It is no secret that one of the main reasons for the emergence of new media and the slew of new internet personalities was primarily due to increased two-way communication between influencers and viewers. People felt more involved and in control when their favorite YouTuber or Instagram celebrity created something as opposed to a TV anchor. It is much easier to build a parasocial relationship with someone you interact with a little, no matter how sporadically. That’s why if you really want to be successful on these platforms, you need to learn how to effectively use your time to communicate with as many followers as possible and turn these into viable revenue-generation channels.
Using Your Time Effectively
As you grow bigger, it’ll be harder and harder to manage your ever-growing fanbase. The notification system on your Instagram, YouTube, etc. will become virtually useless – Many creators and influencers completely abandon interacting with their viewers and fans at this stage, which is quite a big mistake. Interacting with your fans is one of the main things that makes online personalities special, and you shouldn’t abandon it. Here are a few ways you can still interact with your fanbase without overwhelming yourself:
- Responding to high-profile mentions and comments: you don’t need to respond to every comment and every mention to give off the appearance that you interact with your community. Usually, the most highly upvoted/liked comments and mentions should be the ones you focus on. These are mentions that your community wants you to answer and/or it is by another influencer. Just responding to these should be a good first step to increase your engagement with your community.
- Only responding on certain platforms: usually, your dedicated fanbase will follow you on multiple platforms. If YouTube is your main platform, you’ll see that a segment of your followers is really active on your Instagram or Twitter. Maybe you should only interact with these. Your main viewers come for your content anyways and don’t care much about interacting with you, so depending on the type of influencer you are, it might be best to just ignore the comments and mentions on your main platform.
- Use special software: as the role and number of influencers have increased and they’ve taken up an important function on the Internet and the wider economy at large, there has been an upswing in tools and programs you can use to help you interact with your fans and followers better. This can range from basic tools that curtail your feed and shows you the most important mentions so you don’t get overwhelmed to more innovative platforms like Fourthwall.com that allows you to send personal messages to people who buy your merch. These tools will help you step up your game and use your time much more effectively.
