Think about how you use social media. Is it simply a method to connect with people? A distraction from boredom at work? Or is it a tool to reach thousands—even millions—of qualified customers?
“Business owners are bombarded by information about using social media, but have zero idea about how to start and build an audience,” says investor and member of The Oracles Tai Lopez.
Lopez makes eight figures in revenue per year thanks to his colossal social media following. He went from 600,000 to 6 million Facebook fans last year alone, and has over 2.4 million Instagram followers.
He’s trained more than 25,000 people on how to create a social media marketing agency.
Here are Lopez’s tips on how you can build an engaged following and profit from it.
Take a time inventory.
Before becoming a social media influencer, Lopez says the most important starting point is to identify your “authentic interests.” “Write down everything you do every 15 minutes, especially when you’re not working, he says. “After a day or two, you’ll discover what you’d enjoy doing—even if you weren’t paid.”
As Lopez started to ramp up his social media presence in 2013, he took a time inventory. “I discovered that I like to read books while eating. I like to write, and contemplate life and philosophy. So, I decided to write about life by reviewing books I read while eating. The intersection of a few authentic interests was the foundation of what you see today.”
Choose your highly targeted niche.
Venture capitalist Peter Thiel famously said, “Competition is for losers.” In the classic global bestseller, “Blue Ocean Strategy,” the authors argue that cutthroat competition results in a bloody “red ocean” of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Instead, you can make the competition irrelevant by creating “blue oceans” of uncontested market space. Lopez believes that a highly targeted niche is key to creating your blue ocean on social media.
“Don’t be all things to all people.”
“Don’t be all things to all people. You can serve businesses around your authentic interests — or at least what you’re curious about,” Lopez says.
“If you like books, approach a book publisher to do their marketing,” he adds. “If you love food, work for restaurants. If you’ve had medical issues from a toothache, which a dentist resolved, you might be curious about preventing it and therefore be a good fit to do social media marketing for dentists.”
Define your expectations.
To make money, Lopez estimates you need at least 5,000 to 10,000 followers on Instagram; 1,000 on YouTube; 5,000 to 10,000 on Snapchat; 10,000 on Facebook; and 2,000 to 5,000 on Twitter. For a podcast and email, the magic number is 5,000 subscribers respectively. But the followers, he cautions, must be “highly targeted.” In…
