Once you expand your business past the first influx of shares and likes your digital influence will be at the top of your priorities.
For many beginner entrepreneurs, the internet is the place where their future business is born. With Facebook and LinkedIn making it incredibly easy to create pages and advertisements for your company and share these online, it has never been easier to start a business from scratch. You can do this in the comfort of your own home or as a side-gig to your 9 till 5. However, it can be difficult to expand your business past the first influx of shares and likes and expanding your digital influence will soon be at the top of your priorities.
Forget Social Media
Although social media is a great platform to begin to advertise your product, Facebook, as a formerly social platform, can only take you so far. Once you have the basis of your business, expand past the ‘About You’ page and start to branch out to other online advertising methods which are more likely to reach your niche audience. One good method for this is setting up your own website. WordPress is an easy and simple blog-making platform for young businesses. WordPress allows you to put yourself out there whilst being in control of all design elements, from the color scheme to your formatting codes. If you still want to combine this with social media, you can even share your blog on social platforms, attracting more viewers with the more professional look of your business.
Focus on Predictive Analytics
Analyzing the audience and viewership of your website can be incredibly useful to expand your business and understand what direction you should take your business next. Predictive analytics use data and algorithms (think Instagram) to understand your target market and the way that your audience views and interacts with your website. This can help you to understand what will happen in the future of your company. This will allow you to make decisions based on the future, rather than the readership of the present. These can help you increase the impact of any marketing campaigns and deals that you run, as well as enabling you to reach your target market. Read more now to understand how predictive analytics can help you to achieve your business goals.
Connect with other Digital Entrepreneurs
Connecting with other people that have the same goals as you can be extremely important if you want to expand your influence. Not only will you be able to learn from others who may have more experience than you, but connecting with others can also lead to group projects where you can each help each other to gain the right followership. By connecting with other bloggers, your social influence will grow as you will be able to reach their followers as well as your own. If a blogger has many dedicated followers behind them, this could also garner interest around your company as viewers will question why their favorite blogger has decided to connect with your business. These viewers will also have similar interests to that of your company and so will be more likely to be interested in your business.
Get Personal
No one is going to want to invest in someone they know nothing about. Whether in real life or online, the best way to attract followers and expand your influence is to show consumers who you are. Being able to connect with the person behind the product makes people more likely to want to invest in it. If you want to become an online personality, start a blog. Start advertising campaigns with anecdotes from your life and fill your Twitter feed with humorous jokes and inspirational posts. Make yourself relatable and show that your products are necessary for daily life. Customers will be more likely to interact with you and support your business.
Consider Different Types of Content
Attention-grabbing content comes with variety. Expand the range of content you produce. People will take more notice that if your blog is filled with pictures of you standing beside your product. Although personal blogs and advertisements are obvious when it comes to content, try your hand at videos or podcasts.
The audio and visual nature of these is more likely to interest your audience. Shaking up the nature of your content will show that you are innovative, inventive and worth following. With a host of different content that your audience will not get tired of. This will also make your website look more interesting. Having a variety of content will make it brighter and more attention-grabbing for whatever mood your audience is in.
Get Off Your Computer
Lastly, step away from your computer and turn off your emails. When you have the ability to go out and meet possible clientele in real life, why wouldn’t you? Taking your product into the world might be the best step towards gaining an online influence. There are many ways to sell your products in real life. Say you wanted to advertise and gain a following for your crafts. By taking these to a craft fair and interacting with potential customers, you are expanding your influence online. Print out business cards and plaster your social media platforms across your displays. These customers might then visit your online sites. You are more likely to be remembered by them as they can connect you with your online personality easily.
Expanding the online presence of your business can be difficult when surrounded by the overload of content on the internet. You will have a more impactful presence both online and in real life.
