Social media has changed the lives of so many people. From companies to consumers, everyone has a voice. But how are both parties using these websites to reach one another? In this post, Jenny Q. Ta, Founder of Sqeeqee.com, shares her thoughts on how bloggers can monetize their social media profiles along with five critical tips to growing a social media fan base.
Communication is a lot different these days. For some, answering a phone call is a lot more “time-consuming” than answering a text. So, how can bloggers really engage their social followers?
For Sqeeqee Founder, it is all about being personable: “Twitter has a 140 characters for a reason,” she noted. “Engaging with social followers is being yourself, be personal, answer them as if you’re answering a text message. Be short, precise, and to the point.”
With the use of social media, we are able to connect with a wider audience. And monetizing these websites sounds like a dream come true for some of us who use it on a daily basis to communicate with family and friends. But for bloggers, there are some benefits to monetizing their social presence.
“Many bloggers spend countless hours blogging great pieces but really do not have many readers unless such bloggers have a mega present on social platforms like Twitter/Facebook with a large sum of followers, otherwise no one would know of such existence,” Ta told Motherhood Through My Eyes. “It is because of this very reason that bloggers can no longer earn enough traffic to their blogging platform to make ads worthwhile to be seen or “click” by their audience and monetize from it. Bloggers used to get paid through these ad placements from Google’s AdSense (placing banners on their blogs and get PAY-PER-CLICK).”
She added: “Traffic now is coming from social sites like Facebook/Twitter, but the problem here is these sites do not offer a kickback to the users who are using it. So bloggers go to Facebook/Twitter to get traffic back to their own blog, which is a drag and a 1-2 punch in terms of effectiveness. If Facebook/Twitter were to offer users a kickback on ads placed on their own walls, that would be a different story.”
Ta believes the answer to resolving this problem has already been built on Sqeeqee. “Bloggers can make themselves known by blogging on Sqeeqee and monetize their presence as well,” she continued. “Why spend time to build friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter when the ultimate purpose of monetization is not there for them? So, there is no benefit to doing so. There needs to be a change and if social sites like Facebook and Twitter are not going to make that happen to the bloggers, then those bloggers should take their business elsewhere that would make sense to them. After all, we control our own destiny and wealth.”
Bloggers can build their presence on Sqeeqee like any other website, but the ultimate outcome from creating a profile on this website is, “the ability to build their wealth as a form of their own ‘small business.’”
Because we are not celebrities and we do most of the posting on social media, Ta suggests bloggers do their best to distinguish themselves from the rest.
“Online advertising is expected to exceed $600 billion worldwide this year alone, about a 10% increase from last year,” explained Ta. “The bulk of such ads are at the helm of Google and Facebook, of which Google offers a tiny kick back to it’s users, and Facebook offers ZERO. That’s why there’s only ONE (or few) [types of YouTube celebrities] and NONE from Facebook.”
According to Ta, this method is changing with the Sqeeqee platform. “It is our mission to build a ton of [well-known influencers] with our aggressive kickbacks from 30-50%. It would be impossible with the similar followers/friends one would have on Twitter/Facebook to not become an instant millionaire on Sqeeqee given digital advertising which will grow into a trillion dollar industry within a few short years.”
5 Tips To Growing Your Social Fan Base
Creating a social following takes more than just creating a profile. It requires a lot of dedication and strategy. You can read tips on reaching 10 million followers from Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick over here.
But for Ta, there are five critical tips to gaining a social following:
- Get in front of people. Think of the digital world as the gateway drug to then getting in front of your fan base at like-minded events and conventions. Press the flesh, meet your fan base, then kick back out digitally and this is how you reach amplification.
- Test, test, test. The best way to find out what works is to test your market with multiple messaging and find out. For example, learn the art of the “dark post” on Facebook, which allows you to publish ads that don’t appear in your newsfeed. You can test multiple different ads without wearing out your fan base on irrelevant content. You can also create a “lookalike audience” to test your ads against.
- Create content. Whatever your business, you need to be the content player on the subject, so blog and post articles as often as you can, become a source for readers in your area of expertise. You can always create your own blog, or contribute to great content sites like Medium.com where you can create a custom portfolio of your content and build a fan base interested in what you have to say.
- Give thanks. Thank your customer base regularly. Find out what your fans care about by following their Twitter pages or content to discover what inspires them and reach out to them directly about their passions. For example, if one of your followers is a Beatles fan, send a direct message about a new Beatles book. By being consistent with giving thanks you will organically grow your fan base.
- Be human on Twitter. Post relevant content on Twitter and do it consistently. And it should come from YOU, not a pre-scheduled post. People DO know the difference and nothing can replace the human interaction.
To learn more about the Sqeeqee platform, head over to the company website.