"Engagement" Finally Makes Sense in My Head

I feel obtuse for taking so long, but I finally get it.

Introduction

I broke down my business plan here already, but something that hasn’t really made a lot of sense was ‘strategic engagement’ that is intended to grow an audience.

While I’m a fan of letting people find me, I would also like to be able to earn an income and not have to pick up odd jobs to make ends meet.

For months, I’ve seen the suggestion of engaging with the audience, but it wasn’t really very clear what that meant. Obviously respond to posts, or add comments, but there wasn’t much about that which would increase a following.

Finally, after a coaching call and seeing some other suggestions on how to get results, it’s all clicking in my head.

What Does Engagement Look Like?

I’ve now seen similar, though slightly different methods for Medium, for Substack, for LinkedIn and for Twitter. If nothing else, I’m stubborn in my ignorance. But once it clicks, it really clicks.

Let me break down the structure and then call out the platform difference. It’s more than just ‘post 2x a day’ which is horrible and vague for a neurodiverse brain that prefers specificity.

1. Find people which you resonate with, or whom you think would resonate with you.

2. Read their things (if they create things) and pay close enough attention to then have thoughts, reactions or suggestions.

3. Reply to their thing with a thoughtful answer, maybe it’s helpful to a problem they're having, maybe it’s insight you’ve learned from what they shared, or maybe it’s just the realization of similarities.

   1. If they don’t create things, send them a DM noting an insight you’ve had about them, the reason you think they’d resonate with you, and invite them to connect.

4. Do this with 10 people on the platform you’re trying to grow on.

5. Note the people, the date, the link to the interaction, what interaction was made and other actions taken.

6. If no response or interaction is returned within a day, do it again on another piece of content.

   1. If an invitation to connect was made, allow 2 days before you reach out again.

7. Do this every day, or every weekday. 10 new people each day, follow up with other engagements.

8. If you do this with 10 people a day, that’s 300 in a month. 300 sincere interactions will likely get close to the same number of returns. It’s a slow path… however…

   1. Look for more popular people, people with a following on the desired platform who you resonate with, or whose audience fits with your desired audience. Comment frequently in their content, become visible to that creator, but also to their followers.

Things to remember:

• Add value for free - offer insights, share findings or generally just help for the sake of helping

• Stay positive, don’t waste time arguing or tearing people down.

• Consistency in engagement is, just like in content creation, become a known quantity.

• Be Always learning from those you interact with, keep notes if you have to.

Platform specific stuff:

• Substack has notes, subscriptions and comments on subscription (in some cases.) Take advantage of that, interact in all the places, don’t be a pest, but be around and visible.

  • If you’re trying to get in with someone, and they’re on multiple platforms, don’t be shy about interacting on all the platforms.

• Medium has claps, follows, comments and subscriptions. Medium writers are trying to get paid just like the rest of us, be generous with claps and comments. Follow them to see more of their content.

• LinkedIn is business land, be more professional. You can look for content and interact there, but also look for people that fit your niche. Growing your audience there is more about reaching out and making connections.

• Twitter may have less value from directly connecting to a creator, instead use their audience and become a knowledgeable subset of that person’s content.

Growth is about adding value, not creating content.

Writing, headlines, interactions… don’t try to ‘play the game’, instead be sincere in interactions and earnest in the offer to help.

Substack has taught me a lot about writing for the right reasons, and it's now echoing out into how I handle other interactions.

People are just as likely to follow you because of your unique voice and personality as they are the lesson you’re trying to learn. The engagement is more likely to happen with content you really put thought into.

If you can spin up a quick article in 30 minutes, it might get some clicks and traffic, it might even stay evergreen, but it isn’t likely to get people talking or eager for your next post or newsletter.

Gratitude

I’m grateful this week for finally starting to understand. I wrote yesterday on Medium about how my May went and that I had just finished my 3rd full month on Medium.

Medium Earnings and Progress for May

I started off figuring I’d just summarize, then it turned into a deep dive into some of my content. I actually ended up pretty proud of how much value I got out of writing it and how much it could provide.

I’m visiting my mom this week, so that might be shuffling my brain a bit, but that post and my approach to writing has really shifted just in the past few days.

So, again I say, I’m grateful for these things starting to click. It’s movement towards adding value, actually realizing and acting on my Ikigai and in some way making the world a better place.

What’s Coming Up

This week, this month, I’m tracking all the things, I’m investing my time into meaningful engagement and trying to finish the month with new friends and new peers.

I’m also working on a Paid subscriber ‘offering’ that is akin to coaching. That’ll be part of the Channeling Chaos newsletter, not this one… unless there is an audience here that would prefer it instead.

I still go back and forth on having 2 newsletters, but feel like that one is where I offer specific mindfulness, ADHD, mindset and life management help, this is more about me and about my business.

If you can think of something I might do here that would inspire you to pay for a subscription, I’m eager to hear it. However, I’m happy to have you here in whatever capacity you choose.

Thanks for Reading

I’ll see you next Monday, or in Notes… or on Channeling Chaos on Wednesday!