By: A.B. Timothy

In the pursuit of creativity, the creative must also become either beholden to a larger apperatis, such as a publisher, or they must become beholden to the audience. To catch all of the fish your marketing sea has to offer, you must cast an ever-wider net.

With this goal of a wider net in mind, below I have written some ideas that you could implement to grow your audience. Working under the assumption that you have already established a social media presence.

Free:

Let’s start with some free things you can do.

Asking A.I. for ideas

Something that I have done is I have gone to Grok (X’s A.I. platform), given it my X handle (@ABTimothyAuthor), and asked it for ideas on how I can grow on X and improve my social media presence. I am sure I would have gotten a lot of the same ideas if I had spent an hour googling social media growth strategies, but Grok was able to give me personalized ideas and concepts to try based on what I already post, what I was doing (building an authorial platform), and what my goals were.

Implementing these ideas, I have seen a boost in my follower growth metrics and in my engagements. Not everyone likes to use A.I.

Go Old School

Watch YouTube Videos from Authors who have built a presence on social media, talk to authors on X about how they have seen the growth they have, and read books on influencing people. I say this is all free because you don’t have to buy mentorship programs, you don’t have to buy these books (libraries exist), and heck, you can even watch YouTube for free on whatever platform you are reading this on right now.

Paid:

Let’s look at some ways you could potentially pay to grow.

Verification

Verification on most platforms these days is a paid process where you give the platform (i.e. Instagram, X, or Facebook) money and they repay you with a badge on your profile and an algorithmic incentive. On X, for example, when I sign up for X Premium, my account will not only look more official because of the blue checkmark, but it will also have a higher priority in the system and will be seen by more people as a result (a wider net).

Mentorships

There are content creators out there already who offer paid mentorship programs where they teach you and help you grow. This is not something I have any personal experience with or can give any more guidance on, so tread here carefully.

Do you have any ideas?

Are you a creative with a social media following that is already impressive for your niche? Are you a content creator who has had several viral videos? Let’s talk about how you pulled it off and how you plan to continue the momentum going forward, in the comments below.

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