How to get followers engaging in a niche

Originally answered on Quora

Have a niche and engage

Two simple things that can really make a difference. Let’s break them down

Why you need a niche

A niche allows you to place yourself as an expert and all the other talked about benefits. While some may say you don’t need one or offer alternatives I’d always recommend having some area if you want followers.

If you pick a large area, such as gaming this gives you a large audience who are going to be interested in what you have to say. If you’re just talking about yourself you may not be able to attract that large audience

But for me, this goes beyond face value

I always recommend getting your niche-specific. Not in terms of narrowing it down but in terms of targeting the specific people who you can help. This means you can really build up your followers as your offering something valuable.

When you figure out your niche you can get a purpose. With a purpose, you can actively start making a difference. When you’re giving something valuable (which requires high-quality content of course) you can then actively grow your following.

People’s time on social media is split between the millions of accounts that are on the major platforms. If you want a piece of someone’s “social time” you’ve got to be worth listening to. Mainly that involves adding value. Giving them something that’s going to benefit the time they invest in your content.

So let’s talk engaging

Once you’ve got a purpose and are actively using your voice you’ll be able to engage. And yes — unfortunately you really do have to be social on social media.

When engaging you want to engage with the right people. You want to be talking to people who are actually interested in what you have to say. You can break this down:

• People who have fewer followers then you may want to follow because you’ve helped them out and add value. If you start a conversation and make them feel special they may follow.
• People with the same amount of followers as you are likely to want to collaborate on mutually beneficial projects. You may get a shoutout-for-shoutout on Instagram or just work together in some way
• People with more followers then you are valuable people you want to get the attention off. But if you’re on a platform like Twitter, replies to these accounts are also seen by their followers — which means exposure to a larger audience

You want to engage as much as possible as long as it’s providing reward. I value and talk about engagement a lot but sometimes I see people get lost down a tangent with it. They start talking to everyone, or about unrelated topics such as what’s trending.

This can be harmful especially if you’re expressing views or topics of conversation that do not align with your goals or what you generally talk about.

While you sending angry tweets to Donald Trump may get you a few likes — if your business isn’t an active Trump Hater then you’re probably not going to gain traction and build a larger audience.

So why did I pick these two

Well, there are all sorts of ways to grow your followers. You need to post high-quality content and engage with the right people. Hashtags play a part as does the number of people you follow.

I’ve picked these two as I don’t really discuss them in other answers and wanted to bring some new info to the platform. Feel free to ask in the comments (or another question) for additional methods.