I know, I know. Here we go again. Another social media platform. Another “chance” to be seen and make your mark. Another way learning curve to sink precious hours of your day into. I get it. I hesitated too. 

In fact, I made my Warpcast profile back in April 2023, casted a few GMs and then ghosted until March of 2024. I simply didn’t have the time or energy to learn a new social media platform, especially not in a bear market, especially not when my blog was gaining traction, especially not when X and web3 were changing the rules so often that I could barely keep up there. 

But in March of 2024, something shifted. Degen was making waves on Warpcast, and news of people actually being compensated for their content was making its way into NFT Artist DM groups on X. So I did what I always do when I am dragging my feet on something in web3, I started harassing Aaron Vick on every platform I could think of, until he explained the basics I needed to get started.

I’m so glad that I did, because the metrics don’t lie.

Warpcast Followers Chart Frame by @nikolaiii

In twelve weeks of activity, I have built my following from under 100 Warpcast users, to nearly 8,000. I am gaining roughly 100 new followers each day, and I am on track to hit 10k follows by mid-July, after 14 weeks on the platform.  

It took me 7 months of using Twitter and being in spaces for hours and hours each day during the height of the 2022 NFT frenzy to hit that milestone.

Lauren McDonagh-Pereira Photography TEZ/ETH

@LAMPphotography

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I just earned my K!

I am so grateful to all the wonderful people I have met so far on this journey. Your art, ideas, and friendship have been inspiring me every single day since I stumbled into this space.

#10k #NFTCommunity #celebrate

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7:56 AM • Sep 18, 2022

In addition to this, I have earned thousands of dollars worth of tips, airdrops, and Zora NFT income in a short amount of time. I have earned more actual money in 3 months on Warpcast, than I have during 3 years of building my X audience past the 20K followers mark.*

(*This post is not financial advice. Crypto is volatile, and I have spent years building my role in the web3 ecosystem). 

Profile of @lampphotography on X

So how did I do it? How did I make so much progress so quickly, and how can you carve out a space for yourself in Warpcast? Keep reading and I will lay it all out for you. 

Before you can effectively and authentically build your brand on Warpcast, you need to figure out what your personal brand is. 

I am an artist first and foremost, and I always used to cringe at the idea of a “personal brand”. I bristled at the notion because I am a person, not a brand. My art is an expression of me, who I am, where I have been, and the people that have influenced me along the way. I have never created art based on how marketable I perceived it to be, I created art simply for the joy of creation and to satisfy a drive within me to breathe images into existence.

My time in web3 has changed this perspective. I have finally realized that a “personal brand” isn’t a some contrived false personna cooked up by a marketing team at some faceless corporation, but rather it is a thoughtful approach to how I want to express myself, share my story, and showcase the art that I have created online.

To grow your personal brand online, you need to post relevant content that makes people stop scrolling. And to do this, you need to know what story you are trying to tell, to whom, and why. 

Before you start trying to turn your FID into a brand name, seriously and thoughtfully ask yourself these five questions. 

Who are you really? What are the most important things in your life? What do you love to talk about? What brings joy to your day?

I identify as a mother, a photographer, a writer, a mental health counselor, an American, a liberal, a millennial, an adventurer, a party planner, a traveler, and a constant student. I am talkative, hyperactive, curious, and I have a bit of a temper. I like to help people, and I want people to like me. I like supporting others, but I also delight in being the center of attention. I am a New Englander. I love snow, and the sea, and the mountains. I love cats, and coffee, and wine, and my sense of humor is stuck in 7th grade. 

I am a real person. I have real opinions and real interests, and I know what makes me smile. Do you?

If you are trying to build your brand on Warpcast, you are probably doing so as a means to end. 

Sure, its fun to scroll and engage with people, but you don’t need a personal brand to do that. You can just vibe. If you are reading this article it’s because you want to use Warpcast as a tool to get something else

Figure out what that is. Are you building an app and you want to attract users? Are you an artist trying to sell NFTs? Are you trying to network for a new job? Are you just trying to hustle Warpcast for tips? Do you want more Paragraph readers? Are your starting a company and need advertising? Do you want to have a large follower count to feel like a web3 celebrity.

Be honest. There are no (legal) wrong answers.

Personally, I am building my brand on Warpcast because I want to sell my art as NFTs and I want to cement my life’s work on the blockchain. 

Now that you know who you are, and why you are on Warpcast, figure out what you are trying to build. 

It could be name recognition, your reputation, a community, your web3 network, or your knowledge base, or something else. Figure out what that something is, and it will help you hone your behavior on the platform.

I am building name recognition and a community on Warpcast. I want to be in on the inner circle of the innovative thinkers and creators building in web3. I want to be the first to know about new opportunities, and I want to be able to act on my knowledge so that I can support myself with my art and my writing. 

Your lofty goal is your sanitized PR Mission Statement. It should be sincere, but also marketable. Is your goal to build the best crypto security app on the market to keep people safe? Do you care deeply about permissionless social media platforms because you value free speech for all? Are you trying to create new revenue streams for builders because the current version of capitalism leaves so many out in the cold? 

Think of your Warpcast profile as a new company. What is that company’s mission statement?

I pasted this article into ChatGPT 4.o and asked it to write me a mission statement. It came back with “At @lampphotography, we are dedicated to ethically selling art while leveraging our knowledge and social media influence to elevate the voices of the art community. Our mission is to foster a supportive and innovative environment on Warpcast, where creativity thrives and meaningful connections are made. We aim to inspire, educate, and collaborate, building a strong and engaged community that values authentic expression and the transformative power of art in the web3 ecosystem.” 

Sounds about right. 

What do you actually need to get by in your offchain life? Time is money, and Warpcast takes time. What does Warpcast need to give you to make your time worthwhile? Friendship? Community? Connections? Money? 

Again there are no (legal) wrong answers.

I need money. I have spent decades honing my photography skills, and more than full time hours building my presence on web3 on Twitter and now Warpcast over the last 3 years. Now, my kids are headed off to school in the fall. It’s do or die time. I either create a dependable, livable revenue stream from my web3 activity, or I go back to public school teaching, and let this all go. I love creating. I love the community. I love being part of this movement, but without some compensation for my time, I simply will not be able to balance parenting, full time work, web3, and photography. It’s just real life. 

Channels are the one of my favorite Warpcast features. Instead of just posting your casts to an endless stream of human consciousness, you can join specific communities within channels, and post related content directly to those channels.

As a photographer, I post content to /itookaphoto, /wanderlust, /flora, and /goplaces. 

As a community builder, I cast to /warpcast, /build, and /nftartwithlauren.

As a tip hustler, I am all over /degen, /lp, /farther, and /masks. 

If you know who you are, what you are trying to build, and what your goals are, you should be able to find established channels that vibe with you and make your time on Warpcast both pleasant and productive. And if you can’t find the right channel, you can always build your own!

The casts your post in channels on Warpcast should be accurate reflection of your personal brand. I am proud of my feed, the original casts I post, the projects that I hype, and even the stupid jokes and memes that I cast. 

You should feel the same way. If your feed makes you cringe, or looks like it was created by ChatGPT, rethink your strategy and try again. 

I aim to balance my casts like this:

• 50% - Building Towards Goals - posting my photography, my writing, and my serious thoughts about the web3 community

• 25% - Who You Are and Why You Are Here - posting selfies, snapshots of my day, random jokes and thoughts that pop into my head, and quote casting other people’s content that genuinely resonates with me

• 25% - Making Sure Base Needs Are Met - for me, this means posting frames to encourage tips or to sell my NFTs
  

Part of the joy of web3 culture is a rejection of traditional gate keeping mechanisms. So work towards your goals, but also be a little loose. Show us your you. 

It is not enough to just cast your own content into relevant channels and run away. You have to actively participate as well.

Spend some time each day scrolling through the channels that align most closely with your own Warpcast goals and reply, reply, reply! Don’t just write “Nice!” “Bro!!!!!” “LFG!” over and over again, but write thoughtful replies that open up genuine dialogue with the original caster. 

If you see a cast that aligns with your personal brand’s vision, quote cast it and add your own meaningful commentary.

If you see a cast that make your think or laugh or learn something new, throw them a tip. Show other casters that you appreciate their contributions to the community and want to see more of their content.

The more that you are thoughtfully active in relevant channels the more friends you will make. Which leads me too…

Warpcast is a web3 social media platform, with focus on the social! Don’t just try to broadcast your ads for whatever app you’ve cooked up, talk to people, network and make connections.

You never know what new ideas and partnerships will blossom if you do. 

Once you have figured out who you are, why you are here, what your goals are, identified your relevant channels, started casting, and started engaging, and started making friends, its important to periodically check in with yourself and your strategies. 

Is your Warpcast personna a true reflection of you? It’s all to easy to get caught up in hype while chasing after the Farcaster cash cow of the week. Before you get carried away, pause and ask yourself, if you are being authentic and promoting projects and people who align with your goals and values.

Channels come and go. They flourish, the attract bots, they are flooded with spam, and they die. If a channel that you loved last week, feel icky this week, let it go. Find somewhere else to spend your time. 

Decide on a measurable metric and track it monthly. This could be Warpcast followers, paragraph subscribers, Zora mints, or revenue earned. 

Whatever your metric is, take some time at the end of each month to see if you are hitting those targets, and if the time you are spending cultivating your Warpcast brand is worth it. 

My turn for authenticity… I am on page 16 of a Google Doc and this article has gotten away from me. So I will conclude with this: LFG!