The Secret to Building Any Social Media Platform

Photo credit: HealthGauge on Flickr

Any of you who follow me on any of my many social media channels know that I’ve sort of embraced the whole social media thing to an extreme.

What I mean isn’t so much that what I post is extreme in any way (it’s not, at least, I don’t think so), but that now, in 2015, I am everywhere. Maybe not literally, but as far as the internet is concerned, I am in all the places.

Twitter, tumblr, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, this blog, if it’s been moderately popular, I’ve at least looked at it. The only two I haven’t really connected with are Pinterest and Google + (though Google + seems to have made an account for me, in a creepy, mandatory I see you have gmail way, but that’s another matter entirely…).

I’ve been running this blog and Twitter the longest, so naturally my biggest followings come from those two sources. But over the course of a few years, my tumblr and Facebook have grown, and while my YouTube and Instagram accounts are both new (especially the latter), things seem to be chugging along pretty nicely there, too.

The thing is, every social media platform requires different ways of interacting with people. Every strategy that’ll get you Twitter followers, for example, won’t really work on YouTube, or the strategies you use to get more hits on your blog won’t really apply to Instagram.

There is, however, one thing you need across all platforms if you’re trying to build a following: consistency.

Whenever I start a new social media venture, I try to set out right at the beginning how often I intend to post and when. To give you an example, this is what I generally aim for:

• Blog: post on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, check comments daily (when possible).
• Twitter: check daily (mostly because I’m addicted…)
• Tumblr: check daily (usually only a few minutes at a time), re-post blog posts and vlogs here, reblog anything interesting I see.
• Facebook: re-post blog posts and vlogs, and browse through FB feed for a few minutes afterward
• YouTube: upload on Tuesdays, answer comments as they come in (when possible).
• Instagram: still working out a schedule. Try to check daily and post at least once a week.

I don’t spend equal amounts of time on each platform every day (or even overall). But what I do try to aim for is some sort of consistent presence.

For YouTube, that consistency means a vlog a week and checking comments. For Twitter, it means something entirely different—somewhat unending retweeting, tweeting and feedstalking (but again, that’s mostly because Twitter is my favorite, so…). So on and so forth.

Consistency doesn’t mean that you can’t ever take a break, or that if you fall behind one day it’s the end of the world. What it does mean, however, is that you give your viewers/followers/whatever a sense of when they should expect to see content from you. Because, after all, the more you show up, the more they will.

What tips do you have for building a social media presence? 

Twitter-sized bites:

Trying to build your social media platform? @Ava_Jae shares one key tip to growing your online presence. (Click to tweet)  

"One thing you need across all platforms if you're trying to build a following: consistency." (Click to tweet)