Reaching Your Online Audience

Hello readers!

This is the last week that Rani and I will be switching blogs and also the beginning of a brand new year! I hope all of you look back over your past year and see beauty in the trials and the triumphs – I know that I have. 2014 has been my most beautiful year yet and I know that 2015 will be even better!

I don’t know about you, but going into the New Year had me thinking about what I learned last year and how I can implement it this year.

Fall 2014 I took a Social Media Marketing Class taught by Professor John Benavidez at UNM and it gave me a lot of great tools for how to run my social media accounts. (Also in case you were curious John Benavidez was a great Professor that really cared about his students and held a wealth of information if you would only ask him. I would definitely recommend him to any Business Majors out there!)

If you are promoting a book, running a business, hosting a blog, or even just curious how to get more followers on twitter this post is specifically for you.

What can you do to draw in your audience, get interaction and spread your cause?

        1. Know your Genre.

I know this sounds a lot like the post Rani just did on my blog, but I am not talking about book genres. I am talking about knowing your rhetorical situation of the platform that you are using. This means that you need to know who uses the type of account that you are targeting and what content they enjoy and what the rules are for what makes sense on that sort of network.

Take Facebook vs. Twitter for example.

Facebook tends to have a more story sort of setting with a very wide audience. On Facebook, hashtags and short and sweet little posts don’t have as big of a place as they do on twitter. Facebookers prefer posts of medium length and a page that tells an overall story. Twitter is more moment based, young and random. Pictures work for both, but are not has necessary as they are on Instagram.

Make sense?

If you know what works in a certain type of social network then you are ready for step two.

        2. Know your Audience.

Not only who you are trying to reach, but who you could reach beyond them and through them. Let’s say your Instagram account is mainly about cats. You can draw in cat lovers, and pulling them in, draw in animal lovers as a whole. When you know what your audience wants and you deliver it to them they will interact with you, bring more people and it will be a win – win situation.

        3. Understand What Makes Quality Content.

Quality content cannot just be thrown into the wind and usually it doesn’t just come to you on the spur of the moment. Quality content needs to be planned and planned in advance while taking into account what is going to be happening around it online.

You need your content to be what your audience wants. It needs to be relevant within this constant stream of information that is thrown at the world. Stand out by being a worthwhile read. This doesn’t mean that every little thing has to be meticulously planned down to the detail, but depending on how dedicated you are to your social media networks you really need to take this into account.

As a final word I would like to recommend Hootsuite.com to anyone out there that wants to get serious about their social media campaign or simply has a hard time keeping track of it all.

Hootsuite helps you organize all of your social media accounts, schedule posts to multiple accounts at once and cooperate with other people on your team. Also you can do everything you need to do online from one easy dashboard. No more logging in and out of multiple accounts all day, you can answer comments, check messages/notifications and see what your followers are up to all in one place.

If one of your goals in 2015 is to better your social media Hootsuite is where you should start. I used it during school and it still helps me out even today! If you need any help running it or want further information on any of the tips above please contact me on Facebook – www.facebook.com/deannaleahwrites (oh! And secret tip #4: don’t be afraid to shamelessly point your readers in one platform to another one of your platforms!)

I hope I can keep in touch with all of you this New Year! I loved spending the last ten weeks with you and I hope you will visit my blog while you wait for another possible swap by Rani and myself.

Much love,

Deanna at www.typewritersjourney.wordpress.com