Now, we're diving into a crucial topic: choosing the correct channel for your audience growth.

Let’s get started:

The Great Fishing Expedition

So, here's the deal: end of the month I'm about to go fishing for the first time ever. (I know, I know, try to contain your excitement.)

But here's the thing - choosing where to fish is turning out to be more complicated than I thought.

Some spots have trout, others have carp, and some even boast salmon. Fancy.

If I want any chance of success beyond just sitting with friends and some beers (which, let's be honest, sounds like a win in my book), I need to choose the right spot.

Fishing for Your Audience

Just like choosing the right fishing spot, picking the right social media platform is crucial for your success.

See what I did there? Quite proud of myself. And I am actually going fishing so didn’t just have to make up some BS.

Here's the golden rule:

Go where your audience ALREADY is, not where you personally prefer to hang out.

It doesn't matter if you're an Instagram junkie or a Twitter addict. If your audience is on LinkedIn, that's where you need to be. End of story. It's the number one criteria for success in this game.

Sure you could carve out a space for your niche on an untapped platform. But that’s an advanced play. Right now we’re getting started.

The Manual Check

Now, how do we figure out where our audience is already hanging out? Time for a little reconnaissance mission.

Take one of your key questions (remember our prompt from the last Part) and plug it into different social media platforms.

Let's say your question is "How to get started with ChatGPT."

Check out:

• TikTok

• Instagram

• Facebook

• YouTube

• Twitter

Here’s what the results look like on TikTok:

Look at the top videos or posts for your question. But here's the catch - ignore the MASSIVE creators in your space. They're outliers. Instead, focus on small and medium accounts. What kind of views and engagement are they getting?

Basically go through the top posts and note down the basics. Do they have 100s of views, 100s of thousands or millions? If no views are available use Likes or other engagement metrics as a rule of thumb.

We do this on each of the platforms to get a rough idea of the popularity of a particular topic.

This isn't rocket science. We're just trying to get a rough gauge of where people with your problem (and question) are hanging out.

Ideally create a ranked list of most interest to least interest. But we are mainly interested in the top platform.

The One Platform Strategy

Alright, based on your reconnaissance, it's time to choose ONE platform as your primary battleground. For me, it's TikTok (more on that in a bit).

Here's the game plan:

1. Create content on your primary platform

2. Repurpose it to others for the first month

3. See where it gets picked up and becomes popular

Starting in this way gives us exposure on all the main platforms which, in turn, gives us more chances for the content to suddenly be picked up and the account to grow.

We initially use multiple platforms because we still don’t know which will be the best. We can make an educated guess (based on our manual check above) but we want to use this first month to be certain we aren’t missing a trick.

Chances are, it'll perform best on your primary platform. Why? Because platforms love native content and reward you for using their specific tools. Plus, you're likely to be most active there, which the algorithms adore.

But by hitting all the main platforms (at least initially) we are belt and braces just in case we were wrong. Shiny? Cool.

The TikTok-LinkedIn One-Two Punch

Now, if you're still scratching your head wondering which platform to choose, here's my secret sauce: TikTok as primary, LinkedIn as secondary.

Use this as a solid fall back if your manual checks really revealed nothing. About the market.

Why TikTok? It treats each video individually and doesn't care about account size. This is gold for new accounts. It allowed me to reach 100K followers in just 6 months. Not too shabby, right?

And LinkedIn? It's where the "serious" prospects go to check if you're legit after seeing you on TikTok. I've had contacts from IBM, Google, eMed, and other HUGE companies this way. It's a great 1-2 punch!

If you are building an audience for business this 1-2 combo should work for you too as it gives you exposure to both volume/b2c and quality/b2b.

The Game Plan

OK - when the first month is up you’ll have a winning channel. It’s probably the primary you researched manually and then used to create content but it may not be. Main thing is we’ve tested.

After a month or so, you have two options: a) Put repurposing on autopilot (I personally use repurpose.io) or b) Kill non-primary channels for now and focus all your energy on your primary platform.

Which you do will depend on capacity. I can hear some of you now: "But Kyle, shouldn't we be everywhere?"

Look, I get it. But here's the truth: focusing on one platform gives you the greatest chance of success. It's like fishing - you'll catch more fish if you focus on one spot rather than constantly moving around the lake.

We spend the first month testing out different spots. And then we plonk our arses down and get serious.

Once you get traction on ONE platform, double down. We can use that success to drive growth on others later.

What's Next?

In our next part, we'll dive into the nitty-gritty of content creation and the levels of content you need. Specifically how to create in one format in a way that gives us multiple content pieces for all the channels.

But for now, your mission is clear: choose your primary platform using the manual check method explained above. That’s all.