How to reach a broader audience on social media, part 1: strategy
If you’ve ever had any kind of social media presence for your business, you’ve probably asked that question before. I understand why: putting anything online—be it a website, a Youtube video, a blog, a social post—can feel like screaming into the void.
It’s a tough pill to swallow when you see so many businesses or creators out there who, seemingly without much effort, get thousands of likes, hundreds of comments, and brag endlessly about the success its brought them. And you’re sitting there starting at…nothing.
Why can’t that be me? you may ask. What am I doing wrong?
Well. I’ve been doing this since organic Facebook was still a viable way to get in front of people, and I’m about to tell you all the dirt.
We have to get some things out of the way before we get to the actionable info, because there is SO MUCH MISCONCEPTION floating around the interwebs these days. Bear with me; the goods are gold, I promise.
But first, you should know:
This post isn’t meant for the casual content creator trying to make social media their career. This is for small businesses, freelancers, or solopreneurs doing the work, building a brand, chasing a dream, and doing what they love. If that’s you, I know you’re juggling a million things, and social/marketing is just one piece of the puzzle.
This post is also for content leaders and their teams—whether they’re agency-side or in-house—who need reasoning and thoughtful responses to leadership that feels ‘social should be easy.’
If that sounds like you, then yay, you’re my people, and I think you’ll love this.
Let’s talk about the facade of going viral.
I really debated on including all of this because it felt like a lot of lead up to the good stuff, but some people really need to hear it. If you have no interest in going viral, skip down a few headings.
For the rest of you who think broader=viral, listen up. You won’t find actual, legitimate tips, tricks, or strategy for that kind of reach, because they don’t exist. Everyone I’ve ever talked to who has hit it big on social has said the same thing to me: “I have no idea what made this post go crazy.”
No joke. No one knows, no one can answer.
Some people get lucky: they throw something out there and just happen to hit the feeds right, or accidentally tap into a cultural moment. Many of them put their phones down to go about their daily lives after posting something they thought was innocuous, and when they pick it up again, they have thousands of messages from strangers and Good Morning America is trying to get them on the next show.
It happened to Nathan Apodaca. And the Dancing Dentist. And the Corn Kid.
The problem here is that when you hit that level of viral, you become the one-hit-wonder of the social media era. You’re immediately typecast, and it might have nothing to do with your actual business and your actual goals.
I’ve seen a viral hit become more of a curse than a blessing, and let me tell you: you don’t want that, especially if you’re a real business owner with real goals. A viral hit can railroad all of the things you’re working toward—the things you actually want.
The takeaway: if the thought of going viral was a priority for you, put the thought out of your mind. It’s not what you think it is, and won’t lead you to the life you’re imagining.
And what about all those gurus selling you the content formula guaranteed to hit every time?
If you’ve asked the internet ANY type of question about how to get in front of a bigger audience, you’ve likely been bombarded with coach content, and they’re all claiming to hold the secret to broadening your reach and making you millions.
Keep your guard up. These people are selling to you. They’ll talk about their results and how they found all the riches, but guess what?
They found riches because they hit the buyer psychology jackpot. They found your pain point and are dangling the answer.
An example: I was browsing Instagram this weekend and saw an ad from an online coach that promised her clients would make money on social “without having to show their face, chase trends, or offer done-for-you services.” They could even “get clients who aren’t on social media themselves!” And then you “rinse and repeat until you hit six figures!”
And then I go and look at her online presence aaaaaand she’s showing her face, chasing trends, and offering done-for-you services.
The irony.
Look, there are good coaches out there. But they’re generally not the ones offering a magic pill. One of the most successful types of content (ie, easy to get reach and go viral) is the type that promises financial payout. It’s something EV-ER-Y-ONE can relate to and want desperately.
I mean, you want your content to hit big because you want financial payout, right?
The takeaway: we’re living in the online coach era, and what works for them probably won’t work for you. Be skeptical and don’t fork your money over to just anyone, and if what they’re saying sounds too good to be true…it probably is.
The secret to broader reach is…there is no secret.
The hard truth is, there’s actually a lot of work involved to form a well-crafted, successful, consistent online presence that hits a broader audience.
As a business owner, that’s probably the last thing you want to hear—oh goody, more work!—but this is the fun part, the ray of sunshine in the grind. This is where you get to dig into all the fun things about what you do and show it off.
This is the strategic ‘working on the business’ side, a place where small business owners are best seeded to live. You should fit this type of work into your rhythms—something my incredible business coaches ingrained into me. That’s a whole ‘nother can of worms, though, so stay tuned for upcoming posts where we’ll dig into those concepts.
How to achieve broader reach on social
Okay, we’re finally at the good stuff. (Bet you’d never thought we’d get here, huh?)
Ready, grasshopper? Let’s learn.
To get broader reach, you must have a strategy.
Ahh, strategy: the most ambiguous word in business.
But in this case, I’m not necessarily talking about social strategy—I’m talking about your business strategy, which will start to guide your social strategy.
Since this topic was submitted by a gym owner (hey Gordon 👋, thank yew for the inspo), so I’m going to use fitness as an example—and all of this is completely hypothetical. No examples are real or based on existing problems that I know of.
Start by taking out a piece of paper (or go crazy with a whiteboard) and write down:
What are you trying to achieve in your business? Do you want to get more people to sign up for your gym membership? Join your nutrition program? Bring awareness of little-used or new programs to your members?
Take it a step further: how many signups do you want, how much revenue are you expecting? Tie numbers to it. “We want to have 20 new members in April for [x] amount of revenue.”
You can have multiple goals—ideally, these are going to be tied up to your service lines. For a gym, service lines might be basic memberships, nutrition counseling, private coaching, kids programs, etc.
You might want to take it a step further and identify the State of the Union for each. Use a 1-7 method, 1 being smooth sailing, 7 being needs lots of attention.
Are you getting new members without even trying? Cool, maybe you don’t need to put a huge priority there; give it a 1. Or, maybe you’re getting members because you already have incredible content and you want to keep going! Give it a 5.
So, now you’ll have an idea of your service lines and their priority. Let’s move on.
Plan the infrastructure that will make your strategy work.
Notice I didn’t say ‘create’ the infrastructure. Yes, that needs to happen, but we’re in high-level planning mode and execution comes later.
And hey, if you’re in a delegating mood, that’s the perfect stuff to hand over to an expert.
For each of your service lines, write down how you’re going to meet the numbers you recorded earlier.
If you want to get people to sign up for a membership, how does that happen? Is there an online form? A phone number? Is it easy to find? Is it easy to fill out? Do a quick SWOT if you need to.
Go a step further. If someone reaches out, what happens next? Do they have a phone call? Are they sent to a calendar where they can automatically schedule a tour? What could be helpful here is planning the dream: what are the bits and pieces bogging you down that you’d like to automate? You don’t have to know how to automate yet…just put it on the wishlist.
These are the necessary bones of getting conversions. It doesn’t matter how huge your reach is if your ideal customer can’t figure out how to work with you.
Identify your ideal client—and the problems they’re facing.
Alright! We’re getting into some content strategy here.
Go back to your initial service line list. What did you identify as 7’s on the scale? Start there.
Write down the characteristics of the ultimate customer for that service. You can use existing customers, or write out your dream client. How old are they? What’s their lifestyle like? Do they have kids? Are they male or female? Where do they live (in the neighborhood, in the region, across the world?). Are they hard-core athletes or the Everyman?
Write down the goals they have. Do they want to lose weight? Build muscle? Age gracefully and athletically? Maybe there are several personas here, but is one more common than the others? If you find yourself with multiple ‘avatars,’ separate them out. Give them names. Feels cheesy, but this is a way to get your team on board and communicate in the same language.
What does winning look like for them? What is the aspiration they see that would lead them to a service like yours? This is the sum of all their goals lining up and spitting out the perfect result on the other side. (Realistic? No, but that’s why it’s an aspiration.)
Write down the online spaces where they tend to hang out. Instagram? Tiktok? Youtube? If your target persona in a leisure/lifestyle mindset or a ‘get my company in shape’ mindset? That could be the difference between Instagram and LinkedIn.
Brainstorm a list of their challenges and problems. This is a GREAT time to pillage AI for ideas, and you can use all of the work you did in #1 and #2 to craft a useful prompt. You can find my favorite prompts with my Prompt Guide—get it here.
Create content based on client problems.
At this point, you should have:
a service line to focus on
a clear idea of the path a client would take to engage with you
an idea of the client you’re seeking out
a list of problems they’re having that you can solve
You’ve put together the most important bones of getting broader reach that will matter—and, more important, started to define what ‘broader’ means for YOU and your business.
Because ‘broader’ needs to mean ‘people who fall into your umbrella.’
For example: a post you made picks up traction and you’re getting a ton of comments and attention. Great!
…But you look closer. You’re a gym in South Carolina and you’re seeing engagement from Taiwan. Your goal is to get people to sign up for your membership. Does ‘broader’ matter here? Not in this sense.
So: how can you pull it in to get broader reach?
Well, my friends, that’s when we get tactical. This has been many, many words on strategy, but someone’s gotta get stuff done, right?
In Part 2, we’ll dig into tactical ideas—things like…
types of creative to explore (with examples of the types of content to make)
tagging and engagement tactics
leveraging your network
Look for it next week, and if you’re not on the newsletter list already, get on it.
And a random note
I take a top-down, leadership-driven approach to content strategy. Meaning, we don’t just put things out there for shits and giggles…we make things to align with a broader organizational strategy.
Making great content demands clarity and structure, because this is what lets creativity flow. If you’re a leader who feels lost with your marketing, or doesn’t know how to integrate your vision into a team, I can help put the systems and strategies in place to get your team on board. Reach out at the button below.