I’ve been seeing a lot written lately about growth hacks and people offering tips and tricks to quickly grow social media audiences. You’ve probably seen them too—posting a certain number of times a day, replying to your own Tweet or using a certain number of hashtags. I have to say, the headlines do grab my attention but upon further examination I’m always unimpressed. Growing an online community through social media is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. A marathon.
Consider all the miles runners put in training for a marathon, the diet considerations, how in-tune they are with their bodies. In my experience, it takes that same kind of endurance and dedication to create a sustainable social media strategy. It takes patience to stick with the program and listen and learn from your audience along the way.
This involves taking the time to do discovery work before you start a new social media account. What is the goal? Consider your content sources, your resources, the audiences you seek to attract. Is it sustainable? Opening a new account should be one of the last steps in your strategic plan, not the first.
And it’s important to stay the course, no matter what shiny new app comes along or how much a platform alters an algorithm.
Stop trying to use hacks to “beat the algorithm.”There’s no Konami code for social media marketing success.
— Jon-Stephen Stansel (@jsstansel) December 13, 2020
