Top Five (5) Tips to Find and Engage Audience with Social Media

Finding an online audience is only half the equation, finding and active audience and fostering a participatory culture are the most import...

Finding an online audience is only half the equation, finding and active audience and fostering a participatory culture are the most important things. Are you wondering what I mean by ‘participatory culture?’ If you search it, you’ll get a huge cataloger of cultural theory papers that aren't a huge help. So we’re making is super simple for you; involving your customers in your organization builds strong ties with audiences and here’s five simple ways you can build and engage the RIGHT kind of audience online.

Reply to everything, good or bad - If you don’t reply to everything that your audiences say, they’re not going to feel as though they can freely post. Let people know about it! If you’re afraid to communicate yourself, it creates a culture of silence around your Social Media presence, which is never ideal.

Follow these Audience Mantra:

Dignity - never call out someone or reveal personal details.
Humor - keep it tasteful and witty, nothing lowbrow.
Gratitude - give thanks to contributors, no matter how small.
Respect. - Opinions and views, as long as it are not offensive.
Showing those four virtues toward your audience will create an excellent online culture.

Share Your Passion:

Speaking to your audiences is about creating relationships based on common goals or interests. Share your audiences contributions to your page, it makes them valuable and creates a culture of conversation.

5 Minute Content Schedules:

Small businesses particularly struggle with social media, finding it time consuming and confusing. You don’t need anything mind blowing, consistency is key. If take 5 minutes every few days to post something, you will eventually position your social media presence to create a more confident and authoritative feel to your social media presence. This makes you more trustworthy.

Listen Hard:

Use analytic tools from Google or Facebook to learn about which content stimulates your online audience most and use some instinct to tailor and select relevant content. Examine their behaviors and learn from them.

Be Visual:

Use video and images that take the effort out of your communications. Illustrating your messages with imagery is extremely effective across social media and flares up a response more than text.