Category: sethwCategory: sethw

At the casual poet library in Singapore you can rent a bookshelf and curate your own little space as a way to contribute and support the library.

The thing I love about this is you don’t need a million followers on TikTok for it to work. A spot like just needs 50-100 people in the area who love the space and the mission to pay SGD$565 per year to rent a bookshelf.

On top of that, library members pay a yearly fee to borrow five books a month.

Today’s thinking is “how can I get everyone on the internet to care?” Or, “how do I find my audience on the noisy internet?”

Instead, can we imagine our mission on a smaller scale, without the need for viral attention?

From an interview with Craig Lewis earlier this year:

“Do I believe we can exist without social media? Absolutely I do.

There’s so many ways that we can get in touch and build community and build audience and build a fan group around what we do without putting all our magic onto other people’s platforms.”

For some, posting on social media can be dangerous, as South Central Run Club explains:

“Most of our runners are Black and brown and you never know when ICE is gonna pull up. Instead of broadcasting our runs and making us vulnerable to surveillance, we stopped putting it on Instagram to make people feel safer to come and hang out.”

Love this from Florencia Ornelas:

“I gave myself the task to sketch as many strangers as possible during my commute to work instead of scrolling and it was a great exercise to get my creative brain working and have something to look forward every day before working 9-10 hours on my laptop.”

If we wait until we’re a full time artist, we might be waiting a long time. Better to start right where we’re at, with what we’ve got, with the time that is available.

We don’t become great in 10 minutes, but we can get a little better 10 minutes at a time.

Saw this at the bottom of The Oatmeal’s very excellent post “A Cartoonist’s Review of AI Art.“

As I said back in 2023, “stop telling fans to follow you on platforms that are built to limit your ability to reach them.”

If you (or the Oatmeal) drive 1,000 people to Instagram and they all follow you, you’ll be lucky if 100 of those people see your next post.

So why not just focus on getting 100 new email subscribers? That’s a lot easier than trying to update several other platforms just so 90% of your followers won’t see your latest stuff.

Join me (Seth Werkheiser) and the Social Media Escape Club community for a 90-minute PIZZA PARTY.

Have you wanted to start a GROUP ZOOM CALL but don’t know where to start? Start here!

I believe magic happens when we gather people to trade ideas, share challenges, and remember we’re not doing this alone, so this month we’re diving into how to get started with building small, intentional spaces online.

​We’ll talk about setting intentions, grounded hosting, and the mix of safety and spontaneity that keeps people coming back.

​Some stories, examples, and a few practical ideas you can try with your new (or next) Zoom gathering, creative circle, or a community get together.

​Video and audio replay will be available afterwards for everyone who signs up.