What are the best tactics for building an online audience via social media?

Great question Duaa. Let's focus on small business.

Thanks to social media, small businesses have never had more tools to help build their audience.

Knowing that is the easy part.

Knowing how to use these tools effectively , that’s where things get a bit more complicated.

Well! I think that Using social media to build your audience starts with being active in all the places your audience already hangs out.

For most businesses this means starting with Facebook.

But, based on the people you’re trying to reach, you may also want to get setup on:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• Instagram
• Google+

Once you get setup, you can start to build your social media presence by promoting it to the people you already know.

Add links from your website, put up signs in your store or office, and leverage your email list by adding links to your social pages in your regular email newsletters.  You may even consider running a special announcement to call out your social pages directly.

You can also try an exclusive offer, promotion, or sweepstakes to encourage people to connect with you.

In just a short time, you can build anactive audience of people who already know your business, are familiar with the products and service you provide, and are eager to show their support.

Next, you need to engage them.

Post updates from your business, share photos, ask questions, and make sure to monitor these engagements so you never miss a chance to answer a question or respond to feedback.

Come up with a posting schedule that works for you. If you’re having difficulty sticking to your schedule, look for tools to improve social media productivity.

Here’s the most important part: each time your audience engages with you on social media it creates an opportunity to increase your social visibility.

The more people like your status updates, comment on your photos, or share a link that you’ve posted, the more opportunities you’ll have to expand your audience.

This is why the content you share is so important.

When starting out, the content you share may just be status updates or photos you snap at your store or office.

But you should also look to create more in-depth pieces of content as well.

Content is the currency of the internet.

It’s what attracts attention, it’s what people search for, it’s what people consume, it’s what people share, and it’s what can lead people to your business.

As you continue to create fresh shareable content, you’ll soon find that there’s an audience of people waiting for the next piece of content you put out. The likes, comments, and shares that may have been difficult to find before will become more common.

Now, you can take things a step further and identify the most active members of your growing audience.

Keep in mind that the people who are constantly reading and sharing your content, are not always going to be your most frequent customers.

And that’s okay!

These are still people who are learning about your business, love what you have to say, and are helping you reach your next great customer every time they comment, like, or share.

By continuing to create content that’s relevant and interesting to them, you’ll keep your biggest advocates engaged. When you do have something to promote, they’ll be there to help spread the word.

Sounds pretty simple, right. Social media gets complicated when you’re trying to turn every new fan or follower into a paying customer. It gets a lot simpler, when you shift your focus toward building an engaged audience.

When it comes to your audience, quality will always trump quantity.

By following a strategy like this one — that’s dependant on engaging and informing your fans, rather than overwhelming them with promotions — you’ll build an audience of people who are loyal, vocal, and highly engaged with your business. It’s these people who help you most when you do have something to promote.

From my own view, that’s the type of audience every small business should hope for!

Firstly it is to engage with your community; start with your current network by using mailshot software and/or newsletters about your brand. Word-of-mouth can be effective, but not enough therefore a monetary investment is also required to promote the content your profile hosts.An online audience always has an opinion so encourage discussion on your brand and its relevance to current affairs within your industry is also mandatory.

Thank you for the invite, Dua.

 

If you are a small business or are an entity that does not have a social presence, the best way to start is to ask yourself "Why do I need to be on social media?" (If you have never watched Simon Sinek's TED talk Start With Why, take a few minutes to watch this. It puts a great deal into perspective not just about social media but with other aspects in life: How great leaders inspire action ) The obvious answer is that everyone wants to gain exposure for their brand, but not all networks are created equal. Just because you are on Facebook, doesn't mean that you need to be on SnapChat, and if you're on Twitter doesn't mean you need to be on Houzz.  You need to start with what works for your business, and more over your industry and then grow from there.

Once you have identified the networks that are worth your time, it's best to determine which avenue is best for your social growth. Do you want to grow organically and have it take time for it to grow on its own or do you want to have a little spend so that way you can have people see you quicker? If you have it to spend, I would suggest doing something small as a test to see what works. If you are looking to have someone join your team to help out with this, just know that if your 17 year old cousin or niece is on Twitter all day, that does NOT mean that they are well versed in social.

There is a whole analysis that goes into what works and what doesn't work, and if you have someone who doesn't know how to do it the right way and you give them a spend per social network of $200 and they blow through it and you don't see the results, don't wonder why. With whatever way that you choose, remember to keep refreshing your content. No one likes to keep seeing the same commercial over and over for 3 months, so why would your images or videos be any different? Spice things up! Try different things! Be funny! Creating content that people can connect with is what is going to set you apart.

Concentrate on Increasing Daily Updates Ensuring that your posts and updates have a good chance to be seen by your target audience is an integral part of a content strategy.  Frequency: Post around 5-10 times a day on Twitter and 1-4 times a day on Facebook for optimal outcome. Timing: Almost all research studies highlight the main work hours from 8 am to 8 pm as good times to tweet and post to Facebook. Multiple sites: Post to multiple social sites, in addition to your own blog or website.

Nice question thank you for the opportunity

let me use facebooka and twitter

just like when you want to build a house u start with a foundation, in social media the foundation is having many friends for facebook, join many groups, and for twitter follow many

1. having done the above you have a  foundation you need to strart building the structure => use your friends as the raw material by inviting to like your page then tell them to invite their friends for twitter the people you follow do a followback. 2. have captivating content that will intrest the person to read like share with his friends. for twitter be active respond to tweets and join in trending post and keep replying on people this will act as an advertising for you. 3. you can also pay to the various campaigns

- Be consistent. - Curate/Create/Post content. EVERY SINGLE DAY. - Communicate with your fan base and get to know them. - Let them get to know your company and the employees. - Analyze once a week- Repeat. 

Hi Duaa, thanks for the A2A.

Identify the key objectives behind your online and social presence. Optimize it using effective social and digital practices. Research your target audience and the market segment your industry operates in. 

Create an online presence for your client or employer, where your target audience is active the most. Follow your competition and industry peers. Create highly effective content that is most identifiable with your audiemce. Make sure to constantly measure the performance of your posts and efforts online using paid or integrated dashboards.

Invest and create in a video strategy. Find your and connect with your most engaged and loyal cheerleaders and incentivize them.

These are broadly told, hope this helps.

The best advice is share Quality Content following a coherent editorial line. I mean you are talking about Medical Devices, you should share information, news and  relevant data about a Medical Devices and Medical Industry. The you will be able to build a serios on-line reputation.

Thank you For the invite Miss Duaa...

The best tactics for building an online audience is...

Aproaching...

It was a time whn people used to go door to door for selling thr products they use to approach everyone saying about the new arrival in the market... that system is known as Direct Marketing which has now gained a level in approaching people across the globe on just a click of a button which is known as Social Media Marketing... u have got a platform an easy way to approach u just need to be presentable and creative while approaching... Facebook u hav millions of users make a page share with ur frnds... Now here is the thing approaching... how u do it is imp... u need to impress few to liked by many... be creative, presentable, impressive and u will get ur online audience...

Create Relevent, creative and engaging content for you social channel