12 Proven Ways to Rise Above the Noise and Get Your Message Heard

Discover 12 proven ways to rise above the noise and get your message heard in a noisy, crowded and competitive digital space.

As a community manager, your dream is to be heard

To put yourself and your materials out there. 

And have people embrace it – it’s a heady feeling that we all desire. 

There’s just one problem

There is too much noise.

This generation is drowning in content. 

We are overloaded with information from different angles every day. 

rise above the social media noise infographic

According to Internetlivestats, in a single second, over 800 photos are uploaded on Instagram, more than 8,000 tweets are sent, no less than 66,000 Google searches made, 73,000 YouTube videos viewed, and almost 2.7 million emails sent. 

Everywhere we look, someone is saying something, and it can get noisy. 

And so, we are faced with a problem. 

How do you cut through the noise and get your message heard by those that need it?

That is what we’ll examine today. 

In this post, you’ll discover 12 ways that you can rise above the noise and get your message heard by your potential audience.

1. Get to Know Your Audience

Rise Above The Noise

The first question that you need to ask yourself is this: Who exactly am I speaking to?

Who is my message for, and who do I need to hear me? 

Don’t make the mistake that many community managers or communicators make.

They focus on themselves and their message. 

And forget about the listeners or readers.

You have to listen to and engage your audience.

Before they can start engaging with you. 

It is, therefore, vital that you get to know your audience.

And focus on building a tribe. 

It’s this tribe that will eventually become your customer base. 

Take steps to identify and relate with your audience. 

Find out who they are and what they define themselves with. 

You must know their hopes, desires, and challenges.

So that you can speak to them in a language that identifies with them. 

The first step is to start by wanting to know them. 

Show interest and go the extra mile.

And your chances to get your message heard rises significantly.

2. Form a Community

Irrespective of what you do.

Or where you are.

You can start to rise above the noise.

And make a difference. 

The key to this is building a tribe and gaining influence. 

You don’t have to host your TV show.

Or have a celebrity vlog before you start. 

Neither do you need to have a prestigious family history to start. 

  • Start with a Tribe: The key to gaining influence is to start with a tribe. You can try being generous and giving away something for free. It could be a short eBook, a bonus video. It could be anything at all, as long as it resonates with your audience.
  • Get Permission to Communicate with Them Often: After this, try and get permission to communicate with your tribe regularly. It doesn’t matter how you do it, but what is essential is that you inform them that you would be communicating with them regularly.
  • Be People-centric: We can generally sense when people are not interested in us. And only want to get us to buy something from them. There are no two ways about it. You have to be passionate about your audience and then continue to serve them. By service, you’ll be rewarded with a greater influence.
  • Ask What They Want: As we said in the first point, you must learn to address the hopes, goals, and challenges of your audience, so don’t be shy or embarrassed to ask them what they want and what they’ll be willing to pay or, (as well as how much), and then create it for them.
  • Repeat: This is the opposite of how traditional marketing works. It is usually a product first, then promotions. In this model, however, it’s people first before products. You need to put the community first and then build something for them.

3. Market Where People Are Paying Attention

If you want to get your message heard, the first thing you need is attention. 

That seems logical, doesn’t it? 

Well, you’ll be surprised how many wanna-be influencers and community managers talk about things that that their audience doesn’t care about.

People are busy. 

And with the widespread availability of content. 

It’s not a matter of just finding information. 

It’s about finding the place/person.

That provides them with all they need in one place. 

To use an analogy: they’ll instead congregate at the village square, where they can get all that they need at once, rather than moving from one vendor to the other in search of what they need. 

Speaking digitally, that village square is social media.

This is why most brands are now aggregating content on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms.

Because their friends, colleagues, and favorite leaders and celebrities all gather there. 

4. Measure and Do A/B Testing

There’s something exceptional about the digital space.

And that is – you can easily measure your performance.

Rise Above The Noise

By a wide range of parameters and over any period. 

As a community manager, brand manager, or any marketer. 

And one who wants to rise above the noise.

Your page’s analytics should be your best friend

By paying attention to them.

You’ll learn a lot of things such as:

  • The best time to post
  • When your audience is most likely to be online
  • What kind of content gets the most traction and engagement 
  • The types of topics that your community readily responds to.

Use this information to structure your content to suit what your audience and community would love. 

This is a win-win situation.

You cut through the noise and get your community’s attention.

And they get quality content that they care about.

5. Create Different Types of Content and Tools

Consider the kind of content you put out.

It will determine just how many people will see (or hear) your content.

As well, if you’ll ever rise above the noise. 

You should start looking at creating compelling visual content.

There are different types of content.

And there will be one or two types.

That will resonate with your audience the most.

However, you shouldn’t ignore all other types of content. 

Don’t stick with text all the time.

Neither should you only post videos. 

Keep experimenting and mixing it up

Ideally, you should have text, graphics and video content at least. 

So, if you put up a post on medium today.

You can try an infographic tomorrow.

And an explainer video or animation next week. 

The key is not to remain static.

Instead, be unique and compelling.

To do this, you’ll probably need several tools. 

Don’t be scared to combine several tools or even create one yourself. 

Chances are, a tool that does exactly what you need might not exist. 

That’s not a problem. 

Just do a bit of digging.

Combine 2 or 3 more tools that provide you with what you need.

6. Target Non-Commercial Keywords

Another strategy to rise above the noise.

Targeting non-commercial keywords is a good idea.

Because most of the players in your industry are targeting the same keywords.

By nature, keywords with a lot of competition will have a lot of content around them.

Hence, they are noisy. 

By focusing on less popular non-commercial keywords.

You can break through the noise and get heard easily

While those keywords may not make money immediately– because they have less competition.

They’ll rank easier and faster. 

As you rank for those keywords. 

You’ll build a stream of traffic. 

With the potential link to your website to convert.  

Even if the traffic links to your non-commercial pages.

It will still increase your site authority.

And eventually, other commercial pages on your website will increase in ranking.

7. Be Your Authentic Self

Rise Above The Noise

If you want to get your message heard, then you have to be trusted

In case you’re just starting.

And your mind is on making money – slow down

That’ll take a while. 

Your first task is to get your audience and community to trust you.

And see you as different and “special” to them.

That’s how you rise above the noise.

How then will you breed trust? 

Start by letting go of your ego

You can’t be heard if all you talk about is ‘ME.’ 

You have to start and remain genuinely interested in your audience.

And see things from their point of view.

You should also try to be as transparent as you can be. 

Let your audience see that you are real and original. 

What they see is what they get. 

Trust me; they’ll trust that and appreciate it more

8. Research and Find Out What Your Audience Wants

Rise Above The Noise

You want to rise above the noise, right?

Provide your audience with content that they care about. 

But how do you find that out? 

Well, you do research!

Start by carrying out Active social media listening

What conversations is your audience having?

What about the issues that affect them?

By doing extensive and qualitative research, you’ll find out what drives them. 

What their hopes are, what they love, what challenges they are facing. 

That’s the only way you can get your message heard. 

You have to be able to provide answers to their questions. 

The first step is to find out the questions that they are asking. 

And create content that can help answer them.

9. Generate Content Through the Community

Let’s face it.

No matter how influential you try to be.

People still prefer content from their friends and family to that from “brands.” 

This is doubly true in the case of Millennials.

According to studies, 90% of people are more likely to buy a product when a friend recommends it.

Bearing this in mind, you want to use the community to generate content. 

Curate and share content provided by the members of the community. 

For example, if you sell cameras, instead of only using professionally taken pictures, why don’t you use pictures taken by your buyers. 

You want to create an inclusive community.

Where the members are active and actively contributing. 

Introducing a loyalty program is also not a bad idea. 

By creating avenues for your audience to relate with you and your brand.

You gain more influence with them.

And your messages are easily identified and will rise above the noise.

10. Join an Existing Conversation 

A good strategy is to become a part of a conversation.

That your audience is already having. 

Don’t just blast messages at your audience all the time.

Join the conversation too. 

Is there an exciting discussion making waves already?

Then join in and let your voice be heard. 

Note of warning though.

Don’t jump on every conversation. 

Especially, if you have nothing relevant to contribute.

It makes you look needy and insincere. 

Instead, contribute to conversations that are related to what you and your brand are about. 

If you are a family company, for instance.

You probably have no business entering conversations on politics.

11. Perfect Your Message 

If you want to rise above the noise, then you can’t say just anything or talk anyhow

Your messages have to be well-thought-out.

And valuable to your audience. 

Here are a few boxes every message of yours must tick:

Be Valuable

For every message you send.

Ask yourself – does this message deliver value?

Does it improve the lives of those that read in any significant way? 

And irrespective of what you are talking about.

The manner of putting it determines if it is valuable

Be clear about your intention

Nobody has time to waste. 

Chances are, your target audience will be busy.

Or occupied with something else when reading your message.

So, you should be very clear and unambiguous with your message.

Compelling

Here’s a Pro Tip: Never end your message without a Call to Action. 

Your message should serve a purpose.

And you’ll be better off when you attach a sense of urgency to your message.

And get it acted on extremely quickly.

12. Get Interviewed on Podcasts

Rise Above the Noise and get your message heard

Podcasts are another way to rise above the noise.

And get your message out there.  

Podcasts are also extremely popular, with over 100 million people reported to have listened to at least one podcast in a week in 2019. 

Using them is a great way to talk to your community. 

Because podcasts can be consumed on the move.

Your message will easily stick with your audience.

Even if you can’t afford to start a podcast on your own.

Getting interviewed on one is a great way to take advantage of podcasts. 

It helps the podcast owner too.

Because you’ll drag your existing community to listen to the podcast.

And you also gain access to a lot of new people that you might not have reached otherwise.

Wrapping Up

There you have it! 12 unique ways to attract an audience to you.

And get your voice heard. 

Granted, while implementing this might not be easy.

You could begin with one idea at a time.

Just have a plan and choose to implement it.

And before you know it.

You’ll be giving your competitors a run for their money. 

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