Starting to blog was quite a nervous happening for me. I worried what people may think of who I thought I was. But I did it and I really enjoyed it. Then I started the Day to day project and the nervousness came back. Tweeting a link to my post every day was the part I was most nervous about. I lost some followers but I gained more.
As a freelance, speaker and occasional writer I am my brand. My blog and Twitter feed are two of my ways to communicate and keep those who do care up to date about what I’m up to and have to say.
My Twitter followers are steadily rising and are now many more compared to before I started the Day to Day project and doing regular talks and workshops. But even so, I still can’t help wonder what I did wrong when I see my Twitter follower count rise and then go down a couple shortly there after. It’s personal and it isn’t.
Moving into something new can often be scary, and shouting out about posts you’ve written or ask for help even more so. There is always the risk of a negative reaction in the form of a response, comment or decreasing number of followers.
What I’ve learnt however, is that those followers that may drop off after one or two tweets that aren’t to their liking are probably going to drop off anyway. Those who know me and follows me are hopefully going to be supportive and more interested in what I have to say, or so you would hope. As for those who follow me out of politeness but don’t really want to see my tweets, for them their is always the option to filter out my tweets, or to unfollow me. And it actually doesn’t matter, even if it may hurt a little.
In the end you have to assume that the people who follow you – and have actively chosen to follow you – do so because you are you. If someone doesn’t like what you have to say there is going to be other better suited people for them.
The above is an unedited draft from July 2013. As I’m now entering into a phase where self-promotion is something I’ll increasingly have to do, and something I encourage my team to practice and feel comfortable with, it felt topical and relevant. I’m not a shouty “look at me” kind of person and most people I know aren’t either, but we shouldn’t let that limit us when we have something to say, or something we should say. As long as we find our voice, don’t spam and share something of value, then it’s all good and something we should embrace rather than refrain from.
Image via Flickr user Daniela Brown
