Building your social media presence is daunting even for the most tech-savvy people. Many people think whether or not a person succeeds online is due mostly to luck, but the truth is there’s plenty of hard work and effort behind every success story. Here are just a few of the things you can do to work towards your goal of growing your social media presence.

Build Relationships

Building real relationships with people you meet online is one of the best ways to grow your online presence. Forming real connections with people makes them more likely to recommend you to others and share your content on their pages. It also makes your experience more fulfilling and meaningful, leading to an increased ability to work hard without getting burnt out.

Invest in Advertising

Paid advertising is a great way to get your name out there, especially early on when your audience is still relatively small. It is also extremely customizable and can be specified to target a certain age group or location. Every major social media platform has options for paid advertising so you can reach a wide variety of people. It is also relatively inexpensive and cost-efficient.

Don’t Oversell

Most likely your goal is to sell a product, event, or service, but it’s important not to place an initial selling emphasis in your online interactions with others. Instead focus on helping, communicating, and having real human conversations with your audience. The hard sell isn’t very effective online, and in fact, can be a huge turn-off. Start conversations slowly, then move towards selling as trust is gained.

Be Active

The most important thing you can do to help your social media presence is to be active on it at least once a day, and preferably 2-3 times a day. Respond to comments, post new content, comment on other similar businesses feeds, and spend 15 minutes actively engaging with your community. Being active increases your chance of showing up in other people’s feeds, as well as shows your audience that you know what you’re doing and you care about your relationships with them.

Create Good Content

This might seem like a no brainer, but make sure you are creating content that you want to see. Make pictures and videos aesthetically pleasing, and keep written content engaging and human. It’s easy to become a generic content machine, but staying original and real will get people to stop scrolling and interact with your posts.