Guide to build a CULT-like following on Social Media.

The moment your customers start loving your brand as much as you do, Boom! The fruits of your labor are finally showing. It’s a fact that every brand needs to have a Social media presence.

This is when people take an interest in discussing your brand and start researching the minimal details of your brand. You gain more loyal customers who deliberately purchase your products and share your brand reviews with their colleagues.

Cult-like following on Social media is time-consuming but a worthwhile endeavor. It requires building a strong foundation leading to a readily identified and persistent brand. Eventually, the most vital part is to convert the customers into fervent followers.

The key features of social media that help create a cult-like following is that we can reach a greater audience and build massive connections.

Social media presence has now become an indispensable task for increasing brand identity. It is a platform where you can not only represent yourself but also gain the trust of your customers and easily keep them updated. Consistency and dedication toward your social media presence can lead to groundbreaking results.

Step-by-step process to build a cult-like following:

Cult-like following on Social media is time-consuming but a worthwhile endeavor. It requires building a strong foundation leading to a readily identified and persistent brand. Eventually, the most vital part is to convert the customers into fervent followers.

Following are the essential steps you need to follow to build a cult-like following:

Step 1: Recognize your audience

The steps you will take further depend on the type of audience you possess. So be careful while recognizing who your audience is. You can use the below techniques to know your audience:

- Check out your followers and look for those who frequently interact with your posts on social media.

- Go through the likes, comments, feedback, and shares.

- Review the current data and analytics.

- Discover the products/services that previously gained success and determine the audience.

- Surveys and campaigns can be conducted.

- Look for the audience of your competitors to get an idea.

Step 2: Create an inspirational Brand story

A brand plays a major role in developing an emotional connection with the audience. Be creative with your brand story. Curate your story in a way that inspires curiosity among your audience. They will take an interest in getting detailed information and make it a general topic of discussion with their surrounding people too.

This is how a creative brand story can prove to be your secret weapon to attain a cult following quicker.

Step 3: Select an Articulate leader

It’s obvious that a leader is important for giving constant guidance, motivation, and instructions to achieve your task. An articulate leader is one who is a representative of his brand.

The audience is more likely to get attracted by the human identity of the brand. The leader can make a difference and create a clear vision for the brand. A real-time example is Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who is recognized as a world-changing and innovative leader.

Step 4: Build a community for your brand

The foremost step to building a community is, to be honest with what you’re posting. Don’t try to fake to look different and better. Cause if you’re not honest, who’s going to believe in you?

Make your community feel that they are valued. Keep them regularly updated about their importance in your brand growth. Ask them about their experiences and beliefs. Share interactive posts encouraging the audience to speak what’s in their mind.

Step 5: Give exclusive offers

Come up with exclusive offers on special occasions that maintain your brand status. People come to know about your brand when you release deals. They come to shop more and suggest others. Through this, more people get to know about your brand.

Step 6: Keep Updating Yourself with the trends

Going with the trend is essential for keeping the audience of your brand engaged. Take care that the trends are relevant to the missions and features of your brand.

Essentials to create a cult-like fan following:

Read the article entirely to get tips and tricks on creating a cult-like fan following on social media. Along with the essentials, you need to focus on minor details and keep them up to date.

Here, you will find crucial information that should be kept in mind to get a curative achievement in social media fan following.

1. Give your audience a chit-chat matter:

Make efforts to make your brand a popular topic of discussion by taking surprising steps. The foremost task is to discover something that your audience will find interesting.

Depending on what your brand is, you can share something that is humorous, charitable, unique, shocking, etc., on your social media. Make sure to link your idea with what you want to sell or make famous. When you catch that idea, you win half the battle.

To maintain the public image of your brand, campaigns can be the best way. Sharing your brand's motivational or heart-touching story can prove effective. This will not only bring you clients, but they will come with high respect, comfort, and trust in your brand.

Before launching something new in your brand, create hype for it in the market. This can be done by asking for suggestions, releasing the minor details first, which excites the customers, and adding advanced features to the new launch.

Another way is to see what people are an influence on your target audience. If those influential people share their views about your brand, the audience will automatically gain trust in you.

If you successfully touch your customer's emotions, they will further share about your brand with those who are unaware of it. The audience will discuss your brand's positive/negative traits, the newly launched products/services, recent news of your brand, or whatever you’ve posted lately. This leads to a rapid increase in the percentage of your audience. More people discover your brand and buy your products/services.

2. Direct Selling is not always a good option.

Don’t think that Social media platforms are for Direct Selling. Instead of just attempting to sell your services/products directly, you must show what your brand is about. Try to utilize Social media platforms to create an engaged audience that further becomes the brand advocates.

Influence people by selling a lifestyle and not merely a product or service. Promoting a lifestyle can develop an emotional connection between the product/service and the lifestyle image you’ve created. It generates a desire among the audience to attain a similar lifestyle.

Tell the audience the details of your brand. Show them the real inspiration for developing a particular product/service. For example, if it is a food product, tell the customers about ingredients, making process, health benefits, if any, new add-ons, comparison with other similar products, etc.

3. Consistency is the key.

No matter how influential content you post, if you’re not consistent, there's no meaning to it.

On social media, be consistent in the following activities:

- Posting

- Updating

- Messaging

Stay consistent with your work and new inventions to maintain your brand image. Try to make updates that are inlined with the previous actions and beliefs.

Maintain the posting schedule for your social media page to be regular with your posting. You can use a calendar for this purpose that is either inbuilt in the app or there are many tools available.

4. Try to engage with the clients to develop a feeling of oneness among them.

The easiest way to engage with your customers is to keep a watch on their feedback and comments on Social Media. By replying to customer reviews, you can make it an interactive process. Even when you receive constructive criticism, try to understand its reason and resolve it. Handle your clients with utmost dedication, patience, and respect. You can set custom messaging available for business accounts that automatically reply to your customers.

If you are ghosting your clients so you can enjoy cocktails on the sandy shore like a superhero? Well, the fact is, the customers are the real heroes, not you. You are just a supporter of your clients because they are the ones who decide your fame.

You do not mention some secrets about your company on board, but your clients have discovered them. When you visit Starbucks, you are aware of getting free whipped cream with chocolate syrup, and your colleague is not aware of it. Also, Starbucks constantly keeps their customers engaged in posting their experiThis gives you a feeling of accomplishment knowing the undisclosed information about Starbucks.

This is when customers develop a feeling of oneness with your brand and feel that they are also a part of your brand.

5. Tips to Master Social Media.

This ‘Guide to Building a CULT-like Following on Social Media’ assists you in uncovering strategies to maintain a consistent brand upon social media networking.

A basic strategy is to maintain a unique identity for your brand. The identity can be a logo, banner, bio, tagline, etc., which should be consistent on different platforms so people can recognize you easily. The minor details like the color combination and pattern results used for your brand help in the easy visibility of your brand.

Having an engaging talk with the customers who contact you through social media is always a good option:

- This helps you discover the information that can only be known by a person-to-person conversation.

- You come to know the personal needs of your clients.

- Customers realize they are valued when you give time and attention to solving their queries.

Want to build a loyal community for your brand on Social media? Original and effective content can help you establish authority and credibility in your industry.

Showcase your brand story that can prove to be impactful on your audience. This is a very creative Social media marketing tip that requires an inspirational part of your brand.

Memes are the latest trending way of connecting with customers. Posts with a hint of irony that bring a laugh to the customers will go pretty well. These memes help you create brand awareness to a certain extent.

After creating your social media page, the last step should be analyzing your accounts using the available Social media audit tools.

6. Focus on getting loyal fans.

Are you among the ones who believe that increasing followers are a must? Okay, I don’t totally disagree with you, but in reality, what you need is a handful of loyal followers.

In the context of guest posting, submitting your post to every other relevant website is a wasted effort. A better alternative is to submit your post on a few websites that can entirely transform your brand. These are the building blocks to acquire millions of followers.

Under Influencer marketing, don’t try to get many influencers representing your brand. Instead, find out your industry's 3 to 4 mega influencers who can buy you a massive following in a short span.

7. Think out of the box.

To get a CULT-like Social media following, you must operate differently than the regular brands. Set smart goals.

Just like every kitchen has its own secret, every brand should possess its secret strategy. A strategy that is unconventional and growth-oriented. If you want to beat your competitors, you need to think apart regarding your product, service, marketing strategy, client handling, etc.

Evidence of the success you get by using this technique is the very famous brand, Tesla. The Tesla company has thought differently by not selling its cars through dealerships. They own their stores and sell directly to their customers. This is a quality that makes them stand apart from other luxury car brands.

Brands who have successfully gained Cult following on Social media

Red Bull: A popular energy drink

Red Bull has a great impact on the lives of people through its branding. Red Bull is not only recognized as a product, but it is also famous through some achievements and sponsored events.

How did Red Bull gain a cult-like following?

Red Bull has successfully conducted events not particularly related to energy drinks that have proved to be beneficial. One of their famous events was the Red Bull Soap Box Race. Currently, Red Bull is a sponsor for 11 sports. It’s participation as Oracle Red Racing which is a Formula One racing team, is also a major reason behind it’s cult following.

Glossier: A beauty product

Who has yet to come across the Glossier brand? Well, if you haven’t, to my surprise, Glossier has gained a unique identity in the beauty market merely through its remarkable presence on social media.

Glossier’s secret of building a cult-like following on social media:

The success of Glossier proves that branding and social media are the building blocks for achieving greatness. Glossier created a mystery by making Beyonce wear their product in the Grammys making the fans indulge in guessing what products she wore.

Slack: A software company

Slack has good communication and collaboration, which has proved effective for their growth. They have gained a strong customer base through their social media strategies.

Reason for cult-like following of Slack:

Being specific about their social media presence, Slack has targeted particular demographics to reach their target audience. On their social media pages, they share articles and tips based on creating a better work-life. Apart from this, they also share motivational content, their brand story, and their customer experiences.

To conclude…

If used appropriately, Social media can prove to be your brand's backbone. Always remember that you are known for the impact you create on people. Along with your gain, prioritize the well-being and expectations of your community.

The above article portrays the techniques for building a cult-like following on social media for your brand. Read it thoroughly and utilize it to make your followers visit your social channels regularly.