1. Pick A Platform

The first platform is key! Choose an outlet and a medium that you are most comfortable working with. If you are not a strong long form writer blogging probably is not for you. You could, however, begin on Twitter or better yet go with Instagram or Youtube. The important part is that you are confident and happy about the content you are putting out; you might be your only fan for a while. If you are new to social media entirely, start by setting up accounts and following some people your interested in for a couple weeks. Take note of the posts you enjoy and model your work after them.

2. Create Genuine Content

Making genuine content is essential early on to distinguish yourself from other creators. This should be relatively easy when you are comfortable and confident on the platform. Be wary of hopping on board with social challenges and trending topics if you do not have a true interest in them. It could be an easy attention grabber, but the quality of content may suffer overall. If you do go the route of pop culture content be sure that your take is unique! The goal is to establish a theme and style that audiences can relate to.

3. Develop Your Audience

Post consistently and engage with everyone who interacts. A few ways to hack engagement include: optimized hashtagging, commenting on related posts, follow back campaigns, giveaways, and above all else, content that brings value! All the other gimmicks and hooks mean nothing if it doesn’t bring value to the viewer in some way. As you gain more followers, test out new formats and refine the bits that work!

4. Develop Lead Content AND Genuine Content For Audience Demographic

Most social sites provide some range of stats to monitor impressions, engagements etc. If you already have a website at this point, track your audience sources and demographics using the tools like Jetpack and Google Search Console. Understand the trends and use them to your advantage with lead content, or information that your viewers would likely be interested in. Be careful not to lean to far out from the core content and your personal area of interest; if you are not into it the audience will not be into it either.

5. Engage Community Off-platform Via Website

This part is key as you start to develop your online identity. A personal website gives you full control over branding and presentation. You can use this feature to your advantage and cater to a niche market or display a broader scope of value. In a sense the social platforms become marketing points for people to discover your value through content and the website draws them into the full picture of what you offer.

6. Repeat Steps 1-5 On Different Platforms

Expanding your reach is great, but don’t dilute the quality or get involved with platforms you’re not interested in!

7. Monetize All Traffic

Once you get some traction and stats trend higher, you can take advantage of ad display opportunities, influencer marketing, and affiliate marketing. Each has their pros and cons so do your research. In any case, none of these options will make you a millionaire over night, but if you optimize your content over time you can definitely get there!  –Slow money is better than no money right?

8. Reinvest To Build Value Products And Services For Community

Take the earnings you get from monetization and reinvest in the content first. on the content side this can mean, better camera, better website, or better marketing materials. On the product side this can mean developing merchandise, producing a product, or giving back to your audience. Upgrading  your quality almost always attracts newcomers. The older community will appreciate the progress as well because it shows growth and passion on the subject.

9. Expand Niches And Interests Within Reach

With a core audience established, it becomes somewhat easier to expand your interests and overall brand reach. You do run the risk of alienating your base with each new format so be careful not to deviate to far from your core topics. If you do find yourself developing a completely new interest or format there’s nothing stopping you from starting an alternate account and giving your followers the option to subscribe to both. This will give you better control and independence for each.

10. Repeat Step 1-9 Indefinitely

The ultimate goal here is to gain influence and sustainability on one social platform and scale traffic to generate potential ad and product revenue. After that, scale your reach in interests directly related and eventually indirectly related. Continue the cycle to your hearts content. This can be done with several mini brands or one catch all brand.