😏 The Secret to Growing on Social

Good morning.

Twenty-two days ago, I began working to build an audience on Twitter. There’s a method to the madness that most people miss.

Here’s what I’ve already learned:

The secret to building an audience on social media is true.

Let’s get into it.

— Gordon

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😏 The Secret to Growing an Audience on Social

Let’s cut to the chase.

Here’s the secret: Engagement

That’s it.

Seriously.

You’ve probably heard the term many times before and understand what it means.

Let’s review so we know we’re on the same page.

Engagement is simple. It’s an interaction with your post.

First, users, or humans, as I call them, have to see or “View” your post.

Another term for that is “getting eyeballs on your content.”

No views mean no engagement, no opportunity to build an audience, a community, and no opportunity to sell shit if that’s your end goal.

Once your content has been seen, if it’s good enough, meaning it’s insightful, actionable, funny, etc., humans will often choose to interact with your post.

The type of interaction your post receives often correlates to its value.

The level of perceived value is expressed in this order:

Like, comment, save, share (retweet).

In a perfect world (which I can confirm doesn’t exist), every one of your posts would be so valuable that every human who sees it would share it, or even better, like it, comment on it, AND share it.

This would significantly increase views and the opportunities for engagement.

It’s the circle of life on social.

Engagement And The Algorithm: A Love Story

Engagement isn’t just about sharing your content, though.

Engagement (and its level of engagement) signals to the platform’s algorithm that users (ahem, humans) find value in your content.

People who find valuable content are likelier to remain on the platform and consume more. This allows more opportunities for the platform to serve ads and generate revenue.

Ultimately, the algorithm’s job is to ensure that great content that people find valuable or entertaining (or both) is distributed to more humans at a larger scale than content that’s less so.

In other words, its job is to give people more of what they want more often.

If your content isn’t as thoughtful and helpful as others’, fewer people will engage with it, and fewer people will see it, making growing your audience A LOT harder.

The Engagement Funnel

You’re working hard to create valuable content for your niche.

The engagement with your posts is growing, and more people are seeing your posts.

Excellent. Now what?

1. Keep going

2. More of that

3. Optimize your profile

We talked about optimizing your profile a while back. You can review the steps to take here.

When your profile is set up for success, humans engaging with your posts and liking what they see will likely click into your profile to catch a glimpse of who you are and what you’re about.

When they see a professional headshot, cover photo, and bio clearly stating how you can help them, they’ll likely click the Follow button.

BOOM. You’re growing your audience!

The Two Sides to Engagement

Here’s the “secret” part of engagement:

It isn’t just about creating great content that others will love and share.

Growing your audience requires you to engage with people who have commented on your posts AND intentionally engage daily with other creators’ posts.

SIDE ONE:

First, it’s important to reply to comments on your posts for a few reasons.

1. If someone said something to you in real life (IRL), ignoring them is rude

2. The algorithm is looking for more engagement as a positive signal

3. People follow people they like, and when you reply to their comments, they feel seen, and people remember how you make them feel

No, you don’t have to reply to every comment if you have dozens or hundreds.

People understand that isn’t reasonable.

When you’re getting started growing your audience, you can reply to every comment (unless it’s spam or a bully).

Eventually, time block 20 minutes or an hour a day, whatever you can spare, to reply to as many comments as possible.

SIDE TWO:

Second, intentionally engage with larger creators (accounts) in your niche to get in front of their audience.

More people will see their posts, which is a big opportunity to get more eyeballs on you and your comments.

This strategy, known as “reply guy/girl,” is often discussed on Twitter.

It describes someone who is quick to share their thoughts and always has something helpful to contribute to the conversation.

This strategy also works on other platforms, specifically LinkedIn and Instagram.

Schedule time each day to post a thoughtful comment on ten or more posts related to your niche daily.

Here’s the catch, though.

You must make your comments so valuable that they could be a standalone post.

Remember, value can mean a few different things.

Your comment might add to the original post, it might be a similar comment from a different point of view (POV), or it might be a respectful disagreement with what was said in the form or a contrarian take.

Thoughtful comments position you as an expert and lead to more profile views and followers.

Here’s a quick example of what this can look like:

Growing on social will feel like you’re going nowhere in the beginning.

Creating and executing a strategy daily will generate results over a long enough time horizon.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your audience won’t be either.

ONWARD TOGETHER.