My Journey To Running a Social Media Empire

[MendeGames]

Some of you may remember that a little while back I made a progress thread for an importing business. I am still working on that but items I purchased are not selling as quickly as I had first expected, especially with the setback of purchasing counterfeit items.

Anyway, on the topic of this thread:
For the past year I have been running a few websites just sharing daily content. The longer the website is up, the more content gets shared and the more traffic I get. I have found that the #1 source of traffic that I get for most of my websites is social media, even though I do fairly little social media optimization. I've recently put more time into my social media accounts after seeing stories of Twitter accounts with huge followings being able to produce fairly large amounts of money. I'll be updating this thread with my progress on various accounts (although I won't be sharing the actual account names for obvious reasons). I have gained some decent followings on a number of different websites, so I will be including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr. If you have any questions/comments feel free to post below.

Account 1:

Spoiler

2/7/15

Account 2:

Spoiler

2/7/15

Account 3 (brand new):

Spoiler

2/7/15

Automated Tumblr Accounts:

Spoiler

2/7/15

Edit:
I copied and pasted this from another forum I had posted on, will post more recent updates below.

Just hit 825 on account 1 Twitter (was at 750 around 3 PM EST today). I decided to dedicate most of my time and efforts into building a twitter empire since the program I am using is made for twitter and that is the network that people have the most tendency to share on. I am currently building up 6 accounts, although I do not have regular content for 1 of them.
Account 1 followers: 825 - actively posting - started a while ago
Account 2 followers: 231 - actively posting - started a while ago
Account 3 followers: 5539 - started about 2 weeks ago - Received a review copy of some fake followers from a friend so majority are not real - not actively posting
Account 4 followers: 86 followers - actively posting - started last night
Account 5 followers: 50 followers - actively posting - started earlier today
Account 6 followers: 36 followers - actively posting - started tonight

All followers are real and I am getting decent interaction on all accounts except account 3.

 

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[MendeGames]

Account 1 followers: 909 - actively posting - +10%
Account 2 followers: 255 - actively posting - +10%
Account 3 followers: 5531 - Received a review copy of some fake followers from a friend so majority are not real - not actively posting - -.2%
Account 4 followers: 109 followers - actively posting - +27%
Account 5 followers: 68 followers - actively posting - +36%
Account 6 followers: 74 followers - actively posting - +106%

 

[MendeGames]

Day 3
Account 1 followers: 1107 - actively posting - +22%
Account 2 followers: 291 - actively posting - +14%
Account 3 followers: 5526 - Received a review copy of some fake followers from a friend so majority are not real - not actively posting - -.1%
Account 4 followers: 170 followers - actively posting - +56%
Account 5 followers: 105 followers - actively posting - +54%
Account 6 followers: 93 followers - actively posting - +26%

 

[Davor]

Nice but not sure why you are missing out on Instagram it is very popular. Any tips for gaining organic Pinterest followers?

 

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[William Gibson]

For organic followers on anything you have to be social! (in life too!) Talk with your followers give out likes favs retweets generously. Have legitimate conversations build relationships.

One thing Bout social networks is that people join them, or at least I did and think they can make some money if you just get a bunch of followers and then monetizing
But remember if you aren't fulfilling a need or fixing a problem it's way harder to make money, not that you can't it's just in my experience I ended up just keeping myself busy rather than taking legitimate action towards $

 

[MikeRaymond]

How are you planning on monetizing these accounts?

 

[MendeGames]

Nice but not sure why you are missing out on Instagram it is very popular. Any tips for gaining organic Pinterest followers?

abilities as twitter. There is no repost button or anything like that, making it a lot harder to gain followers. On twitter the retweet does a lot in helping gain popularity, especially if you have good content.
For the pinterest pages I have, I started out using a website that exchanges repins, and once my pins started getting actual repins from people seeing them, I started gaining followers, which led to more repins, which led to more followers. I actually have one pin with 1000+ repins right now simply because I used a pinterest exchange to get it started.
Instagram is popular but it does not have nearly the same sharing

For organic followers on anything you have to be social! (in life too!) Talk with your followers give out likes favs retweets generously. Have legitimate conversations build relationships.

One thing Bout social networks is that people join them, or at least I did and think they can make some money if you just get a bunch of followers and then monetizing
But remember if you aren't fulfilling a need or fixing a problem it's way harder to make money, not that you can't it's just in my experience I ended up just keeping myself busy rather than taking legitimate action towards $

I have definitely found that interacting with people on social networks is helpful for gaining followers. The thing about Twitter is that it is not really something people "need", but a source of entertainment/inspiration. If you manage to entertain/inspire people, eventually the account will gian followers.

 

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[ShadowX]

How are you planning on monetizing these accounts?

Yeah my question too. You gonna sell retweets, posts etc once it's big?

 

[MendeGames]

How are you planning on monetizing these accounts?

Yeah my question too. You gonna sell retweets, posts etc once it's big?

Yes, that was my main plan. I also have websites attached to a couple of the accounts, so twitter will help with the promotion of those websites, and I can also sell retweets on those accounts.

 

[SlowlaneJay]

I'd love to know how you're doing this. Are you following/unfollowing at all?

I'm working on Pinterest and Twitter right now, but it's slow. Can I ask how you blew up the Twitter account in particular? Mine's growing at about 10 followers a day, but that's mainly due to aggressive follow/unfollow rates on my part.

 

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[MendeGames]

I'd love to know how you're doing this. Are you following/unfollowing at all?

I'm working on Pinterest and Twitter right now, but it's slow. Can I ask how you blew up the Twitter account in particular? Mine's growing at about 10 followers a day, but that's mainly due to aggressive follow/unfollow rates on my part.

I am following/unfollowing, as well as favoriting tweets related to the niches of the given accounts. Part of the reason account 1 is blowing up is simply because the content is extremely shareable, and it targets Twitter's biggest audience, teenage girls. I had been running that account based off a website previously, so I already had tons of content, I just had to share it and once I did it started gettings tons of retweets and favorites.

 

[SlowlaneJay]

I am following/unfollowing, as well as favoriting tweets related to the niches of the given accounts. Part of the reason account 1 is blowing up is simply because the content is extremely shareable, and it targets Twitter's biggest audience, teenage girls. I had been running that account based off a website previously, so I already had tons of content, I just had to share it and once I did it started gettings tons of retweets and favorites.

Thanks! My Rep is now your rep

Do you push out different content for each channel? Or do you just clone your content across FB, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.?

 

[William Gibson]

a decent tool you might be able to use is tweepi
it helps with following and unfollowing mass users quickly. Its insanely helpful for building a follower base

 

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[MendeGames]

Thanks! My Rep is now your rep

Do you push out different content for each channel? Or do you just clone your content across FB, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.?

For the ones that I have accounts based off of a website, I have it set to automatically share the content to facebook and tumblr, and I pin it to pinterest manually and usually tweet manually, but it's mainly the same content for all networks.

 

[MendeGames]

a decent tool you might be able to use is tweepi
it helps with following and unfollowing mass users quickly. Its insanely helpful for building a follower base

I actually use a tool that is free that allows me to follow people based on recent tweets, which is more helpful than following a specific person's followers because they may not be active at the time.

 

[William Gibson]

I actually use a tool that is free that allows me to follow people based on recent tweets, which is more helpful than following a specific person's followers because they may not be active at the time.

mind sharing? that sounds way more helpful, especially when it comes to getting active targeted people

 

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[MendeGames]

mind sharing? that sounds way more helpful, especially when it comes to getting active targeted people

tsupremacy, they give you a free trial, but as long as you don't close the program you can run it as long as you want. Also if you have to restart your computer or it close for some reason after the 3 days, you can just make another account and sign in with it.

 

[SlowlaneJay]

Thanks. I'm using Unfollowers to help me unfollow people and I'm thinking I'll use Buffer to schedule the tweets. Can't get on the Tsupremacy website, maybe Twitter is getting vicious

I found a little list of free Twitter tools yesterday https://blog.bufferapp.com/free-twitter-tools

Anyway, thanks for this. I'll be following your thread. Back to work.

 

[MikeRaymond]

I know a tool that makes this all done automatically, as in you can schedule your tweets, unfollow/follow with random periods of time in between.

I usually gain between 3000-5000 followers a day across my 6 accounts.

My advice would be to have a few accounts on each social media site.

 

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[MikeRaymond]

Yes, that was my main plan. I also have websites attached to a couple of the accounts, so twitter will help with the promotion of those websites, and I can also sell retweets on those accounts.

I would try and advertise products related in your niche if you can. You could always sell retweets etc on fiverr!

I've made some decent money from there!

 

[Gymjunkie]

What about Opportunity Costs.. You're losing lots of time working on this instead of your Importing business.. Why not double-down on that? Which of these have bigger scale potential and long-term options?

 

[MendeGames]

I would try and advertise products related in your niche if you can. You could always sell retweets etc on fiverr!
I was planning to advertise related products as possible, I would probably avoid Fiverr, otherwise the account will just end up looking spammy.
I've made some decent money from there!

What about Opportunity Costs.. You're losing lots of time working on this instead of your Importing business.. Why not double-down on that? Which of these have bigger scale potential and long-term options?

Honestly I think this has huge scalable potential, and I do not have enough money right now to correctly scale my importing business, whereas my twitter accounts cost me no money.

 

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[MikeRaymond]

Honestly I think this has huge scalable potential, and I do not have enough money right now to correctly scale my importing business, whereas my twitter accounts cost me no money.

It is low risk, low reward unless you scale up very large.

Like i'm talking a few million followers, then you sill need to monetize it correctly.

 

[MendeGames]

It is low risk, low reward unless you scale up very large.

Like i'm talking a few million followers, then you sill need to monetize it correctly.

As much as I'm sure you're a twitter guru and you are just trying to help, this thread is for me to give progress on my project, not for you to tell me that I'm wasting my time.

 

[Ninjakid]

Wouldn't it be more worthwhile to tell a bunch of real people about your website, and spend your time improving it and running it?

 

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[Gymjunkie]

As much as I'm sure you're a twitter guru and you are just trying to help, this thread is for me to give progress on my project, not for you to tell me that I'm wasting my time.

Would you rather people give you false praise and kiss your a$$ or give actual feedback and question your assumptions, which can only bring value to you? Just because a project is easy for you doesn't mean it's your highest and best use of time. It's good people question, makes you stop and think. This is not 'hating'..

You lack money and have skill in building soc. media followings for the products for now? Cool. Are you building accounts that will be useful to your products when you have the money? It's perfect time right now to build those up then, that's a good strategic decision that will pay off. But if you're just building up any kind of followings then you might just be chasing money instead of building real business.

We may be wrong, do elaborate on these points - these follower build ups do seem low reward in a sense that they are capped still. Even if you get to 2mil followers let's say, how much will that get you? At most what? Few hundred thousand dollars a year? And you will have to spend as much time building it up as you would have to spend building importing business?

With product biz you can scale them up with more products and global audience, 10s of Millions is potential. With soc.media, one huge drawback you forget - is the Commandment of Control - your accounts can be banned by Twitter any time, or any soc. network. With product business, even if Amazon bans you, you can still crush it on your website and other markets.

So, yeah, maybe you're right, or maybe you're just chasing quick fix and supposed 'scale' (like building up AdSense sites etc, low end value for user)? That's a serious question with important implications, not an insult to you...

 

[MendeGames]

Wouldn't it be more worthwhile to tell a bunch of real people about your website, and spend your time improving it and running it?

What do you mean by "real people"? The followers I am acquiring are real people.

Would you rather people give you false praise and kiss your a$$ or give actual feedback and question your assumptions, which can only bring value to you? Just because a project is easy for you doesn't mean it's your highest and best use of time. It's good people question, makes you stop and think. This is not 'hating'..

You lack money and have skill in building soc. media followings for the products for now? Cool. Are you building accounts that will be useful to your products when you have the money? It's perfect time right now to build those up then, that's a good strategic decision that will pay off. But if you're just building up any kind of followings then you might just be chasing money instead of building real business.

We may be wrong, do elaborate on these points - these follower build ups do seem low reward in a sense that they are capped still. Even if you get to 2mil followers let's say, how much will that get you? At most what? Few hundred thousand dollars a year? And you will have to spend as much time building it up as you would have to spend building importing business?

With product biz you can scale them up with more products and global audience, 10s of Millions is potential. With soc.media, one huge drawback you forget - is the Commandment of Control - your accounts can be banned by Twitter any time, or any soc. network. With product business, even if Amazon bans you, you can still crush it on your website and other markets.

So, yeah, maybe you're right, or maybe you're just chasing quick fix and supposed 'scale' (like building up AdSense sites etc, low end value for user)? That's a serious question with important implications, not an insult to you...

1) I never said I was giving up my importing business. At the scale and financing I have right now, there is very little I can do to scale the business.
2) I have diversified twitter accounts to incorporate a broad range of markets.
3) Developing these twitter accounts is something I actually enjoy. The importing business was something I just did to make money. In the end, doing the thing I enjoy is going to be what is successful for me.
\

 

[MendeGames]

Here is an update on the accounts, I have missed the past couple days.
Day 6
Account 1 followers: 1457 - actively posting - +32%
Account 2 followers: 390 - actively posting - +34%
Account 3 followers: 5518 - Received a review copy of some fake followers from a friend so majority are not real - not actively posting - -.1%
Account 4 followers: 460 followers - actively posting - +171%
Account 5 followers: 105 followers - actively posting - +90%
Account 6 followers: 192 followers - actively posting - +106%
Account 7 followers: 63 followers - actively posting - 1 Day old

 

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[SlowlaneJay]

Jesus. I don't know how you do this. I've upped my average to 11.3 followers/day on Twitter now, but I hate Twitter. What a pain writing these stupid tweets. I haven't been favoriting posts like you have, I'll start doing that now. Congrats and thanks for the update.

I'd also like to (without offending you) agree with some of the other posters. Growing these accounts to sell retweets? Seems like there is an income ceiling there. I'm growing my accounts to push traffic to my website. Why don't you grow accounts to benefit your importing business? Combine your love of Social Media with something that is already making you money?

 

[James Turchetto]

You're very late to this concept, and to be honest it's now a saturated market. People have started from scratch and have grown massively in the space of a couple of years but what you don't know from the outside is the people & or media companies growing these accounts/pages are backed by millionaires or earn tens of thousands a month minimum who are willing to invest in the growth of the page or account. Very few accounts have done it all organically, Viralnova and buzzfeed as an example have massive budgets to keep themselves ahead of the competition and to draw massive amounts of clicks organically and through social media.

Good luck to you, I know a few people banking big on social media but they now find themselves in positions where any competition can be bought out, or it's presence and influence reduced. If you're thinking on a small scale a few hundred a month or a couple of thousand I think you'll accomplish your goals, anything more ambitious and you'll have to get some money behind you unless you get lucky with an account and it takes off (which is like the twitter or facebook lottery)