Introvert hacks for social media
Simple repeatable tactics on growing each channel 🔑
Here’s a quick guide, which has helped grow my presence across Snapchat, Twitter and LinkedIn and it can help you to!
You don’t have to shout the loudest if you say the right thing to the right people!
These days the amount of time it takes to grow any sort of influence on social media can be daunting and for a long time put me off from trying to spend any meaningful time on my accounts. After spending some time thinking about my approach (and taking in advice from people like Justin Wu) I worked out a way to grow whilst only spending a few minutes throughout each day.
Snapchat
This is the channel that helped change my mindset – due to the way the platform works, ways you would grow an account on other platforms aren't as effective, so you have to think outside the box.
It is also a great source of advice as well with accounts like Mark Suster, Justin Wu, Raymond Ahn, Daniel Knowlton, Suzanne Nguyen, Justin Kan and plenty more! (These accounts are focused on growth, startups and tech 😉)
I have found that there are 3 keys to creating content on Snapchat; planning, consistency and value. I wrote more about what makes an engaging story here.
Here are some third party apps that I would recommend using — Ghost Codes, Snapdex, and Snappd
A good strategy for Ghost Codes is to keep checking for any new users.
(Search tab -> Newly Added)
If they are relevant give kudos as they are new to the app they will likely notice and return the favour. Over time this will make you appear higher in your category.
Snapdex is an editable directory of Snapchat accounts which can help other users find you via your snapcode. — It’s also great for peer recommendations with their review feature.
Finally Snappd is an app launching soon which lets you save your past stories, this helps users to rewatch and discover your content helping you grow your audience and also monetise. Otherwise these stories would be lost! 😍
Remember to be patient — Don’t think too much about numbers
With Snapchat it’s more a mindset than anything else. The focus is on engagement and there are no follower counts, so essentially everyone is equal which means the value of content you create is extra important.
The original “professional” channel, initially I was tempted just to stop with my account after the acquisition by Microsoft – but changed my mind.
For this growth tactic to work you need to have your account mostly filled out and to have posted at least one article and have around 100 connections — even if you don’t its still worth a try.
- Make sure the “tagline / title” to your profile is informative and sums up you or your company.
- Using either the LinkedIn app or the website go to My Network -> People you may know from here you just need to find relevant people who you find interesting or may be interested in your work / company.
- Then just click connect — you don’t need to say why you are connecting as this is a “LinkedIn suggested connection 😉” or something like that.
Using this technique just take 5 or so minutes a couple of times a day and find people, but don’t just add anyone, look for people you can add value to! Overtime your network will grow and this will attract people to you, increasing profile views and more connections organically.
Twitter is tricky, in my opinion the toughest of the channels to grow but there are a few ways to help boost your profile.
Take part in twitter chats like #chatsnap, this is great to find similar people talking about a topic and will drive engagement in your tweets and ensure you tweet more!
Also use a service like Buffer to have tweets prepared and scheduled, this helps you to find the best time to schedule a tweet to get the most out of it. Engage with other users, not just by retweeting or favouriting but reply and talk to people — even if its a short “thanks for this tweet about x…”.
I’ve only recently started to spend more time on Twitter but using these methods has helped grow my little account to near 400 followers — but again it’s not about the follower account, 👀 Focus on engagement!
Other Channels
Not to forget about Facebook or Instagram … these are two of the biggest channels out there & as such there are quite a few existing methods out there for growing these — please leave a comment below with tactics that work for you.
Are you a storyteller! I’m starting a podcast exploring what makes an engaging story. Would you like to be involved? Reach out (Twitter @russellbarnard or russell@snappd.tech) — Find out more here
