Growing an Audience
Today I wanted to delve into the art of audience building. I'm dividing this into two main sections:
Why you should be growing an audience.
How to do this consistently.
WHY You Should Grow an Audience
The number one reason is leverage. By growing an audience, you're building up attention and mindshare around you and your offerings.
But you're also indirectly tapping into the extended networks of everyone who follows you.
On the surface, you might look at your own follower count and think, "Oh, I only have 1K followers."
But consider this: if each of those 1K followers conservatively has 100 other followers themselves, that's already 100K additional people you've gained indirect access to.
Mind-blowing, right?
Especially when you realize you only need a relatively small handful of true believers who actually convert into paying customers or clients.
Having that kind of exponential reach at scale drastically increases the likelihood of you finding your perfect match.
Aside the social proof it gives you, your chances of scaling any business you start is increased by that fact alone.
HOW To Grow An Audience Consistently
Key principles to focus on:
You're Either Growing or Losing
There's no stagnant, neutral state when it comes to an audience. You're either actively growing your following and community, or you're slowly losing it over time.
I've made the mistake of getting too comfortable, thinking "my audience will stick around forever." That's simply not how it works.
As painful as it is, this is a long-term "move or die" game.
Algorithms are designed now to consistently feed people the best, freshest, most engaging content.
If you stop creating and go dark, your audience will still have their feeds populated by others.
They may miss you, but they'll move on. There's always another creator or another viral post they'd find.
Showing Up Is Non-Negotiable
The only way to attract new eyeballs and grow your audience is by consistently creating new, valuable content and ideas.
Sure, this serves your existing followers. But more importantly, it's what allows you to get discovered by fresh faces.
You can't just rest on your laurels and old posts. Showing up with new stuff frequently is what expands your reach and gets you in front of likely new fans and potential customers.
Not posting means you've put up an indefinite "Closed" sign.
You Grow by "Stealing" Audiences
Likely the fastest, most effective way to rapidly grow an audience online is to capitalize on the audiences others have already built.
I don't mean forcefully hijacking them—I'm talking about ethically and strategically exposing yourself to new audiences by association.
Think about how you likely discovered one of your favorite creators or artists.
For me, I first gained awareness of the iconic TV series "The Wire" because of my fandom for Idris Elba.
I went in for him, but quickly found myself falling in love with the entire talented cast of actors I had no prior familiarity with.
That's exactly how new creators, entrepreneurs, and artists gain steam.
They strategically insert themselves into the existing spheres and communities around other successful figures or companies in their space.
If the fit is authentic and the value is there, those other audiences can't help but take notice.
New celebrities and influencers rarely emerge out of nowhere on pure organic reach.
Piggybacking off the audiences others have already amassed is probably the single greatest leverage hack.
In my own journey, collaborating and cross-promoting with The Futur and Chris Do accounted for a huge influx of my initial following.
My willingness to team up with creators of all different audience sizes—bigger, smaller, similar—brought a constant flow of fresh eyes.
If you're in growth mode, you need to proactively seek out these collaboration and cross-exposure opportunities every single month.
Even if you're heads-down executing client work, you should still aim for at least 1 per quarter.
The compounding expansion of your audience depends on it.
The truth is, you always need to be "stealing" some portion of other people's audiences if you want to rapidly build your own.
Not in a deceptive, unethical way. But by adding immense value to the audiences that other creators or brands have cultivated.
Let me know if any of these principles or strategies resonate with your own audience growth experience! Always eager to hear new perspectives and tactics.
Good read? Coffee donations appreciated :)
I appreciate all the support!
See you on social
Love, Mike.