5 Strategies To Discover What Your Followers Want

Discovering what your followers want is a good way to manage your social media accounts, blog, and website. Communication is the underlying factor in your online engagements, and understanding each other provides you and your followers what they want.

Read on the 5 strategies we suggest you to take to understand your follower’s wants:

#1 Ask Them What They Want

Asking is the simplest yet one of the most effective ways to know what your followers want. As the verse goes, “Ask and you shall receive.” You and your followers should have a clear line of communication to understand what you need from each other. This way, you both will find yourselves in a win-win situation.

Part of discovering what your followers want is asking the right questions. Be focused on gathering the exact information you really want to know. You should also know your purpose for asking that question as well. Your intention should be clear as well, which includes how you want your followers to respond.

A vital part of asking what your followers want is framing. Make your words simple and easy to understand. State it in an unbiased manner to get as much angle as possible. Avoid using jargon to get answers even from casual visitors who may have just encountered your site or your account for the first time.

You should be flexible in formulating questions to know what your followers want. You can ask simply what your followers think of your post. You can also ask them to caption your post as well. You can also state that you have plans to take on something new and exciting soon and ask them for suggestions they have upon launching.

You can also get on a more personal level of inquiry to know what your followers want. Utilize your e-mail contacts list as you have already established a personal connection with them. They may have already known you for a while, even while you were still starting on your brand. They will be able to give you more frank and honest answers compared with those who you have just met recently.

#2 Follow Industry Influencers

Another strategy to know what your followers want is to follow major influencers in your niche or industry. Given that they have been established as who they are, have considerable experience and gained a wealth of knowledge in their field of expertise. They have been around for a while and are able to know the various trends which have transpired through the months and years that they have been active.

Using this strategy entails identifying the right people to follow. Industry influencers usually have a large number of followers in their social media accounts, blogs, and websites. They may also have published work such as books or journals. They may have also become guest bloggers or contributors in other related blogs or websites.

There are also other ways of identifying influencers to help you know your followers’ wants. They may have become brand ambassadors in your industry. This cuts across various social media and online platforms. This also crosses other forms of promotion through print and television. They may have also hosted talks and discussions and guested on online and television shows.

How do you use this strategy to know what your followers want? Look at the way they optimize their profile to establish their identity. Look at how they introduce themselves, and how they present their accomplishments and achievements. Study their content, which includes the angles that they present their topics and the length of their posts.

These influencers got to where they are because they have engaged well with their followers, and that’s what you should learn from them to know what your followers want. Take notes on how they established their rapport with their followers. Check out how they respond to the comments that they receive, both the positive and negative. The way they recognize and show their gratitude to their followers is something you should look into too.

#3 Deliver Quality Customer Service

Deliver quality customer service to discover what your followers want. This includes responding promptly and respectfully to interactions made by your followers. Your followers took the time to visit and like your page, comment on your post, ask you a question, give you feedback, or even make a suggestion. Whatever it is that they did, you should take the time to recognize these and make the appropriate responses.

This is all about engagement. You usually respond to positive interactions, and it’s quite easy to show them a sign of gratitude. Responding to negative interaction, on the other hand, is more challenging. You should set aside your emotional bias and be more level-headed in giving your response.

Getting negative interactions is an opportunity for you to deliver quality customer service to discover what your followers want. They have concerns and issues that you have to understand so you can address them correctly. Take note of these and make the necessary course of action so that it can be resolved as soon as possible. On the other hand, there are people who are just out to troll and bully, so you should know when to draw the line when it becomes too offensive or discriminating.

#4 Analyze Your Account’s Metrics

Analyzing the metrics of your account is another strategy to discover what your followers want. There are many unpredictable factors which contribute to your marketing strategy. Your marketing tactic may become a hit in the industry and make you earn a lot. On the other hand, this could also turn out to be a big flop and a waste of your precious resources.

Being able to measure various elements of your account is key to help you know what your followers want. This makes marketing a science, rather than just a blind hit-and-miss business aspect. Metrics give you a calculated and precise measure because the results are based on a scientific method of gathering and analyzing data. Marketers nowadays find it convenient to know and study metrics of their account as tools are readily available online.

What are some of the metrics you should familiarize yourself with to help you reach your goals? Jay Baer, expert social media marketer, categorizes these into 4. Consumption metrics give you an exact number of views on your posts, views on your videos, or listens on your podcast. Engagement and popularity of your posts are measured in sharing metrics.

Another way to know what your followers want is looking at lead-generation metrics. Another is the sales metrics, wherein it measures how well your brand offering is doing in the market. There are a lot of subcategories for each one, and you get to choose which one is appropriate for the type of information you need to understand your followers.

Once you get the information from this strategy to know what your followers want, make the necessary adjustments on your account. If there are certain topics that they are more engaged with compared with others, come up with related content in your succeeding posts. If there are parts of your blog or website that they frequently visit, know what makes those popular and come up with ways to apply the same strategy to other parts of your blog or website.

#5 Study Strong Competitors

Knowing your competition can be an effective way to discover what your followers want. There are a lot of those who are in the same niche and industry as you are, who offer relatively the same type of service for your similar target market. Don’t look at just any competition though, or else you’ll end up wasting your time and effort. Follow and study the ones who are creating big impacts or may have been your inspiration to come up with your own brand.

There are key aspects of your competition that you want to pay attention to know what your followers want. With a little digging, you can find the mistakes and mishaps they have encountered. Take note of these and make a conscious effort to prevent this from happening to you.

They may have been engaging with a market you may not have recognized before, that you can tap on. They may be looking for something or may be looking at an angle in your industry to meet their specific needs. You can grab these opportunities and apply these to see if these are what your own followers are looking for as well.

You can also conduct research on their business model to help you discover what your followers want. Even though there are similarities, focus on developing your identity as a brand. You may want to adopt their best practices and apply them on your own. If they’re taking on something new, be cautious before you take it up for your brand.

Wrapping it up

These are the top 5 strategies to discover what your followers want. The key to all these is a deeper understanding through various channels you have easy access to. We hope that our list helps you in retaining your existing followers and help build their loyalty to you and your brand. May this also entice new followers to aid you in achieving your brand’s goals.