Developing an audience

All profiles require audiences, otherwise it is a waste of time and effort creating them. Social media is all about interaction and engagement, and natural curiosity.

Engagement refers to the frequency with which users interact with the profile. For instance, you can have a profile full of amazing interactive content, but if users never visit the profile, the engagement is low. If, however, users frequently interact with items on the profile, you would say engagement is high.

Social media platforms make it very easy for users to share content with their friends – this is a very effective form of marketing, as people generally trust their friends’ opinions over those of marketers.

Providing interactive content that the target audience will find fun/interesting on a regular basis is key to ensuring that engagement levels do not diminish. Providing such content that also incentivises users to share the content with their friends (for example if you share a post you can be entered in to a prize draw) is one of the most effective ways to build an audience.

Note that although it is also possible to promote a brand on social media through the use of advertising, this is not an effective strategy in isolation. It is effective when its use results in an increased number of users subscribing to your content.