Building Your Audience with Kristina and Maria

Quality will always be more important than quantity when it comes to building your audience. Finding your ideal online community means connecting with those who support you, allow you to show up, and push you to create the best version of your business as possible. 

In ‘Build You Digital Community’ Episodes 56 and 57, our host Kristina, along with her business partner Maria Tassi, discuss audience building and offer advice on how to start. Kristina and Maria focus on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ when it comes to building an audience, all while sharing some personal experiences.

Do You Have An Audience Problem?

You can have a big audience, but it may not be the right audience for your brand or business. You need so many eyes on what you’re doing in order for a percentage of those people to end up purchasing or seeking services from you. But what you offer is not going to be right for everyone. Building an engaged audience is about finding the people who are a right fit. Ask yourself: Who are the people that you can help the most and make the most impact on? 

Look at your analytics and identify who is following you. Are these people in line with your ideal client? Are these the people that you want to be speaking to? If they are not, it’s a sign that the content you’re posting needs to shift.

The reality is, a poor audience inhibits you from being able to show up. People can be nervous to post about things that might exclude people. However, if you’re speaking to everybody, you’re speaking to nobody. Your audience is not just a sample group of all kinds of different people. It’s a specific type of person. Some people won’t like what you have to say and they might react negatively to something that you’re passionate about. Those are not your people, and that can be a hard pill to swallow. Just remember to be authentic and share the things that are true to you. 

Ultimately, you want the right people following you so that you’re able to build the community of your dreams. It’s about being able to build your community, not any community. It should be aligned with you, the people you resonate with, and the people you want to speak to. 

Audience building (or re-building) doesn’t happen overnight, but here are some tips on how to start.

The Value of In-Person Communities For Online Businesses

Although fruitful relationships can and have been built online, there’s nothing stronger than meeting people in person. Even if you have an online business, you should be getting back to your roots and leaning into your local community. Do not underestimate anything that is in-person: events, networking, coffee – whatever it is, get out there.

Once you establish a connection with people, let them know your goals and your roadblocks. You’ll be surprised at how these relationships can flourish, resulting in groups of people who uplift and support one another – online and offline.

A major key to growing your community in-person is being open to helping others build their audiences. Being willing to go out on a limb for people incentivizes them to do the same for you in return. It’s about creating that rapport with people who could introduce you to somebody or say your name in a room filled with opportunities. There’s enough space for everybody. 

How To Correct Your Audience

Start where you feel is the easiest jumping off point for you. Lean into what feels natural and allow that to gain the momentum to propel you forward. Party where your people are and remember that social media should be easy and fun.

Removing followers:

If you’ve ever purchased followers, you need to go and remove all of those people. Even if you have never bought followers, there are often bots or people without photos that you can delete. They are going to ruin your engagement rate and this is not worth having a higher follower number. You want to find people in your community who are going to pour back into you.

Instagram engagement:

Find and engage with Instagram accounts who you think would resonate with your content or that your content could help. It’s important to be selective in who you’re engaging with and choose people that you think would actually enjoy being your audience member. In the same way that you would connect with someone in person, when you introduce yourself and have those initial conversations, you can do the same with strangers on the internet. 

Then start thinking about what people in your intended audience spend their time doing. What do they like? What are their hobbies? Go to accounts that represent these things and look at their tagged photos. For example, when Kristina was a personal development coach, Maria would look at the tagged photos on the accounts of James Clear or Jensen Sarah. 

Seek out other people who are tagging these people or communities in photos. These are reading and buying their book, engaging with their content, and are interested in what they’re doing. Chances are if they’re interested in what those people are doing, they could be interested in what you are doing, too. 

Avoid being salesy and spammy on social media. This can show a lack of authenticity. Instead, take a few moments to leave a meaningful and authentic comment on a few of their posts. Try not to just post a thumbs up or the fire emoji.

Next, use the location feature. This is especially effective if you are brick and mortar or there’s something important about the location you’re in and, more importantly, the people in that location. For example, if you are a naturopath, look at who’s going to the Healthy Planet location in your area. These people are likely aligned with your values and you want to find where these people are literally, physically, hanging out. 

Build connections, not just leads: 

You don’t want to be seeking out people just to get clients. Be more intentional with who you’re engaging with and try to build a good relationship with them. Oftentimes, this is what will lead them back to your profile. No one wants to make a decision or buy something because they feel like they’re being pressured or forced to opt in. That approach only leads to regrets and resentment. Instead, allow people to make an educated choice based on what your value is. 

Renting other people’s audiences:

Speaking engagements, webinars, and podcasts are amazing ways to grow your community and get in front of new people, regardless of the size of that audience. They also result in great content of you speaking for social media, which helps to build authority.