Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo has a staggering 204 million followers on Instagram—the highest of any Instagram user in the world.

Granted, you may not need (or want) hundreds of millions of followers. But considering that 78% of people make buying decisions based on social media posts, you can’t afford not to get your product out there.

The question is, what’s the key to building social media presence?

In this post, we’ll reveal how to build a social media following in 4 proven steps. Read on to learn more!

Know Your Audience

First of all, who are you marketing to?

The surest way to reach no one is to try to reach everyone, so you need to narrow your target audience. Create a target persona based on your ideal customer’s age, gender, and income level.

What are their likes and dislikes? How do they prefer to spend their time and money? What are they most afraid of? How will your product satisfy their needs or wants?

Set SMART Goals

It’s not enough to say you want to build a brand online. To turn your dream into reality, you need to set SMART goals that are:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-Bound

As an example, you can set the goal of increasing your Facebook response rate by 20% in the next 6 months. Then you can use metrics to chart your progress and find areas where you can improve.

Create Valuable Content

Creating your customer persona will help you identify exactly what your audience wants. This allows you to customize content that will answer their specific question or solve their particular problem.

Use social media to quickly grab their attention. Use bold images, short videos, or simple infographics to make them stop scrolling and see what you have to say.

Social media platforms are also ideal for redirecting users to valuable in-depth content on your website, such as recent blog articles. Be sure to share every new post and include relevant hashtags and keywords.

Engage, Respond, Interact

Remember, it’s not called “anti” social media. The main goal of social media marketing is to interact with your customers on a human level.

Did someone comment on your post? Be sure to thank them. Did someone ask a question? Answer it promptly.

You can also run contests or create fun games and quizzes to get users to interact with your brand. Offer the chance to win a prize if they like or follow your page or share their content with others.

How to Build a Social Media Following: Get Started Today!

You can create the greatest content on the internet—but what good is that if nobody sees it?

As you build a brand online, focus on growing your social media presence. Learn who your audience is so you know where to find them and how to reach them.

Set specific goals for building your following, then craft your content around those goals. Most importantly, remember to be “social” on social media by interacting with your fan base.

Now that you know how to build a social media following, what’s next? Check out our News Chat for more great information.