How to: Build an Audience on Social Media for your New Business?

Social media is no longer a place to hang out for teens and millennials. It has emerged as the go-to spot for brands to interact and engage with their existing and potential customers. Thus, if you are a new business, building an audience on social media is one of the first things you should do. 

Here’s a quick guide to building an audience on social media. 

Choose the Right Platform

The most important step in building an audience on social media is to choose the right social media platform. Dozens of social media channels exist, with each having hundreds of millions of users. How do you choose the right channel?

It boils down to understanding your audience and which channel they use. If your target audience is teens and millennials, Instagram could be the right pick. If you want to reach working professionals and entrepreneurs, LinkedIn can be a rewarding platform. 

Be Consistent

It’s critical to be consistent on social media. No one will follow an account that posts only once or twice a week. Ideally, businesses should post twice or thrice a day. If you don’t have enough content to post, you can reduce the frequency to once a day, but don’t go below that. 

Publish the Right Type of Content

People follow brands on social media because they want to learn something. Be sure to educate them by sharing informational content. You can share explainer videos, tutorials, infographics, white papers, reports, and other types of content that create value for your followers. 

That said, don’t entirely overlook the promotional aspect. You need to promote your product/service if you want to get sales. 

The 80-20 rule works well here. Of the content you create, 80% should be non-promotional, and 20% can be promotional. 

Interact and Engage with Your Audience

One of the major reasons people follow brands on social media is that they expect an immediate response. If they have any questions or queries, they want to send a message or tweet and get a response within minutes. 

If you want to skyrocket your following on social media, prioritize user engagement. Respond to messages and comments to engage with your audience. You can also tag your followers in your posts to increase engagement even further. 

Reward Your Audience

Finally, give your audience a reason to follow you on social media. Many brands offer exclusive rewards to their social media followers. You can reward your audience by sharing time-limited deals on social media or giving them a discount in exchange for sharing your profile with their friends. 

Final Thoughts

Gone are the days when social media was an optional marketing upgrade for brands. With more than half the world’s population using social media, new businesses need to focus on creating a robust social media presence as early as possible.

However, social media can be a bit challenging for new businesses. The above tips will act as a starting point and help you begin your social media journey the right way.