Ask HN: How to start a public identity from scratch in late 2022?

24 pointsoliverjudge3y ago15 comments

For the past few years conventional wisdom would have said to spin up the the usual socials (Twitter for thought, Instagram for visuals, Short Video for younger audiences), but with the amount of turmoil in those spaces at the moment are they really the best places to start building an individual platform.

I've seen a movement back to personal blogs and newsletters but do they provide enough discovery to help people find you?

If you were starting from nothing today where would you put the focus for where your content lives and how you distribute it?

15 comments

bananarchist3y ago

Go to your city council meetings and volunteer with your local homeless services providers. Write regularly to your local newspapers if there are any, and be active on Nextdoor. Go to local events like parades, markets and festivals and make sure you introduce yourself to local business owners and other community leaders. In each of these venues, present the you that you want known.

If the necessary events and such are lacking in your community, start organizing the types of events you would want to attend.

Oh wait do you mean by “public identity” that you’re looking to get internet famous?

officeplant3y ago

Saving this just in case I ever run for public office.

40amxn403y ago

Can you explain this obsession with locality? There's a place for it, but not always. In HN I've seen it used as a sort of artificial or unorganic "going back to the roots" kind of thing.

My local newspaper is boring, because nothing happens in my small city. There's no Nexdoor. There are very few if any local events. You can create a youtube or tiktok account and get your message spread to a wider range of people and tell if you're charismatic enough or if your ideas resonate in less time and with less effort. You're also competing with people doing this.

bananarchist3y ago

Think about it this way. Most ideas are garbage. But people are always looking for good ideas. If your ideas can’t hack it in the local scene, that’s to everyone’s benefit that only a small local audience has to deal with your rubbish. But if you rush your ideas to the global audience, you’re adding to a huge trash pile. Even if your ideas are good at this point, you are still going to need boosters in order for them to be found - and when they’re not you’re contributing to the burying of good ideas. That’s why you should start in the local community.

On a more personal note. If you think you community sucks, change it. Easier said than done, I know, but the alternative, resignation such as you have displayed, is repulsive.

1 more reply

deegles3y ago

Here's how I would do it:

1. Use a pronounceable password generator to find a short, memorable name. Like this one set to all lowercase characters: https://www.lastpass.com/features/password-generator

2. Plug it into https://www.namecheckr.com/ (or similar tools) to see if it's available everywhere

3. Buy the .com, .co, any other domain that interests you and register on every social site you can (even if you don't plan on using it)

4. self host a blog on your primary domain and make the other ones redirect to it

5. set up google workspace email on your primary domain and alias the other ones to it as well

If you're publishing a tweet or blog post, post first to your site and then on social media, linking with a canonical tag if available.

tomcam3y ago

I am taking your advice. Thanks to the LastPass website, I have taken ownership of the powerful identity now known as.. (drumroll please)

    IDEsTERMANtE

Bow before me, nerds.

hjkl03y ago

The advice was to use lowercase only

1 more reply

jameshush3y ago

Just pick one and start posting. It doesn’t matter where you start, it’ll take 100 posts/videos/presentations/whatever before you’re decent enough for people to pay attention anyway.

I went to 2-3 open mic comedy nights a week last year just focusing on developing the craft of presenting. On top of that I started teaching free engineering workshops and filming them. Its been about a year and I’m still in the “Just throw stuff at the wall” phase. I don’t have much “clout” but its been a lot of fun and my craft is 10x better than last year

Pyrodogg3y ago

Increasingly, everywhere and all at once.

Even YouTube is now starting to enable (and subtly push) more text and picture content alongside video. The Community tab feature used to be gated to channels with more than 1000 subscribers but now it seems to be available to maybe everyone. The other days I noticed a very prominent "Create Post" button from the video share menu.

All of the feature copying between major platforms and wall raising may increasingly trap attention within different platforms.

dimitar3y ago

Nothing beats a domain + website, then you can link all kinds of accounts there.

v8xi3y ago

just don't link to it from Twitter or SUSPENDED

actually_a_dog3y ago

Why?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

15 comments

bananarchist3y ago

If the necessary events and such are lacking in your community, start organizing the types of events you would want to attend.

Oh wait do you mean by “public identity” that you’re looking to get internet famous?

officeplant3y ago

Saving this just in case I ever run for public office.

40amxn403y ago

Can you explain this obsession with locality? There's a place for it, but not always. In HN I've seen it used as a sort of artificial or unorganic "going back to the roots" kind of thing.

bananarchist3y ago

On a more personal note. If you think you community sucks, change it. Easier said than done, I know, but the alternative, resignation such as you have displayed, is repulsive.

1 more reply

deegles3y ago

Here's how I would do it:

1. Use a pronounceable password generator to find a short, memorable name. Like this one set to all lowercase characters: https://www.lastpass.com/features/password-generator

2. Plug it into https://www.namecheckr.com/ (or similar tools) to see if it's available everywhere

3. Buy the .com, .co, any other domain that interests you and register on every social site you can (even if you don't plan on using it)

4. self host a blog on your primary domain and make the other ones redirect to it

5. set up google workspace email on your primary domain and alias the other ones to it as well

If you're publishing a tweet or blog post, post first to your site and then on social media, linking with a canonical tag if available.

tomcam3y ago

I am taking your advice. Thanks to the LastPass website, I have taken ownership of the powerful identity now known as.. (drumroll please)

    IDEsTERMANtE

Bow before me, nerds.

hjkl03y ago

The advice was to use lowercase only

1 more reply

jameshush3y ago

Just pick one and start posting. It doesn’t matter where you start, it’ll take 100 posts/videos/presentations/whatever before you’re decent enough for people to pay attention anyway.

Pyrodogg3y ago

Increasingly, everywhere and all at once.

All of the feature copying between major platforms and wall raising may increasingly trap attention within different platforms.

dimitar3y ago

Nothing beats a domain + website, then you can link all kinds of accounts there.

v8xi3y ago

just don't link to it from Twitter or SUSPENDED

actually_a_dog3y ago

Why?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse