Photo credit to National Geographics

Sometimes we need to get noticed quickly. Maybe you have a product launch coming up or a charity function and you need to get a lot of people to pay attention quickly. Usually, social media is a fairly slow burner method . . . you work steadily to gain followers and interest and it can take a while. So what do you do when you need a quick burst? Well, here are a few ways to pump up your online presence rapidly, without stressing.

Note: these are not meant to be used long term, they are merely techniques to give you a quick boost.

1. Hold a contest.

It doesn’t have to be a big contest, you can easily just do a small giveaway. If you don’t have anything to give away, contact someone who does. Then choose your venue, be it Twitter, Facebook, etc. and ask people you know to spread the word about the contest. Perhaps the contestants have to follow you in order to enter, or sign up for your newsletter, etc. There are a lot of options here and contests tend to go viral on sites like Twitter, so you can expect to gain a rapid following.

2. Go on a friending spree.

If you want lots of people to follow you or befriend you, the best way to go about this is to simply befriend a lot of other people. You can search Twellow and other similar sites to get good contacts that are interested in what you have to offer.

Often, when you follow someone on Twitter or befriend them on another site, you will get followers back within 24 hours. Depending on how many you befriend, you could end up with a large number of followers. Do be careful, however, and read the rules, since some sites, such as Facebook, will put a limit on your account if you try to befriend too many people all at once.

3. Tell people you’re close to a milestone.

You’ve probably seen those tweets where someone says that their friend is just 14 followers away from reaching 5,000 . . . well, you can use that same method to gain yourself. Look at your next milestone, be it 10,000 followers or 500 and let people know that you need a certain number to hit it. Then watch your numbers start rising as others help you reach your goal. Obviously, this one only works if you really are close to a milestone.

From time to time, we just need to increase our followers. It doesn’t really matter if you’re just trying to get a boost before you add a counter to your blog, or if you’re trying to gain some publicity before you launch a new ebook or product.

Remember that people still won’t follow you if you aren’t posting good comments and interacting with the community, so stay on top of that. It will be somewhat time intensive in the beginning, but you will reap the benefits.