Be systematic in keeping up with your collaborators
I learned the hard way that followers leave if they don't feel valued.
Not responding to comments is a great way to make sure your supporters don't feel valued.
I'm determined not to do that again. I do my best to respond to every comment.
Responding to comments is only the start, though.
The commenter broke the ice with a lovely comment. I responded with a lovely comment in return.
But hopefully that isn't the end of it, right?
Now it's my job to check to see if the commenter has their own content so I can return the favor and keep the conversation. If they do, then I'll want to return the interest and the love to their content.
That works fine for a handful of creators, but when it gets to be a couple dozen or more, keeping up gets harder. The Following feed is usually a non-starter because, unless the creator can afford to be very choosy about who they follow, it fills up too quickly to be useful.
Grouping is the solution.
Some sites like X (formerly Twitter) have the capability to create lists of other users.
This makes things more manageable. I can form small groupings and catch the new content from just those people.
If there are VIPs that I want to check every day, then I can check that VIP group every day and rotate through others.
Here are two plugins that fill the gap.
I'm actively building my YouTube channel and I have several other creators who check out my new videos regularly.
I subscribed to their channels but I've subscribed to enough channels overall that it does take some time to find them in the growing single list of subscriptions.
Today, though, I found PocketTube.
Chrome Extension #1: PocketTube
I found PocketTube through a Google search of group YouTube subscriptions.
The website claims it's “built with YouTube” and even the free version is a nice integration.
Adding Subscription Groups is a breeze, and populating them is easy as well. From there a single click brings up a feed with just the channels in the group.
Right now I have three groups: Currency & Coins, Hobbies & Fun, and Medium Peeps.
There are some cool additional features available in the upgraded version ($30/year) which I may go for later, but the free version is a giant step forward right now!
Chrome Extension #2: Tabsets
I'm using PocketTube for YouTube. I'm using Tabsets for websites in general.
I started using this very simple but powerful extension a few years ago. You can probably guess what it does from its name. With a single click, the extension creates a tab set from all of the open tabs.
Once the tab set is created, another click will open all of them at once. Or with a couple of mouse clicks, it serves as a bookmark app to open individual sites within a tab set.
I used to use Tabsets mainly to keep track of all of my braindead ad-clicker sites that paid me fractional pennies at a time. I could earn slightly larger fractions of pennies, or claim bonuses, by checking in every day.
I've since moved on from most of these sites, but not from Tabsets. I now use it to streamline loading up author profiles I want to keep track of as well as a few other groupings for different purposes (like Google website tools for example).
Streamline the personal touch.
Comments and interactions aimed at developing collaborative relationships are best handled personally.
Finding tools that assist with keeping track of these relationships allows more time to focus on the quality of the interactions.
What do you streamline to spend quality time with those who matter?
Thanks for reading!
Hi, I'm John and I encourage entrepreneurship in people, including myself.
Join 300+ savvy people with my Solid Cash Tips newsletter for regular insights on side hustling and saving money, with a generous portion of productivity, habit-building and working smarter!
Header photo by Joanes Andueza on Unsplash