CREATORS
Why Grow Your Audience?
It never was about you
Have you ever stopped to think why you want an audience? Why you want to grow it, or make your content go viral?
I suppose we all feel nice when our content gains traction, so we automatically assume it’s a good thing to gain even more. Right?
I think many reasons we want to grow our audience miss a key point: It’s not about you. It never was, and it never will be.
Just like you, nobody likes to play second fiddle, unless they have something to gain. Even the most loyal audience agrees to play this role because they want something for themselves. And they trust you to give it to them.
In this sense, the leader, the content creator in our case, as much leads as is led by the audience. Led by its desire for stability, for reassurance, for a familiar safe haven.
I think this realization casts a new light on the most common reasons we want to grow our audience. Let’s see.
Reason #1: Monetization
This one I get. It’s honest and straightforward. You want to get some money for your effort and talent, so you need as large an audience as possible. In this exchange, you are ready to find your niche and give people what they want.
I am not going to say the usual “you must ensure quality content”, “money makes you lose your soul”, etc. No, the people want what they want, you give it to them, they give you money. Very honest, on both sides. No need to teach them anything they do not explicitly ask for. In any case, who are we to know better what the people want than they do themselves? Not me, thank you. I will not be taking the moral high ground here, we have enough people on that mountaintop already.
Luckily, Medium and the internet are replete with guides on how to grow your audience if monetization is your purpose. And, of course, when you read them, you are the audience to someone else’s monetization efforts 😏
Reason #2: Self-validation
Ah, here starts the slippery slope. Remember that the audience only is one because they want something for themselves? How likely is it that this is to validate your self worth? Seems to me a lousy proposition for your average audience member.
Of course, we are all human, and it is normal to want a healthy bit of self-validation. You know, there, in the background, for good measure. But to make it your primary purpose? Well…
To do this, you will have to trick your audience at a very fundamental level. Most probably trick yourself as well, using various arguments for “the good of the world”, so as not to consciously understand that you are doing any trickery, which will absolutely ruin the magic.
The recipe is this, and well tried throughout the ages: you talk about what they want to hear, and slowly lead them to validating you, in myriad small, indirect ways. Until you are strong enough to lead them directly and in large ways.
Oh, the horrors inflicted on humanity because of this. And you know the worst part? At a deep level, you will always know that nobody really digs you; they just care for themselves, just like you.
Reason #3: Connection & Purpose
This is cool. Creating content makes you look at life through a new lens. You start noticing things, making connections. Small events that might otherwise go unnoticed can now enrich your life with new realisations.
Some days ago, I was lying down on the balcony, as I like to do on cool summer mornings. I looked up at the sky, a couple of birds flew overhead. A thought struck me, a realisation, that eventually became my previous article on meditation. I spent the rest of the day noticing the birds, the sky, the air, the sea, the trees, as they gradually changed as the day progressed, deep into the night. I am sure I would not have done any of that if the possibility of an article was not alive in me.
Knowing that there are a handful of people out there that may truly find these realisations interesting gives a vitality to what you do when not creating content. I don’t know why, I don’t even care, but it does. And I love it.
Of course, at some point you do sit down and create the content. This is an important and serious undertaking that must be approached with care and respect for the internal process you’ve undergone. To make justice to it.
How large an audience do you need to enrich your life this way? Not that much I think. And, in any case, for people to be able to connect with you deeply, they need to have enough appropriate experiences themselves to turn your words into their own deep feelings. This is something you, as a creator, cannot control.
How many people out there can benefit from your words this way? You can never know. But getting your content out there means that the chance for such connection exists.
Bonus tip: contemplate creating content under a pseudonym. See how you react to this thought experiment. Did you realise anything?
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It never was about you, but does it matter?
