If you’ve got an online business or are thinking of starting one, you’ve likely thought about how to get started actually growing your online audience?

Today – I brought in someone who’s managed to do just that on several platforms…

Carrie Green is the founder and chief inspiration officer at the Female Entrepreneur Association. She’s been on the podcast before and we talked about how she created FEA…If you’d like to listen to that interview first, click here to check out Episode 43 but today we’re diving into a bigger topic…building your audience–what it takes and the specific strategies Carrie has used to grow the FEA community to over 400,000 people on Facebook alone.

Her book “She Means Business” just launched (you can order on Amazon right here)!

…now let’s get into this week’s episode….

Today we’re going to talk about audience building…

1. How she’s grown her Facebook following and community to over 400k
2. What she’s been up to over on Youtube
3. How she got her book deal – straight and simple
4. How she thinks about her business that makes it easier to share with the world

Take out your journal as you listen to this week’s episode, follow along here and take notes as they come up during my conversation with Carrie.

#1 Where will you focus and commit your time and energy to grow?

Carrie took a look at what she wanted to achieve with the FEA and decided Facebook was the best place to reach women entrepreneurs who needed inspiration, tools, and support as they built their business.

If you’ve got a bunch of social media sites growing, can you shift your attention to just 1 for the next 90 days?

#2 Can you think of your brand as a being – a person and your partner?

Have you ever had a problem singing the praises of a company or person you know to other people? Not surprising…it’s easier to share other people’s genius and amazing work above our own. I love this little tip from Carrie because once you look at your business as a separate entity, you’ll have an easier time making decisions, sharing the amazing benefits of being part of the community/business, and you won’t hesitate to tell someone about this being.

Imagine your business is a separate being (even if you’re a personal brand), describe your business as if she is your business partner or close friend.

#3 How do you get people to follow and fall in love with “her”?

Once you’ve defined your business, platform, and are looking at it as separate from you…it’ll start feeling like your best friend. The one you want to tell all your friends about. You’ll want to get “her” all the attention she needs to grow and flourish. And just like Carrie says about the FEA…(my favorite line ever) I wanted to make people fall in love with the Female Entrepreneur Association.

How can you help people discover what you’re doing and fall in love with your business? What would you say about your business to someone else (see above) to encourage them to check her out? Keep asking this question to find the things that will draw in “her” own flair of an online audience.

#4 What can you do to pay consistent attention to your 1 platform?

Right along with #1 – recommit yourself daily to paying attention to what’s working and what’s not on the platform. What can you offer on a regular, consistent basis.

Can you do something every single day? Can people depend on you to share something valuable on a daily basis?

Carrie shares what she did on a regular basis, including some tools that made the job of being consistent way easier – make sure to listen and grab the printable question sheet here.

#5 Ask How Can I Have a Breakthrough On This Platform?

Keep asking yourself – how can you have a breakthrough on this platform? What are the main things you can do to really stand out? What are the things that other people are doing (or not doing) and how can you really give serious value?

This might mean – be consistent and focused. Create this as a hub. Post 3x a day. Always send people to your home on the platform.

If you’re stumped, check out your favorite Facebook pages, Instagram profiles, or wherever you’re committing to focus…ask yourself what are they doing to stand out. The point is not to copy, but to look for different things you might be able to do or change about what you’re currently doing to grow.

Hint: don’t underestimate the value of consistent posting.

#6 Once you’re consistent – what can you do turn up the volume to reach more people?

Once you’ve got your consistent publishing scheduling on your one main platform, it’s time to turn up the volume. If it’s Facebook, how about just running Like ads to get more people following your page. Sometimes, getting your message in front of other people is all it takes to start really growing.

Carrie shares her super simple ad that always brings in new faces to the community in the episode – make sure to listen to the details. The big spoiler here is that she believes consistent posting and creating a place people can depend on is a huge secret to growing a strong, engaged online audience.

#7 Systematize your consistent posting by create content categories

Once you start seeing some traction, turn what you’re doing into a system.

Carrie uses MeetEdgar and several content categories (these categories or post types were the ones that she consistently posted on her page) to keep her page fresh and publishing regularly.

She hired a graphic designer to uplevel the visuals …

But – she’s largely doing exactly what she’s been doing, now she just has help filling in any potential gaps and taking a bit of the workload off by using the social media scheduler.

What are your top 5-6 commonly posted content categories? Maybe this will look like:

• Your Blog posts
• Quotes
• Pieces of advice
• Other people’s content
• Resources
• Your optins
• Promotions

Come up with 30 updates for each category – and you’ll be on your way to creating a library you can eventually pop into a tool (Meet Edgar is my favorite too!)

Now it’s your turn

Review your journal notes (hope you took them!) and go back through each of these 7 questions. You can download this worksheet with the prompts and take them with you!

The question is now – How will you use the tips from Carrie to start building or grow your own online audience and community?

Leave a comment below letting me know where you commit to focus growing your audience over the next 90 days. Tell us where to find you and what your business is all about – really sing “her” praises and let us be part of it!

Want more inspiration? Make sure to check out Carrie’s book “She Means Business” over on Amazon right here.

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