As a Content Creator, what is one strategy that you use to grow your audience? Give an example.

To grow your audience, you must first understand their demographics, needs and interests - essentially their personas agnostic of platform. Once you understand the mindset of your target, you can then build an appropriate content roadmap designed specifically for each social platform and community. One must be cognizant that it's not a create once and distribute, it's about understanding and learning the type of content, style and format that works best within each channel. Lastly, building an audience is all about engagement and building loyal fans who then share you with their friends. Therefore, you must engage the comments, follow others and engage their content, partake in other communities and most importantly grow organically and authentically versus trying to pay for increased audiences…paying for followers may only hurt you in the long run. Focus on views and engagement metrics and the followers will naturally follow. YouTube: https://youtube.com/@GotSpicePodcast

I use trending topics to create content on social media. Trending hashtags or topics that are buzzing, that attract people and they want to see more of it. So, creating such content gets more attention than the regular one and helps me to grow and also helps my social media channels to grow.

Before a content creator, I see myself as a reader who likes to know more about self-improvement. So, when I read something inspiring I ask myself: If someone would have given me this advice in the form of content, would I like that? If the answer is then I go ahead and work on delivering that content in the best way possible. This strategy has helped me to stay consistent and grow my audience.

Podcast guesting is a great content creation strategy to leverage the audience of other podcasts and build your personal brand. To get started, identify relevant podcasts that align with your area of expertise or interests. Then, reach out to the podcast hosts and explain why you would be a good fit for their show. Before the interview, do your research on the podcast and the host, and prepare talking points or questions to cover. After the interview, promote the episode to your own audience on social media, your website, or your portfolio. Finally, keep reaching out to new podcasts and continue to be a guest on different shows to expand your reach and grow your personal brand. Podcast guesting is a powerful content creation strategy that can help you establish yourself as an expert in your field and build relationships with other podcast hosts.

Last year I decided if I was going to take my content creation seriously, I would need a content and growth strategy. I listened to a podcast about Instagram Stories and saw Adam Mosseri's post about the platform shifting focus to messaging. That is when it click I need to be generating conversations using direct messaging. I really honed in on this and within 6 months, I tripled my audience and my engagement rate. I use my Stories on each platform to include call to actions like "send me a message to let me know", "swipe up to change my mind", or question boxes on Instagram, where you reply with DM rather than sharing the answers. Building these genuine connections with my community encourages them to engage more on my posts and share my page via word of mouth.

As a course creator and coach, I've found that the most effective way to grow my audience is by creating a lead magnet that provides immense value to my potential students. By creating a lead magnet that provides a ton of value, you not only establish yourself as an expert in your niche, but you also create a sense of reciprocity with your audience. They receive something of value from you for free, and in return, they're more likely to be interested in your paid course or coaching services. To really see results get it in front of as many people as possible, you increase your chances of growing your audience and attracting more potential students. So if you're looking to grow your audience as a course creator or coach, my advice is to focus on creating a high-value lead magnet and promoting it consistently. By doing so, you'll not only attract more leads, but you'll also establish yourself as an authority in your niche and set yourself up for long-term success.

Authenticity is really my middle name. On social media there are so many trends, and gurus persuading creators to do, this, or that. I make a conscious effort to only create content that feels true to me. Everything I post, create, write comes from a deep interest or curiosity that I have. I think that thread of truth has served me well and allowed me to resonate with my audience.

I think of my audience as a community I'm responsible for, so I read EVERY comment, reply to as many as I can, and delete/block any weirdo sh*t so my content doesn't get pushed to strange places by the algorithm. (Not all engagement is good engagement!) As a creator, I'm known for my video replies to comments and general responsiveness to questions and reactions on my posts. Not only does this strategy keep me close to my followers and encourage them to interact with my content, it also gives me an opportunity to monetize through platforms like Benable (https://benable.com/shelbarlow), where I receive commission for purchases made through my recommendations lists.

To expand my audience, I locate communities where my target audience congregates then I contact the community manager, and ask them to share my content. A community of niche followers, for example, can yield a substantial return on my investment if I can persuade the manager to share my content. These communities need not be restricted to online forums like LinkedIn Groups; they can be any gathering place with a substantial audience, including meetups, email newsletters, and Reddit forums. By persuading a community manager to share my content, my material is presented with greater authority, rather than coming across as self-promoting. Make sense?