How to Reach New Audiences on Social Media

This post was originally created as a guest blog post for our friends at Be Elevated.

So let us guess… you clicked on this blog post because you’ve launched your biz, have the systems in place to scale, and are looking to take that next step in expanding your company’s reach through social media. Sound about right? You’re in the right place. We have nearly a decade of experience helping biz owners JUST like you! Read on for 5 ways you can start reaching new audiences on social media today.

HOP ON THE IG REELS BANDWAGON

We won’t bother saving one of our best tips for last because we really want you to hear this one. Our agency saw a 91.7% growth rate in our Instagram following during 2020’s Q4 alone largely as a result of using Instagram’s new IG Reels feature. If you aren’t aware, IG Reels are essentially Instagram’s version of TikTok, a short-form, video sharing social platform. You can find an example of one of our own IG Reels here. 

Thanks to Instagram’s Explore page and the rolling out of an exclusive IG Reels feed, the reach of an Instagram Reel far exceeds the reach of any ordinary feed post. In fact, that Instagram Reel we just linked a few sentences back? It has nearly a MILLION views! Because of that, it exposed our brand to thousands of new accounts, which resulted in our following growing by 5,000 within the span of a few short weeks. Needless to say, with over 500 million daily active Instagram users, your IG Reels are sure to be discovered by new audiences.

CREATE SHAREABLE CONTENT

Let your current audience do the hard work of reaching new audiences for you by making your content so good that it is shareable. When a user shares your post, that results in a new pair of eyes not only on your content but also your profile. 

Shareable content is often either entertaining, relatable, or informative. What do these three things have in common? They all provide some sort of value to the individual, whether that value be a laugh, sense of feeling seen, or new knowledge that their colleague or friend might also find helpful. 

Think about what your target audience is most likely to enjoy and share, and create more content like that! For us, that content is memes relevant to our industry. Take a look at your analytics to see what’s received the most shares in the past and continue or update your strategy going forward. 

COLLAB WITH BRANDS & INFLUENCERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Another great way to put your brand in front of a new audience is by collaborating with other brands or influencers on social media. Consider sending your products to an influencer and having them share their experience with their audience via a feed post or stories. Depending on the size of the influencer’s following, some may charge a fee for their post, while others will be willing to post solely in exchange for the free product. 

Aside from influencer marketing, you could also coordinate a co-branded giveaway. The goal when doing this is to partner with brands that have a similar target audience to you, but is also not your competitor. For instance, if you’re a local coffee shop, you may want to team up with a cute, custom mug company. You both target coffee drinkers, but sell entirely different products. Another general rule of thumb is to find brands that have the same range of followers as you. Check out our How to Coordinate a Co-Branded Giveaway blog post for our top tips!

ENGAGE WITH OTHER ACCOUNTS

Make it a priority to engage not only with your current audience but also your potential audience. Spend some time each day identifying a few new accounts that are in your target demographic, but do not already follow you. 

For instance, if you’re a baby clothing company, consider searching hashtags like #mommybloggers or #momlifestyle to find a few moms that you think would love your products. Like a recent and relevant post of theirs, comment something meaningful, and give them a follow. This will draw the user’s attention to your account. If they like what they see, they’ll likely follow back! 

Once you’ve converted a user into a follower, be sure to keep engaging with them. Respond to all DMs and comments, even if it’s just a simple “heart” on their message. Doing so is a great way to foster a relationship with them, which is key to later converting them into a paying customer.

IMPLEMENT A HASHTAG STRATEGY

And last but not least- good, old fashioned hashtags. While we no longer consider hashtags quite as important as they used to be, it is certainly still helpful to have a solid strategy in place. The goal is to identify hashtags that your audience is actually searching for and rank highly when using those hashtags. 

To accomplish this, you need to balance the density of the hashtags you use. A hashtag with 1 million posts is clearly popular; however, your post will likely get lost in this hashtag seconds after being posted. On the other hand, a hashtag that only has 10k uses is much more reasonable when it comes to ranking among the “top posts” for that hashtag. Because of this, your posts are likely going to have a more effective outcome when you utilize hashtags within the 10-50k posts range. Check out our How to Conduct Hashtag Research blog post for more tips!

We hope this blog post was helpful for you in discovering 5 new ways to reach new audiences on social media! For more social media tips, be sure to follow us on Instagram and subscribe to our social media newsletter. See ya on the ‘Gram!

xx- The Homies of Homemade Social