How to Cultivate Influence for Easy Audience Building in 2025 and beyond

Jan 21, 2025

In the current digital landscape, content creators have become pivotal in attracting and engaging audiences, leading to the creation of numerous communities. These communities thrive on the content provided by individual creators, who often serve as the focal point of the community.

While individual content creators are highly effective in building and monetizing their audiences, the sustainability of such communities can be limited by the reliance on a single person’s content and influence.

Content creators often monetize their own communities by providing a solution to a problem for their audience, for example; A fitness content creator develops a routine to trim fat in 90 days through calisthenics, this is their core offer.

what? A routine, time-frame: 90 days, how? Calisthenics

One of the best ways to build and launch a digital product nowadays (software, agency, newsletter, course, mentorship, templates, etc) and have a significant amount of users or customers at launch is by having an audience and building a community for that audience, where you have your most dedicated followers in one place. This is called community based products and it looks like this.

Audience Community Product

This is one of the best ways to find Product Market Fit.

In the near future people are going to leverage already established communities and position themselves as leaders inside those communities. Communities are not only about one person, if you can establish yourself as a leader inside a community you’re going to be able to influence other like minded people and create your “own audience” inside a group of people. This will allow you to redirect that attention into anything you want; a private community, a podcast, a software product, mentorship, etc.

Why would you bother in audience building from scratch when you can leverage already existing audiences that are already engaged.

Research Objectives

Explore the shift from individual content creation to leveraging existing communities.
Examine the benefits of positioning oneself as a thought leader within a community.
Identify strategies for effectively building a personal audience within established communities.
Analyze potential outcomes, such as redirecting community attention to other places like private communities, podcasts, products, landing pages.

Expected Outcomes

Identification of Key Strategies: Effective methods for integrating into and leveraging established communities.
Blueprint for Thought Leadership: Guidelines on how to position oneself as a thought leader within a community.
Audience Redirection Framework: A model for redirecting the attention of a community to new places.

Current trends in content creation and community building

Content creation has evolved significantly over the past decade. Initially dominated by blogs and then influencers, the rise of social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and later on TikTok has democratized content creation, allowing individuals to reach large audiences with relative ease. Key trends in content creation include:

Short-Form Video Content: Platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels have popularized short-form videos, which are easily consumable and shareable. Studies show that these formats drive high engagement rates and are particularly popular among younger audiences.

Personal Branding: Establishing a strong personal brand that reflects one’s values, expertise, and personality is key to building trust and recognition. A well-defined personal brand can enhance credibility and attract a loyal following.

Community building: The importance of community building has grown alongside content creation. Successful creators often cultivate dedicated communities around their content, which can enhance engagement and loyalty.

Building an audience from scratch in 2024

Building an audience from scratch in 2024 is a challenging endeavour that requires significant effort, strategic planning, and adaptability. The high competition and constant evolution of digital platforms necessitate a well-thought-out approach and persistent effort to get eyeballs and traction on social media nowadays, it may take you multiple months or even years to have a significant engaged audience. Imagine all the work you have to put in to make people start noticing you.

Challenges new content creators face when building a successful following online in 2024

Saturated Market:

High Competition: With millions of content creators vying for attention on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, standing out is incredibly challenging. Each niche is crowded, making it difficult to attract and engage a loyal audience.
Content Overload: Audiences are constantly inundated with content, making it hard for new creators to capture and maintain their attention.

Algorithm Dependency:

Platform Algorithms: Social media and content platforms use complex algorithms to prioritize content. Understanding and leveraging these algorithms is essential but challenging, as changes can drastically affect a creator’s reach and engagement.

Consistency and Quality:

Content Quality: Creating high-quality content consistently requires significant time, skill, and investment. High standards are essential to attract and retain an audience.
Consistency: Regularly posting content to maintain audience interest can be exhausting and time-consuming, leading to potential burnout.

Engagement and Interaction:

Active Engagement: Building an engaged audience requires active interaction with followers through comments, live sessions, and social media engagement, fostering a sense of community and loyalty.
Community Building: Creating a connected community around content is crucial for sustained engagement.

Alternative Approach: Leveraging Established Communities

From the current trends in content creation mentioned above, there is only one we are going to tap into, this is the one key aspect to focus on for easy audience building in 2024 and beyond

You guessed it, personal branding (paired with thought leadership)

Instead of building an audience from scratch, positioning oneself as a thought leader within an already established and engaged community can be a more efficient and effective strategy. This approach leverages existing networks and credibility to gain visibility and influence.

Benefits of Leveraging Established Communities

Immediate Access to Engaged Audiences:

Pre-existing Engagement: Established communities have already cultivated a dedicated and engaged audience. By entering these spaces, individuals can tap into a ready-made pool of potential followers.
Focused Interest: These communities are often niche-specific, ensuring that the audience is interested in the content and topics being discussed.

Credibility and Trust:

Established Trust: Members of established communities tend to trust the community members and its leaders. By positioning oneself as a thought leader, individuals can benefit from this pre-existing trust.
Authority and Expertise: Contributing valuable insights and expertise can quickly establish an individual as an authority within the community.

Efficient Use of Resources:

Reduced Time and Effort: Building an audience from scratch requires significant time and effort. Leveraging established communities allows individuals to focus on providing value and engaging with the audience rather than starting from zero.
Strategic Focus: Resources can be directed towards creating high-quality content and engaging with the community to drive traffic to your own creations, rather than marketing and audience-building efforts.

Thought leadership is the practice of positioning oneself as an authority and influential figure within a specific field or industry. A thought leader is recognized for their expertise, innovative ideas, and ability to provide valuable insights that address the challenges and needs of their audience. Thought leadership goes beyond sharing information; it involves influencing opinions, driving conversations, and setting trends within a niche.

Thought leadership is integral to personal branding and the current content creation sphere. It establishes credibility, enhances visibility, fosters engagement, and opens up diverse opportunities. By positioning oneself as a thought leader within established communities, individuals can effectively build their personal brand and attract a loyal, engaged audience without starting from scratch. This strategic approach leverages existing networks and credibility, offering a more efficient path to influence and success in the digital age.

How to leverage thought leadership and Cultivate Influence for Easy Audience Building

Let’s use the analogy of the “Tribal Wars Hierarchy of Needs” to outline the steps necessary to leverage thought leadership and cultivate influence for easy audience building. Each block of the pyramid will represent a foundational element in this process.

Here’s a 5 step process for you to cultivate influence and become a thought leader in your niche

Fundamentals: Master the Rules

Get experience and develop your skills

Imagine playing soccer. Now imagine how difficult it would be to get out of a high press if you had no ball control skills or transition from a 4–3–3 formation to a 5–3–2 in defense without awareness skills. Those latter two elements make up the fundamentals of the game. Like any game, every niche has a set of basic rules and skills that must be mastered before going any further in the game. Before you can become a thought leader, you must first understand the basics:

Knowledge and Skills: Develop a deep understanding of your niche. Stay updated with the latest trends and advancements.
Personal Brand: Clearly define your personal brand. Understand who you are, what you stand for, and what you offer.
Platform Familiarity: Familiarize yourself with the platforms and communities where your target audience is most active.

This is key, if you don’t have this, it’s going to be impossible for you to get results.

Invention: Generate Ideas Based on an Assessment of the Landscape

Creating Valuable Content and Innovative Ideas

Once you have a solid foundation, start generating ideas:

Content Strategy: Develop a content strategy that aligns with your expertise and the interests of your audience.
Innovative Ideas: Identify gaps in the existing content landscape and create innovative solutions. Offer unique perspectives that differentiate you from others.
Content Formats: Experiment with sharing various content formats like blogs, videos, podcasts, and social media posts to find what resonates best with members in niche communities.

Here is where you will listen to what other members are saying, what does a day to day look like inside these communities, what are the struggles members are going through? Identify a problem most people have and provide actionable steps to overcome these issues.

Rhetoric: Convince Others to Agree with and Follow Your Plan

Engaging and Persuading Your Audience

Next, focus on engaging your audience and building a community:

Communication Skills: Hone your communication skills to effectively convey your ideas and persuade your audience.
Engagement: Actively engage with members in communities through comments and discussions Respond to their queries and feedback.
Building Trust: Share authentic stories and experiences to build trust and credibility. Position yourself as approachable and relatable.

Get yourself seen as a friend, an active and trusted member of the community that also provides value will always be seen with good eyes and will increase your chances of converting those people into “followers”.

Will: Have the Fortitude to Follow Through with Your Plan

Maintaining Consistency and Persistence

Building influence requires persistence and consistency:

Consistency: Regularly post high-quality content. Consistency helps maintain audience interest and engagement.
Resilience: Stay committed to your plan despite challenges. Be prepared to adapt and refine your strategies based on feedback and performance metrics.

Be consistent with your efforts and don’t stop engaging with the community specially on the DM’s with other members.

Execution: See the Plan Through to Success

Implementing Your Strategy and Achieving Results

Finally, execute your strategy effectively:

Measurement and Analysis: Continuously measure the performance of your content and engagement strategies. Use analytics to understand what works and what doesn’t.
Optimization: Optimize your strategies based on data insights. Make necessary adjustments to improve engagement and reach.
Scaling: As you gain traction, look for opportunities to scale your efforts. This could include expanding to new platforms.

Once you’ve found Product-Market-Fit the goal here is to foster engagement inside established communities to generate trust in order to get people to TAKE ACTION, such as joining separate private groups, making members sign up for a newsletter, joining a waitlist for a product, etc.

I’ve been experimenting with this on a smaller scale myself, one of the growth hacks I’ve been using to grow my newsletter consists in providing valuable content inside a facebook group for people that want to achieve a specific result, (become a digital nomad in my case). Apart from providing actionable steps and personal insights I created a free guide for the members of this facebook community, I was not expecting a lot of engagement on my post but in 4 days I managed to add 200 newsletter subscribers just from one post, at the end of this guide people could also find a link to sign up for my newsletter, I did the same thing 3 months after and added close to 100 more sign ups.

If you can do this long enough with these 5 steps and in multiple already engaged communities you’re going to be able to generate trust, emotion and scale your products and offers in a simple way without the need of short or long form video content creation or advertising.

Next steps

Like Alex Hormozi said, the secret to my success is delaying gratification.

Being ok with repeating this 5 step process over and over again until you’ve amassed a following, build trust and relationships with people + delaying your ask, is crucial in order to drive traffic to your products and offers without the need of starting from scratch as a creator.

By cutting out the time it takes you to build an audience online and jumping straight into an engaged audience, you’re basically time traveling.

If you’re developing a product, start funneling people in through warm Dm’s, it’s going to be more likely people end up subscribing or buying from you than a stranger.

Utilize Launch-Based-Marketing to launch your product or offer and let inside a pool of people on your wait list, let them know you’re going to make a first launch and open limited spots.

Once people use your product or solution, get customer feedback and iterate.

Encourage satisfied community members to refer others and share their positive experiences.

Share case studies and success stories from community members who have benefited from your product or insights.

Provide exclusive offers, discounts, or early access to community members as a token of appreciation and to incentivize action.

But this is another topic for another time, if you would like to know more about how to make a successful launch through “Launch-Based-Marketing” shoot me a message.

Autodidactaz

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