We may be politically opposite in every way but I know it takes a lot for a following and as I’m all for freedom of speech and been a huge fan of the ‘net since first hopping on board in ’89 and exploring its possibilities for freedom of speech, community building, etc ever since, that’s something I can relate to, as well as the need to put forth a cartoon character version of self forward. [Mine is more like Daffy duck (old-school ADHD type), strange French mime who forgot his makeup, hippie dude, Mr. Rogers, middle school science teacher, 14 yr old philosopher, and cool dad/weird uncle. It’s also not far off from my regular personality, just ‘more of it’, but a persona/personas none-the-less].
==
Your persona is fitting for what you want to project and for the style of entertainment/education you do. I respect it.
==
My stuff leaves people with “wtf is this shit? wait, what just happened? did I just learn something? fuck.” or “dude’s smart/nice. I like him.” or “oh, it’s HIM again.”
I shoot for the 2nd, can’t help the 1st or 3rd. I couldn’t use your style: I’d lost my voice in a day – gravelly enough as it is.
===
Awesome – I’m more like the weird dude that owns the curiosity shop and sends kids off on deadly adventures for their edutainment. Being 44, kids means most ppl I come across online tongue emoticon
===
Eh, I don’t collaborate. Deleted Skype / Kik / Hangouts in mid 2014. Ran a Minecraft server for my ne for 2 yrs and became everybody’s far away uncle/virtual-dad. Tried helping everybody out with their projects, life problems, motivation, whatever. Got burnt out of that – the Skype phone ringing noise to this day gives me PTSD (ne uses it now and so I hear it daily) so I stay in public forums, don’t IM, and my headset has been collecting dust. Mostly I project myself on Vine these days.
==
One social networking secret that works for a following: Search for like-minded ppl with very few followers in public places (Youtube, FB groups, wherever), comment positively on their stuff. Like their stuff. Subscribe to them…. and every once in a while pop back to their profiles and keep a presence on their channels.
I get about a 1:2.5 ratio of followers/following (it’s been anywhere from 1:4 – 1:2.5]
On Vine (which was my focus past couple of years), stats are 14.2K Followers 38.6K Following.
People get giddy when I follow them/comment on their stuff, and you start getting followers/making new friends/fans (whatever you want to call ’em) without even trying.
But I always treat my channel like I just joined the service + I’m looking for followers. I follow the same process – daily habit – and it never fails.
==