It’s no secret that effective branding requires building a fan base. But in order to build a fan base, you gotta first know who your fans are. Lady Gaga has this whole concept nailed, and even has a pet name for her people… “Little Monsters”.
She knows EXACTLY who she’s writing, singing, and performing for.
As a writer in particular, it’s always important to know who your audience is, what they like and dislike, and why they’re reading/listening to you in the first place.
You have to suss out their quirks and soft spots, figure out ways to get their attention and then sweet talk and charm them into staying with you for as long as possible. (Or smack them up and call them your bitches, either methodology can work really…)
Sounds a bit like kinky detective work, yeah?
Well, writing actually does involve sleuthing, to a certain extent. Minus the kink of course.
Unless writing about kinky shit is your thing.
In that case, let your super freak flag fly, no judgment here!
But… I digress.
The first few questions you typically ask as a writer—who, what and why—are only the tip of the iceberg. When you ask yourself these questions, you are only just scratching the surface of what you can find out about your very own “Little Monsters”.
The potential for writers to grow an audience is always there, and growing bigger by the day. More and more people are coming online now than ever, seeking information, seeking a lifestyle change, seeking inspiration.
With the right strategy, you can take a slice of those millions of people who make up the backbone of the Internet community and make them yours.
Your people. Your “Little Monsters”.
Wanna know the secret?
It’s nichefication.
You have to find your niche if you want to build a solid following and fan base. You can’t have everyone love you and listen to you because not everyone is interested in what you have to say. Cater to the masses and you’re just going to get lost.
Cater to the few, and suddenly you’ve got something special happening.
As a writer, it’s possible to create an extremely strong following if you make it a point to learn how to find your right people and connect with them on deeper levels than the typical who, what and why.
Sound tough?
It can be. But it’s still doable, and probably easier than you think.
So…
Here’s how you find your own “Little Monsters”, in 10 (mostly) easy steps.
Step 1. Pick your niche then cultivate your audience.
I don’t have anything against doing it the other way around of course…
But to save your sanity you just might want to concentrate first on what you actually know and move on from there. After all, you can’t write convincingly and for a long period of time about stuff you have no real passion for, right?
Your audience catches quite easily onto that sort of thing, so please don’t try to fool them. It’s a waste of your time and theirs. Pick your niche based on your knowledge and passions… then work on growing your audience.
Step 2. Know your audience inside and out, top to bottom and side to side.
I’m sure Lady Gaga feels an enormous sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, knowing she has her audience in the palm of her hand at every performance.
Enthralled.
Hanging on her every word.
Really, it’s a great place to be.
But she wouldn’t be in that position if her “Little Monsters” didn’t feel she deserved to be there. People don’t pay attention to you unless they think there is something worth paying attention to.
Marketing 101 really… no one gives a shit about you and what you know, until they realize you give a shit about them.
It’s your job to impress your people, to show them you care about them and to make them realize that’s exactly what you are… someone worth listening to.
You can only do this if you have enough information about your audience to burrow deep and resonate somewhere inside of them.
Find out what makes them tick, what sort of sites they gravitate toward, what their opinions on different topics are, how often they surf the Internet, why they look for stuff online in the first place, what sort of information they consume on a regular basis—like I said, it’s detective work.
But it more than pays off in the end.
Step 3. Find who else your audience listens to and learn from them.
Chances are you’re not the only one that your audience is interested in. Just like Lady Gaga fans may also be Beyonce fans, individuals always have diverse and varied tastes.
You can’t play the jealous lover and hoard them all to your site—that’s just not possible. But, you can listen to the other people that your audience is listening to as well, and maybe learn a thing or two.
Trace your audience’s Internet activity, like where they were before visiting your site and where they’re going after. This gives you a deeper insight into the psyche of your readers and what they’re looking for as they read and surf.
Step 4. As a blogger and freelancer, it’s never easy to please everybody, so don’t.
I daresay it’s never even possible to please everyone. The whole range of human experience and public opinion will not allow any three people to agree on something absolutely.
It’s simply not gonna work, period.
Stick to your guns and write only what you believe in. Some people are going to disagree with you, but that’s the beauty of public discussion. If you go for the not-here-but-not-there approach, you’re certain to lose readers because they’ll think that you have no backbone.
Who needs wishy-washy? We need leaders in this world, not more sheep.
Step 5. Be genuine.
People are tired of reading all those come-hither-and-I’ll-sell-you-something approaches. If you want your voice to be heard, you have to send your messages in a way that will strike a chord with your audience.
Being yourself is a big step towards becoming a good writer and it almost magnetizes readers and pulls them closer to you. And since you’re working within a medium that couldn’t get any more un-personal, you really have to work hard at bringing back that personal touch in every word you write.
Entertain, inform and engage—this should be your mantra.
Step 6. Brand yourself.
It’s not easy to be heard over the din of other voices competing for the attention of readers and the millions who flock to the web. That’s why you have to make sure that you are unique in some way and that you stand out from the crowd.
Branding let’s you do just that.
Branding let’s you make an impression on your audience and allows them to get to know you and easily recognize you anywhere. It makes it easy for people to identify with you and relate.
There are many different ways you can go about building your brand, but one tip that’s important… be sure that you are sending out a consistent and cohesive message and image. And don’t forget, the more unique you are, the more people will remember you.
Step 7. Reach out and join online communities.
The idea behind the Internet is to bring together people from all walks of life and make it possible for them to communicate with one another easily and in real time. Distancing yourself from relevant online communities and groups is going to backfire on your overall strategy.
If you want to get out there and make waves, you have to appear in as many places as possible so people begin to recognize you. Do guest posts for other people in your chosen niche, join discussion forums, put your social media accounts to work for you—all these and more can contribute to making you popular, cool and relevant.
3 mighty important little words when it comes to cultivating an audience with sticking power.
Step 8. Say something insanely useful or powerful.
Your audience listens to you for a reason. They’re not on your site to simply browse the Internet and catch up on the latest posts of the people they follow.
(Well, some of them might have that luxury I suppose.)
But most are actually online because they want to know something new and/or useful. They are looking for answers, and it’s your job to provide them. Choose the most effective platform to make your expertise apparent and then, in the words of Nike- Just Do It!
Step 9. Make yourself easy to reach.
There are a lot of avenues for you to get together with your audience. Your blog or website is not the only thing that they can and will visit to get more of the valuable and entertaining content you offer: there’s Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, RSS feeds and email newsletter updates too, just to name a few.
The more communication channels you offer, the easier it is for you to tap into the minds of your audience and what’s percolating within their little heads. Ultimately you will be able to tailor your content in such a way that it meets your audience’s needs and wants almost intuitively.
Step 10. Be SEO-friendly.
Finally, it’s not just your human audience that you should pay attention to, because these days search engines are also being refined to make sure that they point visitors to just the right places.
Develop a comprehensive list of keywords and key phrases that you’d like to focus on when it comes to your blog, so that your site will begin to rank high for those search terms and you get more visitors. People often say search traffic is some of the best traffic you can get, and I’m inclined to agree, for the most part.
But know what’s even better?
When that search traffic becomes direct traffic and that direct traffic suddenly becomes new readers that check in regularly.
AKA your “Little Monsters”.
Warmest
{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
Amazing post! Such great advice, and so well written. It’s gotten me all motivated!
I absolutely love number 8 (Say something useful or powerful). It is some of the best blogging advice I’ve heard in a long time.
Lauren Ashley Miller@social media marketing strategies´s last [type] ..Recent News on Drug Companies and Social Media – FDA Decision Upcoming
Aw thanks so much Lauren! So glad you enjoyed it and had some take-aways… it was a fairly lengthy post! lol
Hi Cori!
Oooh, I love these tips – really good stuff!
I’m curious about how to trace my reader’s online footsteps – HOW do I find out where else they are hanging out, what else they are reading? I can ask them, of course, but that then begs the question of how do I ask them and get them to answer?
Jess Webb (aka Jessilicious)´s last [type] ..Q & A- How to Keep Business and Personal Separate on Facebook
Hey Jess!
It’s nothing terribly techie or difficult. I stalk them and make friends with my analytics. lol I use GetClicky for tracking- http://getclicky.com/226617 (aff link, but they’ve got a free option!) and it provides a wealth of info on my visitors.
Usually I can suss out where they came from, and get a picture of the type of stuff they like to read by how many actions they take on my site and what pages they gravitate toward. Once they leave my site, I can’t really track where they go, (or if I can, I haven’t figured out how to do it! lol) so then I resort to the stalking measures.
I hang out in places I feel my people might be hanging out themselves, usually based on the premise that if I like hanging there, then people like me like hanging there, and my best audience is going to be people with similar tastes, values, points of view, and all around quirks as me. I proactively find blogs/people I like to read myself, and make friends with them… it’s likely both them and some of their right people are going to be my “Little Monsters” too (I believe in abundance, and don’t think any one person has a monopoly on people, so a reader of one blog can still be a huge fan of another blog.)
You can find forums and groups related to your own interests and make friend there, as well as get out and do real word networking in groups of like-minded people. And, when all else fails, survey your current readers and ask them. You can do this on social media, or via your newsletter or even via a blog post… ask them where/who/what they like to read, blogs/forums they like to visit, and ask them what makes those things special for them. Then join them in reading or visiting those places and see what all the fuss is about… you’ll likely find even more of your right folks to connect with.
Hope that helps clarify some.
Thanks, Cori! That is super helpful.
I am using some of those strategies already, so I guess I am well on my way! 
Jess Webb (aka Jessilicious)´s last [type] ..Quirky Entrepreneurs- Mars Dorian & Crafting a Killer Brand
You got it babe!
RT @BigGirlBranding: 10 Steps to Finding Your Very Own “Little Monsters” http://bit.ly/hSe3QT | Thx for "nichification" shout-out!
Another Great Article RT @BigGirlBranding: As a Writer- 10 Steps to Finding Your Very Own “Little Monsters” ##BGB http://bit.ly/hSe3QT
I have to say as a new reader of this blog that its one of the best designed I’ve seen. Very clean and contemporary, ands its that alone that makes me want to read more. Take heed bloggers!
Aw thanks so much hun! That totally makes my day!
With step 4 on not trying to please everyone, I think even going controversial sometimes actually ends up benefiting your blog.
A few months back, our photography software company got bought out by another company, and they were trying to make us pay more money to buy the new company’s software. I wasn’t too happy about that, and I found a different solution. I wrote about the experience on my blog, and the post ended up getting multiple comments from the owner of the company that had bought out our old software. Talk about adding value to the post. We had a great discussion, and now my blog readers have content that they can’t find anywhere else online. Sweet! It wasn’t a “safe post”, and I think that’s why it worked so well.
TJ McDowell@Photography Education´s last [type] ..Make Money With Photography By Cutting Costs
Hey TJ.. Yes, controversy can work well when used appropriately. I don’t feel like writing flame posts just for the sake of flaming is really a great route to take personally, but it works for many. And with a controversial post that’s also respectful as it sounds like yours was, it can definitely drive conversation!
Well done m’dear!
Rule number one in Marketing: Find your niche. Your captured audiences, I would say “sponsors” since they practically provide you with money by buying your product/s and/or services, will always be at the core of your survival. They even give you free advertising through word-of-mouth or referrals!
Parekh@excessive sweating´s last [type] ..Excessive Facial Sweating
Hey Parekh.. too true, they could be called sponsors! lol Great insight.
Cori, well said. Most of us, I believe, when we begin blogging are uncertain as to who are, what we have to say and how to say it. So for a time, hopefully only a short time, we look to those we admire and model them until we find our voices.
When we find out who we are and speak it in our style, we engage with our audience.
This quote by Judy Garland is appropriate: “Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else.”
Cori, I appreciate your direct, no BS style. You always have great content and make me smile as well. Mahalo and aloha. Janet
Janet @ The Natural Networker´s last [type] ..What Will My Friends Say by Robert T Kiyosaki
Hey Janet! Thanks so much! I appreciate the kind words, totally makes my day. And I LOVE that quote, going to steal it for my journal!
As a Writer- 10 Steps to Finding Your Very Own “Little Monsters” | by @BigGirlBranding http://ow.ly/3TmQp
Such an informative and fun to read post. I whole heartedly agree with tips 4 and 5, you should always be who your are not what people want you to be
Well, thanks for the pingback,m’dear. I do love my bitches
And I loved how you put it: “Marketing 101 really… no one gives a shit about you and what you know, until they realize you give a shit about them.” Could I climb a mountain and put this on a plaque at the summit? It ain’t about you – it’s an “us” thing. I love my readers and make sure they understand EVERY day that they’re the reason I get to do what I do.
Hat tip, m’lady. Good day!
Erika Napoletano´s last [type] ..How to Add Your Fan Page as Your Employer on Your Personal Facebook Profile
Good to see ya my lovely.
And you’re very welcome, just giving out credit where it’s due! lol I vote a plaque on a mountain for sure… I think the Hollywood sign should be changed. lol And yes, it’s very evident how much you love your peeps, it’s one of the reasons I keep visiting! Hope you have a kick ass weekend luv!
I think writing is a balance between what you want to write and what your readers want to read. You can’t really give in an tailor your writing only for the reader you have to keep something of yours, your own style and the content you want to write about.
Like you said, you can’t please everyone so always keep your own opinion strong and don’t get back on your word (unless you are wrong of course), also #8 providing great content will for sure great some pretty pesky “little monsters” that will follow your updates closely.
Alex@Jocuri´s last [type] ..Elicoptere in lupta
Hey Alex! Great point, it does no good trying to write about things you have no interest in. Not only will you bore your readers to tears, you’ll also bore yourself! lol
I just wanted to compliment you on your site, it’s nice and I’m subscribing to your RSS because I’m sure, along the way there will be things I can use that you will talk about in future posts.
John G.´s last [type] ..Alan Cowgill – Guest Post
Hey John.. thanks so much, I appreciate the kind words.
I think your point to be yourself is really what draws people in. People are not so much drawn into facts but to personalities that present them in a way they can relate too. Being a ‘real’ person really helps peak my interest to peoples insight and how they view the world.
Hey John.. Me too!!
I’d much rather read facts riddled with personality than something dry and boring. Bleck!
Hi Cori,
This was amazing. I love your attitude! It’s not often bloggers nowadays are so candid and willing to talk about SEO, branding, and kink in the same post. =)
I especially loved #8. Brendon Burchard is always talking about how the more value you provide your Little Monsters, the better your business is going to work. It’s not just about constantly selling or trying to out-shout your competition. Provide value with every post, every Tweet, every newsletter you send out.
Delena
Delena Silverfox´s last [type] ..epc Belfast
Hey Delena.. thanks so much! Yes, you’ll find lots of sex, love, and rock and roll around here.
Oh and branding too. And definitely value, I hope! lol And it’s true, clients appreciate you looking out for them and over-delivering.
“Be genuine”
- I hate those bloggers who just copy topics from other bloggers. Just imagine if I will visit different blogs a day then I will only see one the same topic??? Oh well, as a blog reader most of the time, I want to read something new, something different to gain more knowledge.
Samantha Dermot´s last [type] ..Symptoms Of Teeth Grinding
Hey Samantha.. not sure I’m getting the point of your comment? You don’t agree with being genuine? Or you do? Mildly confused, please clarify. Thanks!
I agree with you being genuine. Despite of so many factors that might affect the possibility of being genuine like lack of time to think of a topic, etc. But like what I’ve said, as a reader, I always want something new and informative discussions as possible.
Samantha@teeth grinding´s last [type] ..Pros And Cons Of Mouth Guards
I love to read this “Being yourself is a big step towards becoming a good writer”. But, Sometime I difficult to get idea for writing. I need a lot of time to find it. I am not full time blogger, so if I feel tired with my work on office, I difficult to get idea.
DailyAppNews´s last [type] ..Multi-touch Gestures Activation on iPad without Jailbreak
Hey hun.. I agree working a day job and then finding inspiration to write can be tough. Just try and set aside a bit of time when your mind is fresh to write. Perhaps get up a bit earlier in the a.m. before work.
Hi,
Creating a niche website is one of the greatest things, and also – it is extremely interesting and pleasant. First of all, thinking of a perfect niche that can accomplish your requirements, after – a name and the website itself. It sounds simple but it really isn’t that easy, it takes a lot of time to create a successful website, maybe years. Almost a week/a few weeks to create the website, another few months for proper SEO, design, promoting the website and many other things. Getting a website on its feet isn’t really easy as I said, but the results are really great and it sure is worth all the time, the work and the stress because in the end you will have a great website – a business and a lot of experience. Thank you for sharing, really nice article!
Best regards,
Maria
Maria Pavel@CNA Training´s last [type] ..Hiring RNs & CNAs – Carlsbad- Del Mar- Encinitas- Vista
Thanks Maria, glad you enjoyed it! Building a quality site does take some work, but as you said, so worth it in the end.
Reaching out and joining online communities can help you get more ideas. As a writer, you need to know the interest of your audience so take an effort to know what they need and what they want.
Angela@Dog fleas´s last [type] ..Frontline Plus FAQ
So true Angela!
Getting involved with other communities is a great way to get to know your audience better.
Step 9 helps in driving “Little Monsters” to your site. This is the organic traffic. But the task should not stop in maintaining your site’s good search engine ranking. Convert these “Little Monsters” into “Loyal Little Monsters”. Interact with them. For instance include them in your mailing list.
Rabihat´s last [type] ..Chest Coach System Review – Does It Work
Excellent advice Rabihat.
It really is important to finding and narrowing down a specific niche of audience. Doing this will help any blogger find more interested and dedicated readers.
George@Leaf blower´s last [type] ..Turbo Garden Cordless Electric Leaf Blower Review
Exactly George!
The best way to promote your self or your business is exactly knowing your audience, your fan base and then understanding their mentality, like what they want or what would they love to have from you. As long as your fan base is pleased, you keep going.
Joshua@Plumbing training´s last [type] ..Plumbing Practice Test
Hey Joshua.. well said.
A lot of us believe that selecting a niche is about deciding on the topic you will write on. Well, I really think it doesn’t. That’s mainly the “product” you are going for. I believe that choosing a niche market is identifying the people or the audience you are going to write to, who to market to.
Agreed!
{ 1 trackback }