Tips to Unlocking Your Social Media Potential, Connecting Community and growing your audience to monisation

 

By Okechukwu Onuegbu

Social media has finally become a safe heaven to many, if not all. In our today's digital Communication and Journalism Class, we shall discuss about this and pickpoint out various ways of harnessing it. 

Just this morning, a senior colleague was able to connect with a lady who lost her handbag and credentials to street urchins. Miscreants had snatched away her handbag which contained her academic documents and other items few days ago. On spotting the documents where it was dumped in a drainage somewhere in Awka, the colleague picked up the credentials. He tried locating the owner on Facebook using her name as displayed on the certificates but to no avail. He took a shot of them and posted on Facebook. 3 hours later, the owner's family contacted him and later on, the victim came and picked her items.

This is why it is necessary that you find ways of adopting the following tips to grow your social media presence and possibly harness your skills and potential to stardom.

1. Authentic Identity:

Whether it is Facebook, X, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn or whatever, try as much as possible to be real. Use that name and surname you are known with. But if you are truly popular offline with a nickname or brand name, you can equally use them. Ideally, using your real names as they are in your passports, certificates, identify cards and others will go a long way in connecting you to opportunities, friends, associates, jobs and all that. Many have lost jobs, distant friends, associates and other opportunities for failing to use their real identities. What do you gain in hiding your real name or identify when you want to join social media?

2. Unearth Your Passion:

Social Media gives you ample opportunity to explore your talents and potential. Don't hesitate to explore or harness them. To grow your presence on social media depends largely on what you do, brand you promote or action you take. Do not just be a reader or follower of people accounts. That job you do or wishes to do, including the food or drink you cherish, buying and selling or services you render, or even a topic you are conversant with or love discussing can trigger your social media growth. Go ahead to explore your experience or knowledge. Your voice and passion can take you to that eldorador. 

3. Content Creation:

As already noted, you can tell your stories or showcase your skills in a very unique way using different formats just to carve a niche for yourself. Use video, images, texts, audio, graphic or animations. Don't wait till you are perfect because you may never be perfect until you are perfect. Just start doing something now. Don't mind what people may say. In fact, the more you consider your views of them, is the more you will be stagnated with your ideas or even die without impacting lives. Just start with trail and errors you, and you will get there. 

4. Identify Your Ideal Audience:

As you keep pushing, try to discover your audience using the relevant analytics tools offered by the platform you are using. You can check your professional dashboard there to find out the kinds of personalities interacting with your posts. This includes the countries where they hail from, gender, race, etc. This will help you to prepare or repackage your future contents. Understanding your audience will help you to understand their interests, needs, and online behaviours. You can even check their profiles too to find out who they are and what they will likely love to read or view from your timeline.

5. Develop Your Core Content Pillars:

Kindly identify more topics and themes to explore as you identify your audience. This can make you to get more dates for your various posts.

6. Consistency:

Try to be consistent in whatever you do in life, especially in content creation. If you post everyday, let it be everyday. If it is hourly, maintain hourly post. If it is weekly, monthly or whatever, do not forget to abide by that. Do not keep your audience waiting. Time management should also be considered when doing this. Don't run 1 hour today and 1 minute in your next edition. Be serious and get your audience seriously behind you. 

7. Storytelling Skills:

Storytelling is a skill you must harness. People love to hear stories that touches lives. Whether you're sharing personal anecdotes, case studies, or informative content, leverage on story telling to engage your audience positively. Learn the art of crafting compelling beginnings, middles, and ends, and use emotions where possible to draw your audience into agreeing or disagreeing with your points.

8. Research:

Research will help you to master the platform you are using by identifying their needs, kinds of posts that fit in, audience behaviour, and others that will help you to excel. It will also help you to build your skills and master what you are into. 

9. Boost your posts using various paid and unpaid advertising mechanism. As you post and share, people subscribe to your network. As you click on boost contents and pay for how many times you can afford, your posts will gain more viewership and likes.

10. Engage and Build Community:

Community engagements and building requires effective communication. To build your a formidable house or network on social media, there is need for you to comment, share and relate with others in that platform. The more you connect, comment on people posts and share, is the more you will connect with more people, and build your own network of followers and ideology. Just note that no man is an island. You must walk with others to reach your destination.

Kindly try all these tips and lots more and see yourself growing towards monetisation, recognition and greatness.