Social media cannot be an afterthought when creating digital media

feature image: Jason Howie

The reality is that in today’s digital media landscape your traffic will live or die by the hand of social media. Promoting your work cannot be an afterthought; it should be part of your overall strategy before you even begin to produce your next piece of work. This will also help you to pinpoint who you’re producing the work for. Who’s your audience? Does an audience exist for what you’re creating? Where are they?

You should consider all of these things before you even begin to write. You might produce your best piece of writing but if you don’t know how to get people to see it it doesn’t matter. Don’t be shy about reaching out to pages and communities that you’re a fan of or follow and ask them nicely to check out your piece if it’s something relevant to them. If they like it ask if they wouldn’t mind sharing it. If you feel you can offer something in exchange (e.g., a link to one of their articles) do so.

You need your intended audience to see your work, and you can’t do that without considering who that audience is and where they are.