Building a Social Media Audience

building your digital audience(how to gain more fans, followers and subscribers)

Angelina Tagliafierro October 3, 2012

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

everyone wants a

bigger audience


but maybe they should aim for a

better audience


social media is all about the social


building relationshipsestablishing trust

telling a storysharing with friends

social media is all about the social


so how do you, as a publisher, enter this discourse?


by being a human being

(and not a marketing robot)


FacebookTwitterEmail


FacebookTwitterEmailPinterestBlogsGoogle+and everything else...


a few things to keep in mind across platforms:


recencyrelevancyregularityengagementauthenticityconsistency


Facebook:

increasing exposure


Facebook: external stuff!

embed widgets on your website-searching for “social plugins” on developers.facebook.com brings up 10+ options

invite email subscribers -give them an incentive to click, e.g. exclusive content

link from your email signature-don’t send out an email without a link to your social media presence!


Facebook: more external stuff!

print media (the old fashioned way!)-put the Facebook logo on everything...business cards, newsletters, ads... link to Twitter-and vice versa. Twitter will auto-crop and post everything you write on Facebook, but be careful because not all content works well on both platforms! -this is not a substitute for tweeting!


Facebook: internal stuff!

get fans to share/tag photos from your page-every tag is putting your page into fans’ News Feeds, and their friends’ News Feeds

facebook ads-like Monique’s Scaredy Squirrel example, carefully targeted ads can work!

run a contest-requires a third party app like Wildfire, but it can bring big numbers in. people like free stuff.


Facebook: more internal stuff!

tag pages/share stuff/like stuff/comment on stuff -shows off your page name to other people’s followers

DON’T FORGET EDGE RANK!-edge rank is Facebook’s way of ranking News Feed posts -based on the level of engagement between a fan and a page (“affinity”), the type of content in a post(“weight”), and how quickly that content is responded to by fans (“time”)-determines where, and if, your post will show up at all on a fan’s News Feed


Twitter:

getting followers


Twitter: external stuff!

embed widgets on your website-twitter.com has their own custom-widget builder

use an app to schedule tweets-e.g. Hootsuite, which allows you to have a voice even when you aren’t at work-free version also conveniently measures RTs, link clicks, demographics and other handy metrics


Twitter: external stuff!

link to Facebook-but be careful, because the tweets need to be frequent to have impact, and will probably look spammy on a Facebook page

avoid spammy auto-follow services -yes they might increase your numbers, but these numbers are probably artificial and could get your account frozen


Twitter: internal stuff!

get your twitter handle out there-shows off your page name to other people’s followers-talk @other users (especially important people with lots of followers)-RT things-offer opinions

look for people you know (at least sort of)-e.g. Hey @ataglia, great seeing you at the launch party last night!-follow people in your industry: what are they talking about, and can we join in the conversation?



play with trending topics-#Vancouver might be a little broad to find a specific audience, but #minitoc or something similar might connect you with more relevant people-don’t underestimate a #FF

post smart-socialmediaexaminer.com suggests you look at tweets as small blog posts: tell a story in 140 characters!-be timely. how many people will see that tweet at midnight on Sunday?



run a contest-people always like free stuff. but use sparingly, because they might just be there for the free stuff, and not for your amazing tweets

organic followers -the most valuable on Twitter (and probably everywhere on the web, because they came to you)


Email:

getting subscribers to the prehistoric


Email: external stuff!

use an email manager -services like MailChimp help you avoid spam filters-also allow personalization of mass emails (e.g. Dear So-and-so)

action-based incentives-subscribe now to receive (x)% off!

combine platforms-if your email updates aren’t interesting enough to talk about elsewhere, they should be. link from Facebook and Twitter!


Email: internal stuff!

write good email headers-if it doesn’t hook them, they’re already lost

careful about spam filters and spam laws-if your emails are getting caught in the net, no one sees them-be careful with language, punctuation, etc.-the laws are always changing, but recipients need the right to unsubscribe


in the end...

no method is perfect,every audience is different,and things are always changing,

so trial and error is the key. react to what works and quit doing what doesn’t!
