Category: Social MediaCategory: Social Media

It’s none of my business what the kid that sat in front of me in 10th grade science had for breakfast, and people working at social media platforms bought multiple vacation homes convincing us that it is.

Your attention is coveted by the social media platforms, along with the cell phone companies that will gladly take your auto-pay unlimited-plan payments. Heck, Tim Cook is saying iPhone prices are going up.

We don’t need better devices and apps and service plans to keep up, we need better systems and networks to continue making the work we’re called to make.

For the last decade we’ve put our best work on social media – videos, images, hot takes – you name it! But with so much time and energy devoted to publishing on so many platforms, our websites and newsletters just became digital brochures; static and boring.

So it was refreshing to hear Natalie Brite on Amelia Hruby’s Off the Grid podcast talking about where we limit our imagination.

“For so many entrepreneurs and micro businesses … this total dependency, where there’s no imagination outside of social media, it’s like my imagination stops at social media marketing and it’s like there’s so many other ways, right?”

I’ve seen this for decades. I was one of the first 3,000 people to sign up for Twitter. I’ve subscribed to a lot newsletters since I began this journey in 2001.

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If you feel like you’re always in “marketing mode,” you need to read “Don’t Market More. Matter More,” from Amanda Natividad, where she talks with Jay Acunzo.

If you’re not saying anything that compels people to seek you out, you were always going to be exposed the moment the pipes changed.

And the pipes are always changing. Jay’s reminder that distribution channels aren’t neutral systems of pipes — they’re ad networks with opinions about what should spread — is something I think about weekly.

While social media platforms may have “worked” for you in the past, they were never made to send you free traffic. Those platforms, the pipes as mentioned above, have changed, and they will always change, and more than likely not in your favor.

Marketing more is a race to the bottom, but mattering more is gonna cost you. It’s time, effort, and energy. It ain’t cheap. But if you want cheap, you make something for everyone, which I’m sure is not what you’re called to do.

Your work matters to you, but it’s hard to convince anybody that it should matter to them.

It’s not that your work is bad, it’s that no one knows about, which is why you should get awareness off your plate, something Michelle Warner talked about with Jay Acunzo – find out what I’m talking about here.

Maybe you tried to do a Substack Live once or twice, nobody showed up, and then you figured it’s a big waste of time. No, screw that, just keep showing up!

When we were talking about this on Saturday (check the schedule for more), and it lines up well with our conversation last week with Sean Gordon, the co-owner of Taffeta Music Hall. They’re not trying to get people to show up for a live stream, but rather live events, like open mics, comedy nights, trivia nights, that sort of thing.

“We’re doing a comedy open mic night the second Wednesday of every month now… the first one, maybe like 10 people showed up. But the comedy… the comics understand, believe me, if anyone understands the growth and success of something, it’s comics.”

If you want to have a regular event where 50 people show up every week, ya gotta start somewhere!

“Those few people that are there, you gotta make sure that they have a good time, and you gotta make sure they come back, because if they’re gonna come back, they’re gonna bring a friend… and then it just kind of snowballs from there.”

Again, Sean is talking about live events, but this applies to live streams, too (and just about everything).

It’s not that no one cares about the thing you’re trying to do, it’s that no one knows! Your job is to just keep showing up, because people can’t discover what doesn’t exist if you quit too soon.

Go live this week, but do more than “just” announcing it once and thinking that everyone saw it. Invite some people personally. Like, individual emails, DMs, or texts. Figure out how to host three people first, to learn and understand how to manage a gathering. Make your mistakes in front of just a few (and probably very understanding) people instead of 20 strangers.

You build trust by showing up, and your reputation is built on the work with the people in the room.

You’ve heard that one way to grow is to get on some podcasts. You did the research, sent out some emails, and got booked for a handful of podcasts.

It takes time to find the right podcast to pitch! To craft the email, and wait for the response. And we can’t discount the anxiety leading up to the call. The Substack superstar Sarah Fay had me on as a guest a few years back, and I was definitely nervous!

But afterwards? Crickets. No noticeable uptick in subscriptions.

All this work, and worry, and it had zero impact in the moment.

Heck, even artist Amie McNee “went on one of the biggest podcast in the world and it didn’t sell any books.”

It’s not that this “strategy” of going on podcasts is “bad,” it’s just how it works. That’s why social media is so alluring; you post something, and at least you get one like in the first five minutes. Instant gratification!

We got to hear this directly on a recent Escape Pod Zoom call, about going on podcasts as a way to grow an audience and how it wasn’t really paying off.

Even if you didn’t get a subscription, you built some trust. People need to see you a few times, hear you, notice you a few times, before they subscribe.

Sure, we’d all love more book sales, or at least more subscribers, but you’re learning how to get better at pitching, booking, and being on podcasts, all of which will serve you for years to come.

In the follow up email conversation with this person, we talked about this trust part, and arrived at this opportunity; reaching back out to the podcast host.

Send a two or three line message to the host a month later. Ask how they’re doing. Follow up on a point that was made during your talk. Mention a recent episode. Keep the connection going, continue building trust with a person who thought enough to have you on their show.

You can keep chasing the ocean of strangers, and doing what the “experts” says, which is spending time and energy trying to impress people who’d rather keep scrolling. It’s an exhausting endeavor that never ends.

Instead, you could flip it, and focus on the few people you’ve already built a connection with.

We talk about this sort of thing every week in our Escape Pod Zoom calls. Join a call with other creative people figuring out the same stuff you’re dealing with. Check our upcoming schedule here.