These are platforms I common regularly because of my history, profession desires, and personal interest. What are yours?

Online, there may be literally something for almost all of us with a unique or famous interest. Knitters and crocheters can cross paths on Ravelry, astrology lovers can compare signs and symptoms on Co-celebrity, for game enthusiasts and ASMR aficionados there are sites like Twitch, for small enterprise owners there is Etsy, and the listing is going on, and on, and on.

That said, meet new people online if you are attractive on any of the larger social media networks — Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit — you’ll want to be greater intentional approximately locating where the communities you care about stay within those spaces.

Sure, each community favors certain sorts of content material. Instagram is relatively visual. TikTok and YouTube are ideal for video. Twitter is the go-to platform for journalists, and Reddit is first-rate for everyone researching a niche topic. But in all of these virtual spaces, the more you want and touch upon the topics and creators you want to connect with, the extra you’ll be uncovered to their content material, and the simpler it will be to find human beings to attain out to.

Pro tip: On the bigger social platforms, be intentional approximately what and who you engage with. If you spend enough time liking, commenting, and sharing the content you love on any of those platforms, their algorithms — which often kind the posts in your feed based in your pursuits — will shuffle you into the communities you care about mechanically, exposing you to extra of the people and subjects you’re interested by, and saving you some of the work.

Do: Be kind.

Don’t: Be excellent honest.

Now that you’ve diagnosed the styles of people you want to connect with and the systems they frequent, it’s time to get proactive.

It can sense frightening to reach out to a person new, however nervously sending a “Hi!” possibly isn’t sufficient to get you a reaction. The secret’s to be actual — and to react authentically to their content material. You want to begin a communication, and the first-class way to do this is to invite a question.

For instance, did a person post a stunning dish for your Instagram feed? Ask them how they made it. Did a person tweet approximately a social issue you care approximately? Send a message allowing them to realize how much you respect their put up, what you learned from it, and ask what inspired their concept or thought. (I’d suggest towards commenting on a person’s seems, honestly because that’s now not sincerely a communication starter.)