How to grow your audience online
It seems almost as everyone is trying to build a community online now, whether it’s for their business, their blog, or their side hustle. Going online has the potential to be a huge money maker, if you can successfully navigated through the swollen market share and really stand out against your competitors. But if you have the stomach and the soul for it and want to get started, where do you start?
Though it can sound daunting, you do have to start somewhere. And to be successfully online, consider taking things offline in the very beginning at least. Figure out who your target market is-who is your ideal audience? Who do you want to come visit your site and how do you want them to leave? Also, where is your audience hanging out at online? What apps and types of social media sites are they using? Come up with a pseudo-business plan of what you want to accomplish online that addresses all these questions as well as what you’re willing to spend both monetarily and time wise, and how much resources you have to contribute to your dream online presence.
Then you can take it online. Build some content on your site, give it some character, some personality and have something to present when you start sharing it with friends, family , and the rest of your community. It’s about knowing yourself and your brand. I’m sure we can all attest-we get swarmed daily by cohorts to like or share their content so really make sure the content you’re providing is as authentic as you can make it without sounding too melodramatic.
Find similar blogs and see if you can partake in a community that aims to target some of the same ideas you have. Don’t be fearful of questions that you may think are stupid or should be somehow obvious with their answers. Everybody has to start somewhere and I can promise you that the people behind your favourite brands and blogs started in a pretty similar spot to which you’re in now.
And take to social media! Self promotion often seems like it’s cocky or tooting your own horn but if you know in the depths of your bones that you have something real to share with the world, the more people you can reach through various forms of social media can really work to your advantage. After all, you’re building something online so it will work to your advantage to use various forms of social media outlets to raise brand awareness and draw more and more people to your site or product. That way, you can also engage brands you look up to in hopes of catching their attention and perhaps set up a partnership as well if that’s in the realm of possibility.
The most important, though, is be realistic. Track your progress, know your numbers, and have a solid presence as well as product or brand idea that you stand behind wholeheartedly. This will be become your baby, you will probably have to defend it against somebody someday or even pitch it to potential partners or investors so be prepared to talk about the nitty gritty as well as how the day-to-day will contribute to where it will be in 5-10 years or even in a few months.
This all sounds incredibly daunting and a little risky as well, we know. But with all great things, building a brand personality, presence as well as an audience takes time and a whole lot of patience. So don’t be afraid if you feel like you’re getting nowhere. Great things often have the most humble beginnings and you never know, maybe one of your most avid readers has some of the best connections. And it is a wild, terrifyingly exhilarating ride that you’ll have plenty of stories, hardships, and also glory along the way.
