Chapter 15 Exercises: Cross-Platform Growth and Audience Migration

Exercise 15.1 — The Platform Dependency Audit

Type: Individual | Time: 60–90 minutes | Difficulty: Beginner

Overview

Before you can build a healthier multi-platform strategy, you need an honest picture of where you currently stand. This exercise surfaces your dependency risk and gives you a baseline for measuring progress.

Instructions

Part A: Map Your Current Audience Footprint

List every platform where you have any audience at all — including small or dormant accounts. For each, fill in the table:

Platform	Follower/Subscriber Count	Monthly Active Reach (estimated)	Can You Export This List?	If Platform Shut Down Tomorrow, Could You Reach These People?
			Yes / No / Partially	Yes / No / Through what?

Part B: Owned vs. Rented Assessment

Review your table. Categorize each platform as: - Owned: You can export contacts and communicate directly without platform mediation (email list, SMS list, podcast RSS subscribers) - Rented: Platform controls access; you cannot directly contact audience without platform cooperation (social followers)

What percentage of your total reachable audience is in owned vs. rented channels?

Part C: Risk Scenario Analysis

Write responses to these three scenarios as they apply to your current situation:

"The platform I rely on most announces a new policy that removes my content category from algorithmic recommendations. My organic reach drops 80% overnight. How does this affect my ability to build my audience? To earn income?"
"My primary social account is suspended for 30 days during an appeal of a policy violation I did not commit. What happens to my content calendar? My revenue? My audience relationship?"
"The platform I rely on most announces it is shutting down in 90 days. What would I do in those 90 days, and how would my business look after?"

Part D: Priority Action

Based on your audit, identify the single most important action you could take in the next 30 days to reduce your platform dependency. Write it as a specific, measurable goal: "By [date], I will [specific action], resulting in [measurable outcome]."

Deliverable

Your completed platform footprint table + the three scenario responses + your priority action statement.

Exercise 15.2 — Design Your Hub-and-Spoke Model

Type: Individual | Time: 2–3 hours | Difficulty: Intermediate

Overview

This exercise produces a documented cross-platform strategy — not just a list of platforms to try, but a clear rationale for each choice and how they work together.

Instructions

Part A: Hub Selection

Evaluate your current or intended primary platform against these three criteria:

Format fit (1–10): How well does this platform's native format suit the type of content you create best?
Monetization alignment (1–10): How well does this platform support the revenue model(s) you are building toward?
Sustainable production frequency (1–10): How realistically can you maintain the quality and frequency this platform requires?

Score each platform you are considering. The highest-scoring platform is your hub.

Part B: Spoke Selection

For each potential spoke platform, answer: 1. What segment of my potential audience exists here that is NOT already finding me on my hub platform? 2. What content format native to this platform can I realistically produce? 3. How does this platform point people toward my hub or toward owned media? 4. What is the realistic time cost per week to maintain quality presence here?

Select a maximum of TWO spoke platforms you will commit to for the next 90 days. Write one paragraph for each explaining why you chose it.

Part C: The Repurposing Plan

Using the repurposing hierarchy (long-form → short-form → text → email), map out how one piece of hub content becomes content for your spoke platforms.

Choose a topic you have either published or plan to publish soon. Describe specifically: - What the hub content is (format, length, main points) - What 2–3 specific moments or insights from it could become TikTok/Reels clips - What 3–5 specific insights from it could become Twitter/X posts or LinkedIn observations - What angle from it could become an email to your list (or a newsletter entry if you do not have a list yet)

Part D: Capacity Check

Be honest about your weekly available hours for content creation. Divide them: - Hub platform content: _ hours/week - Spoke platform 1 content: hours/week - Spoke platform 2 content: __ hours/week - Analytics review and research: _ hours/week - Community management (Discord, email replies, etc.): ___ hours/week

Total: _____ hours/week

If your total exceeds your realistic available time, adjust. A sustainable strategy you can maintain beats an ambitious strategy you cannot.

Deliverable

Your hub selection with scores and rationale + your two spoke selections with justification + your repurposing plan for one piece of content + your weekly capacity allocation.

Exercise 15.3 — Build Your First Lead Magnet

Type: Individual | Time: 4–6 hours | Difficulty: Intermediate

Overview

A lead magnet is the exclusive value offer that convinces your platform audience to give you their email address. This exercise takes you from concept to finished lead magnet, ready to promote.

Instructions

Step 1: Identify Your Lead Magnet Type

Based on your niche and your audience's biggest challenges (from your research in Chapter 14), choose a lead magnet type:

Checklist or quick reference guide (1–2 pages): Best for audiences who need a repeatable process or decision tool
Short guide or mini-ebook (5–15 pages): Best for audiences who need to build foundational knowledge
Template or worksheet (1–2 pages): Best for audiences who need to apply a framework to their specific situation
Resource list or toolkit (1–2 pages): Best for audiences who need curated recommendations
Mini course or email sequence (3–7 emails): Best for audiences who benefit from structured learning over time

Write a one-sentence rationale for why you chose this type: "I chose [type] because my audience's biggest challenge is [challenge], and this format helps them [specific outcome]."

Step 2: Create the Lead Magnet

Create your lead magnet using Google Docs, Canva, or any tool you have access to. Requirements: - It must stand alone as genuinely useful content — someone should be able to use it without watching any of your other content - It must be completable in 15 minutes or less for the recipient - It must solve a specific, named problem — not a general overview - It should include one clear mention of your platform (your YouTube channel, TikTok, website, etc.) so recipients know where to find more

Step 3: Write the Promotion Copy

Write a short (30-second spoken, or 2–3 sentence written) promotion you would use to announce the lead magnet in your content:

"[The problem it solves] — I built a free [what it is] that [what it delivers]. Get it at [where/how]. Link in bio / description below."

Keep it specific and benefit-focused. "Free guide" is weak. "Free fabric quality checklist so you never buy a thrift find you regret" is strong.

Step 4: Set Up Delivery

Create a free account on Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Beehiiv, or a similar email service provider. Set up a simple landing page (most platforms have a built-in landing page feature) where people can enter their email to receive the lead magnet. Configure an automated email that delivers the lead magnet upon signup.

Test it yourself: sign up through your own form and confirm the delivery email arrives correctly.

Deliverable

Your finished lead magnet (PDF or link) + your promotion copy + a link to your live sign-up landing page.

Exercise 15.4 — The Platform Launch Plan

Type: Individual or group | Time: 2–3 hours planning + ongoing execution | Difficulty: Advanced

Overview

Launching a new platform presence without a plan is the most common reason new platform efforts fail. This exercise creates a 90-day launch plan for a new spoke platform.

Instructions

Part A: Pre-Launch Research

Before creating any content for a new platform, spend two hours observing it: - Follow 10 creators in your niche on the new platform - Watch or read 20+ pieces of content on the platform - Notice: What pacing, format, length, and tone performs best? What does native content look like versus obviously imported content? - Write a 200-word "platform personality brief": How does content feel and move differently on this platform versus your hub?

Part B: First 10 Content Plan

Plan your first 10 pieces of content on the new platform specifically. For each, write: - Topic - Format (specific to this platform's native format) - Approximate length - Call-to-action (where does it point people — hub platform, email, or community?)

Ensure your first 3 pieces explicitly acknowledge that this is your new presence here and why you are excited about what you will do differently in this space.

Part C: The Migration Hook

Write the announcement you will make to your existing hub platform audience about your new presence. It must answer: 1. Why you are on this new platform 2. What you will do there that is different from your hub 3. What specific benefit they get by following you there

The announcement should NOT be "I just joined X — go follow me." It should be "I just joined X because [reason], and in this space I'm specifically going to [exclusive value]. If [specific type of person you are], this is for you."

Part D: 90-Day Success Criteria

Set specific, measurable criteria you will use to evaluate whether this platform is worth continuing after 90 days: - Minimum follower growth: _ new followers - Minimum email list additions: sign-ups - Minimum content quality: __ (define what quality means for this platform) - Time investment maximum: _____ hours/week

Commit to evaluating honestly against these criteria at day 90, not based on how you feel about the platform.

Deliverable

Your platform personality brief + your first 10 content plan + your migration announcement copy + your 90-day success criteria.

Exercise 15.5 — Build Your Cross-Platform Dashboard

Type: Individual | Time: 2 hours setup + 20 minutes weekly | Difficulty: Intermediate

Overview

What gets measured gets managed. This exercise builds the tracking infrastructure that turns cross-platform strategy from intention into a data-driven operation.

Instructions

Step 1: Create Your Master Spreadsheet

Build a spreadsheet with three tabs:

Step 2: Fill in Your Baseline

Populate Tab 1 with your current numbers across all platforms. If you cannot find exact numbers for a platform, estimate. Use today's date as your starting point.

Step 3: Set Monthly Review Appointments

Add a recurring calendar reminder on the same date every month (e.g., the first Sunday of the month) for 30 minutes to update your dashboard and write a 3-sentence monthly health summary: "Platform X grew by X% this month, driven by [what]. My email list added X subscribers with X% coming from [platform]. My focus for next month is [specific action]."

Step 4: Identify Your One Most Actionable Insight

After filling in your baseline, look at your data and answer: Based on this snapshot, what is the one thing I should do differently starting this week to improve my cross-platform health?

Deliverable

Your completed spreadsheet with baseline data + your first monthly health summary + your most actionable insight.

Exercise 15.6 — The Repurposing Experiment

Type: Individual | Time: 3–5 hours | Difficulty: Intermediate

Overview

This exercise tests whether repurposing is actually working by measuring the performance of repurposed content against original spoke-platform content.

Instructions

Round 1: Repurposed Content Take a piece of your existing hub content and create two pieces of spoke content from it using the repurposing techniques from Section 15.2. Post them to your spoke platform.

Round 2: Original Content Create two pieces of content specifically designed for the spoke platform from scratch — not derived from existing hub content. Post them to the same spoke platform.

Comparison After one week, compare the performance of the repurposed content versus the original content on these metrics: - Views/reach - Engagement rate - Followers gained - Click-throughs to hub or email (if measurable)

Analysis Write a 200-word analysis: Did repurposed content or original content perform better? What does this suggest about the right repurposing ratio for your specific niche and spoke platform? Does this change your planned approach?

Deliverable

Links or screenshots of the four pieces of content + your performance comparison table + your 200-word analysis.