Brit Morin was just 25 when she quit Google to create Brit + Co. Brit + Company is a lifestyle and education business that helps women develop creative confidence. Brit’s passion, now 10 years later, is to empower more women to make the leap into entrepreneurship. She is a managing partner of VC fund Offline Ventures and host of iHeartRadio podcast, Teach Me Something New.
Selfmade, a 10-week course to start your own business for women founders, was created by Brit. Most recently, she has been an Entrepreneuradvice columnist. On Thursdays, you can find her answering the most pressing and personal questions of women entrepreneurs.
Do you have a question for Brit Send it to Dearbrit@brit.co, and she will answer it in a future column!
I don’t want no (social media) scrub
Many believe that you need thousands or even hundreds of thousands of followers in order to be successful on social media and online. In reality, 100 followers can make a strong community, especially if they are engaged.I don’t know if you but 100 customers of my product is more important to me than 100 likes on an Instagram photo from 10,000 followers. The obvious next question is “How can I start building my 100 engaged followers?
Also read: What are Digital Experience Platforms and How do We Need
It answer sounds easy because it is. Building a community requires making it valuable. Because there are so many things to do, our time is becoming more costly than ever. Here are five ways my favorite online communities give me value for my time.
1) Knowledge: They teach me new skills
2) Curation: They save me time, and inspire me
3) Entertainment: They make me laugh
4) Relationships: They help me find others like me
5) Deals: They save me money
Which of these categories does your business fall under? You could be in all of them. How can you create content (social media, email, blog, etc.) that activates reward centers in your community? You may be wondering, “But Brit! How can I convince them to purchase my product or services?”
Trust is the key to marketing. These people trust you. Because you provide value, they want to remain engaged. This is why they will turn to you. It’s okay to market your product/service to your community every few days if you are serving your community authentically each day. Marketers who are skilled at this know-how make it feel less like a sale and reward the brain neurons with the same content that isn’t sales-oriented. Let me know how you like it.
There’s no shame in being a one platform kind of brand
I understand! It is difficult to manage all the platforms on the internet these days. I recommend that you choose one platform, to begin with. First, identify your target audience. Next, determine where they spend their time. LinkedIn may be the best option if it is a professional network. It’s likely Instagram if it’s millennials. Reddit might be the best option for engineers. TikTok is the best option for teens. For many people, it’s email! it may even be SMS/text messages.
Choose one and get started. You can create content for your community daily and keep them interested using the strategies I have described. It will be amazing how easy it is to streamline your process by not dividing your attention between different platforms. Hootsuite and Planoly (or Mailchimp) allow you to plan content ahead of time so it can all be automatized. You can set it and forget about it! Don’t forget about the comments and dms – that is pure community loves you should be giving every day!
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