Build your following
How following works on GS Poetry, and how to grow a genuine audience by publishing, engaging, and discovering other poets.
Reviewed regularly to match the current app.
Overview
Following is how GS Poetry connects poets to the writers they want to keep reading. When you follow someone, their new work starts flowing into your home stream; when someone follows you, your poems start reaching them the moment you publish. There’s no cost and no limit — building a following here is simply a matter of showing up, writing honestly, and being a good neighbor to other poets.
This article covers what a follow actually does, how to grow your audience without any gimmicks, and how following works when a profile is set to Private.
What a follow does
A follow is a one-way connection — you can follow a poet whether or not they follow you back. Once it’s in place, two things happen:
- Their work reaches you. New poems and activity from the poets you follow surface in your home stream, so you don’t have to go hunting for the writers you care about.
- Your work reaches your followers. Every time you publish, your poem is delivered into the streams of the people who follow you — your most reliable, ready-made audience.
That’s the whole engine: the more poets you follow, the richer your stream; the more followers you earn, the further each new poem travels. To follow a poet, open their profile and use the Follow button near the top of the page. You can unfollow from the same button at any time, and they’re never told when you do.
Growing your audience honestly
The followings that last on GS Poetry are built the slow, real way — not by chasing numbers, but by being a poet other people want to keep reading. Three habits do most of the work:
- Publish, and keep publishing. A steady stream of poems gives readers a reason to follow you and a reason to come back. Every poem you share reaches your current followers and can be discovered by new ones.
- Engage generously. Read other poets, leave thoughtful comments, and rate the work that moves you. Poets notice who shows up for them, and genuine engagement is the most natural invitation to follow you back. (See Commenting etiquette for how to keep it kind and constructive.)
- Discover poets on purpose. Head to Discover poets to find writers whose work speaks to you, follow them, and become part of their circle. A following grows fastest when you’re an active reader, not just a writer.
Steer clear of follow-for-follow bargaining and mass-following strangers hoping for a return. It rarely earns real readers, and it clutters your own stream with work you don’t care about. A smaller circle of poets who actually read you is worth far more than a big number that doesn’t.
The fastest way to be followed is to be a reader first. Spend a few minutes on Discover poets each time you visit, leave a genuine comment on work you admire, and follow the poets you’d actually want in your stream. Connection tends to flow back to people who give it.
Following Private profiles
Most profiles can be followed instantly with a single tap. If a poet has set their profile to Private, though, following works a little differently — your follow becomes a request the poet has to approve before it takes effect and before their work reaches your stream. The same applies in reverse: when someone asks to follow your Private profile, you decide whether to accept.
Follow requests have their own dedicated walkthrough — how to send one, how to review the ones you receive, and what happens to each. See Follow requests for the full picture.
Where to go next
To learn how @mentions differ from follows and how to use them to connect, see Mentions and follows. For how your home stream is put together, see Understanding the stream. And if a follower ever becomes a problem, see Block, mute, or report a user. Still stuck? Contact support and we’ll help.