Social media has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 12% since 2012 according to a recent article by Hootsuite. With this growth it is becoming even more important to have a presence to reach your audience, but how do you find YOUR social media audience?
People can become obsessed by the follower numbers, but your goal should be seeking out the right audience, who are genuinely interested in your brand and products. Those that will convert to loyal supporters and customers. I understand for credibility you would want to have a respectable number but better to have real followers with genuine interest, right? (It is through this that you will have great engagement, which the social channels will like and push your content out to a larger audience that aren’t following you.
Here are 7 of the best ways to find your audience:
1.First impressions are important. Review your bio
This is the first impression people have of you and so it counts. You need a killer bio that includes a searchable keyword in your name. On Instagram you are wanting to try and show up in your target audience’s “suggested for you” list. This is one of the most important ways to end up on here.
Tip: you are a agency – make sure you add “agency” in the name but also your niche. Think of how people would search for your product on google.
2. Connecting and Engaging
The clue is in the name! You need to get social on social channels and spend time investing in building connections and relationships. If you are relatively new on a channel, I would in fact suggest 80% of time is spent engaging and only 20% content creation to begin with. You are warming up an audience, so they are more inclined to engage in your contact as you increase the volume of content you are sharing. But ensure that that engagement isn’t just one word, add value and comment in a meaningful way also do this to stories as well as posts. When people are engaging with your content or via Dm’s ensure you reply to them all. Also, ensure you are seeking out new accounts to engage with on a regular basis. I would suggest at least 10 a week and according to some experts 5 a day!
3. Connect with industry peers, these are similar business owners, but not direct competitors. This is going to be the best way to connect and engage with like-minded people in your niche for collaborations and ideas. One of the best ways to get in front of new social media audiences is going live with someone. It gets you seen by their audience and new opportunities for exposure. Or use stories to share some of the content you love but always add a way your own followers can engage with it. Tip: don’t follow 100s of accounts in the hope they will follow you. I always tell clients the number of accounts you follow shouldn’t exceed your own following. The reason for this is it’s not a genuine connection when you just follow and ghost them but also it is hard to engage with the right people if your feed is full of these types of accounts.
4. Competitors
Have you identified your key competitors? Once you have them, you need to focus on hashtags they are using and pick out key ones to use with your own content when relevant. Also engage with their most loyal followers on their content (not on the competitor’s content though!!), as they may prefer your product when they discover you, but you have to go out and find them. In the case of competitors’ followers, they are already a lukewarm audience and so are likely to be easier to convert.
5. Collaboration
This can come in all kinds of forms.. But to improve your reach, working on things such as giveaways, guest posts both for you to do for others and vice versa, podcast guest can all be hugely beneficial when you strategically choose who you are collaborating with.
6. Listen to the loyal audience you have created!
Are you using insights and reviewing what content is working best? There is nothing wrong in repeating content that has worked well. Also, certain longer format content can also create multiple pieces of content. This leads me on to the next point that you also need to review the content formats that work best. For example, if reels are outperforming static posts try and add more of them.
7. Consistency
You need to show up consistently to get noticed. The easiest way to do this is create content in batches and use a scheduler so that the content is being shared at the optimum time for reaching your social media audience. There is a whole spectrum of scheduling tools, my favourite for Instagram is Planoly as it is visual and very user friendly but isn’t free. A lot of people love the Facebook business suite or even Canva if you are using this to create content.
In summary, social media is a very powerful way of finding your audience and vital to the growth of your business. It’s a free marketing tool but you do need to invest the time and be strategic in how you use it to get through the noise to get noticed.
Anna Jones, founder of Your AJency, is a creative marketing expert who uses her commercial retail experience of running London flagships, marketing knowledge, and global perspective to connect her clients to the right people to support them grow.
Your AJency is a global strategic marketing agency based in Chicago led by British national, Anna Jones. Your AJency works with ambitious female founded small businesses run by brave disruptors and innovators. We specialise in strategic storytelling (marketing) that supports these business’s growth goals and connects them to a community of loyal supporters and future clients.
Our clients are hand selected based on their ambition, drive and uniqueness. These passionate leaders are ready to accelerate their growth but need expertise to make that happen. We believe every business has a secret sauce and an audience they haven’t reached yet. Once we understand the magic, we apply ours.
In 2021, every single one of Your Ajency’s clients grew both in revenue as well as social presence. They have all got closer to creating the brand they want! Something we are extremely proud of.