Use Influencer Marketing to Grow Your Social Media Audience
To become an influencer you need an audience. As your audience grows you need to make sure that your audience remains engaged with your content. A growing and engaged audience will help you will be discovered by more brands and be able to charge more money for sponsored posts.
How do I increase the engagement from my audience and make sure that I am doing everything I can to gain new followers?
Use the strategies below that our team at CreatorPilot have seen in action time and time again to help you make sure that you are doing everything you can to set yourself up for success.
Create an enticing bio (or About Me page on a blog)
The heart of every engaged audience is the connection between the influencer, their story and their audience. When people arrive on your page your bio needs to convey the ‘why’ behind your content. Everyone is busy, what is it about your page that deserves some of their time? Get creative with how you introduce yourself and what you offer your audience through your content. There is no right or wrong way to do it, but it needs to reflect your personality and be authentically you.
Post regularly and engage with commenters
Simply put, frequency matters. You need to create a content calendar to schedule what you will post and stick to it. The Stories feature on Instagram and Facebook are great ways to cover the day-to-day communication with your audience as things happen in your life in real time. As your audience grows (and engagement increases) you will get more and more comments on your posts. Take time to scroll through to reply and like comments. This builds a connection between you and your audience because you are accessible.
Use 10-15 relevant hashtags on each post
Hashtags are your friend and when used correctly can drive new reach and impressions which then turn into new followers. Spend a few minutes researching hashtags that have small but very niche relevance as well as the larger more popular hashtags. Mixing the size of hashtags that you use will make sure that you are attracting the right demographic of impressions which over time will positively contribute to your audience engagement.
Use captions to tell the story of your posts
Whether you consider yourself to be an influencer, blogger, vlogger or content creator, you are a storyteller. A picture can tell a 1000 words but a strong caption can do wonders for your engagement. Use your captions to add context of the story you are telling in the picture. Furthermore, you can use your captions to create engagement will call to actions like asking a question and requesting your audience to add their answer in the comments.
Only post high-quality images
This doesn’t mean you need to hire a photographer or rush out and get a new camera. Most smartphones can take very high quality photographs and free tools such as Canva allow you to create professional quality graphics from day one. This will not only make it easier to catch people’s attention but when the time comes to collaborate with brands, the better your content is the more likely a brand will reach out to pitch you.
Don’t make repeated product pitches – 20% of your posts maximum
Nobody likes being constantly sold products. It gets annoying and rarely are constant product pitches a part of your story or why people started following you in the first place. Every audience has a different tolerance for sponsored posts, you have to find what yours is. If the products you are promoting are highly relevant to your story or the journey you are taking your audience on then the number of sponsored posts you can share each week will be higher. Watch the comments on your sponsored posts to see what the sentiment is as you grow. The sweet spot will make itself known.
Post videos often
The majority of people prefer video or static images. It’s more personal and easier for your audience to connect with. Now with the option for live video on most social media you can be even more authentic with your audience as the editing on live video is limited compared to what can be done with images. You can also use the live video features to talk to your audience in real time as they ask questions and participate on the recording with you.
Build relationships with influencers in your niche
Discover influencers who your target audience engages with and seek out ways to build a relationship with them. Start by following the and engaging with their content. Like, comment and share their content where the topic or message overlaps with your own. From there reach out, ask questions and explore ways that you can collaborate with them. The credibility gained from an influencer mentioning you to an established audience that is similar to what you are building can be a great momentum builder.
Always remain authentic
Your audience wants to build a relationship with the real version of you and your story. Be yourself and be honest. If a brand reaches out to you and it isn’t a perfect fit for your story or audience, say no. As you grow your audience will value your authenticity as you ‘remain the same person’ as when they first started following you.
Support your followers/audience
From time to time you will come across follower of yours having their own successes or difficult times. When this happens don’t hesitate to help them celebrate or improve their situation. Sharing one of their stories or mentioning them in a post will go a long way to showing that you care and your audience isn’t all about you.
Respond to DMs
Your inbox is surely going to receive some messages from your audience. Don’t ignore them! Take a few minutes to check your inbox and respond (where possible) to the messages. The more accessible you can be with your audience, the more engaged they will become over time.
