Formula For Growing Your Online Presence Via Social Media
As a marketer, one of the top questions that I ask myself at the beginning of a project is "How to sell without selling?" Because in this day and age, your audience is SMART. They know when they are being blatantly sold to, and they don't like it. Especially on social media. It's now more important than ever to use creative methods to get your content seen - and seen by the right people. Because the right people are the ones who are genuinely interested in what you're creating and are the ones who will stick around throughout your journey.
SO WHAT SEPARATES THE PEOPLE WHO SUCCEED FROM THE PEOPLE WHO DON'T SUCCEED?
Well, there's a bit of an informal formula. If you take a look at what the successful bloggers, youtubers, and top online content creators are doing, you'll see that they are all following a similar foundation in their approach to social media marketing.
Here's what you need to keep in mind...
QUALITY
When you're first starting out you might think that you need to have the highest quality videos with the best lighting and sound, or the highest quality blog photos. However, I see so many creatives who never actually launch their project because they think the production value of their content needs to be top notch right from the start. And that often seems like an unattainable goal.
Keep this in mind: as long as you are bringing value to your target audience, it's OK if your video quality or blog photo quality isn't quite where you want it to be.
Also keep in mind that this is where many big corporations fail when it comes to social media marketing. They create ultra-high quality content, but it fails to connect with their target audience because it's too polished. They approach their marketing videos and ads like commercials, which often comes across as too salesy. And that's not what people are on social media to see. Especially millennials; we can spot an ad a mile away. ;)
VALUE
People won't care about the content you create if you are not providing them with something of value. To truly succeed, you always have to be thinking about how you can bring value to your audience, and how you can help them.
Never produce a piece a content solely with the intent of getting something out of it. If you do this, you will fail. Your audience will intuitively feel that it's not genuine.
Think of your relationship with your audience as unconditional. There should be no conditions in place, meaning that your audience can access your content without being expected to do anything. You're simply giving it away to provide some value to them.
When you give away value for free without expecting anything in return, your audience is more likely to reciprocate in kind and want to give something back. This can translate into shares, follows, likes, etc. So basically, your audience will grow.
CONSISTENCY
Long story short, you need to be putting out content week-in and week-out. From day one, be consistent. You won't grow a following if those followers can't rely on you to create consistent value for them.
For example, someone might come across your YouTube channel and absolutely love your videos, but if they see that you haven't posted a video in over six months, they'll likely just watch the videos they're interested in and then leave. They won't become subscribers.
Remember that if you commit openly to your audience that you'll bring them a new video or blog post each Monday, stick to it. As soon as you miss a week you break that trust, and you'll see your growth halted.
So no matter what medium you're using to create your content, stay consistent.
AUTHENTICITY
We as people like to connect with other genuine people and their personalities. As soon as your content becomes scripted and dishonest, we lose that connection. People are attracted to raw and authentic people, which is why you shouldn't strive to put up a perfect front online. Be real. Be genuine. It's OK to make mistakes and just be you, because that makes you relatable. Embrace your unique weirdness, and you'll be golden!