Influencer marketing has been the one big thing that is taking content-driven marketing places. Social media influencers with a loyal follower base are now the favourite choice for many big brands. Most importantly, they bridge the gap between brands and end-users. Be it a new brand or a multi-national established one, companies are queuing up to invest in the influencers who have a knack in engaging the audiences. It is now an undebatable point that influencers are stacking up both fame and money in no time.
If you are one of such aspirants who wish to build your own connections with the audiences, this blog is for you. Here are a few proven tips to build and grow your audience that worked wonders for influencers from different industries around the globe.
1. Frame a perfect strategy
A perfect strategy not only helps you in meeting the target effectively but will also get you an advantageous position amongst many other influencers in the industry. This involves strategically managing your social media activity and work with brands that seek your endorsements. Building up a long-term strategy seems to take time but it is proven to give remarkable results with a loyal follower base.
2. Discover your unique point
Find answers for why a person should consider you amongst many other influencers in the industry. Discover what value you can add to your content to bring in a particular set of loyal followers. Set a few core values and stick to them throughout your journey.
Here are the steps you can take to determine your unique selling point,
- Make a list of what you know about your target audience
- Make a list of all the needs that your channel/page could meet
- Screen these against trends and competitors. Now remove the selling points that are already being well met by competitors
- Match each potential unique point against what you are especially good at, and how you want to be seen
- Talk with people in your target market to choose the strongest unique points for your business
- Double-check that you have the right points. Check whether it conveys one strong benefit? Is it really unique – or could a competitor claim the same thing?
- Use this positioning to develop your channel/page and your marketing strategy. Evaluate your activities using your unique as a benchmark.
- Keep monitoring trends and new competitors that could affect how customers see your unique point
3. Create content that resonates with followers
Your content sends a continuous message of how passionate you are in sharing knowledge with your followers. When you take time to build the audience base, consider it to be an important point to share info for free. This will not only establish a trust between you and your followers but will also build anticipation to subscribe when you will make it a paid one. Check continuously whether you are catering right content to your audiences.
4. Be active in interacting with the followers
Apart from consistent knowledge sharing, establish a one-to-one bond with your followers that can help you in strengthening your brand image. Scheduling regular interactive sessions with the followers and sharing your stories and experiences that benefit them will leave a positive impact on your channel. Plan frequent live sessions on different social media platforms to interact with enthusiastic followers.
5. Stay honest with your reviews
Always be transparent about the information you are sharing, and stay authentic to the brand building trust. With easily available sources of information around, people are now more aware of the things going on. Always remember that we can’t bluff them. They want to connect with and learn from individuals who are true to their personal brand.
6. A big no for shortcuts
In this advanced world, hacks and short cuts are always around that lure you. Don’t fall for techniques like buying followers, using bots and to join engagement pods. Search engines are coming with new social algorithms that can detect these black hat techniques. These unethical tactics show devastating effects on your rankings and traffic sometimes resulting in the website ban. Instead, stick to organic techniques which reap brilliant results.
7. Collaboration is the new mantra
The biggest opportunity for Social Networks is the opportunity to collaborate. Teaming up with other social media influencers will help you in fetching a new set of audience and in increasing your reach. This will also encourage your followers to explore and to utilise the opportunities. Teaming up with certain famous people who already have good followers base will help you to attract many viewers consistently and expand your social reach.
Here are some of the all-time favourite collaborations that broke the internet.
Dwayne Johnson and Grace Helbig
Miranda Sings and Fifth Harmony
Lilly Singh with Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama
8. Patience is the key
Setting a worthwhile strategy, tuning into a loyal follower base and building a library of evergreen media will take a few months of time where patience plays a key role. Take your own time in creating a content base and never fall to the negative comments you receive. Rather consider these as feedback that triggers you to push yourself further.
Warren Buffett, one of the richest investors in the world earned 99 per cent of his immense wealth after his 50’s. Though he started his financial path toward wealth at a very young age, he built his fortune slowly over the years, decade by decade. something we can all do with a little perseverance and a lot of hard work.
