If you’re just starting out as a content creator, there’s a good chance that the majority of your audience is made up of family and friends. Unfortunately, your personal network isn’t going to get you to where you want to be - which is why we’ve compiled a list of the top tips for creators to reach a wider network.
Essentially, everyone trying to turn social media into a primary source of income needs to come up with a creator’s strategy to grow their audience. This means you’ll need to figure out how to create a larger audience base for ongoing and optimal levels of success.
Let’s dive in!
Identify Your Unique Niche
Figuring out your niche is arguably the most important tip for a creator’s strategy to grow their audience. Choosing a niche isn’t just about picking a cool topic that’s trending. It’s about figuring out who you are as a creator, what your message is, and what value you can offer an audience.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here, you just have to figure out what it is you’re all about and what sets you apart from similar creators. So, think about the following:
- What are you passionate about?
- What are your own experiences with the things that you’re passionate about?
- What exactly can you share regarding these topics and your experiences with them?
- What do you stand for morally, ethically, politically, inclusively, etc when it comes to these topics?
- What are the other creators in this niche doing and what aren’t they doing?
This may take a little soul searching, but once you sit down and hammer out the details and review the other creators in space, you’ll be able to figure out where you fit in and what you have to offer.
Get to Know Your Audience
This one is just as important as getting to know yourself as a creator. If you don’t know exactly who you’re trying to reach, then you’ll end up casting too wide of a net and not getting much of a return. However, if you know who your “people” are and where they hang out and how they think, you can cast a more intentional net and get much better results.
Audience research is a tried and true marketing tactic that anyone campaigning for brand awareness starts with. Ideally, as a creator, you want everyone to take an interest in your content. However, that’s not going to happen because not everyone is going to be interested in your brand of comedy, shoes, dog training, MMA, books, and so on.
Therefore you want to target the people who are interested in your niche. This means figuring out what kind of content they want, what they like and dislike, and other demographic details. You can start by researching the other creators within your niche to see where they generate the most followers and interactions.
From there, you can take a look at which posts specifically their followers are engaging with, what they’re saying, and what the creators are doing to get their followers to willingly subscribe to their other most exclusive channels, such as TrueFanz, Patreon, etc.
Engage With Your Followers in Genuine Ways
Scheduling posts for the week is excellent, especially if your hashtags are on point and your posts are shareable. However, you need to do more than just put out cool videos and images.
You also need to talk to your audience!
Take the time to read what your followers are saying and show your interest in them with thoughtful responses. The internet is a vast universe of people vying for a connection to others, especially the people they relate to and therefore follow.
By personally engaging with your following, you’ll create unique relationships with those who support you. Those people will be more likely to share your content with friends and family, leading to a growing number of followers and more loyalty from your existing audience.
