How do you build an audience on social media? As a former social media manager
turned content marketing expert. I can tell you it's not as complicated as you might think.
So in today's video, we're talking about how to build your audience on social media
First I'm going to tell you the number one mistake people make when trying to build their audience online.
Then I'll tell you the two most important parts of your social media strategy and lastly,
I'll tell you what metrics you should ignore when trying to grow your audience. Alright,
I'm cringing already. Let me tell you the #1 mistake people make when trying to grow their audience.
You ready for it? Buying followers. Don't do it ...can I say that again? Don't do it.
I've had clients, I've had students, I've had friends that have said,
"Hey, can I just, I'll just buy some followers to help me to be able to...", and sometimes you're incentivized
when you have a bigger following on some social media platforms that you get more functionality.
But it's that functionality is not worth what that might do to damage your social media,
and your reputation, and your engagement. So don't do it. Here's what happens when you buy followers.
When you buy followers, you mess up your metrics. That when you're looking at your metrics that
are showing the engagement rates and and how fast your audience is growing. You might constantly
be seeing this very low engagement rate because half of your audience may be robots, maybe fake accounts.
And then you're constantly trying to get your engagement up but it's like a losing battle,
because you, unfortunately... and buying followers can be cheap but it's just it's not worth it.
The other thing is social media platforms can actually red flag your accounts if they find
that you're doing this suspicious activity. There might be people that think, "I want to get more
views or followers on my videos or on my content", and these platforms have actually like banned
their accounts or shut down their accounts because they're saying that this isn't,
this isn't following their guidelines, following their terms and conditions,
and is actually just it's bad for you, it's bad for your audience. And think of also your audience,
if they see you have all these followers but no engagement or fake engagement, they'll be able
to see through that. And I don't know about you, but if I lose that level of trust with my audience
feeling like part of what they've built is fake. How do I trust if I can purchase from them
or you know sign up for anything that they have to offer, if I can't trust them at the social media level.
So buying followers, big red X don't do it. Hey, before we move on to the two most important
parts of your social media strategy. I would love for you to just go right there, click the
red button go ahead and subscribe to this channel. Okay, the two most important parts of your
social media strategy. Number one, know where your audience hangs out and what they're looking for
wherever they are. This gives you the ability to communicate with them wherever they're at.
Let's look at your own behaviors maybe as an example. Why do you follow the people that you follow?
Is it because you're intrigued by what they're doing? Maybe you think that they're fun to follow.
Maybe you're inspired. What kind of emotion does it evoke for you? Why do you like for, is it their content?
Is it the future-based cause that they might be painting this picture for? I mean for me,
I like to follow a lot of inspirational people. I like to follow a lot of other marketers
so that I can see what they're doing and learn from them. And because they're showing me
and documenting how they're growing themselves personally or in their business, it inspires me.
That attractive character persona is what I want to follow because I aim to be like that.
So think about that for you. How can you maybe paint a picture for your audience that,
it's not that you're trying to say, "Hey, be like me", but just by naturally authentically showing
who you are, what you do, showcasing your expertise. And giving them a picture of what it might look
like in their life if they were to follow what you do, and implement some of the things that you do,
or take some of the advice. And it doesn't have to be advice, it could just be you know an inspirational
something that you're doing that inspires them. You know, for example, I follow someone that every day
she posts what she does in her morning routine. And even though, I might not follow her morning
routine to routine. It kind of inspires me that maybe I should have a routine. I love following it because
that accountability or that encouragement that I see from her, just by what she's doing documenting
her everyday life encourages me in upleveling what I do in mind. So consider that, where does
your audience hang out? What are they looking for? And you might look at every platform and think,
what are most people doing on this platform? I know that I go to Pinterest when I need
fitness inspiration or recipes. So, a business that might you know advertise to me on there could be
maybe it's a meal prep business and they might have great content that catches my attention.
So think about your audience, where are they? What are they looking for, that your products and
services your offers, might best cater to where they're already consuming content. So with that said,
where does your audience hang out? Let me know in the comments below. And are you spending
enough time there or are you maybe gonna redirect your strategy? The second most important part of
your social media strategy is to do your research. I'm talking keyword research, competitor research,
market research. What are the keywords? What are the things that people are searching for
that maybe you can make content about? There's tools like google trends, google keyword planner,
SEMrush where you can actually search for the topics that might have to do with your expertise,
so the topics you speak on and look at how people are actually searching for that. Make content about
exactly that, look at your competitors in this industry. Whether and it might not always be your competitors,
but it could be also other people in a similar space to you and see what kind of content
they're creating. See what's working well for them. See what's what might not be working well for them,
and how can you learn from that in creating your social media strategy. And market research,
what is the audience already telling you that they want? What are they maybe already posting about?
What are the frequently asked questions that you're getting, that you can answer? You can create
a framework, a system, a strategy and deliver that to them in social media content. Maybe you give
them the next step by creating a checklist, or an e-book, or a video series. Where they can opt-in to
get it and take the next step in being nurtured in a relationship with you. So that research is going
to be so important, that you're not just creating content for the sake of content. You're not just
throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. You're making content based on research
that you know your audience is looking for. Lastly, we're going to talk about what metrics you should ignore.
Now, most of the time I would say, look at all the metrics. Look at the metrics like
your engagement rate, your growth, and where people... that's all so important. but here's
what I actually want to encourage you to ignore. I want you to ignore the vanity metrics .I know, a lot
of people that caught up, get caught up in their head like, "I only have 100 followers", "I only have...",
that doesn't matter. There's a book called "1,000 True Fans", you can grow a massive
business with a small audience. I actually teach this, that there's a lot of people with like broke YouTubers,
people who have big audiences but they don't know how to monetize it. The size of your
audience isn't the most important thing when it comes to the relationships you build and the
growth that you can have in your business. You can have a small audience but have the most engaged,
and nurtured, and intimate audience that leads to building your movement. And that growth is going to
come over time when you focus on the relationship, even if it's one person at a time that will grow.
But if you focus on the vanity metrics of, "Oh, I need to have thousands of followers for me to feel
excited about this". Your audience might feel that, that the intention isn't focused on the relationship.
The intention needs to be focused on the relationship in order to build more of them.
So focus on your audience even if it's small, knowing that it will grow because of where your heart is.
If you're looking to not only build your audience but to turn them into leads in your funnel.
What if I told you that I've actually mapped out the next step of your sequence to bring in
your audience from front end all the way to high ticket. I call it my 'Infinite Cash Flow blueprint".
I have linked it in the video description below for you to get access to for free.