Katie Steckly has been creating YouTube videos for years. The photographer and content creator learned so much through her own social media creation that she founded her social media marketing agency, Creatorly Media. “Whether you’re a photographer, filmmaker or any other kind of creative, starting a YouTube channel, an Instagram or a TikTok can be a great way to expand your brand, reach new clients and start up new forms of revenue streams.” Watch below as she shares five tips to help you grow your presence on social media.

1. Social Media Is A Business

Steckly’s first tip is to think about your presence on social media as a business. “A lot of people have the tendency to think about starting a YouTube channel or an Instagram page as a hobby or just creating content, but it really is a business venture” she explains. “When you see it that way and invest the time into it, you’ll see a much better return. Try not to think about creating content as just another item on your to-do list, but rather something that you’re going to approach with intention and creativity, and you’ll see much better results for it.”

She also says that as you’re thinking about your social media pages to consider what your goals are for your content strategy. “Think about how your content on YouTube, or TikTok, or Instagram is going to contribute to your overall goals as a business. Are you creating content to reach new clients? Are you trying to eventually do brand deals? Are you doing affiliate marketing? And having that direction in mind is going to help you have much more success.”

2. Understand Your Audience

Just like businesses have a target customer base, Steckly says that as a creator, you want to have a target audience. “When you set out to create your content, no matter what platform it’s on, you want to think about who the final viewer is going to be.”

She continues, “When it comes to how audiences find creators and start following them and appreciating their content, a lot of it comes down to the viewer finding the creator either relatable or aspirational. So as you’re starting to build out your content strategy try to consider what kind of person might find you relatable, or what kind of person might want to work toward having the kind of life, or business, or career that you have, and then design your content around reaching them specifically.

3. Stick To A Calendar

Steckly’s next tip is not only to create a content calendar, but to stick to it. “Growth on social media really, really about consistency. It truly is one of the most important things that you can do – whether that’s weekly YouTube videos, posting on Instagram three times a week, or maybe posting a TikTok every day. Whatever your initial goal is, try to design it around whatever is actually realistic to your current schedule, your current lifestyle, and then build habits into your week to actually produce that content and get it published.”

4. Practice, Practice, Practice

The tip we don’t necessarily love to hear, but know that we need to hear – practice, practice and then, practice some more. “It can be really intimidating to get started with creating content, especially on a platform where you haven’t created before, but the only way to get confident and to get better is to create more content. Just like with any creative craft, it just takes lots and lots of hours of trying, experimenting, and figuring out how you can prove and iterating on that to really get good at it.”

You can’t allow yourself to be discouraged by posts that don't get the attention you want them to. It really does take a lot of time and as Steckly says, “a lot of at bats to finally hit that home run and actually go viral.”

5. Don’t Give Up

The final tip Steckly gives is the one that she says to be the most crucial when it comes to long-term success on social media. “It can be very discouraging because when you first get started, you will be posting for, most likely an audience of zero, or a very small audience. And it can be difficult to keep up your motivation when you’re not receiving that feedback. But it’s so important that you feel passionate about what you’re sharing so you can stay connected to your original motivation and keep on creating content.”

She started her YouTube channel in 2011, making videos all through high school and college, and it wasn’t until 2019 until she had a video that performed well. “It definitely doesn’t have to take everybody that long, but you shouldn’t expect overnight success. So if you don’t go viral right away, don’t worry, just keep trying.”

See more on Katie Steckly’s YouTube channel and on the Sony Alpha Universe YouTube Channel.