It can be discouraging to build a blog or social media following. At first, you’ll probably find yourself writing for yourself, perhaps your colleagues, and maybe your mum.
What’s the point? you might think, staring out at all those empty seats, your voice echoing in the empty virtual auditorium. Echoing, and perhaps even faltering.
In my experience, though, the most important part of building a following is persistence: keep writing and publishing long past the point where mere mortals might feel discouraged, keep writing and publishing to nobody, and eventually an audience will arrive.
Blog and they will come.
Who will follow a blog or social media post where the last update was two months ago, or a trickle of half-hearted content? Not many people.
In the establishing phase, think of regular, quality content as a kind of bait – a constant pulse that draws people in, and keeps them coming back.
While I’m quoting, here’s a bit of Paul McCartney: “the love you take is equal to the love you make”. If you want people to read your blog, and share your posts on social media, make the time to offer the same courtesy to other people. Read, comment, share, link – give others a little rush of dopamine and perhaps, just maybe, they’ll return the favour sometime.
And in the end, even if the reader stats are uncomfortably close to your shoe size, a perfectly crafted blog post is something to be proud of in itself.