers skyrocket engagement + help you reach biz goals. Click To TweetWhat Can Social Lockers Do?
Some of the things social lockers can ask your readers to do:
- Like a Facebook page
- +1 on Google+
- Share a pre-set tweet
- Follow a Twitter account
- Share the post on Facebook
- Share on Google+
- Share on LinkedIn
- Follow a Youtube account
- Follow an Instagram account
- Follow a Pinterest account
Most free social locker plugins and applications offer the first three on the list and paid applications will offer a wide range that you can customize for each offering.
Can Social Lockers Help Me?
Social lockers can help you reach your goals in a variety of ways. Look at three scenarios below to discover the many ways social lockers instead —or alongside— of email opt-ins can help you reach your business goals.
Check out these 3 scenarios on how to use social lockers to help you reach your biz goals. ✔ Click To TweetScenario 1: Artist With an Instagram Account
Katherine is an artist who sells her paintings and blogs about the creative experience. She has used email marketing in the past, but it’s difficult to showcase her art to her email list because not all email service providers display images and her click through rates just aren’t spectacular. However, she gets a lot of traction on her Instagram account and has even landed 3 sales in the past from it.
So instead of email opt-ins, Katherine creates social lockers for her freebie incentive and asks people to follow her on Instagram. In a month, her account jumps from 1,274 followers to just over 4,000, and she landed a custom paint order through Instagram.
Scenario 2: Freelance Marketer With a Goal to Increase Web Traffic
Dylan is a freelance marketer who specializes in SEO. He’s been hired on to help a company reach their goal of a 15% overall web traffic increase. Along with optimizing the company’s website for SEO, he set up social lockers on the company’s blog and popular pages. He sets social lockers to sharing on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin. In 3 months, the company’s top referrals are Twitter and Facebook, and overall web traffic has spiked to the goal of a 15% increase.
Scenario 3: Small Business Owner Looking to Build Her Audience
Maria is the owner of Bluebird Crafts, a knitting and crafting store. Her store opened last month, and she’s looking to build an online audience alongside her efforts to build connections with her local community. So Maria set up her social media accounts and started a resources page on her website. On the page are her favorite knitting patterns, which people can download after they share a tweet or Like her business on Facebook.
Maria goes the extra mile with the social locker in order to build up fans. For everyone who shares the tweet, she responds on Twitter and engages them in a conversation about their favorite knitting patterns and yarn. Then on her business Facebook page, she engages in photo competitions and encourages her followers to share what craft they’re working on. Soon her Twitter following grows and her Facebook page post engagement skyrockets and she sees her online sales grow from Twitter and Facebook.
How Do I Set Up Social Lockers?
It’s pretty darn easy. If your site is hosted on WordPress, there are a lot of plugins to choose from. Just search for “Social Locker” and you’re set! The most popular plugin is OnePress Social Locker, which has a free and paid version. (I use the free version.) If you use Squarespace, there currently are not options to add social lockers to your posts, but definitely keep your eyes peeled, as Squarespace could allow that option in the future.
Should I Ditch My Newsletter?
Definitely do not! Email marketing for many businesses is one of the highest return on investments. But you should consider diversifying. For example, use social lockers in everyday post or page opt-ins, and create a special opt-in (like a 4-day email course on branding) to grab the contact information of your readers. That way both your newsletter and your social engagement grows together.
What Else Do I Need to Know?
That’s it! Go out there and explore how social lockers can be used to grow your business. And if you need some help brainstorming ideas, leave your scenario in the comments below and I’ll get back to you with some ideas you can implement right away.
Nice post!
This is a great article!! Thanks for sharing this tool.
LOVE THE IDEA OF THESE~ I am a side hustle style/beauty blogger who isnt sure how to grow her following, but i want to make my blog work for me, instead of my being a slave to it. Any helpful tips/tricks?
If you’re a beauty blogger, you could use social lockers around an extensive beauty tutorial,or a popular list post like this: http://www.petitemodernblog.com/2016/05/09/top-eight-beauty-essentials-spring/. Then your blog post will reach more people as they share your post in order to see the premium content. Give it a try, and see how your blog views & comments look compared to a non-locked post. If you see it working well, then continue the social lockers. It certainly will save you time from having to create so many newsletter incentives.
But honestly, a blog like yours does take work. (Outfit planning, great photos, editing photos.. that’s a lot of time!). So make sure you have a business model with your blog—what are you going to get out of your blog for all the work you’re doing? Then focus more on what you need to do to get what you want from the blog. If that means more followers to get more sponsors, then grow followings. (You might want to look into instagram as a good blog promoter—you have a strong account there, and could do takeovers or loop giveaways with others.)
Anyway, good luck, and let me know what ideas you come up with! <3
But honestly, you have a great site going. If you want to keep growing,