Category: InternetCategory: Internet

Jamie Cox wrote “Going viral is overrated,” all about a LinkedIn post that went viral, reaching 17,000+ people and getting around 35,000 impressions. What happened next?

• Project Inquiries: 1 (unqualified)
• Site Visitors: 0
• Newsletter Subscribers Added: 0
• LinkedIn Followers Added: 162

They won the “keep people on LinkedIn” lottery, sure, but otherwise their viral hit was a dud.

A viral hit can lead to opportunities, but that’s how casinos stay in business. People buy lottery tickets because of the slim chance they’ll win while forgetting about the many months of losing.

Like Angela Hollowell said during our video chat:

“I’m not tempted to leave LinkedIn because my LinkedIn reach has gone down… I’m tempted to leave LinkedIn and posting on any social media platform regularly because of the time that it takes for me to do that when I could be spending more time writing a better long-form article.”

Yes, you can make quick posts that get 35,000 impressions. But you can also write long-form articles that make you two sales and pay your rent for the next three months.

Communicate your ideas effectively with an audience that cares and you won’t need to spend your time at the casino.

Veronique put out this wonderful zine, “full of tiny ways to share your zines without using social media.”

There are so many places for us to share our work outside of social media! They might not go “viral,” or be seen by thousands of people, but that’s okay! Social media sold us on the idea that vanity metrics mattered, but as we’re learning they really don’t. Just look at all those people with six-figure follower counts on Instagram with just 19 likes on their posts. It’s rigged!

See all Veronique’s zines here.

CJ Chilvers has a slightly more PG-13 way of saying this (do shit that doesn’t scale), and provides some great examples in the meantime:

• I’ve seen an author put his phone number on the front cover of his book.
• I’ve seen newsletters set up booths at events just to subscribe a few dozen people — because both parties know each other are real and engaged.
• I went to a bar to meet the inventor of podcasting. He asked people to show up to discuss his podcast and what was on their minds — maybe a dozen or so did. That was more than a decade ago and we’re still telling our readers about it.
• I traveled seven hours to meet at a bar with two like-minded content creators. It led to several podcast episodes, countless blog posts ideas, and an event.

See the rest on his website. As I said back in 2024:

“Yeah, but Seth, I just want to post my thing (on social media) and go do other things,” you might say.

Well, you see the results that “just posting” gets you.

Also, how can talking to your fans, audience, and readers be a waste of time?

Setting a timer for 15 minutes and communicating with real people five days a week will probably get you more results than the hour you spend making one Reel for 153 “people” to see (and which will never be seen again after 12 hours).

Does it scale? Fuck scale, do the work.

It’s tempting to find a shortcut, a “growth hack.” But doing the thing that seems slightly uncomfortable (or absurd) stands to make more of an impact, like our Social Media Escape Club member Jes talking about handing out their email list on a clipboard during a show. That led to 35 new people signing up.

Does that scale? Nope. Do it anyways.

Using comfortable tools is important if we want to make the work we’re destined to make.

Note I didn’t say the “right tools.”

There’s lots of opinions and made up rules about the right tools to use, especially in the marketing of our creative work. The Social Media Escape Club is based upon dismissing the idea that social media is the right way to get our work out into the world.

For many, social media is uncomfortable. Dashboard metrics are uncomfortable. The idea of “creating content” to talk about work is uncomfortable. Using certain software tools, or computer programs – they’re uncomfortable.

We’re allowed to not use social media platforms, or perform at noisy bars.

We’re allowed to turn down opportunities that don’t align with our values.

We’re allowed comfort and ease in how we work, and how we make our art.

Says Kening Zhu in “the joy of missing out on platforms:”

“The more I’m nourished by my work, the more that others have the possibility of being nourished by it too.”

This is why I moved my paid members from Substack to Memberful. I don’t like what I’m seeing on that platform, and right now I wanted to ensure I could protect my member and data by moving somewhere else.

Was their discomfort in the move? Of course. But that’s what platforms do – they make it easy to stay. Untangling ourselves from these platforms is difficult work, but if there is comfort on the other side of that, then it’s worth it.

I spoke with Max Pete back in May, all about getting laid off, moving across country, and finding his way into a new role with a new company in a fun way. Today he writes about “removing what’s not good for you,” starting with removing Instagram.

“I don’t need to see every vacation or life update in real time. I don’t need to compare my life to someone else’s highlight reel. I just need to be where I am. And right now, that means making space. Tuning out some of the noise so I can actually hear myself think.”

Being present is one of the hardest things when breaking with social media, especially since we’re so used to picking up our phones and scrolling when waiting in line, riding on public transit, or making coffee in the morning.

When we stop seeing what everyone else is doing, we can get back to what we’re doing.