By Elizabeth Lambe

I love to talk. Mostly because I love getting to know people. I am the person who holds up the checkout line because I am asking the cashier to tell me their life story. You could put me in front of a wall and I’d probably start asking questions about its deepest desires. But I wouldn’t get much of a response.  It would be a one-way conversion that would likely accomplish nothing. And that, friends, is the best way to describe posting to a social media account without an audience. 

One of the most common misconceptions about social media defines it as a one-way street meant purely to churn out information. You can treat it as such, but then you are spending all of your time and effort talking to a wall. Unless you really enjoy a good wall, audience building should be one of your first steps when building out social media accounts. 

I always recommend having six posts before you begin the audience-build process. You won’t get many impressions on these, but when people click on your profile they can see what you are about and know you aren’t a spam account. Once these posts are live, it is time to start making some friends! 

Instagram and Twitter work similarly when it comes to building a following. You want to start following people so that you pop up in their notification feed and they check out your account, hopefully following you back. I like to start my audience build by focusing on influencers in the region. Find out who they are following and who follows them. Then follow those people too! If you are looking for a quick and easy way to narrow down the list,  look at individuals who engage with the influencer’s account, those who like and comment on posts. Active users are much more likely to follow you back and interact with your account as well. 

Next, turn to community partners and/or people who do similar work as you. Individuals who have interest in those accounts will likely have interest in your account too. Start following their followers. 

Throughout this process, engage with influencers, community partners, and active social media users . Like their posts and leave comments when you can. Retweet or share their posts to your story, depending on the platform. Show that you are ready for a conversation! Plus, engagement is a great way to get your name out there. Say someone follows the I Love Memphis Blog on Instagram, but they have never heard of you. They are scrolling through the comments on an I Love Memphis post, and they come across one from you. That puts your name in front of them and opens the door for them to explore your profile.

While engagement is still critical, Facebook and LinkedIn do look a little different when it comes to building an audience. For these platforms, you must invite people to your page. Every business page has individuals as admins. Each of these admins has the opportunity to send invites out to their friends. Invite, invite, invite! 

And just like that, the wall comes down and you’ve built yourself an audience!