Issue #02 The Real Trick Is Consistency
Hello there 👋
As promised here's issue #2 of my monthly newsletter.
I set myself some challenges for January. First, run for 30 minutes and secondly, try to plank for 2 minutes every bloody day. I've not written up how I got on yet (I will, I promise), but I can say it was challenging at times, and I'm glad January is over.
As well as working on the next big version of RapidWeaver at Realmac, I've also been growing my personal audience. 🤮 Yes, I'm aware that sounds a bit pretentious, but I'm not sure how to make it sound less wanky. I guess I could just not mention it. 🤔
As a newsletter subscriber, you get to see how my numbers are doing each month and how I grew on each platform. So without further ado, here's how my "social reach" grew in January. Ugh, I feel dirty saying "social reach" as well. 🤢
I made an effort to tweet and interact more on Twitter. This definitely helped increase my numbers. I noticed the times I was more active, I'd get more followers. This really isn't rocket science, is it? And should surprise no one.
I'd read that threads were an excellent way to gain followers. So, I wrote a thread (my first one ever on Twitter) about 10 of The Best Mac Apps. This did rather well, so I wrote another about 5 of The Best Mac Utilities I use. This one did even better with 20 retweets and 67 likes.
💎 5 of the Best Mac Utilities You’ve Never Heard About
— Dan Counsell (@dancounsell) January 11, 2022
Utilities on the Mac often get overlooked, and it’s a real shame as there are still so many handy little apps out there. This is a roundup of my favourite lesser, known Mac Utilities!
A thread 🧵 ↓
I then expanded on the Best Mac Apps thread and turned it into an article. Re-using content was also another tip I read somewhere.
Unsurprisingly, my most popular article this month was "10 of the Best Mac Apps on the Planet", it is based on the thread I wrote on Twitter. I named checked ten companies, which helped get the article retweeted, and in turn, more people followed me on Twitter and joined my newsletter. Perhaps that's how you found me?
So What Did I Learn?
None of this is rocket science. It just reconfirms my belief on how to grow an audience. Write and share content to help people. Pretty simple, but I think the real trick is consistency. This is where I've fallen down before.
Here are the 5 take-away points:
- Post more articles. Each time I write one, I get more followers.
- Re-purpose content. Turn articles into shorter threads on Twitter. Or write a thread, then expand it into an article.
- Don't be afraid to write threads. People seem to like them, perhaps because they can be more informative than a single tweet 🤷♂️
- @mentioning people or companies can increase likes and retweets. But don't abuse this.
- Stay active and interact with people on Twitter (always be yourself, don't force it).
Writing this out has made me think I should probably expand on the above points and post it as a thread on Twitter. Practice what you preach and all that.
Each month, I'll update you on how my numbers are doing, how I'm growing my audience, and what worked and what didn't. Right now, anyone can read this post as it's publicly available on my blog. However, future editions will only be available for Newsletter Subscribers.
That's all for now. This newsletter has been longer than I intended. Sorry!
I've included a round-up of the articles I published in January below (scroll down).
Stay subscribed, and I’ll be in touch next month.
Take care.
Dan x
P.S. If you'd like to help, please tweet out one of my articles. I'll owe you one.
