Category: Social MediaCategory: Social Media

This is one of the many ways you can play the game on social media, from Nikita Walia’s Thinking Out Loud:

“Algorithmic feeds reward velocity, recency, and conversational density. Under these conditions, singular excellence is insufficient. Cultural dominance requires saturation. As dakota rae lowe, Director of Brand Social and Influencer at Nordstrom noted, “By my observation, users scroll past so much that it’s a frequency game. You’re only going to drive lift if you can get in front of someone 7-8 times minimum, so it’s a numbers game.“

People make descions everyday, every moment. When they pick up their phone, they make a choice of which app they open. If it’s social media, it’s usually to be on social media.

Your message is one of hundreds they’ll see over the next 15 minutes, so capturing anyone’s attention is a miracle. And as you’ve read above, “singular excellence is insufficient,” says Director of Brand Social and Influencer at Nordstrom.

So “saturation” is one way to play the game – “velocity, recency, and conversational density.” Post often, and keep posting, engaging the audience right there on the app, and crossing your fingers that you might impress anyone enough to find the link in your bio and leave the platform.

As Dakota writes in “the answer to “social media is dead,” there are other ways to play the game:

show up in ways that are additive, participatory, and aware.

it’s not about reaching the most people. it’s about reaching the right ones.

This was true everywhere, in real life, before social media came along, and it will endure.

Busy week here at Social Media Escape Club!

On Tuesday I did a Substack Live with photographer Noah Kalina. You might have seen his recent work with the New York Times, photographing an old school Pizza Hut here in PA.

Find out how he landed that gig (and so much more) in the replay video.

After that call I hosted Tuesday’s CO-WORK ESCAPE POD – every Tuesday at 12pm EST, you should come!

This week we had nine creative people editing video and writing newsletters and more. Register for our next one here and get some work done!

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The strategy of “post often, in many different places” just creates new work for you to keep up with.

Think of the four comments on the IG reels that you need to acknowledge.

Three on Shorts, maybe 12 folks on YouTube. Hurry, heart those comments!

Five people left comments on your blog post, there’s two email replies from the newsletter that are 4+ hours old, six comments on the Substack, 12 comments on the Substack Note, four more on the second Reel you posted at 12pm, then four more comments on the YouTube shorts after dinner.

And I didn’t even mention DMs.

This isn’t “engaging your audience,” this is a part time job pulling levers and pressing buttons in the casino machinery of social media.

Starting an email list is so hard, even Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway can’t figure it out. In 2026!

These two have started Resist and Unsubscribe, and they’re no luddites. And you know they’re surrounded by smart people!

That’s why it’s weird to me (in 2026) to share a very important message on a platform where probably 95% of their audience won’t see their next post.

“Hey, we’d boycott Instagram too if we could, but we need it to get this message to you. Share this message widely on Instagram, encourage your friends to repost, get everyone on board.”

Every smart phone ships with an email app, but not everyone is on Instagram. I can’t watch a single video on Scott’s profile because I don’t have an account.

In Scott’s post “The Algebra of Resistance,” the Resist and Unsubscribe has gotten a lot of traffic, but without an email sign up form no one subscribed for future updates.

Building a base of supporters is one thing. Reaching them with your next message is another.

About a week after hosting Break Up 💔 With Social Media Day, and deleting the YouTube and Substack apps from my phone, I reinstalled YouTube.

It was a moment of weakness, and there I was, flipping through YouTube shorts, consuming the digital cotton candy. Twenty minutes later I deleted it again. “Progress, not perfection,” as the AA saying goes.

Lately my phone is sits plugged in while I take walks or make coffee. I read a book while eating lunch instead of watching videos. I use the phone app to talk to people, but use my computer to reply to messages, or watch a movie, or write a post like this one you’re reading.

I haven’t written many (any?!) posts about my personal screen time or phone habits, but I figured this might be a good time since I don’t want to come off like I’m perfect, or beyond temptation. I’m also inspired by Manuel Moreale’s posts about reducing screen time.

We’re all just trying to figure this out, and I fully believe it’s better when we do that together.