Monday, February 26, 2018

3 Ways to Build a Social Media Audience that Loves You


by Bethany Jett @BetJett

We must think about our content from our audience’s point of view and focus on the results they want, not the products we offer (aka, our books). In Headlines that Make You Rich, David Garfinkel says “The O.M. Scott and Sons Company was founded in 1907 as a mail-order seller of grass seed. Mr. Scott once told his employees that their customers weren't buying grass seed from the company; ‘They're buying greener lawns.’”

1. Identify the Pain Point
Our first order of business when posting on social media is asking ourselves, “What does my customer/reader/audience want?” We need to step inside their minds for a moment and figure out what the pain point is. With the O.M. Scott and Sons Company, a pain point for their customers was grass-less or brown yards. Put yourself into a consumer mentality for a moment and consider your own pain points.

Your audience has more than one pain point, so come up with a list of three-five things that your audience needs help with. Continuing with our example, a brown lawn is a problem, but perhaps watering issues and pests could be added to the list, too.

2. Engage with your Audience.
If you’re having trouble figuring out the pain points, feel free to crowdsource by asking questions on social media. Get feedback, but remember that often times people don’t know what they want, they only know what the problem is. An often attributed (but not verified) quote by Henry Ford is “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Take the feedback but don’t let it polarize you and more importantly, don’t let it squash your instincts. Be brave enough to test content with your audience. If your audience responds with engagement and shares, then you’ve hit a winning combination.

As Simon Sinek, famous for his TedTalk: How Great Leaders Inspire Action with over 37,000,000 views, says “What good is an idea if it remains an idea? Try. Experiment. Iterate. Fail. Try again. Change the world.”

Additionally, you can become an investigator by performing strategic searches. Use http://search.twitter.com/ to see how people are talking about your topic on Twitter. Search Instagram for relevant hashtags and then pay attention to the captions that people are writing and how their audience has connected with them.

When you have something valuable to add, say it!

If someone is asking a question on Twitter and you know the answer, respond with a link to a resource but don’t ask them to buy anything. Give them content for free - whether it’s your content or you share a link to someone else’s article. The point is that you’ve added value and engaged with your targeted audience.

3. Create Valuable Content
Items #2 and #3 on this list are interchangeable and often simultaneous. Your audience will tell you what they want and the results will be obvious because people vote with their time and their checkbooks.

It’s always fascinating to watch an episode of Kitchen Nightmares, where Michelin star celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey helps struggling restaurants get back on their feet. The owners are always flabbergasted by the lack of customers and are often unwilling to admit when their content (in their case, the food) isn’t working.

Some ways to create valuable content are making a top ten list, offering solutions to the problem, sharing real life examples and stories (think Chicken Soup for the Soul) that provide a takeaway, and creating step-by-step instructions with graphics. The possibilities are endless, actually. You can film yourself and post the video as a tutorial, which you can upload to YouTube and then share to the appropriate social media channels.

Pay attention to how your audience responds and…surprise!…cycle back to #2 and engage! Respond to the people who took the time to leave a comment.

Answer questions.

Give! Give! Give!


Word of mouth is one of the strongest marketing strategies and if you have great content, a fabulous product, and genuinely care about your customers, not only will they return, they’ll tell their friends. This cycle will build raving fans and a supportive and interactive audience that loves you.

TWEETABLES


Author and entrepreneur Bethany Jett creates the ultimate #MomBoss life with her military husband and three sons as she homeschools, co-runs two companies, and works her on Masters of Fine Arts degree in marketing and public relations. Get her Live Brilliant 30-Day Challenge checklist here.    

3 comments:

  1. Bethany, Thank you for the poignant tips. I forget to engage. Now that I have my niche, I will concentrate on providing good content. God bless you, girl.

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  2. Bethany, your tips are so helpful. I need to take some time and think through your suggestions to determine how I can best utilize them. I especially appreciate how you describe pain points. This is so helpful!

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  3. this is great--thank you! I'm constantly trying to walk the line between "My social media is my private life" and "I really need to nurture this audience!"

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