community. media. relationships.

I only just read this because I enjoyed your recent upload so much I was looking for other things that might spike my interest here. I don’t expect you to “love” me as a fan of yours, I watch and listen because of you and how you portray yourself. A badass woman who stands by her guns. You might not be social or even comfortable, but you’re you and that’s enough of an interaction. I’ve never met you, but you’ve made me smile. We’ve never spoke but you’ve calmed my insomnia. I don’t know what point I’m trying to make here really, but just be you. That’s the reason I’m here and not anywhere else. For Ally. Be you and rock it, because you are freaking awesome. /rant

Rin

(Sorry, Too Many Words!) [On Giving Fans Attention] I have little experience in managing a social media presence that includes video, But I do think you’re right, that there is a correlation between the two. If I were to assume, I’d say that a high level of engagement, helps to hasten the growth of an audience (versus say, how quickly an audience grows without that additional work) It also is incredibly tiring, for one person to do w/o help, and while I’m sure some people’s personalities can live that way, I think it’s totally reasonable for you to say “nope, not gonna engage that way!” [On Growing Audience / Increasing Support W/o The Above] I feel like it’s reasonable to want this, and still maintain a sense of self & creative ethic that is true to who you are as a person, and how you want to be in the world. I wouldn’t begin to presume what strategy would work best for you, but I wonder if trying to see what sorts of videos & things (doesn’t have to be video! Could be crafts, etc), you’d have time to create, and experiment every once in a while to see what content might help expand your audience, while also still remaining inside the overall umbrella of things you’d want to create, and people you want to reach. I don’t know if this particular idea would work, but I do think overall, that thinking through alternatives to the “hyper-engagement” method, of audience growth / retention, is possibly a good path to take. On a personal note, I do think that the observation about the relationship between creators & their audience, is important. There is a (sometimes unintended) lie, in how the relationship feels to each side. And I think, seeing that, and not wanting to fall into that lie, is good. Wanting to be true to yourself, and to make boundaries so you don’t get consumed by one-sided demands, is absolutely a good. I don’t know what else to say, except I hope that, pragmatically, this genuine’ness, and unwillingness to present a false self, serves as a point of distinction, and something that helps differentiate you as a creator, from others. Anyways, thanks for writing, sorry for all the words!