4 Core Principles of Building an Online Audience

Underpinning any successful enterprise will be a set of principles that hold everything together.

Over the years, I've recognised and isolated some key principles that will serve you well when it comes to building an online audience. As long as you know what the core principles are, and can stick to them, you WILL build an online audience.

Core Principle #1: Build Trust

For now, forget looking to build an audience. The first thing you’re going to need to do is to build trust.

I’ll say that again because this underpins everything that you are going to do from this point forward.

The first thing you’re going to need to do is to build trust.

Here’s a quick story for you to explain why.

Back in 2020, in the darkest depths of lockdown, I set about taking a serious look at Twitter. I’d been using the platform for many years but as more of a broadcasting tool than anything else, with very little engagement.

I soon realised that Twitter was more than just that, and within a few months, I’d built up a reasonable following of around 5,000 followers by posting content and interacting with people.

I put out a tweet one day, and it was a recollection of a real event that happened to me when I was a high school teacher. The story went something like this:

One spring day, I was writing on the board at the front of the classroom when an uneaten apple slammed into the board right alongside my head.

I turned around to see who’d thrown it but it wasn’t immediately obvious since no one looked guilty. That was apart from one kid called Sean, who had the slightest of smiles on his face. He was a larger kid, and he was leaning way back in his chair, one arm draped over the back of it, looking a little proud of himself.

“Was that you Sean?” I asked him.

Without missing a beat, he replied:

“Sir. Do I look like the kind of kid that’d have an apple in his lunchbox?”

I paraphrased this story and sent it out in a tweet. It got a few likes but then I had a reply that took me back a bit, telling me in no uncertain terms where to go.

At first, I didn’t understand what I’d done. I messaged the person who’d written it, asking them how I’d offended them. They told me that my story was very ‘fatist’ (it was the first time I’d heard it). I explained that the story was a real one, that I was merely retelling it, and that I wasn’t making fun of obesity by making up a random story for a quick laugh.

The person then responded with something that made me sit up.

They said that they were most upset because they trusted me and didn’t think that I was the type of person to make fun of other people.

I’d never come across this person before. Yet here they were, telling me that they trusted me.

How was that even possible?

It slowly dawned on me that the personality I’d been putting out all these months was actually being noticed.

Even though it should have been pretty obvious to me, the stuff I was posting out and tweeting was being seen by people. After all, it's a public forum.

In this instance, it’s easy to say that perhaps this person needed to toughen up but in this case, that wasn't the point. The point is that someone I didn't even know existed trusted me.

Be aware of everything that you put out there in the online world. Be aware that every interaction you have with anyone, whether it’s online or not, can be subject to scrutiny. That could lose you some sales or audience members if not dealt with carefully. Worst case scenario, it could lose you your reputation and everything you’ve been working hard for.

Trust can take years to build and a moment to lose.

If you tell someone that you're going to do something, do it. Better still, do it and then tell them that you've done it. People will remember your let-downs and people also talk to each other.

Be the person or brand that you'd want to deal with.

Core Principle #2: Be Professional

Being professional doesn't necessarily mean being boring and dry – you can still have fun. Being professional means that people take you seriously, and that counts for a lot, especially when it comes to selling online.

Reliability is a key factor and tells your audience that you care about both yourself, your work, and them. People will want to be able to count on you and to rely on you. That way, you'll become an authority in your field and an esteemed one at that.

Professionalism involves an element of maturity too, especially when it comes to areas of conflict. Admitting when you have made a mistake (and being transparent) goes a long way to gaining respect. Don't feel as if you have to hide your mistakes – we all make them. People would much rather you admit them straight up than be lied to and have it all covered up. If you do make a mistake, admit it, and then put things right. It's a simple process that people will respect you for. You're not aiming to be perfect. You're aiming to be professional.

When it comes to the day-to-day work, run your own brand as if you were running it for someone else. Be accountable to yourself as if you were being accountable to someone else. Work on your self-discipline and focus on the job at hand instead of getting distracted.

Where possible, make sure that your written work contains no spelling or grammatical mistakes. It may not be important to some, but for others, if they can't trust you to check your grammar before you go publishing, how can you expect them to trust you with their time and interest?

Lastly, deal with people courteously. Even if their views and opinions couldn't be further from yours, they are entitled to have their opinions and that should be respected. The world contains as many different viewpoints as there are people.

Core Principle #3: Build Solid Relationships

One thing that underpins any successful venture is relationships. I’m not sure if you’ve ever worked in the field of sales but I used to work in the sales department of a newspaper. The sales team was split into two sections - those who were given flash company cars and spent all day out on the road, meeting clients, taking them out to lunch, strolling back into the office late afternoon and totting up the huge commissions that they’d just made; then there was the outbound sales team, who had to go through the Yellow Pages and cold call businesses to try and get piddly little adverts out of them. You can guess which team I was on.

If it was raining, the face-to-face guys would sometimes work from the office, and I’d have to listen to them calling up their clients. This is how their conversation would go:

“Hi Bob...it’s [insert name here]...yes mate, all good...how are you?... the kids ok?...how’s business this week?...usual full page advert this week?...yep...no probs. Speak soon.”

They’d put their phone down. Then they’d sip their coffee, sit back, and read the newspaper in front of them. A day’s target reached in less than one minute.

I’d leer over at them, having had the phone put down on me for the 100th time that day, with no sale, and with envy in my eyes.

The difference? Relationships. And relationships take time.

God knows how many hours had gone into building a relationship where the sales rep could literally just pick up his phone and ask for a full page advert.

It’s something I’ve become acutely aware of in my own business where I publish my own magazines. When my co-editor went off on maternity leave, I preferred to stay behind my desk and not visit any of my advertisers. Eventually, sales started dropping until she came back. And why wouldn’t they? I didn’t make my advertisers feel special or that I cared about them. Things picked up when my co-editor returned to work and we had the time to dedicate to just being there for them.

Your relationship with your audience members will be crucial to your success and to those people in your audience. Make them feel special. They won't forget you and they won’t forget how you made them feel.

Core Principle #4: Show Up

Take a look at any success story and you'll find that consistency is the key to most of them. Whether it's losing weight, putting on muscle, building an online empire or even writing a book, turning up every day has an incremental and powerful compound effect.

Today's work builds on yesterday's work and the more you can keep that momentum going, the better. The moment you slack is the moment that the momentum drops and you have to start from a few steps back.

And yes, some days will be tougher than others, and some days, you won't show up at all. But that's ok. These are all necessary. As long as you get back to it when you can, and the sooner the better.

Like the river that cuts through rock through sheer persistence, every little thing you can do towards building your audience will ultimately make all the difference.

Final Thoughts

These principles should permeate through everything you do and everything you do should have a purpose - in this case, working towards building yourself an audience.

For everything you do, ask yourself:

• Am I building trust?

• Is it professional?

• Is it developing a professional relationship?

• Am I showing up or am I giving myself sloppy excuses, even to myself?

Ideally, what you are aiming for is to become a professional and respected online figure that people view as an authority in one particular area. Become the expert that people seek out, welcome them into your world, and help them achieve the things that they want to achieve in life. After a while, you won't have to go looking for your audience because they'll be coming to you.