There are more social networks on the web than we realize. There are the big names such as Twitter and Facebook, but there are smaller communities as well. With so many different social networks on the web, it becomes difficult to find articles for those social networks and know how to grow a big audience.
Each social network has its unique set of features. Twitter only permits posts under 140 characters, Facebook has no limit, and on Pinterest and Instagram, you cannot send out a post unless it has a picture. No matter how different one social network is from the other, there are three social media tips that apply to growing a big audience on any social network.
#1: Interact
Some people ignore interacting with their audience while other people interact with numerous people on a daily basis. This is one of the few things where there actually seems to be no in between. You need to interact with all of the people who share your tweets to their followers and ask you questions.
In addition to interacting with your audience, it is important to interact with people who are the following:
- Not in your audience
- People who would be very likely to join your audience
If you interact with these people, you will grow your audience. Better yet, your audience will consist of like-minded people. Having an audience of like-minded people will result in your articles getting more attention from your audience.
#2: A number is just a number
It is better to have 1,000 targeted followers than it is to have 100,000 fake followers and no real ones. This is a true fact on any social network. Some people may believe that having the 100,000 fake followers boosts credibility because of the big number. However, these people do get caught, and being caught has the power to destroy all of those people’s authorities on those social networks.
No matter how low the prices drop for fake followers (some sites offer 1,000 fake followers for $8 nowadays), never give in and buy the followers. Even if it eventually costs just $4 for 1,000 fake followers, it is not worth it. Those are fake people who will never engage with your posts or buy anything from you.
In addition, buying fake followers will make your real followers feel uncomfortable. No one goes from 1,000 real followers to 50,000 real followers overnight unless they are a celebrity. If you make that overnight transition, chances are a bunch of your real followers will unfollow you.
Some fake follower sellers have threatened big blogs on the web that expose how the fake follower industry works. One fake follower seller threatened the Daily Dot by saying if the popular blog did not remove a certain article about fake followers, the seller would get tens of thousands of fake followers to follow the Daily Dot’s Twitter account.
In other words, this seller was threatening the Daily Dot with a free “service” normally worth $800. That sounds fishy, as buying fake followers should. Here is the Daily Dot’s article about what happened.
#3: Post consistently
You need to post at a consistent rate so people see you often. For a majority of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, that means sending out dozens of posts every day. I send out about 100 tweets every day, and that does not include when I am thanking someone for sharing one of my blog posts or anything like that.
The more often you post, the more your followers are going to see you. There are some disputes based on the ideal number of times to post. That varies from social network to social network, but based on what is up on the web, you should be posting at least one update on every social network every day with the exclusion of YouTube which should be once every 1-2 weeks.
In Conclusion
Social networks are different in many ways, but they all share some similarities. Each time you successfully grow a large social media audience, it becomes easier to grow an audience on your other social media accounts.
Are there any other social media tips you would like to share?
Hi Marc, thanks for your insight and sharing your experiences. I have been on social media for years and have only recently begun blogging. I excitedly set up my site, cried a few frustration tears trying to quickly learn what to do, how to use the tools etc…then burnt out, became overwhelmed and stopped the past few weeks. I hired a college girl who is good at this to get me out of the weeds and get me on-track, she is coming Wednesday. In the meantime, I wanted to say thanks. You are an angel!
Thank you Carlyn. I appreciate the compliment. I am very proud of you for starting your own blog. Remember that although you may be in the struggle now, the struggle is only temporary. When I started this blog, I had no idea what to do. Plugins were foreign to me, I got no traffic, and many of my blog posts had typos. You are going to get better as the journey progresses. The growth is going to happen. Just stick with blogging, learn new techniques along the way, and you’ll do fine.