How to Broaden Your Social Media Presence

So, you’ve made it to the internet, did some things you like, and decided that you wanted to focus on your social media profiles like Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. That raises two questions: how do you get people to subscribe/follow your profile? And how do you keep them involved?

Broadening your online presence requires dedication and work, you can't just send out a post and hope it will catch on. That's why we set up a few helpful tips for you to broaden your online presence, make yourself known, and to create an audience that sticks with you.

Create a niche

Before you start making your accounts/improving them, there is one thing you need to do first: decide on your niche. While you can post or blog about anything you like, people are more likely to be dedicated followers when you have a specific topic you keep coming back to, whether it be football, games, or witchcraft.

A topic like "games" is quite broad and has a big audience, but not everyone likes all games. If you want to appeal to gamers who like the same games as you, "First Person Shooter Games" is already a more targeted and less broad topic to address. When you go even more profound and choose "Fallout" as your topic, you will undoubtedly appeal to anyone who likes fallout and create a more interactive following base.

Create a catchy name

This one applies to all social media accounts, especially if you post about the same topic on both Instagram and YouTube. A catchy name is vital to create since it decided whether users will remember you or not. A name like "Johnnyxx234Gamezz$$" can be recognized in thought, but no-one will remember all the signs and numbers you used in your username, thus making it unlikely to look you up themselves. On the other hand, a name like "WalkthroughManiac2" is easy to remember and easy to write down. Even when people forget about the two behind your name, they will still remember the 'WalkthroughManiac', which brings them automatically closer to their goal of looking you up.

If you then use this name for all your accounts on which you post/vlog about walkthroughs and games, interested people will be able to find you across multiple platforms allowing them to engage with your content and with you as a person as well.

How to post

Posting content may seem easy, but it can be quite hard to post in such a way that you keep your followers content. Multiple factors play a role in this.

Create a schedule

No one likes it when you post a picture on your Instagram for one day and then appear again after a month. There needs to be consistency in it. Try to create a schedule in which you post on Instagram on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and YouTube on Friday's. Then you have a consistent schedule. Your fans will know what you are up to, and they also know what to expect.

If you have a hard time scheduling posts yourself, you can choose from a multitude of apps that allow you to queue posts at once. It will then post them for you whenever you like.

Use Hashtags

Especially on Instagram, hashtags are essential to use. They allow potential fans and viewers to get into contact with your profile and your niche, allowing them to check out your content as they please. However, it's essential to choose the right hashtags for your content, or you might come across the wrong audience.

Ingramer has a hashtag generator that allows you to enter a keyword like 'sportscar'. It then generates the most popular hashtags associated with that keyword. This will enable you to use the most appropriate and popular hashtags for your posts.

Another big piece of advice is to create a hashtag for your username as well. This is helpful for when you gain more popularity and helps people to find you both by profile and by hashtag. Find one that is relevant to your username and use it in everything you post!

What does your audience like?

While you can post pictures of games or sportscars all you want, it’s also important to look at what your audience likes to see. You can do this by comparing a few of your posts and look which ones are the most popular. Is it a picture of a new car, or is it a picture of you besides a sportscar?

This gives you the space to create more content that appeals to your fans, which keeps them interested for longer. You can also ask them direct questions through your posts like “what’s something you would like to see more on this profile?”. It will guarantee you some more insight.

Join a community

Many social media platforms have something like groups or forums in which you can chat with people with the same interests. Especially Facebook is known for this. Replying to posts or posting something to show your profiles is a great way to get more interested people towards your channels.

This is also a way for you to follow more profiles like yours and to see how they stay in touch with their followers and how often they post.

Engage with your followers

Using communities or just your followers allows you to engage with them and ask about their preferences, advice, or ask them how they're doing. Instagram has a feature called "stories" in which you can create polls, ask questions, and much more to engage with your followers.

This creates the image of a close family, allowing your followers to express their feelings and talk directly to you. It can even sometimes lead to fun collaborations or friendships.

Seek out others to work with

When you have multiple profiles on make-up tutorials, but your follower count seems to be growing stagnant, you can seek out someone else. You can choose someone who's an MUA as well or someone who has a lifestyle blog and offers to collaborate to both profits off of it. You could to their make-up for them, while you both post that video on your accounts. This will show their followers who you are and what you do. When they are interested, they will certainly look you up!

Broadening your online presence can be hard at first, and it will take time. Nobody gains 1000+ followers in a day, but posting regularly and engaging with your audience increases your chances of success. The most important thing is to be patient and enjoy what you are doing. It should be fun for you as well!