Whether you are a large corporation, small business, or you want to build a personal brand, social media is the way to go. You need to utilise various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. However, creating accounts in all these platforms and posting your content is not enough. You need to build a tribe. This is simply a group of loyal followers. By having a huge number of loyal followers, you will be able to do anything that you want on the platforms, whether it is to promote new products or marketing your brand.
However, building a tribe can’t happen miraculously. There are various things that you need to do.

Here are tips on how to build a tribe.

1. Know your tribe

Start by knowing your tribe. Who are they? What age group do they fall under? Where do they live? By asking yourself these questions, you will be able to narrow down your tribe based on various characteristics. Knowing your tribe will also help you to create relevant and high-impact content. Of course, you can’t talk to everyone. By doing so you may end up talking to no one. Once you have identified your tribe, focus on answering their most important questions.

2. Know the social media platforms that your tribe uses

After listing the main characteristics of your tribe, you will be in perfect position to know the main social media platforms that they use. This knowledge is critical as it will determine your next course of action. It will be meaningless to work on gaining followers on Facebook when a big percentage of your target tribe is on Twitter or Instagram. You will be wasting your time with the wrong audience.
Social media platforms operate differently. Knowing the right social media network will help you to come up with the right techniques that you can use to reach out to your followers.

3. Build quality content

Unless you are using social media for fun, you should focus on building content. It is the best way of building your tribe is by developing quality content. People and brands that post quality content always win many followers. Even though your ultimate goal may be to market your brand, your content doesn’t have to be always promotional. You can post something that will entertain and educate your audience. Research shows that videos, pictures, and GIFs tend to have high engagement rate. Including them in your posts will help to boost the number of your followers.

Ensure that your content is relevant to your tribe. After critically segmenting your followers, you will be in a good position to know the type of content that they will like and one that they will hate. For instance, you will use a formal tone on content that is tailored for the seniors and informal tone for content that is meant for a younger audience.

4. Use Hashtags

Hashtags can help you to gain more followers and expand your tribe. Hashtags can help you to reach more people just with a single post. You can use them to highlight what your content is about. The use of hashtags is applicable in almost all social platforms. In Twitter, hashtags are used to highlight the hottest topic that is trending. You can use a ride on such tags to gain followers who are also discussing the same issue. You only need to ensure that the hashtags are relevant to the content that you have posted.

5. Engage your audience

Instead of posting contents and waiting for reactions from your followers, focus on building a community where communication is two-way. If it is on Facebook, you should create a group that is related to your brand. For instance, if you are running a freelancing business, build a community whose discussions will be on issues relating to freelancing. Communities tend to attract people who are interested in certain topics. It is also easier to win loyal followers from such communities.
While in social media groups and communities, try to speak with the members instead of speaking to them. Let them share their views on various topics. Such relationships tend to grow into loyalty.

6. Patience

Building a tribe can take you months and even years. You won’t achieve everything overnight. Keep putting efforts even if things seem to go slowly. Some tasks such as shooting videos can drain your energy. Patience and hope can keep you going.
A tribe is one of the most valuable resources that a brand can have. It will much easier to execute different marketing goals through your followers.

Follow the tips in this article as they will help you to build a successful tribe.

The author, Hanafi Mohd Sam, also blogs at https://www.hanafimohdsam.com.
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