4 Tips for Building Your Social Audience
“You need to grow your audience to at least one million followers!”
“You absolutely have to use chatbots and buy followers to be successful with social media.”
“If you’re not getting a ton of new followers every day, you’re failing.”
At this point you probably feel like you’ve heard it ALL when it comes to advice on how to build your brand’s social media audience, but since we do things a little differently at Team Smarthouse, I wanted to share four quick tips that cut through all the “growth-hacking” jargon and “guru wisdom” out there.
1) DON’T WORRY TOO MUCH ABOUT THE NUMBERS
This is the very first thing I like to tell Smarthouse clients. The goal of building an audience for your brand vs. the goal of reaching “at least 1 million followers” are two very different things. Setting a goal to build a huge following is a recipe for madness and despair — and buying followers is not an option I’d ever recommend to ANYONE. In short, it’s better to build a small and loyal audience of fans who will help you spread the word and grow your audience slowly than it is to have thousands of random followers paying zero attention to your message.
2) USE YOUR AUTHENTIC, PASSIONATE VOICE
Just like IRL, people are going to know if you’re faking it or trying too hard on social media. Finding your authentic voice for social is about your brand — but it’s also about you. Your brand should reflect the passion of your project, and the core of what it means to you. Use the same voice in your online social posts that you use when talking to friends in person; more followers will connect and engage when they can identify with the personality behind the brand.
3) ENGAGE WITH YOUR FOLLOWERS REGULARLY
Think of every post you make as a conversation with your followers. That doesn’t mean you have to actually include “comment below” in every post, but create posts that will prompt a reaction, whether it’s commenting, liking, or sharing — and then remember to actually reply and engage with any audience comments, reactions, and shares. Even just a simple “thank you” goes a long way, letting your audience know you’re paying attention and that they’re important to you.
4) PUT SOME $ TOWARDS YOUR AUDIENCE GOALS
I said above that I would never recommend buying followers, and that’s true! However, if you want to push your brand and product out to a new, expanded audience, you have to spend some money to do that. You can do a lot even with a small budget on Facebook and Instagram using Lookalike audiences that mirror your already engaged fans. Twitter Promote is also a great tool for boosting your tweets (up to 10 a day!) for one flat fee per month.
The short story: Loyalty + Authenticity + Engagement = a strong social audience that will help spread the word about your brand, create buzz for your project or product, and contribute to your success! And including an advertising budget for social will give your brand an extra boost to help you reach your marketing goals.
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