Category: CommunityCategory: Community

Someone on a recent Escape Pod Zoom call shared a perfect example of how social media isn’t a great way to organize an event.

They told us how an organization was promoting an event entirely through Facebook. Now, this person is a valued part of this community, but they’re not on social media, so they had no idea it was happening!

They only found out via text from someone else, and when they showed up, organizers and members hugged them and said, “Oh, thank goodness we didn’t know that you were going to make it!”

This is why you don’t center your community around social media, because even the people that follow you aren’t guaranteed to see every update. Consider than in 2026, a growing number of people aren’t even on social media anymore.

So get phone numbers, get an email addresses, heck, get mailing addresses; it’s time to get away from trusting the social media algorithms, and get back to connecting directly with your people.

You’re an artist, a poet, a musician, a creative person, and you’re tired of algorithms controlling who sees what. I was one of the first 3,000 to sign up for Twitter, I get it. But I’ve seen bands shout into the void for 10+ years on social media, and helped some artists get back to things like owning their website and direct connection to their audience with an email list.

Otherwise, it all becomes a digital hamster wheel that keeps us all spinning in place.

Here’s how you break out.

• Start looking at the profiles and about pages of the people you follow and see who they link to, what they like, who they follow.
• Start clicking the links in people’s newsletter and meet the people they’re gushing about.
• Tune into random live streams, hit play on podcasts you’ve never heard before.
• Join (and / or host) Zoom calls without expectations.
• Read the acknowledgements in books, and scan the credits of big video productions.

I know plenty of creative people doing these things a few times per week, and it puts dozens of wonderfully talented people onto their radar. I dare you to do the same!

Follow someone, subscribe, leave a thoughtful comment, send a DM or an email.

I’ve been doing this since at least 2023 and it’s radically shifted my creative vision, and given me hope for the future. Or you can continue letting an algorithm determine your fate, rather than trusting your gut and being intentional with who you let into your creative orbit.

On our recent “Find Your People On Substack” call we talked about finding our people, which of course led to building an audience, getting more subscribers.

But what if we think beyond mere subscribers?

We dream of reaching a big audience, but what does it mean if we’ve got no one to lean on? On our lowest days, who are the people that we can text or get on a phone call with?

We don’t just need a big subscriber count, we need good people in our corner.

Come to our FINDING YOUR PEOPLE ON SUBSTACK – SATURDAY EDITION this weekend.

Forget algorithms, there’s a whole world of possibility right in front of you via people’s Substack profile (here’s mine).

ONE: Click on that subscribers link, and you can see who subscribes to their publicaiton, their followers, and who they follow (note: sometimes this is hidden per user).

TWO: Click that Likes & Replies link, and you’ll see everything they liked and replied to.

THREE: Finally, click Reads and find out what they’re reading.

This isn’t just on Substack of course… if I remember correctly you can see who people are following and liking on Twitter, or LinkedIn.

This is like a very public digital “thanks list” on the internet, like we used to read in CD and cassette booklets when we were younger.A band would thank a series of bands, publications, people, and then you would seek them out – it was divine, like a recommendation from the bigger sibling you never had, maybe.

This is just a fun and easy way to discover – FOR YOURSELF – some interesting people. Make use of your good taste, trust your gut, and find your people.

I’m no sales expert, but I’ve watched enough YouTube videos to know about “scripts.” Literally planned out lines of dialogue to making the sale in person or on the phone. Teams will even review calls from during the week, just to make adjustments and get better.

With most things, there are extremes.

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