PLAY THE GAME YOU CAN TOLERATE

From Charlotte Rubesa of the print-first publication Quiet Media, in an interview with Naive Weekly:

“Social media used to be a fairly reliable channel. It gave us a direct connection with our audience and allowed for organic discovery. If you had 10,000 followers, maybe 80-85% of them would see what you posted and be likely to engage. Over time, it has matured into a professionalised industry and that sense of possibility has warped. Today your visibility is mediated by platforms and the algorithms they design, which results in a culture where we are constantly encouraged to optimise, to chase relevance and “hack” systems, while sidelining those direct relationships.”

Platforms change, and you can either adapt with those changes, choose to stop playing the game, or land somewhere in between.

The audience of people who spend 4+ hours per day on social media is quite different than an audience who wants to buy a magazine (like Quiet Media) for $20, but as Seth Godin says, choose your customers, choose your future.