What do you get out of social media?
What do you want to get out of it?
Something I didn’t think about until I started viewing social media as a marketing channel: what am I doing here?
It’s my belief that this is partially by design and partially because we just don’t tend to think that way (or at least, I don’t). I follow the things that feel fun, especially when it’s something not related to work.
But when I started thinking about what I was doing with social media (ok, when I went viral, deleted all of my accounts, and went dark for about 2 months), I realized that there was more to it. There are constant forces pushing and pulling you. And a lot of those forces are related to the people whose content you see on a regular basis.
What we consume is what we think.
Consume a bunch of content that is inflammatory and pointed?
That’s what you’ll be thinking about.
And what we think is what we feel.
Now consider how much time you spend on social media. Those few minutes you spend scrolling add up, don’t they?
What if you spent that time on self-improvement? What if you used that time to build relationships? What if you spent that time on things you found enjoyable?
Do you enjoy social media? Or do you suffer it?
Here’s the biggest problem: It’s really hard to take control of your social media experience. You have to start from the beginning, or it gets out of control really fast. But typically, when you are starting, you don’t understand how the platform works, so you follow the onboarding process they present to you.
From the Beginning
I’ve gone through the Twitter onboarding process a ton (I’ve created so many accounts, I’ve lost track. Most I used just for the API access… 😝)
Here’s the problem with that process: it focuses on two pieces: topics and accounts. For the accounts, it presents a number of larger accounts you can follow. Topics are a little better though.
The problem with following large accounts is that those are the least valuable accounts you can follow. I like to think of it in terms of relationship building: if someone has 1 million followers, they won’t notice you. They can’t really even process that number of relationships, so you’ll never have a relationship with them.
What about 100,000?
Or 10,000?
I really like Kevon Cheung’s approach from his book, Find Joy In Chaos. He recommends following accounts with between 600-800 followers, especially when starting out. Granted, his book talks about building an audience on Twitter, which may not be your goal, but it’s all about building relationships, which is where social media is incredibly useful. And the best way to do that is to pick the people just ahead of you and learn from them, interact with them, and get to know them.
The Question: To Build an Audience or Not To Build an Audience?
Here’s the piece that people don’t typically say: you don’t have to constantly be growing your audience. Finding the 5 people you want to hang out with on Twitter or other social media platforms is a great way to use them. But it’s tough for them to find you, especially when you are just getting started. So it’s up to you to go out and find them.
Be selective with who you follow. I notice people tend to be super marketing-heavy, which gets followers a lot faster, but ultimately doesn’t build relationships as effectively, because it’s in a sea of marketing.
The people who build the strongest relationships lean into the idea of being themselves.
This is the way I described it to a friend of mine, who was interested in growing his account:
I want to filter for people who follow me because they really want to follow me. This means that I don’t want to make it as easy to follow me as possible. I want a bit of friction in the process, because the people who follow me with that friction in place will end up being a stronger follow. For my bio, I don’t lean into the standard approach to being super clear about what I offer:
Hitchhiker to the future.
AKA "python Jesus. Build in public pappa Smurf. All round BIP yogi"
Let's build our own internet.
alterok @_buildspace
Who does that speak to? I don’t know, honestly. But I think there’s a group that would be intrigued by that bio. Their curiosity piqued. I talk about the future, building in public, Python’s in there. And let’s build our own internet?
What the hell does that mean?
And here’s the reason: I’m still figuring that out. I share what I’m thinking about, what I’m working on, and whatever else happens to pop into my head.
It means I don’t grow as fast as others, but the people I build relationships with, I build stronger relationships with.
And I have a theory, because I’ve seen it in action: if you take this approach to building an audience, it takes a lot longer to get to 5 or 10K followers, but once you hit that, it’s a lot faster to go from there to 50 or 100K.
There’s a gravitational force to an audience, and when you can build a really strong nucleus, your audience will start attracting people into it. And that’s why building those strong relationships at the core is so important. When you don’t do that, and you get to 5 or 10K, that part of your audience doesn’t have nearly as strong of a pull to it, and growth stagnates. Look at the accounts with 10-20K followers and check their profiles. See how long they’ve been on Twitter.
Then look at those with 50-100K followers and look at theirs.
But then also look at how they interact with people. See who interacts with them.
Maybe that’s not what you want.
To end with, I’ll share a blog I just came across again, from Tim Ferriss:
Think about what you want on social media, and tailor your approach accordingly.
Content Corner
Lots of content this week for you. First up, a new podcast episode I was a guest on went live! Highly recommend watching this one, it was a great conversation:
I also interviewed Chuck on my podcast if you want things the other way around
I also created a 2 part series on creating a chatbot from podcast episodes, so if you want to learn about that, you can check that out here:
Have a great week! I’ll see you next time.