As many of you know, I write a thread every day.
It’s part of my morning routine and I love the opportunity it provides me to think through things and share my thoughts.
However, the biggest benefit was one I didn’t see coming: It has sparked so many meaningful conversations online.
It’s not uncommon for the comments I get to become more valuable than the threads themselves.
Some of the responses I’ve gotten have been nothing short of poetry. It’s amazing to see people take an idea and extract even more value than I realized was there to begin with.
I’ve also seen some truly transformative conversations taking place in the comments; this happens most often when people disagree. As long as those disagreements are respectful, the value discourse is at its highest when two smart people are calibrating with each other.
Another thing that’s so much fun for me is seeing which of my threads take off and which of them fall flat. It’s not uncommon for me to pour my heart and soul into something and have it die on the vine only for something I rattled off as a “filler” thread to really take on a life of its own.
For example, I wrote a thread on “The 7 Deadly Sins of Digital Marketing” that I thought would get a ton of attention and catalyze great discussions. It totally fell flat.
The very next day, I published a thread on how/why I buy domain names, and it got 5X the amount of comments.
That might be the point I’m trying to make: You never know what’s going to resonate with people.
You have so many thoughts, ideas, and opinions. You also have a ton of knowledge that can and should be shared. Be careful about assuming what in that lexicon is going to resonate.
Sometimes, it’s what you think is the simplest, most obvious thing that other people are truly astounded by. Other times, something you might think is too obscure or too niche ends up resonating far more than expected.
It’s important to give yourself the freedom to test it all.
As you share more, you’ll start to find some common denominators and consistencies behind where you see success. Those are excellent wells to return to and a great way to build your following. However, I would stay cautious about becoming overly reliant on them.
This is what social media is made for: to share.
Share your thoughts, ideas, knowledge, questions, and even your disagreements. It’s scary and vulnerable and, to be frank, doesn’t always go perfectly. That’s ok. The more you do it, the better you get at it. And, most importantly…
The more likely it becomes that you’re able to reach and impact other people.
What you have to say is valuable. Even the silly, trite, or seemingly inconsequential thoughts you have can find an audience and resonate in just the right way to really set fire to a conversation. Don’t hold back!
If you’ve been on the fence about starting to create and share on social media, what’s holding you back? If you were to name the #1 reason you’re afraid to start, what would it be?