When you start reading other articles about building an audience growing, an audience, etc, they will tend to focus on tactics such as buying Facebook ads to get people to like your page or guest blogging. You know speaking on podcasts, you know and also search engine optimization, and these are all good tactics and I’ll talk about that later. But the first and most important thing to remember is that you want the right audience.
Don’t you you? Don’t you don’t just because I have seen probably at this point, dozens of clients and colleagues who have built facebook pages of ten now thousands of followers, and almost none of those followers are engaging with their content. You might be saying wow. How can that be? Because it’s easy to get a couple thousand Facebook fans did you know that it’s not hard, you pay about $ 100 and you get a couple thousand Facebook fans.
Would you like to do that? It’s easy! You just start a fan, page click on promote, say I want fans and just advertise to any random audience. You know people in North America, 18 plus and you’ll get a couple thousand fans with just well. Maybe not I don’t know what the pricing is these days. It’s because I don’t do that because it’s fake fans, but it’s not hard. So when you look at people with an audience, please don’t be impressed unless their audience, you can publicly see that the audience is actually engaging with their content and finding benefit from it, etc.
A lot of the audiences out there are are are just what’s called vanity metrics. Have you ever heard that term vanity metrics is numbers that look impressive, but if you look under the hood, if you look at the behind the scenes, you realize. Oh, these aren’t it’s not a real audience. It’s just a lot of visitors to a website or a lot of Facebook fans or a lot of Twitter followers, and this is a real audience.
Member right here, Manko again, I’ve been working all morning here by myself and he has not jumped up and he’s like great I’ve got an audience now, I’m going to show up I’m all about consistency of content, so he’s here and I swear once I turn off The article he jumps off, even though I’m just continuing my work here, he has a very weird sense of how you know how to be on camera. Okay, so you know he’s jumped off all right because it doesn’t like I’m talking about him um.
So please remember that a real audience is what we’re going after a true audience. I call that true fans or a true audience and the you know you have true fans when you can count on them to engage with your content and to take a real look at your product and services when you are offering them okay. And how do you build a true audience? You don’t just use Facebook ads to buy fans or Twitter ads to buy followers, you don’t just do search engine optimization and you don’t just guess blog and all these other things.
These are all tactics, but it has to be under the right strategy and the right strategy is this of true audience: cares about what you’re talking about or writing about, okay or your images or whatever they care about your content, and they care about you right. They are not just a you know: drive by hey, I’m searching online for a solution to a problem. I found your article got the solution and I’m out of there what we all we’ve all done.
This we’ve all been: we’ve all been fake fans to other people and nothing wrong with that. It’s just we’ve all been drive-by fans for other people right because we’re just searching online for something we find the solution. We find an answer and we’re gone. That’s it right, but it’s rare that we find somebody we actually want to follow and keep following, and how does that match happen? That match happens because they are talking about something we care about number one and they’re talking about in the way that we really find resonates with us.
So they’re the content topics matter to us and the style really resonates with us. And thirdly, we feel like they actually care about what they’re doing, rather than trying to put us into a funnel a marketing funnel when you’re in a marketing funnel. You kind of know that oh this market is trying to get me to do this and then get me to do that and get me do this right doesn’t feel good. Doesn’t it doesn’t inspire trust and loyalty? But when you feel like somebody is sharing a message because they really care about their audience and then you notice they care because they engage back with you Wow.
It makes such a difference, and you know you know you become a loyal fan more and more as that happens. So it’s it’s it’s first. The strategy has to be right. The strategy has to be no. No. No, I don’t. I just don’t want numbers, I don’t care about 10,000 Facebook fans, that’s easy! Yet couple hundred bucks 10,000 Facebook fans, the numbers – are easy to get. They really are honestly to look impressive.
It’s really really easy these days, but to have an actual business. It’s not easy to have people actually caring about what you say and then buying your thing. You know and writing reviews that’s not easy and that’s where that’s what we’re really going after here, so okay! So how do we get there? So, as you probably can imagine what I’m about to say, content is king, okay, consistent content is king and consistent distribution is Queen content is king is not something I made up.
That’s well known. Even distribution as Queen is not is not something I made up. That’s well known as well. A lot of people don’t know that. Second part content is King distribution is Queen. Some of you are, some of you aren’t even doing either one you’re not doing content consistently and you’re, certainly not knowing how to distribute your content. So let me talk about this here. Content is king and it needs to be consistent, needs to be authentic and they need to be relevant.
Okay consistent. Why is that important? It’s important, primarily consistency of content is important for you to get better at communicating your content. We all have this fantasy that, just because we think something is good idea and we write about it. Other people will think it’s great content. The reality is that, if you don’t practice, okay, the reality is that, if you’re, not if your contents not going viral, if it’s one, when I see viral, if your content is not being shared or liked or commented on, it’s not that good.
I’ll be honest with you, and I say this to myself too: I have I do. As you know, eight new content pieces every month and probably five out of the eight don’t get much likes or comments compared to my maybe three or four out of the eight people actually do like and want to share forward. But I’m the same person. You know in a single month I don’t grow that much right, but it’s because the topic is right or, like my my my style or a skill of communicating, it was good, but consistency creates skill over time.
You can’t expect to have good content in a month. First month, you’re out of the gate, Wow great content – I mean, if you know, if you’ve, if you’ve been writing for a while or you’ve, been making articles for a while. Then maybe that’s the case that you, you are skillful already, but most of us need to become skillful, writing or making articles right. Consistency grows your skills. I promise you.
If you do something every day, you grow your skills, much faster than someone who’s doing it once a week, if you’re doing it once a week, yours goes faster than someone who’s doing it once a month, so consistency is key to becoming skillful and creating content. That’s people find interesting, okay, so consistency authenticity is going to set you, apart from everybody else, who’s just trying to copy what other people are doing and trying to write for search engines and all that stuff, so authenticity, so so it and the great thing about authenticity Is its longevity? If you’re authentic, you don’t have to pretend, and you just show up and you’re energized, because you you are actually following your passion and your you’re energized from within, rather than only seeking energy from outside, from what other people are saying to you right.
So authenticity creates longevity and longevity, of course, creates true brilliance and skill and quality over time. You can’t expect to be loved when you’re, first starting out the gate, you’re just figuring out, you think you’re, smart you’re, not I’m sorry, I mean okay, you. I should say this: I have a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. I don’t believe you are smart or dumb. I believe you can become brilliant.
That’s what I believe. Truly, I think you become. You can become incredibly brilliant and skillful at communicating and and charismatic and amazing, but you don’t start out that way. I don’t care how smart you think you are how good of a writer you think you are unless you’re lucky. You know you don’t start out with fans, people who you start out with silence. You know, hope people okay. So let me talk about this.
There’s there’s content creation in this distribution right, of course, if you use money and use Facebook ads and you’re smart about how to use Facebook ads, most people are not good at Facebook ads and they’re. Like George I’ve tried, Facebook ads doesn’t work, it’s not that it doesn’t work, you don’t know how to use it all right. So if you learn how to use Facebook ads skillfully and you use it to distribute your content, you can actually build a fan base pretty quickly who actually are loyal and actually like your content, that’s what I’m doing with my secret project and almost at a hundred Fans now that’s the second, I’m only in my second month, I’m almost at a hundred true fans, because people who don’t I didn’t ask them to like my page.
I just put – I didn’t – ask them to leave in. Like my post, I just shared honestly. My postings didn’t even ask for any likes or any signups or anything just shared my content. I distribute it out there. It’s a certain audiences in a very skillful way and I’m almost at a hundred fans of my page. They died. They had to manually come to my page. They they saw my content and they had to manually click on my page itself and decide that they want to like it right so anyway, skillful content takes time and then skillful distribution just takes learning.
I have a facebook ads course. You want to learn from me how to distribute your content skillfully, but so consistency of content, authenticity and relevance is the third part. Relevance is basically, as you get to know your audience. You find out what they really really need and want from you. You then tune your content over time to what they need and want. Then that takes time to get to know your audience right, so really the strategy overall, how to build an audience.
George George, please tell me in 10 seconds how to build an audience from scratch. 10 seconds ready content is king distribution is Queen and the content needs to be consistent. Authentic and relevant. Is that 10 seconds it’s about 10 seconds right and the article okay? So that’s the overall strategy. Now, let’s talk about the tactics now and the tactics are basically, it goes like this. What do you do now that you know the strategy is content? Is king distribution is Queen consistency, authenticity, relevance, great 10 seconds strategy.
Now? What do I do? What do I actually do on a daily basis? Okay, paid distribution is, is the first tactic if you have no audience yet, please don’t expect that you’re going to post something on Facebook and somehow people will find it. Please don’t expect that you’re going to just put a blog post up on your website and people will find it. It doesn’t work like that on the internet. It doesn’t work like that.
You’ve got to pay money for people to see it. Okay. So that’s one tactic. I’ll give you several tactics if you have zero money to pay for distribution all I’ll talk about that next, but that I please pray and hope that you will please spend at least a few dollars a month. I mean, if you can. Please spend forty dollars a month on Facebook ads. It will grow your audience so much faster. It will take you a few months instead of a few years.
Would you like to take a few years, or would you like to take a few months to grow a loyal audience $ 40 a month can can can can do that. I’r spending 150 to 300 closer to 300 a month right now on my new project, but you may not have that budget. So please spend $ 30 a month or $ 40 a month and it’ll. Take you a year to build a loyal audience, but it won’t take you 10 years. People who are not using paid advertising is taking a lot longer.
Okay, so paid ads paid distribution, learn how to use Facebook Ads, learn how to use Google I’m going to be teaching Google Ads that later this year, so you can learn from me too on how to do Google Ads. If you like Twitter a lot, you can do Twitter ads. If you love Instagram, you could do Instagram ads, Twitter and Instagram. Ads are much easier, so I don’t teach those courses honestly, they’re really really easy to use, but Facebook ads and Google Ads are not that easy to learn how to use effectively.
So that’s why I teach courses on that. Okay, so paid distribution is the number one tactic. I recommend for you to build an audience from scratch. Please set aside some money every single month for paid distribution. Think of it as your ministry, you know. Do you contribute money to a charity to your church? Can you take some of that charity and should men and money and put it towards your ads for your Facebook? Do you believe in your math? Do you believe your message well will benefit people’s lives just like your church does just like the chair, just like Red Cross or Greenpeace or whatever you want to distribute just like Habitat for Humanity.
Do you believe your content can actually maybe even change lives? Maybe even save lives. Do you believe that? Well, why give to your own charity called your own Facebook Ads your own Google Ads, because you reach people and you changed their lives with your message. It’s probably a better spend of your money, I’m this sounds terrible, but it probably is a better spending me money than putting it towards all of your money towards Habitat for Humanity, which is a worthy organization by the way right so take some of your charity.
Money put it towards your ads, okay, all right and then so paid distribution is one. Are you doing that? Are you doing paid ads for your content not to get people to join your email list, not to sell your stuff for your message for your look at my content on my on my on my you know, I’m not asking people to join my email list or Anything I’m just blessing them with content. Okay, pay distribution.
Doing that. The second one is cross promotion. That’s another tactic that can grow your audience from scratch, and cross promotion is basically if two people have a similar audience and they like each other and they they like. Each other’s content, then, why doesn’t person a promote person B’s best piece of content and person B, promotes person, ace best piece of content, so you reach out to appear, and you say: hey: can we have similar audiences? I really like your content.
Take a look at my content. If you like it here, are my three best pieces. Tell me you know if you, if you like any one of these three best pieces, maybe we can trade a promotion. I will promote one of your best pieces to my audience. So people can find out about you and you could promote one of my best pieces to your audience. So people can find about me. It’s a win-win and generally to trade promotion, means that you and that that person has a similar-sized audience, not the exact same number of Facebook fans, but maybe within several hundred okay with email.
If you have, you know 100 Facebook fans and they have 300 or 500. That’s similar enough, but I have 5,000, don’t approach me if you have 500 right. It’s not it’s not fair right. It’s not fair, but somebody who has 3000 might approach me with 5,000. You know within within right within reasonable range. The promotion could could work right. So I have 5,000 I might reach out to someone with seven or eight thousand or something with two or three thousand.
You know within range right that makes sense so cross-promotion. Please do this. It’s how I grew my audience really fast in the beginning before I knew how to use Facebook Ads. This is ten years ago before, before Facebook Ads really existed. That’s how I greet my audience: the fastest, so cross-promotion, guest blogging and podcast podcasts speaking, there’s another way to grow an audience podcast speaking less so I know some of you like to speak on podcast.
The problem I have a podcast speaking is that people who listen to podcasts are not in the position to join your audience at that time. Think about it! When do you listen to a podcast, you listen to it when you’re driving, you listen to it. When you know I’m listening to it, when I’m walking the dog, I might listen to it when I’m washing the dishes. None of those times are when I am at the computer, ready to join someone’s email list or to like their Facebook page or to go to their website even I’ll.
Listen to a podcast like washing my dishes. Listen, listen! Your podcast or you know, like Oh hiya. That’s a that’s a really wow what an amazing person Wow! I really want to follow that person and then I finish my dishes and then I’m cooking dinner now or whatever I’m doing. I forgotten. I mean this happens. All the time same thing, your podcast listeners, driving the car and then by the time they get home, they’ve forgotten about the guest speaker you had or whatever so podcast speaking in my opinion, is really good to network with the host of the podcast.
I I speak on podcasts on a regular basis, because the host tends to then hire me to become their coach and whatever that works pretty well, but but the audience that unless it’s a really big audience actually, this Sunday, I’m promoting a podcast that I spoke on, That had a pretty big audience and a lot of those folks decided to join my they do. They went to my website and join my email list without any kind of coercion.
They just mentioned you, the podcast, so just mentioned the website. You know that’s it. It was a big enough audience where that worked, but most podcast that you’re going to speak on. Don’t have a giant audience like that. You know they might have a couple hundred or a couple hundred downloads per episode. That’s a tiny, tiny audience, but when it burn a podcast has tens of thousands of downloads per episode.
Now you now that now you actually might build an audience doing that, but anyway, so podcast speaking, not so much but guest blogging for sure can build an audience, meaning somebody who has who wants to create consistent content, but they don’t want to be the one to Always be creating it, you can then step in says, hey I’d, love to write an article for your audience. Obviously, it’ll come from me and I’ll put my bio at the bottom, and people can then shoot me on finally I’ll learn about me on my website.
So guest blogging isn’t much more effective for building an audience than podcast speaking unless you’re speaking to a giant audience on the podcast right, but even even a small, a relatively small guest blog. You know someone somebody who has a couple hundred readers a month. You know you could build a little bit of an audience that way, because guess what, when you’re reading, when they’re reading a blog post, they’re read they’re at the computer or at their at their phone right, they’re reading and by the end of it.
Maybe you mentioned something on a post on your website. You know within when you’re writing a guest blog. I recommend that you try to link to your own website. You know try to link to your website, at least once during the article itself and, of course, in your bio as well right at the bottom and so they’re reading and they’ll click on the link and they’ll go to your website. So so they’re in that, when they’re reading, an article they’re in then they’re in they’re, capable of taking action, go into a website signing up for a newsletter or something right, podcast, listening, not so much right so anyway, on guest blogging, your podcast speaking and then the Last thing I’ll say is SEO search.
Engine optimization is another way of building an audience and the way to do SEO and I’m going to hope. I’r going to teach a whole class on this, but I’ll just be be really really quick about it, and I want to end the article search engine. Optimization first of all is a black box. You have to first realize that Google is not going to tell you what their algorithm everybody is guessing. Just like Facebook does not tell any of us what their algorithm is.
We are all just guessing why? Because if Facebook or Google or any other site, tells us what their algorithm is, guess what if they make it public, you know what happens spammers well. There are very, very smart spam, smart spammers who will then take advantage of the algorithm and then all the links you know all the content will be spam. That’s why all these companies have to make it secret and we are all of us marketers.
All of us are just guessing, did you did you know that we’re just like well based on what we’re finding? Oh, my god, how come this piece of content was so high on the algorithm well compared to all the patterns that I’m seeing it’s probably this every marketer every search engine expert is only guessing, but their guests they’re using educated estimates based on the pattern. Recognition they’ve noticed so based on our guesses.
Our best guesses right now is that Google really cares about other websites linking to your website so search engine. Optimization people used to say well it’s about keywords and it’s about having the keywords in a title of your article. That still does help okay, so you may want to do keywords: research, keyword, research, the simplest tool that I can give you. It’s called keywords everywhere. So keywords everywhere: com go there it’s a free tool, you install it and then, when you, google you’ll start to be able to easily do keyword research just by googling, once the plug-in is installed on your browser.
Ok: keywords everywhere: com, okay, um, I’m not affiliated with them, I’m just a user of their service, so so keywords. So, basically, the way that search engines work is people type in what they’re looking for and Google wants to help them finish their search as fast as possible. Okay. So, if type in what they’re? Looking for and your what your website comes up and Google notices, they click onto your website and they don’t come back to Google Google says that was a success and working that we’re going to reward this website with higher search engine rankings.
In other words, your website helped to terminate the search. Google has done its job, that’s what Google wants to do goes. Is we because, if, if I search for something – and I click on your website – and I’m like now that wasn’t helpful and I go back to Google and I keep searching Google says wow. That website wasn’t helpful, because this person is continuing their search like it’s taking them longer to find what they’re looking for so so they will.
They will downgrade the websites that don’t help them fully. Person has come back to Google and they will upgrade the websites that people don’t come back from because they assume that they have finished. You know, and so that’s one factor – that’s really really big. Another really big factor that Google says well. How do we know? It’s not just a spam website that kept the person there well, we know that, because other people, other websites, are linking to this website using these keywords to link to that.
So, therefore, we know that this website seems to be valuable and respected, because other websites are linking to it. So essentially, SEO is about trying to terminate people searches when they find what they’re looking for. You have to first figure out what people are looking for, which is more keywords, researches and then terminate the search by having such a valuable webpage. It’s like! Oh I’m looking for buh, bah blah and when I went to your page, your blog article talking about it or your page talking about it, was so valuable that I just decided to stay there.
I didn’t go back to Google, I just it was so great. It was so helpful, so is resourceful. That’s all I needed right. So that’s why content is king right. That’s why content is king because they’re like if the content isn’t good people don’t care and they go. They don’t link to it. They don’t come. They come back to Google, they keep going and then and then the second major factor, like I said, is backlinks right, which is basically going out to various bloggers and various websites and say: hey I’ve written a really, really valuable article.
Here I thought maybe your audience would benefit if you decide it’s valuable I’d, be grateful and if you were to link to it so that it’s that kind of work right, it’s its keywords: research, its modifying your article to meet the keywords. It’s not so much the words anymore. It’s the topic! It’s the idea, Google’s smart enough! Now that you don’t have to use the exact words anymore, but if you’re writing about that topic, and it’s really valuable, then then they will bump it up in the search engines.
Right so and then the people are linking to it, they’ll bump it up so anyway, um so to summarize, okay, you first have to get the overall strategy right, or maybe it’s even values, right focus on content content is king distribution is Queen if you have content, But you’re not using any distribution methods, get it out there. No one will ever see it. Even then, this is the most valuable article in the world right.
Nobody knows about it right, so content is king, yes, but the distribution is clean, equally important right and the contents got to be consistent for your own skills. Really it’s really more for young skills, but also for your audience needs to be able to count on. You. Remember an audience a true audiences, we’re looking for a true audience says. You know what I feel like an count on you. I can always count on you to come back and you have got new and fresh and valuable content for me.
So consistency is for your own skill building and for your audience’s reliability on you, okay, trust in you, authenticity, so that you can be long. You can have longevity, you don’t burnout authenticity, you show up as you are, so you don’t burn now. You don’t pretend to be anybody else. You don’t have to put on makeup. If you don’t like to put on makeup so talk about women here, some of you do like to put on makeup.
You enjoy it, it’s fun for you great, then. That’s part of your authenticity, but if you hate putting on makeup you’re like doing it just for the article, it’s not long, it’s not sustainable for you to do that, so stop doing it. People will love you anyway without makeup. Believe it or not. Your true fans love you. If you don’t again, if you don’t love putting on makeup, don’t put on makeup, your true fans will love you anyway, okay, hopefully I’m just giving you some of you women permissions to be yourself.
However, that means for you right authenticity in them and then relevance, learn about your audience over time. Make more content for what their wants and needs are matched with what yours are as well: okay, overall strategy and then tactics paid advertising, pay, tribution, cross promotion, guest blogging and search engine optimization. So those are the four key tactics for for growing an audience.
Once you get the strategy right so anyway, I hope this is valuable and helpful and let me know if you have any questions want to thank some of you who were able to join me live I see captain and Alejandra. Thank you. So much. Let’s see here, kappa honda wrote yeah, let’s see here what the hell, how long to wrote that something I notice is that the response I gift from my spanish-speaking audience is way richer and more active than the english speaking.
I may have to do with the fact that the english-speaking world there are many more people, teaching what I teach versus the spanish-speaking world that is not saturated. That definitely has something to do with it. Yes, so that certainly in other words, it’s it’s less cost for you to distribute your content to the spanish-speaking world right. It’s just versus you’re, competing with many more english-speaking folks, so Alejandro says, which would appreciate how to engage is speaking English being on so Alejandra.
The one thing I would say is this: you have to practice, I’m not saying it’s you, but I’m just saying that what the evidence is showing is that your English speaking audience doesn’t find your communication compelling enough yet interesting enough. So the the homework for you is to keep practicing different ways of communicating your message and noticing, observing which pieces resonate with them and noticing the patterns over time, o of all the things I talked about, these two or three things really resonate with my english-speaking audience.
Then say more about those things, so visibility, observation and then modifying your content. Based on your observations right, that’s really the thing for all of us to do, but so I’m not talking about you not being skillful, I’m saying all of us can become more skillful right. Captain thanks for your comment, says I recently joined a couple of Facebook groups made up primarily a fellow bloggers trying to help each other get engagement for their content, so, yes cross promotion right with them.
I jumped from page five from five page likes 121 right now. So the question is: this is a good strategy. I understand that not all of them are true fans, but I feel like I’m getting starting a feedback from people. What do you think yeah yeah cross promotion? That’s what we’re talking about here. So, however, you can brilliant. You know thank you for mentioning in facebook groups joining Facebook groups of peers.
You can find people to cross-promote with so. Yes, no, I think it’s, I think it’s a fine idea, but whether or not they’re true fans, it’s yeah. It’s yeah. I think you have to balance it. It’s true. I mean you, don’t want overtime, you know you don’t want a bunch of people who just are fella bloggers who are just trying to support you being nice. It’s kind of like that’s. Why I don’t invite my friends and family to like my fan pages on Facebook, or I don’t send my blog post to my friends and family cuz they’ll go right back, so I’m proud of you great way to go but they’re not true.
My true fan, I mean a few of them – might be a few of them might actually be seeking on my content, but most of them are just being nice, so you don’t want people just to be nice to you. That’s my that’s the thing to balance. Are they just being nice or are they genuinely like interested in your content? Those are the true fans that you want, because the ones who are being nice – that’s, not sustainable, and that’s us you’re going to work against you over time, because the algorithms also say based on how many people you’re reaching how many of them are engaging.
You want a bigger percentage of those you’re reaching engaging with your content for the algorithm that say. Oh, this must be valuable because, let’s say you have a 10,000 person, Facebook fan page and only ten people like your posts, the algorithm says: well, this person must have crappy content because out of 10,000 people, only 10 people like their post, so it works against you When you have fake fans, that’s on the irony of it.
That’s the that’s why we have to be really careful to build the true audience right, so you just you know, balance it out. If it’s a true cross-promotion with a with a real audience of people who might like your stuff, then I think it’s a good idea. So I hope this is helpful and Ian thanks for joining and saying hi and Jill as well. So thanks everybody, I have a great. I hope I wish you a joyful experience and consistency in your joy.
Coming back to the reason why you’re doing this is to serve people and to become a better person to grow, your known skills keep coming back to your purpose so that you can be truly sustainable in your audience building. You will take care of any questions. Let me know:
Jimmy's Internet Marketing Business Blog 