Hello Star Wars friends and creative types! I have realised that I’ve sorely neglected to blog about the social media landscape and blogging in general. And yes, this is a star wars blog primarily, but I like to deviate from that to keep things interesting every now and then.

How many times have you read a blog post belonging to some SUPER huge social media presence that begins with “I used to barely exist, and now I am a superstar, and this is how I did it?” Yeah, it’s a little less believable when it’s coming from someone who probably has an army of people working with them to gain the online presence that they have. I am just your average person who knew nothing about social media when I started blogging. I now have a much broader knowledge, and understanding of various social media tools than I did when I started and I’d like to share what I know.

Anywho, I know some readers enjoyed my previous social media posts, so I’ve decided that along with more SWTOR posts, I will blog more regularly about social media and how it relates to blogging specifically.

Today I will focus on this question that I see lots of people asking on message boards all over the internet:

“How do you attract more followers/readers?”

The answer to that question is probably not what people want to read, but it will be the truth, and that is by putting in the effort and time. Unless you want to end up paying for your followers, that is. If you want to do it the organic (and honest) way, you have to work at it every day.

You can do this by

• Posting regularly or at least to a schedule, so your readers know when to expect a post or an update from you
• Consistency is key – try to stick to whatever rule you make about posting (see the point above)
• Ensuring that your posts are a) helpful in some way to your readers b) grammatically correct and with no or few spelling errors for readability.
• Depending on what you are posting about, try and make sure that you have references and sources for all your images if you’re using images that are not your own
• Try and provide sources for any fact-based posts you write. People like to believe in what they read, and there is no better way to do that than by using reputable sources.
• Always link back to any sources you use
• If you’re writing a post based only on rumours, let your readers know that upfront.
• Do NOT use click-bait titles no matter how desperate you are to grow your audience.

Of course, there are exceptions to some of these rules, and you’ll see them all over the internet. An example of this is Mike Zeroh. If you’re a star wars fan, you should know who he is. This guy uses rumours and click-bait every single time he posts something on YouTube. He now has a reputation for not being honest about what he posts and for misleading people.

Mike Zeroh is not as big as some of the better star wars YouTubers and for a good reason. However, he has thousands of viewers on his videos even when people know he is unreliable and not trusted.

Go figure. That’s the internet for you.

Why should I heed your advice?

I am no authority on blogging or social media use. But I do have thousands of followers on a few of my social media accounts and about 4.89 million monthly viewers on my Pinterest account. And I didn’t use any magic method to get them. I did it through consistency, time, perseverance and blogging about things people wanted to read and see.

Each month I will post about something relevant to blogging or social media hoping that if you’re new to blogging or even to using social media, you can avoid making the mistakes I did and get there quicker with honest and reliable (non-click-bait) advice.

Until next time friends and bloggers!

If you like my blogging and social media posts, you can check out more of them right here.

And while you’re there, why not consider following me on Twitter, Instagram and right here, on WordPress.

Thanks for your support!