The Top Skill That Will Help You Develop Your Audience

And it isn’t creating endless amounts of content

I didn’t start using my Instagram as a platform and community meeting place until 2017. I had maybe 900 followers and all of them were friends or friends of friends.

My network was small, but at the time everything in my life felt like the exact opposite:

• I had just lost my grandmother (who had become my surrogate mom 10 years prior when my mom passed away)
• I was struggling with grief, anxiety, and depression
• I was freaking lonely
• I was having panic attacks for the first time ever

Imagine struggling, being 21 and a child of the Internet. I did what I had done for countless internships just months before — I turned to the Internet, screamed into the void, and listened for an answer back. (Also known as a haphazard digital strategy.)

Yes, my corner of the Internet was “small” by current day standards, but all I needed was one person to offer a sign that they heard me, saw me, understood me. And it happened — I have the Instagram community to show for it.

But numbers aside, that season of my life taught me the best audience development lesson I’ve ever learned — you create better content when you listen…