Where your audience already is and where you need to grow may be in two different places. Only show up at the popular one, and you get really good at talking to the people who already love you. Bless them, though, they’d read your grocery list and like your food pics.
Wayfindher is on social media in four places: Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, and here on Substack. For one founder, that’s a lot of places to be charming at the same time.
The week of October 5, I made two calls about where my time and effort go. Neither one was dramatic, but together, they rearranged the furniture a little.
The first came on Wednesday, October 7. I made Wayfindher’s newsletter the priority as soon as SheBuilds wraps.
And if you somehow missed that I was selected for SheBuilds Season 04, Lovable’s building program for women, you might be the only one. I haven’t shut up about it. It kicks off Thursday, October 15. Consider yourself caught up and wish me luck! #SheBuilds
Now, which newsletter? Fair question, since you may be reading this in your inbox. These Build Notes are where I write about building Wayfindher, here on Substack. The newsletter is its own thing. It belongs to Wayfindher, it doesn’t run through Substack, and it hasn’t sent a single issue yet.
So yes, I just moved the one channel that hasn’t said a word to the front of the line. Here’s why. It’s the only one Wayfindher owns outright. Everywhere else, an algorithm decides your fate and who sees what. A newsletter goes to the women who asked for it.
The day before, on Tuesday, October 6, I’d approved a line for how Wayfindher reads its own results:
a follower is not a customer, and a click is not a consent.
Followers matter, don’t get me wrong. They’re how a lot of women will find Wayfindher. It’s also why I’ve been out asking family, friends, and people I know to follow along, so I’m not shouting into the void. Humbling is the polite word for how that made me feel.
But a follow is her relationship with a platform. A woman who signs up to hear from you has told you something a follow never can.
The second call came on Friday, October 9, and it was about time. I settled how I split the time I spend commenting, sharing, and showing up in other people’s conversations across those accounts: by where Wayfindher needs to grow, not by which account has the biggest crowd today.
Easy to write down. Harder to live by when one platform is chatty and another is giving you the silent treatment, because the pull is to keep feeding the one that talks back. But pour your hours into the biggest crowd, and mostly you just make that crowd bigger. You don’t grow anywhere new.
So that’s where the work goes now. Not away from social platforms. Wayfindher is still posting on Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, and here. Facebook is on my someday list, too, since so many small businesses hang out there. What changed is the question I ask before I spend an hour. It used to be “where is everybody looking?” Now it’s “where does Wayfindher need to be known, and by whom?”
If you’re building something of your own, take a peek at where your next hour is headed. Is it going to the crowd you already have, or to the people you’re building for and a way to reach them that’s yours?
And if you’ve had to make this call yourself, I want to hear how you made it. Just hit reply.
~amy
P.S. Shameless plug, since we’re on the subject of followers. If you want to keep up between Notes, and through SheBuilds week, here’s where to find me:
Instagram: @wayfindher_
Threads: @wayfindher_
LinkedIn: Wayfindher
LinkedIn: Amy Ross