5 Ways to Grow Your Social Media Audience
Take things slow.
Don’t overhaul your social media program quickly based on new or expected parameters. Make incremental changes and prioritize what’s most important to your social media strategy. Then evaluate monthly what’s working well and what’s not and adjust accordingly. If you change too many things at once you won’t know what it working and what isn’t.
Stay true to yourself.
Just because #bikinipics get lots of likes, doesn’t mean you have to post bikini pics. Your audience follows you because they like you, and your unique perspective / content - if they begin to feel like your posts are becoming “mainstream”, you may begin to lose the followers you really want to keep, in exchange for temporary followers who are more likely to unfollow when you go back to your regular content.
Be consistent.
Plan content ahead of time. Posting consistently is a #majorkey for success. If you working 9-5 (like me… not complaining!) that means you probably don't have tons of content to publish during the week. Plan ahead of the weekend, shoot a few extra shots that will last you through the week, and if you want to go the extra mile, download a scheduling app like Buffer, that will post your content for you throughout the week so you don’t have to remember to!
Engage with your audience.
If someone took the time to like or comment on your photo, you should always answer them. If they took the time to DM you because they liked something they saw in one of your stories, you should ALWAYS respond. Social media is about building communities, and connecting with people. Engaging with people makes them feel like they are being heard, you care about their opinion, and you appreciate their feedback - so do it!
Pay attention to the numbers.
If you are planning on making social media a priority (more than just a place where your fam and friends like your dog pics) you need to change your account to a business account. It’s free and it will provide you with access to data and analytics regarding your engagement, likes, shares, most liked / shared / saved photos, audience demographics, best time of day to post, and much more. Using this information to inform your social media strategy will help you achieve your goals so much faster than regular trial and error.
Make beautiful content.
As you decide what to craft and publish on your blog and social media platforms, make sure your content educates, entertains, or inspires their readers and followers; it is content that gets conversions. You want you content to be responded to and shared.
