AzuraCub’s Guide To Growing Your Online Brand
Growing your following online is hard work and I’m sure a lot of you are probably wondering why I’m writing something like this when I hardly have a huge following to say I know exactly what I’m doing. I’m not a social media expert and I am honestly just trying my best to make things up as I go along but I’m not really looking at it that way. I’ve been looking at a few of my friends’ accounts and noticed that, like me, they’re wondering why they are not growing super fast. I’m in the same boat so I figured I’d make this article as a reminder of all the best pieces of advice I’ve seen from guidelines set by many other content creators who have come before us and made a big success of their followings!
1. Socializing
Believe it or not but socializing is the key to all success. We quite simply cannot do all of this on our own. This is probably the most important tool and tip you need. Forget about all the “you need to share your content” for just a second and listen.
Yes sharing your content is important, but if you’re sharing it to a room of people who aren’t interested and they don’t know you, why would they share your stuff? I’m not saying you should pretend to be friends with others so they would maybe share your thing here and there, no I’m saying since you are your brand you need to be present, in the moment, and communicate with others. Join group chats and join in on the topic, don’t always lurk on someone else’s stream. It’s called ‘social’ media for a reason. Staying silent or only sharing your own things won’t cause you to grow in any meaningful way. You need to be present and get to know people, besides, you might just make some really good friends that will help you along the way!
2. You Need More Than One Social Account
So many of my friends that want to start streaming or who have a YouTube channel want to know why others aren’t watching or interacting with what they’re doing, and when I ask where they are sharing it they tell me they aren’t advertising it anywhere because they don’t like using Twitter or Facebook.
I understand what they mean because sometimes I feel that my entire life revolves around my phone, but as much as I hate using them, I do see the need to be present and active on social media.
Simply put, you need to have multiple social accounts, and not only that you need to socialize and be active on them. You don’t have to join every single platform BUT you can maybe join one or two to start with the growth. You need to bring in people from other places to see what you’re doing otherwise you’re putting in a lot of effort and hoping that someone else shares your work for you!
3. Growth Does Not Happen Overnight
Sometimes it does if you’re lucky enough and a big star shares your content. However, that hardly happens and you have to have your luck maxed out to LVL 100!! Even then, the people who usually get shoutouts or ‘overnight fame’ are people who have been working and creating things for years without any recognition. Basically they’ve put in all the hard work before they blow up!
So with that being said, you need to accept that it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to grow. And yes I do mean by being present and socializing with others again. I can’t stress how important this is! Remember it’s not a one way street, you have to put in the effort if you want to receive something in return. For real success on any platform, you need to take small steps towards your goal. After all, you’re running a marathon, not a sprint!
4. DON’T Buy Followers Or Likes
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve EVER made in the beginning was the “Follow for Follow hack”. On the face of it, it does seem to get you a lot of followers, but it does not get you followers that actually care about your content. That person who is following you back really does not care whether you are posting about things relevant to them or not. They just care about the additional person added to their follower count.
The same goes for buying bot followers or likes. It’s so painfully obvious when someone has over 100k followers but only 10 likes on a post that their followers are fake. Don’t be lured in by the people selling you these kinds of services because your real fans will be able to sense that something is wrong immediately. Your numbers don’t matter if they’re not real, to begin with!
5. Have Fun While You Experiment With Your Growth
Growing your brand and online image should be fun! It should not be something you consider as horrible, hard work and it should not be something you hate doing every day. If you want gaming, streaming, or writing to be a career then you need to make it fun for yourself. Because if you don’t you will get knocked down really hard after a setback and be unable to get back up.
Once you’re enjoying what you’re doing it will come through in the work you create. You don’t always know what your viewers and supporters want to see and sometimes they don’t know either! So try the things you are scared of doing, your true followers and fans will help you grow and adapt with you :)
All of this might sound scary and mean, but I’m trying to be as honest as I possibly can! I’m also trying to grow my own brand and turn what I love into my full-time career so these are things I see and worry about every day.
With all this being said, I’m definitely no expert and I don’t have a fancy business degree on growth and marketing, nor do I have thousands of dollars or products to run giveaways to get more people to support what I do. What I do have though is my hard work and dedication which I hope will push me through all of the hard times and uncertainty ahead and that I can continue to show it off in the future!
So if you have any advice and tips you want to share with me and my readers on how you’re growing your online presence please feel free and reach out and help each other in the comments below :)
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