Do you find yourself wondering when all the hard work and nose to the grindstone attitude will pay off? Me too. I believe it’s a matter of reaching critical mass. That state when events begin occurring at such a rapid pace that you realize something has changed and the fun is about to begin.
Where I see critical mass
This blog. After ninety days of fifty percent growth month-to-month (as measured by Google Analytics) traffic has leveled off. I’m OK with the traffic leveling off. Now, I have a substantial core audience that reads, comments and shares what I write here each day. For example, yesterday traffic was only down slightly and the only promotion of the post I did was one automated Tweet from the @JimRaffel Twitter account. Thank you core audience and new readers alike.
The traffic plateau is a good sign. I’ve learned in most endeavors you reach plateaus. The purpose of the plateau is to push you out of your comfort zone. With the support and suggestions of you, it’s time to push my writing up a notch. Diagnosis: my blogging efforts are reaching critical mass.
ColorMetrix. It’s been a long year. I’ve radically changed the way we do business and it’s beginning to pay off. I’ve chronicled most of the product, business practices and marketing changes in previous posts. Suffice it to say that opportunities are now appearing seamlessly out of nowhere. Upon reflection “nowhere” turns out to be where I’ve been focusing my energy and efforts for the last year or so. Diagnosis: my business activities are reaching critical mass.
Twitter. As I approached 2000 followers I noticed daily and weekly growth pickup (even without efforts by me to follow interesting people). I also noticed blog traffic pickup. Direct Messages with real business potential (much of it not in the social space but in my native printing) also picked up.
There is no specific magic number of followers you need. You do need to be aware, however, that your Twitter audience should to be large enough to accomplish your goals in the space. If your goal is simply to stay connected with friends and family then 25-50 followers may do it. If you goal is to change the perception your industry has of you and to do so by sharing great content each day, 2000+ may be the number. Diagnosis: my Twitter activities are reaching critical mass.
And now for the dirty little secret. When you begin reaching critical mass, that’s when the hard work really begins. At least that’s the way I see it. Does your view differ?
That’s great news on all fronts, Jim.
And I know you’re right: the hard work is only just begun. Once you gain readers or customers, you have to keep them hooked. While the growth may take care of itself when you reach a certain level, it’s still based on great content and deliverables.
So keep up the good work!
I’m not sure it ever takes care of itself. The plan is to build a team to support what I’m building so that I can continue the activities that have been successful. Otherwise, I will be bogged down on the doing and managing of what I’ve built and then growth will stop. Somehow I will find a way to keep shipping great stuff each day not only here but to my paying customers as well. 🙂
Nice post. Reading this resonates with me as I am realizing that I’ve got about 250 followers on Twitter right now, but I don’t think I’m doing a great job bringing much to the table-so to speak. Right now, 250 is my critical mass and I know I’ve got something to share, but I’m also at a personal point right now where it is taking a lot of time for me to figure out what exactly I’m here to share.
First, thanks for what I believe is your first time comment. Much appreciated. It seems to be you get critical mass as described above. Perhaps you are at a plateau as well. 🙂
I’m somewhat hardpressed to define critical mass. I think of it as similar to the “tipping point” of a blog, but I don’t know where it is, and I think the hard work is never ended. My blog growth tends to be very slow. But people are reading and commenting, and that is enough to make me very happy. I’m reaching a few people. I enjoyed your blog article – Thank you.
Melody
Hey Melody,
I think it is a tipping point of sorts. I’m just finding that even on the days I don’t have time to promote the posts here the traffic is still good and the RSS feed increases by a few each day as well. There’s enough other people sharing the content now that I’m just a small part of the growth formula. Well, big in that I have to keep writing 🙂
It was interesting that reducing the number of followers by deleting the non-repliers created a better following. The numbers don’t grow as fast but the engagement is much more gratifying. And as usual, the more I engage, the greater the payback.
Jim,
Engagement is the key. I’ve just come to realize engagement is not the same for all people. None of us can be all things to all people. I’m pleased the content here is resonating with you right now. 🙂