So I Went Viral On Twitter… What Next?

A short guide on Audience Engagement and Conversion for creatives and business owners.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen my post of a kid singing that went viral. Like, Drake followed and sent a DM viral. It’s insane.

But we all know the internet is awash with so many viral trends, some outlasting multiple presidential tenures (shout out to Pepe memes) and others, gone by sunrise. So the multimillion-dollar question is — What Next? How do I convert this audience into paying fans/customers?

Capitalizing On Your New Huge Follower Base

Typically, going viral brings a new eager audience waiting on your next move. Having a loyal community for your brand on social platforms that likes, shares, and comments on your content, is fantastic. However, that’s the baby step towards earning revenue as the real challenge lies in converting these followers into paying fans/customers.

Here are some recommended ways to turn your social media followers into customers:

First, Understand Your Target Audience

It would be rather difficult to grab fans and customers if you don’t have an idea of whom you are trying to attract, right? Understanding your audience’s profile should be your first step because 79% of customers are more committed to brands that understand them.

So, how to go about creating your buyer persona? Well, it’s not rocket science as it includes getting an idea of your targeted audiences’:

1. Demographic details
2. Age
3. Gender
4. Interests
5. Problems*

• This doesn’t necessarily apply to artists but can apply to creatives and most businesses.

Buyer Persona template

Before you ask why you need to know everything about your audience, please understand you stand a better chance of converting the audience that actually has a desire/need for your offer than those that are simply taking a casual glance.

How best can you target the right audience if you don’t know them?

Most businesses can build a buyer persona based on the criteria stated above but for creatives, this could be a little tricky. Thankfully, social media analytics can provide basic insight to help with this.

The questions to keep in mind are:

• Who are they?
• What do they like?
• How do I give them what they like?

These personas give you insight into your audience and will help to shape your marketing campaigns and the nature of the content you offer them in the future, thus resulting in higher conversions as opposed to open-ended marketing.

Don’t Craft Words But Tell Stories: Creating A Human Connection With Your Social Audience

People love stories, and telling them on social platforms can be an effective way to drive more interest and subsequently, fans and leads. Also, sharing Stories on Instagram and Snapchat allows you to:

1. Connect with your audience at an emotional level.
2. Build a human face and earn recognition for your brand.
3. Gain an edge over your counterparts. With the competitive social media landscape, sharing unique stories of your work like behind the scenes content can go a long way in developing a sense of intimacy and trust with your desired audience.

While entertaining and educating the audience through appealing stories, remember:

Your stories should always reflect your brand’s personality so that the audience can feel connected.

Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC) To Boost Loyal Fan Support

Take advantage of the content made available to you.

User-Generated Content refers to content developed by your existing fans or clients. This includes fan videos, video challenges, testimonials, customer feedback, etc.

Using the content created and shared by your existing fans and supporters has become a prevalent form of marketing on social channels.

Its many perks include:

1. Reliability: It helps your audience to put their trust in your offerings especially when someone else has done so before and has benefitted from that decision.
2. Authenticity: Sharing real experiences helps you in boosting the authenticity of your business.
3. UGC boosts user engagement, which builds two-way communication and helps in driving more conversions.

In 2019, Apple came up with an innovative UGC marketing campaign #ShotOniPhone because the brand faced a challenge with its low-light photography quality. To restore the lost confidence of its users, they came up with the fantastic Instagram campaign to build trust and boost engagement and sales.

In addition, Doja Cat took advantage of ‘Say So’s virality on TikTok and incorporated the trending dance move as part of the choreography in the official music video. This move was a recognition of the UGC generated from her fanbase and other participants.

Use Gated Content To Elevate Your Audiences’ Interest In Your Offerings

Gated content could be anything ranging from a free sample, exclusive access to unreleased music or a webinar. Literally, anything that requires the audience to fill a form to access the offer in question. It’s an effective way to generate leads as it helps to:

1. Generate more traffic to your website or mailing list and boost inflow.
2. Grab high-quality visitors and nurture them to turn into customers.
3. Build long-lasting relationships with your fans/clients.

Gated content serves as a filter for high-quality fans and clients. If they agreed to give their personal information to pass through the gate, they must be genuinely interested. Psychologically, between one’s curiosity to see behind the curtain, the prestige of being an insider, and other special privilege perks, gated content can be an absolute conversion machine.

Keep The 80/20 Rule In Mind When Sharing Content On Social Media

If you only share content focused on your product or brand, that would be too promotional, and your social audience will become uninterested. So, the rule of 80/20 emphasizes keeping it balanced:

• 80% of your social media content focuses on educating and entertaining the audience so that they can share the information with their peers and you can gain maximum visibility.

For example, if you are in a fashion niche, you can share tips to answer your audience’s most common questions or develop content around fashion pain points or quick hacks. With music, it could be random information about the artist, interaction with your fans, or sharing tips that help you in your creative process.

• 20% of it should be directly related to your business. These include promotions, announcements, special offers, etc. that include a persuasive call-to-action to encourage your audience to learn more about your offerings that could lead to conversion.

Long story short, to convert a new audience to paying fans, you have to offer relevant and timely content without overtly marketing 24/7.

To turn your social followers into paying customers, it’s mandatory to offer them engaging content they value. By applying these tips, you can maximize conversions and scale higher.

Interested in more content? Leave a comment on what you’d like me to write on.