Whether you’ve just started a new business, are trying to become an online influencer, or aren’t seeming to have the following or klout that you’d like to have online, your brand can always benefit from having more followers on social media. The only problem with this is that most people don’t know the safest and smartest ways to acquire these followers.

While some people get lucky and have something that become viral to bring them instant followers, most people or businesses have to put in consistent effort in order to grow their social media presence. To show you how you can do this for yourself, here are three things you can do today to get more followers on social media.

Become An Active Member In Online Communities

One of the greatest things about the Internet is that it allows you to meet people from all over the world with the same interests and ideas as you. Within relevant communities like these, you can usually find a goldmine of people who could be loyal followers of yours-if they only knew you existed. Which means your job is to make your existence known.

To best do this, Neil Patel of NeilPatel.com recommends that you find ways to become an active participant within these online communities. Comment on posts that others share, share your own ideas and insights, and make connections that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to make on your own.

Use The Right Hashtags

Another great way that people can find you through social media is through the use of hashtags. When you use hashtags in the right way, people who are searching for that hashtag can find you and the content you’re posting that’s relevant to the term or terms they were searching.

According to Leslie Truex, a contributor to The Balance Small Business, you just want to be careful with your posts and ensure that they don’t contain too many hashtags. If you overload your posts with hashtags that don’t make sense or are just too cumbersome, it could be a turn-off to those searching through this hashtag. While your goal is to get more followers, you don’t necessarily want to blatantly broadcast that goal.

Partner With Other Social Media Profiles

Regardless of what your interests are or what industry you’re working in, there are likely some people or brands that are very well known to those within your target community. If you’re able to partner with them through your social media profile, you should get a lot of new followers in a very short period of time.

By partnering with the right people or brands, Alex York, a contributor to SproutSocial.com, shares that you can get your name in front of people that you otherwise wouldn’t have been given access to.

If you’re looking to grow your social media following, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you do just that.