Category: sethwCategory: sethw

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.

Your biggest fans don’t know what you released a year ago. Heck, they probably missed the announcement you made last week, too.

It’s not that no one cares about your latest work, it’s that no one knows about it. They’re living their lives, working their jobs, paying their bills – your next big thing probably isn’t on their mind, at least without mentioning it several times over several weeks.

The trick is carrying over the same creative energy that you pour into your work into how you talk about it, how you share it.

Coca Cola doesn’t run ads about the price of 12 packs throughout the week. Instead, they find creative ways to remind the world, “hey, we’re here.” And they’re the biggest soft drink in the world, right?

In the same way, someone heard Led Zeppelin for the first time today. Watched their first episode of Seinfeld. There are people who’ve still never watched Star Wars.

Almost everyone that subscribed to your newsletter in the last month missed the great thing you created two years ago. Re-send it.

Let’s talk about sharing our old work, promoting it in new ways, and using it to build a foundation of our journey forward. 

Join this week’s Escape Pod Zoom call and join the conversation with other smart creative folks, and let’s explore this together.

Thursday, April 16 from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EST: https://luma.com/r4jwgreo

Hey, Social Media Escape Club is more than just a blog and a newsletter. It’s actual people getting together and having conversations week after week.

◾ CO-WORK ESCAPE POD
Re-write your about page, organize your photo library, draft a newsletter, fold the laundry, file your receipts – two 50 minute sprints with other creative folks!
Tuesday, April 14 from 12-2:00 PM EST: https://luma.com/72ok4e19

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From Cecilie Maria Nielsen, one of our two special guests from last week’s Escape Pod video call.

“One thing I think is true for all of us — and it doesn’t have to be a choir, it’s any kind of group version of your art form of choice — what does that look like if you do it together with a group? Is there a way you can facilitate it?”

Social media has it’s own way of isolating us; the allure of the lone-creator going viral is very real. But maybe the journey is better with others?

What could our creative endeavors look like if we did them together?

I recently did a Substack live with Elin Petronella, an independent artist based in Paris who’s been building a creative business on her own terms for the last ten years.

She’s got half a million followers across Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest, and she’ll be the first to tell you that’s not even the point, as she recently walked away from monetizing on Substack, dropped her bestseller badge, and has been focusing on something more sustainable ever since.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t retain ownership this whole time. All the links are always going back to my own site,” Elin Petronella

All those followers across all those social media platforms is great and all, but if you’re not pointing them to something that’s more permanent, or if you’re not giving curious fans something to explore, you’re leaving money on the table.

As Elin explains, she has 200K followers on Instagram, and a single post might still only get 3,000 views. But if you can get just 1% of 3,000 click to your website, that’s still 30 people.

“How are you doing it before you had the idea that you wanted to monetize it? What are you already doing when people are not watching? What is your natural way of creating before you start thinking about eyes watching it or monetizing it? Double down on that,” Elin Petronella

When we start paying attention to how other people are doing things and assuming that that’s the way to do it, that’s where we can get in trouble. Trust your gut. Get back to the things that you enjoyed when you started making the work that you’re making.