🛠️Build Your Social Media Foundation | Growth Series, Part 1

Hosted by Start Mentor Tevfik  • March 2026 • Meta Horizon Start

Overview

Many developers “build silently,” then launch with no audience. Just like an app, social media is something you can plan, build, and keep refining. This workshop is about building a repeatable social media foundation for VR games—starting early, posting consistently, and turning attention into a community (especially via Discord).

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The 5 Key Mistakes (and what to do instead)

Mistake #1: Starting social media too late

What it looks like: You see your social media and promotion as a final step of development rather than a separate project you're developing. Many developers follow the classic flow of build → launch → promote.

Why it's a problem: Your development phase is already full of moments people want to follow—progress, surprises, failures, “first time it works.” 

What to do instead: Create accounts at Day 0 and start sharing your development progress immediately, even if it's rough. This helps community members feel like they're a part of your development process.

Mistake #2: Only posting “big updates”

What it looks like: You focus entirely on development, waiting until major milestones or entire portions of your game are complete to post. 

Why it's a problem: Most social media algorithms reward consistency over occasional posts and engagement spikes. Long gaps hurt your momentum and discoverability on most platforms. If you wait too long between posts getting your game just right, you may sacrifice your ability to organically reach new potential players. 

What to do instead: Post small updates frequently and consistently. Establish a sustainable schedule for yourself and add posts in between if you have more to share. 

Mistake #3: Trying to be everywhere

What it looks like: You create accounts across as many social media platforms as you can, either reusing content or trying to generate new content for each platform. 

Why it's a problem: Each platform behaves differently and appeals to a slightly different community, and maintaining consistency on too many different surfaces often leads people to spread their resources too thin. 

What to do instead: Start focused. Think about where your ideal community would spend most of their time online and what types of content tend to do well in those spaces, then tailor your content to those platforms. For example, you might use platforms like Youtube and Tiktok to promote short-form content and Discord for a community home. Once you've developed a rhythm on these platforms, consider branching out to include 1 or 2 others, but don't try to win every platform at once. 

Mistake #4: Posting like a company

What it looks like: You tend to use more formal or corporate language in your social media or dev blog posts. For example, when you post an update, you may use "we" when referring to yourself or your development team. 

Why it's a problem: Posting like a company, especially when you're a solo developer, creates distance between you and your community. Using more personal language allows your community to feel they're a part of your development journey and gives them incentive to follow along for the ride. 

What to do instead: Use "I" to talk about your progress and achievements, be transparent about your team size, and talk directly to your players. 

Mistake #5: Waiting for perfection

What it looks like: You tend to over-edit videos or wait for "polished" content or development milestones in order to post, and as a result, you post less often. 

Why it's a problem: As we covered in Mistake #2, delaying posts can hurt your discoverability on many platforms, but this goes deeper than just your discoverability. Most people drawn to short-form content are more interested in a few compelling seconds over a more in-depth and polished milestone video. Authentic, fast clips often outperform overly produced content, especially when you’re still early in development–bugs, prototypes, and experiments are compelling. 

What to do instead: Post more frequently and lower the bar for your production. 

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What Do I Post?

If you’re stuck on ideas, the answer is simple: your dev work is the content. 

Examples

• Gameplay clips (even early)
• Bugs/funny moments
• Prototypes and tests
• Concept art drops
• Screenshots of new scenes/features
• “Then vs now” progress comparisons

Workflow tip: even a few images (e.g., a new monster or asset) can become a short video using simple templates.

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Platform and Format Advice

Frequency (especially when starting from zero)

Posting once a day is a strong baseline early on, because attention compounds—and it’s harder to get discovered when your account is empty.

Format Choices

On-screen text, voice, face-cam, avatars are all great ways to capture attention. What matters most is establishing clarity fast. A strong video often communicates its main idea within the first 10 seconds. 

Personal vs “Official” Accounts

Generally, it’s good practice to have a dedicated, game-focused account that clearly communicates to the audience that you are speaking as the official voice of your project (e.g., GameNameOfficial). You can also choose to run a second “personality” or “experiment” account for looser, more creative posts. While operating both accounts does mean more work, operating both types of account allows you to lean into the type of content we discussed in Mistake #5, which can increase your reach.

Discord: Convert Attention into Community

Views and followers are not the same thing as a community. The goal of your social media presence should be to land people somewhere more persistent. A community Discord is an excellent place to establish a “home base” where players can stick around, talk to each other, and build momentum with you. 

Workflow tip: Converting social media followers into Discord members is especially powerful–community members can help the server feel alive and even share the operational load. For more information on building a strong foundation on Discord, see Tevfik’s previous session here.

Time Management and Getting Help

Moderation: Recruit player-moderators, trusted community members can take on moderation responsibilities. 

Editing support: If you’re finding that video editing is increasing your workload, consider finding a helper like a friend or family member, or adding a video editor to your team. Having someone to manage your social media for you can reduce the amount of time you spend task switching and can free up a considerable amount of your time, letting you focus on the parts of game development that you enjoy.

Tooling: If you’re struggling to edit down longer footage into clips or decide which clips would be interesting, consider using AI clipping tools like OpusClip which can generate shorts from raw footage with minimal video editing lift.

Practical Outreach on TikTok 

• Spend time in your niche: Start real conversations with other developers in your space by commenting on their posts and videos. 
• TikTok enables more direct early interaction through comments and DMs, especially before your account is large enough to enable direct links in your posts.

Recap

• Don’t build silently–share your process to build your audience while you build your game
• Start social early
• Post small updates consistently (not just big milestones)
• Don’t try to be everywhere—start with TikTok + YouTube
• Post like a human (use “I” rather than “we”)
• Don’t wait for perfection—bugs/prototypes are good content
• Focus on converting followers into Discord members
• Homework: post something today (or create the account today and begin training the algorithm by watching and engaging with your niche)