Building A Network Of Social Platforms Pt. I

Starting A Project Stuff…

Today, I laid the groundwork for starting a new, as of yet unannounced project. (Don’t worry, it ties in well with the Vault and other projects; it’s not another “to-do list thing that’ll never happen.” Probably.)

As such, I’m just on the boring business admin to-do list stuff of signing up for emails, getting the dimensions of cover and header photos, putting together logo bits and pieces, and going through a long list of boring, rote tasks like signing up for social accounts and so forth.

There are a few things that have changed since I last talked about this sort of thing. Back in my blogging heyday, for instance, I made dozens of niche websites. The principle is still the same; you build digital real estate, get people to come and visit your digital real estate and you then sell them or otherwise encourage them to consume your material in a way that benefits you. (It makes you richer, gives you attention, networking or other opportunities, etc.)

But while the principle is still the same, there are a few things that are different between now and then:

• Having a domain name is a plus but you don’t need to spend the £12 on it immediately, (or, potentially, ever)
• Social Media is the internet, to a large extent. Get the profiles with the handle. All of them.
• (The above process; Captchas, emails, phone numbers, verifications; nightmare but must be done)
• Everything is more visual and so you need good images even if you’re not a visual brand (AI is good for this *for a time – more on that another day)
• Remember, small platforms are easier to start building with

Here are a few tips, before I talk about why we do all this.

General Tips For Building A Social Media Network

I’m not a fan of social media. Not really. However, it’s inescapably the present and the future of the internet. While a lot will change, for now, your best bet is to figure out how different audiences across the different platforms consume content, and then figure out how, within the confines of your new project, you can give it to them.

A lot of “online content creators” don’t do this; they sign up for accounts, do exactly the same on one platform as they do on all the others, and hope for the best.

We’re better than that.

Still; you can quickly gain thousands of followers on TikTok, for instance, and you don’t have to do talking-head explainer videos or those bottom-barrel genetics “Red Pill vs. Only Fans girl GOTCHA” videos.

I bring this up because TikTok is an easy way to gain followers even if you don’t like it (I don’t actually have TikTok on my phone, don’t use it as a consumer, probably won’t ever.)

I like Instagram and there’s a lot of crossover with a few additions and subtractions.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves; in terms of starting, it’s simple: get the profiles registered. That’s step one because you want uniformity in handles. Then, you grab a Link Tree link, (others available, it doesn’t matter – we’ll build our own later,) and you put that link on each profile so you have a miniature network.

Make sure your profile pictures, headers and so on are as uniform as possible. Again, it doesn’t have to be perfect, but you want people to recognise you from Day One and never get confused. We’re capturing attention here and don’t want any friction.

Today, I signed up for the following:

• YouTube
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Pinterest
• Tumblr
• Substack
• Medium
• Twitter
• (I’ll do a Facebook page at some point, because I’m a dinosaur)
• Reddit (and a Subreddit)
• (I’ll build a Discord and Telegram group later if the project is viable)
• Linktree
• Patreon

If the project is viable – which I expect it will be but it’s a small project anyway – I’ll buy a domain name for it and have that be the centre of the operation. It’s not necessary anymore.

Let’s move on.

Why We’re Doing This

Yesterday, I wrote about how I had a block talking about online business in the context of my old business stuff; copywriter, e-commerce, and so on.

While I still write copy, engage in e-commerce, and basically do all the same operations as I did before, (though the only client I have is me, and the only boss I have is also me,) there’s a very different frame to why I do all of this.

Namely, I am in the business of creating and licensing intellectual property.

Now, there’s a whole world within that statement, and I’ll write more about it as I delve into this week’s planned blog posts as we approach the launch of the Vault and the relaunch of this blog (and associated properties) as a serious entity.

Ultimately though, approaching business through the Intellectual Property lens is taking the idea of digital assets and/or passive income, injecting them with superhuman serum, and creating an unlimited money glitch monster of a thing.

Again, more on this tomorrow and subsequent days of the week, but creating networks of different properties that all interconnect and funnel people around our intellectual property is a small start on a big road to moving the chess pieces around on the World-Board.