I want to gain followers, but how? It's interesting, I have been asked this question a few times already this year. Do you want to know the unique thing about being asked this question? Me telling you will probably have you close this blog, but I am going to tell you anyways... Ready? Twitter is my social account with the most followers. I have less than 700 followers on Twitter... Twitter and Instagram combined I have less than 900 followers! Bye 😉
Okay, I am sure 90-ish% closed this blog. The rest of you, let's continue. Those who stuck around are probably super curious to why I am writing this blog with a follower count so little. Well, two reasons: I have been asked on occasion "how to gain followers" and writing this is me leading by example. There's no silver bullet, so here are some thoughts I remind myself.
Discover your passion/niche and create!
Publish content to a niche. You may not think you have a niche, but you probably do. It may be hard to see at the moment, but go and find it! If you don't have a niche, start with finding a passion. Your niche and passion are subject to change and that's life. Let's say you enjoy the latest and greatest mobile framework, Flutter. Go and write about it, Vlog about it, Instagram about it, sing about it, and get really weird about it...
Storytelling
It's a Journey to where you're going in life. People like me want to hear more about the journey! So whatever your passion is, I want to hear from you. I want to know the mistakes, struggles, and processes your passion is leading you down. The destination cares little about that stuff and cares more about "look at me -- I did it." Get used to talking about the journey.
Get used to talking to a wall
A lot of publishing when you have no followers is basically talking to a wall. The cool thing about social media is, it's socially acceptable. Don’t go talking to a real wall; we have social media now. Your content can have zero meaningful interactions and you shouldn't feel lesser about yourself. Keep talking to the wall we call social media. Eventually, you'll get a crowd. SNAP CRACKLE POP... Could it be why Facebook named where your posts go “the wall...” 🤔😂
Interact with your community
If it feels too much like you’re talking to a wall, interact with others. We can’t all be just posting and not engaging with others! Enter into a thread and share your passion, opinions, and be sure to ask questions before you just waltz in and share your opinions and tell everyone on that thread they’re wrong. Get more context so you can be thoughtful with your responses. That way your responses are actually helpful.
Cross-publish to Cross-Promote
Be everywhere! Saturate the internet along with everyone else. You're probably talking about something that's already in the ether, and that's okay. Folks like me will still read it and will begin to look at you as an expert. After cross-publishing awhile you may want to scale back and cross-promote. Basically, draw attention to one source, like your personal site, instead of a dozen sites.
Quantity will lead to Quality
I believe quantity will lead to quality. I tell myself this all the time. And it's okay if you suck, I do too. We all suck at some point.
Have Empathy
Most importantly, have empathy. There are a lot of haters out there. Don't hate back. You can turn a hater into a lover by just loving on them.
Don't aim for a "Following" count
Just create content, and folks will come.
Whatever it is, share it!
Share it. Share it. Share it. I know you know something that I don't, and you probably don't know what that something is. You only know what you know, so publish it. Let others find it and find either value or no value in it. Maybe no one finds value in it today or tomorrow, but maybe a month from now! "HA. A month from now. As we know, technology does move fast...” Okay, maybe it becomes outdated, but there is someone working on outdated software somewhere. I am positive whatever you publish, someone will find value in it at some point in time.
Conclusion
I, of course, have no idea what I am talking about because I don't have many followers. Good luck!
Hello! I'm Jon Major Condon. I am a Senior Software Farmer that tends to client codebases at Bendyworks. As a farmer of software, I focus on anything web, but my curiosity usually leads me down rabbit holes... "Jon Major just fell down another rabbit hole… Stay tuned for the next blog post! 👋"
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