At its core, every business starts with relationships. Regardless of the type of business you run a multitude of connections were formed to get you where you are today. 

As a successful business owner, at one point in time a friend shared your name and helped land you a referral or your mom gave her client a business card so they could shop on your site. Sound familiar?

Word of mouth can greatly launch your business, I’ve seen it happen before my own eyes. But is that enough? 

In this digital world, it is not. 

Let’s take a moment to dive deeper into building authentic relationships with your ideal client, in the digital landscape. 

Here’s what I want you to know: you cannot rely on one aspect of marketing to completely fuel your business.

If you do, a whole group of people will be missing out of who you are and what you do. Let’s fix this. 

4 Simple Steps to Build & Nurture a Community on Social Media

Platform Engagement: this is the process of search, find and interacting with your ideal client. I find this to be the easiest to conduct on Instagram and then leverage that to drive traffic to your other platforms. 

Share Content Content Consistently: While we aren’t here to completely please the algorithm, we want to satisfy it a bit. If you share content (feed posts, reels, stories) consistently- you’re more than likely to increase your content visibility, which increases your brand visibility. Many more factors go into this, like high-value content, generating conversation, etc- but master the consistency first. 

*Consistency means to me, posting the same amount of content each week, at the same time Example: Posts Monday & Friday 9am, Reel Wednesday 9am

Connect With Your Audience: an audience that feels heard, is more likely to interact than an audience that is fed bland content that doesn’t resonate with them. If you take the time to do the research and speak their language, that will generate a nurtured audience who wants to buy what you’re selling. 

Show Up Authentically:  If you wouldn’t wear eighteen pounds of makeup on a discovery call, or when you meet a customer- don’t show up on socials that way either. In a digital world we all crave authenticity that is often masked by a filter, edited out of the reel, or simply unspoken. Instagram and Facebook stories is a great way to connect with your audience and genuinely build rapport with them. This also builds and satisfies the like, know, and trust value they have with you. In a story you can share new arrivals at your shop, behind the scenes content making a product, or every day life things you experience as a business owner. Don’t forget to add a relevant link, and drop polls and quizzes to encourage interaction!

These are 4 simple, low stress ways you can take action TODAY to build a community of ideal clients on your social media platforms. Remember, your follower count means nothing if it’s built up of individuals that have no business seeing your content. Thing quality over quantity! 

As always, if you have questions feel free to email me at paytonbvirtualsolutions@gmail.com or connect with me on the ‘Gram.