So the The Wall Street Journal got their hands on an internal document from Meta (the Facebook people, and owners of Instagram) titled ‘Creators x Reels State of the Union 2022,’ and it’s a doozy:

“It said that Reels engagement had been falling—down 13.6% over the previous four weeks—and that “most Reels users have no engagement whatsoever.”

Making video content is hard work.
Writing an email is easy (if you use the right tool for the job).

Some of us (yeah, me included) have been working the social media game for over a decade. Hell, I ran Skull Toaster on Twitter (@skulltoaster) for SEVEN YEARS (nerdy metal trivia from 2011-2018).

But that bled into Metal Bandcamp Gift Club, which started in 2016, and we’ve helped sell 1000s of albums since then. We moved the operation from Twitter to an email list in 2019, and grew to 200 subscribers with a 40%+ open rate.

No dancing. No video. No trends.

It takes maybe an hour a week to send out our emails, and we send an email whenever there’s a birthday. Then people (usually) buy music for people they don’t even know.

It grows because the people involved talk about it with their friends.

All that to say; you make magic, too.

You’re in a band, you’re a photographer, you interview musicians, your record albums; you have stories, and tales, and experiences that some people dream about. The mundane part of your journey is someone’s fantasy world.

So don’t just copy and past your tour dates into your next “email blast” – include some of the (probably) 900 photos you posted on Instagram in your next email newsletter, and write about something funny, or tragic, or wonderful that happened on the road.

Got to shoot a band at a small club? Don’t just put the photo on socials with a few bullshit hashtags.

Tell people to sign up for your email list to hear the full story about how you broke down on the way to the show, but you caught a ride with a bunch of circus clowns, and they dropped you off at the show in a car shaped like a hot dog.

The work you’re doing is amazing and deserves more than 12 likes, which just disappear the next day as the algorithm growls like a hungry dog expecting to be fed more “content.”

Fuck Reels, start an email list.

QUICK BITS:

“One of the most common mistakes new publishers make is to go after the widest possible audience. Just because you have a large audience, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will be willing to pay. Often, it’s the smallest segments that have the highest reason and ability to pay.”

Don’t be dismayed that only seven people clicked through from your email – this is the seven people that cared enough to click a link. Socials have skewed our expectations so much!

“For any gamers out there, one of the oldest tricks in the book is giving your younger sibling an unplugged/disconnected controller, so they feel like they are “playing”, while you are in control the whole time.

Many “jobs” today are simply unplugged controllers. The work would get done, whether or not we take part in the process. We are simply moving numbers, smashing buttons, and staying busy, with no regard for actual productivity.”

Social media has us “working” four hours a day creating content and “engaging,” all the while our posts aren’t even seen by 70% of our fans. The article above is about “quiet quitting” in the work world, but I think doing all the online marketing work for our projects with such minimal gain is also disheartening.

GOOD TWEET:

Sure, I could give tips for subject lines and Mailchimp hacks, but I’d rather write like I do and get you sharing your journey about climbing riff mountain instead.