When it comes to content marketing and social media, quality is slightly more important than quantity, especially once you have a good number of followers. Now, don’t get me wrong, quantity is very important as well, but quantity means nothing if your followers are not interested in the content you tweet or post. If people don’t care about your posts, then they will simply ignore your tweets and eventually unfollow you. As a content marketing writer, you must create a social media following of people who are interested in the content you are producing.

As an aside, this is another of the many reasons that I highly recommend all content marketing writers have a niche (or preferably several). In addition to increasing your hourly rate because you are familiar with the topics and getting more gigs, having a niche allows you to more effectively use social media.

Let’s say most of your followers are fellow writers or small business owners (one of your niches), but then you get a gig creating content for a retirement home that is targeted for older adults. The small business owners and specialists who had been previously retweeting and favoriting your content will most likely ignore a post about “Tips for Bring Your Pet to an Assisted Living Home” and will eventually unfollow you.

You want to find two types of social media followers:

People in Your Target Demographic – These are people who are interested in your posts for their own purposes and are potential customers for the brand you are writing for (i.e. your client). In the example above, you would be looking for older adults who may be considering entering an assisted living home in the next one to three years. You may also be interested in the children of people who fall into that demographic because they are often the ones making the decision or helping their parents make the decision. You have to be creative and really think about the specific needs and dynamics of the brand’s customers when determining your target audience.

Influencers of Your Target Demographic – One of the most efficient ways to get your content in front of the right people is to connect with the people your audience is already follows. It could be a spokesperson, a magazine, or an expert in the field. By getting your content in front of influencers, they will hopefully share your information to their followers which is a much quicker way of distribution that you amassing the right followers.

But finding these people isn’t an accident of something that you do in one afternoon. It takes a dedicated effort to understand your audience and spending time on social media to create an effective social media following for your niche. But never fear, I will give you a step-by- method of finding the right followers next week.

Do you have any tips for finding the right social media followers?