Why growing your audience feels so hard in 2024

There's no denying that growing your audience now is definitely not as easy as it used to be just a couple of years ago. I remember my very first business, I actually managed to grow the Instagram account just by following people who followed businesses with a similar audience and they would see my account and they'd follow me back.

 

Your audience growth is a long term investment

These days it's not quite so easy to grow any kind of audience. To grow your Instagram following, to grow your email subscribers, your Twitter following, your YouTube subscribers, your podcast listeners, wherever you are on the internet. It's a lot harder than it used to be. Today, I'm sharing why that is and a couple of things that you can do to counteract that.

 

Changing algorithms

So, first of all, we know that the algorithms are no longer what they used to be. And it used to be that just by posting more frequently or using the right hashtags, you could get more followers. Or like I said, by following someone and they would follow you back. Now, it's not quite the same, now the algorithms don't prioritize by the most frequent or the most recent posts. They prioritize by what they deem is going to be most relevant. So the challenge there then is how can you create content that is more relevant for your audience than anybody else that they are following? The other reason it's so challenging is now that so many brands are competing for an ideal customer's attention, it's noisy. Everyone is consuming and creating so much content. There is actually more content out there than anybody could ever consume in their entire lives. So that makes it really challenging for you to stand out because you've got to find a way to cut through that noise, cut through that clutter and get your content in front of the right people.

 

It's a slow burn

It also feels slow. Growing your audience feels really slow in 2024. We want to grow our audiences quicker so we can start having those bigger launches. So we don't have that patience, we want it to happen yesterday. And consistency is really hard. It's so hard to stay consistent when you have a million other things, you need to file your taxes, you have client projects that need to be done. These things all have external accountability, so you have to do them. And then the things that aren't urgent, aren't as important, fall to the wayside, like growing your audience. Growing your audience isn't easy. I'm going to say it, it's really not that easy. And that's why so many people struggle with it. They look for the quick fixes. They look for the hacks, rather than going for that long-tail long-term approach where you're investing time now because you know you'll see the results from it in six months, or a year, or five years down the track.

 

Create consistent, relevant content

And I know it seems like, “Wow, why do I want to invest time now for five years down the track?” Believe me, things that I did five years ago in my business are paying off now. People I started nurturing five years ago are paying off now. That doesn't mean that you won't see results earlier, but it also means that it's an investment for the long term. Now, if you are launching anything, you are in the business of audience growth, you are in the business of content marketing. Like it or not, it is as much a part of your business as doing your taxes, delivering on client projects. Because if you're not growing your audience in between those launches, how do you expect your launches to grow?

 

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