Your Social Media Fans Are ‘Mercenaries’ And How To Fix That

I have over 30,000 fans on various social media and it’s not something to brag about. Really.
Compared to other influencers, I probably have 1% compared to theirs. But apart from that, I learned something valuable recently.
You see, the last 12 months was really different for me. Being a dad, working a day job and having two more on the sides (side hustle) wasn’t really a walk in the park. In order to accomplish that, I had to let go one thing that took a lot of my time: social media marketing.
I literally went AWOL and I went dark. Of course, I came back after that and went to restructure my digital marketing plan. Social media is important but it is not easy to get back. At least, impossible coming back in just one month. And this leads me to the topic today.

 

Your social media fans are ‘Mercenaries’

I can’t find another better word to say this but heck, it is true. Unless you are some sort of online influencer, Justin Bieber or Luis Fonsi, you are just like me. Another average Joe or Jane.
We may have 100,000 social media fans but it is absolutely wrong for you to assume that they will follow you and re-engage with you back immediately once you are back.
Hey, at least that was what happened to me. I thought they will re-engage back with me. You know, through Twitter Direct Message, Facebook Message and the whole 9-yard.
Well, I was wrong and went on ‘red alert’. I had overlooked on many things and that was bad. Worst case, I need a quick fix to resolve this challenge. That’s when I took some drastic actions.
 

Step 1: Figure out who I want to target and engage back with

This is pretty clear cut. Understanding who is my target audience was beyond criticism. Since I had just launched an affiliate marketing course (online), it makes all the sense to reach out to bloggers and affiliate marketers that I know.
Tools I use were:

  • Facebook Ads
  • Facebook Groups
  • Facebook Page (business page)
  • Facebook profile

With these tools, I went hunting for my ‘preys.’ It was good and I soon got back my fans (after a few days).
 

Step 2: I send everyone to a landing page

Make sense especially when you are using paid ads. I send everyone to a landing page (actually, several landing pages) and I gathered their email. Of course, all of them will be added to my email funnel once they confirm the subscription.
What makes this part different is my welcome email. I told everyone that they should connect with me on social media. I even promise that I will respond to them if they need any help. The results?
I got a lot of free leads from my email marketing (thanks to social media marketing). If I would give a number, I would say that it goes my follower base roughly 10 to 50 a day. Not bad since I don’t literally spend a dime on this.

P.S.: I use Drip for my email marketing but you are free to use anything that fits you. For $49 per month, it is probably one of the best tools I ever used in my entire life.

 

Step 3: Monitoring the networks

I love technology nowadays. Using HootSuite, I sorted out my audience and I listen to what they are talking about affiliate marketing. Trust me that this is a tedious job but it gives me a lot of insights especially with my upcoming online courses.
Monitoring is always important to ensure that you are only promoting the right product to the right people. And it doesn’t even matter if it is free or paid content. Relevancy is key and you want to be as relevant as possible. This creates raving fans and ultimately, they will respond back to you because you are sharing content that matters to them.

Damn, it does felt like I’m running around the bush right? Words 🙂

 

Step 4: Give them a purpose to follow/engage with you

One of the biggest mistakes that I see is that we are not giving our social media fans a reason to follow us. No, it is not about having MORE fans and followers (even though it looks cool), it is all about a reason to follow your account.
You see, the purpose is important and what you need to do is to be crystal clear on what you are offering. This is also the reason why I focus only on the audience that matters most to my projects.
Also, another important thing is you got to do the first step. This means that you need to reach out and break the ice.
Most bloggers and marketers hope that others will reach out to them first and you know that for a fact that it doesn’t work in today’s world.
If you want to be successful, you got to take the first move.

Just like what Grant Cardone once said, if you are not first, then you are last!

 

Step 5: Keep a schedule

Post updates on a daily basis if you will and you need to do it constantly. Okay, I get it. You are busy because you have this and that to do.
Well, use a social media tool instead!
Tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer, AgoraPulse, and Buzzlogix will give you the ability to schedule posts in advance. It is easier, save you more time and more importantly, keeping you active all the time (which is a good thing) especially on social media.
 

Summary

Building fan base on social media is one hell of a job. Most people aren’t even able to have a strong following because they aren’t doing it right. Social media marketing, fan building, and engagement start with you.
The first step of everything is to have the right plan before you can even focus on building your strategy. Understand your audience or target market first, or else you might lose money and waste your effort.
If you like this article please don’t forget to share it around with your friends!
 
See also: 10 Creative Ideas To Promote Your Content Using Social Media