There are some truly wonderful and very comprehensive articles out there that discuss ‘how to build a successful author platform’ and also the many reasons why you should do so ASAP. But I’m just gonna keep it simple for you (and short), because simple and short has worked for me.
When building your author platform, the four most important things you need to do are:
1) choose ONE social media account to focus on
2) enjoy it
3) consistently use it and;
4) grow it.
In my opinion, if you try to develop multiple accounts at the same time, you’ll:
a) get stretched too thin trying to manage everything and;
b) your author platform/s will therefore suffer.
It’s like catching a train. You don’t stand on the platform waiting to board 10 trains do you? No, you’re waitng for one train and one train only. And once you catch that train, you’ll finally start heading in the right direction (hopefully, I’ve caught the wrong train a few times lol).
To create a successful platform (that will reach as many potential readers as possible), you need to give your chosen ‘train’ your sole attention and focus. For years my twitter account was my main priority, but when I created my blog in 2015, I immediately switched focus. My blog would not be where it is today if I’d tried to grow all my different accounts at once.
My biggest platform is of course my blog – and I LOVE IT. So much so that I find it hard to stay away sometimes. Even if I’m not posting new articles, I’m always lurking in the background, reading other people’s posts and digging around WordPress searching for hidden gems and a cracker of a life story.
At most I have connected all my social media accounts to my blog, so that my new posts are automatically shared – this saves a lot of time and effort when there is little spare time to be had (because you should be writing that novel??)
I do have an Instagram account, but I find the interactions over there pretty impersonal and the whole follow/unfollow thing DRIVES ME CRAZY. So yeah, I prefer to hang around here even if it means I’m losing 100 followers a week on Insta (true story.)
Another thing, if you keep things simple, you’re less likely to give up. And that my friend, is what many people do. They give up.
Moral of the story: find a platform you love (whether that be a blog or your twitter account), invest a heap of time and energy into it and voila! Success will follow!
I mean… there’s like so many more steps to the succeeding part, but you get what I mean.
The Cat's Write 
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