Jessica Wildfire's Blog, page 473

Excellent question.

Excellent question. I was on there for a while but felt guilty for not updating more often. I should get back on there. ;)

Thanks! I remember that tweet. :D

Thanks! I remember that tweet. :D

How to Win on Social Media

People are still joining Twitter for the first time, if you can believe it. The same goes for Instagram, Medium, and other social media platforms. Sometimes people ask me for advice. I know, it’s silly. Probably, they ask me because I’ve got enough followers that I must be doing something right, but not so many that I come off as inaccessible. Dozens of guides exist for gaining attention on social media. People send that kind of shit to me all the time. In truth, there’s not really a formula, just a handful of solid principles. Here they are:

Decide what you want out of your social media. Are you promoting your writing, advocating for a social cause, or trying to make yourself known as a comedian or actor? Maybe you’re here for a blend of reasons. The more you know about that, the more ass you’ll kick.You can manage more than one account. A lot of people run personal social media platforms, and separate ones for work. That makes sense. After all, I don’t want my academic colleagues to see my fun account. It would be unprofessional to share that with them.Have fun. Regardless of your intentions, people will follow if you entertain or inform them. Post jokes, silly GIFs, and links to interesting media content. I mean, if you’re a nonprofit director raising money for child abuse, then I guess you shouldn’t post jokes. You should post lots of interesting information and compelling images, videos, etc. Intention matters, after all.Craft a bio that hooks people. Boiling yourself or your agenda down to a couple of sentences sounds dumb to some, and it’s hard as fuck. But you need to try. Personally, I don’t follow people with empty bios.Link your social media profiles: Twitter, Instagram, your website, YouTube, even Facebook. Share your content across them. That will maximize your reach.Post consistently, at least 4–5 times a day. You’ll struggle at first. Leaning to think in tweets and status updates takes time. Keep your eyes open and let your mind wander freely about what’s going on around you. Follow other accounts and learn from them. Let yourself muse. Whenever you make yourself chuckle, then tweet that.Don’t be selfish. People who only post about their own music, videos, writing, or art usually just irritate their followers. Mix it up. Play hashtag games, tweet about life, retweet and respond to others’ tweets. Spend some time actually reading your feed to see what others are up to.Act like a real person. The more genuine, the better. People appreciate honesty, especially in pithy forms. On that note, don’t drown us in auto DMs. Whenever I follow someone and they send me one of those, I either delete or unfollow.Be patient. It took a couple of months before people started noticing my writing, and it took almost a year to build up a substantial audience.Experiment. Try out different styles, topics, filters, or whatever pertains to your art. The worst that can happen is that people ignore you. Also experiment with tweeting at different times of the day and watch your analytics. Eventually, you’ll find your niche.

This is similar to how I work during my most productive steaks, so I’m going to make this more of a…

This is similar to how I work during my most productive steaks, so I’m going to make this more of a regular thing!

Same here with the Asperger’s.

Same here with the Asperger’s. :) I generally agree with the idea that we should expand the idea of masculinity. But it’s not feminism’s fault. Men have equal responsibility here. If by “feminism,” the author is also including men or gender studies more broadly, then that’s fine.