Category: Social MediaCategory: Social Media

Social media rotted our brains on the instant gratification racket.

“I accept defeat,” I repeat after HINDZ from a recent video, “I accept that billion-dollar corporations have invested millions and millions of millions into the psychology and understanding how to keep me on these devices on their platforms, and it works.”

It’s not enough that social media gobbles up our attention – it tricks us into thinking we’re nothing without them.

This is made worse because “the creative status quo has made us lonely content machines.”

We are isolated, working on projects alone in our studios and rooms. We are so in our own heads that when we get together to discuss these things, we can cry.

We’re trying to figure this out on our own, thinking we’ll beat the tech bros with better-crafted hashtags, disguising our “link in bio” text, or churning out vertical videos to appease the social media overlords.

If we just read one more social media strategy guide, or watch more one more YouTube video then we’ll crack the code.

No, thanks.

I’d rather spend my time in deeper connection with good people.

• As writers, we can work with our photographer friends (like Patrick Fellows did here). Or the photographer Wesley Verhoeve who will make black and white landscape photos for “painter Brie Noel Taylor to paint over in color.”
• Cody Cook-Parrott hosts FLEXIBLE OFFICE, where amazing creative people gather on a video call to work on their projects together.
• Carolyn Yoo made a zine called ‘How to keep your hobby from becoming a job’, and it’s brought a bunch of people together in the comment section and in real life – I handed a copy to my creative friend, and she loved it!

Start reaching out to fellow zine writers, artists, photographers, and designers – get on a phone call, plan a meetup, gather in secret in remote parks, commandeer several tables at the local Denny’s, plan your own hyper-niche flea market, write a short skit.

These are things made outside of isolation.

Spending more time around creative people will do us more good than if we just sit on our hands and wait to be saved by the next tech-bro platform to deliver us a new magical marketing machine.

Are we so powerless to change the current situation that we sit back and hope somebody else fixes everything?

And then what? That person will sell the company to a Nabisco+Tide hedge fund subsidiary, and we’ll be back where we started.

Maybe centralized kingdoms of power and influence aren’t the answer.

The answer is other people, community, and the exchange of ideas away from the supposed champions of our “creator economy,” which was here long before the silicon valley dorks showed up.

You can wait for things to change, but reaching your fans on social media will never get any easier. NEVER. I’ve been saying this since 2021.

Find some other weirdos, form your own band of misfits and start having the conversation about living in a post-social media world, ‘cuz baby it’s coming.

Social media is a job we never signed up for, demands our full attention, and nags us to come in our day off.

We’re spinning our wheels on an unending feed of noise, where reaching and growing our fanbase will never get any easier.

Think about it – you’re competing with brands and outlets that employ teams with writers, designers, video editors, and people who handle JUST THE COMMENTS.

These teams are also updating and managing several social media platforms—places where you don’t even exist if you don’t have an account.

I’m saying this is a crappy job.

Maybe tossing promotional paper airplanes into the cyclone of digital content isn’t the best use of our time.

The social media platforms will continue to make it harder for you.

That’s their job.

Every day they place the proverbial cheese just a little bit further and further away, letting you think that if you post a little more often, using varying media types, then maybe you’ll get 10 more followers or seven likes.

Like I said, some brands, bands, and people make it their job to be on all the social media platforms.

So when you choose (let’s say) Instagram, you’re supposedly limiting yourself from millions of other potential new fans.

If you’re “only” on Instagram and wondering how you’ll ever “grow your audience” without it, well, how will you grow without being on TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube?

It’s like Ricky Gervais arguing the existence of God with Stephen Colbert.

There are 3,000 Gods, and Colbert believes in one.

There are multiple social media networks, and you believe in Instagram.

Ricky Gervais believes in just one less.

I believe in a website and an email list.

If you believe that social media is required, but you only “believe” in one platform, you’ve very close to “not being on social media” already, as you’re leaving out millions of potential new fans that could experience your work for the first time.

Not everyone is on Instagram. Lots of people left Facebook. Twitter has been a dumpster fire for quite some time.

But every smartphone comes with an email app installed.

Every smartphone comes with a web browser.

I leave you with this: your work should be so good that fans share it willingly on their social media networks.

Because that’s the nature of “getting the word out” – you make great work, and show it to your friends.

If it’s good enough, they tell their friends about it, and now you don’t even need to be on TikTok because someone else makes a clip talking about your work, which now brings you in front of a new audience.

But that requires making great work.

That’s your job.

Your job is making great work that people will talk about.

Lindsey Jordan (Snail Mail) talks to Monster Children about social media in the music world:

“I think that anybody who is encouraging you to make a TikTok hit is probably brain dead. Don’t listen to them. Usually, those tactics don’t work. I’ve never done an actual ‘tactic’ and had it work.”

Experts say not being on TikTok is a missed opportunity, but we miss opportunities every day because we are singular creative beings and must do the dishes or cover a shift at work.

There are people you didn’t reach yesterday because you didn’t display your art in a small gallery in Denver, CO, or play a set in a nightclub in Paris last night.

Sure, “everyone” is on TikTok right now, but “everyone” is also at an art gallery.

Where are you?

Why aren’t you in the same room as the creative people you love? Start a Zoom call if you can’t meet up locally. Imagine the opportunities that could develop from that energy and support!

Why don’t you have a call with that local curator / booking agent / producer this week? You’re probably just two conversations with the right people to get that set up. Opportunity!

Oh, you haven’t talked with anyone about a potential collaboration in the last year?

Here’s a recent example: a client I work with remotely invited me to an album release get-together in Brooklyn, NY, later this month.

I could stay home and create content for LinkedIn… or I could book a hotel room, make travel arrangements, and be around people I already have connections with.

I believe there are opportunities in my already-existing universe, and I don’t need to continuously throw pebbles in the ocean of “social media possibility” to get more.

How many opportunities exist right now in your creative universe? In your own inboxes? In the contacts in your phones? People you bump into at the coffee shop? On Discord?

We’ve all missed opportunities, but maybe it’s time that we intentionally invest our efforts in the opportunities that better align with our own magical journeys.

P.S. thanks Dino Corvino for that Monster Children tip

Peter Kirn at Create Digital Media talks about SoundCloud and Bandcamp, and how they’re devolving into money machines for corporate shareholders.

“It’s a simultaneous reminder that we need to build something new, maybe this time not for the investors, but for the eu-IVs – for each other.”

Let’s stop waiting for the next publication or platform to save us. The fix isn’t waiting for tech bros to share a tenth of a penny more in streaming payouts – the power is with people reading newsletters and creating websites.

“Yeah, but Seth, these things cost money!”

Well, buy a domain name or wait by the phone for the next big platform – I turn 50 soon and I ain’t got time to wait.

The mass scale of social media was a mirage and we all fell for it. Going viral is the draw to get you in the casino, and you pay with hours of your precious life feeding the social monster for your chance at 12 likes.

Let’s start using the internet as a tool to find our freaks and build our communities. Make things and launch projects.

Make the weird shit you want to see in the world, and don’t just do it for likes or shares – reach out to the other weird shit people and start conversations.

It’s like we’re meeting at the mall food court – find your fellow weirdos and then get the hell out. Go to the record store downtown, go to a friend’s house and watch skate videos, hang out at a park – these are all the things social media platforms are afraid of.

Are we replacing Pitchfork tomorrow? No.

Will another site become the new Bandcamp?

Probably not.

But why have we become compliant little pawns in all this?

Are we so powerless to change the current situation that we sit back and hope somebody else fixes everything?

And then what? That person will sell the company to a Nabisco+Tide hedge fund subsidiary, and we’ll be back where we started.

Maybe centralized kingdoms of power and influence aren’t the answer.

Local music scenes seem to get along without local press, huh?

Gallery openings keep happening with zero coverage from local media.

I’ve seen individuals host creative Zoom sessions with 45+ people spanning several time zones.

I see artists speaking directly with their fans with reliable email lists, selling tickets and albums in the process.

Now imagine if all these pockets of culture and art and magic started organizing and working together.

Vulfpeck’s Jack Stratton spoke recently about the streaming landscape and how Apple Music could be fixed.

Lots of people are writing about the death of Pitchfork.

Bandcamp saw 50% of its staff laid off last year.

In 2017, Spotify’s RapCaviar was the “most influential playlist in music.” Now, folks at major labels have “seen streams coming from RapCaviar drop anywhere from 30% to 50%” because “editorial playlists are losing influence amid AI expansion.”

There’s a Taco Bell commercial featuring Portugal. The Man – not for their actual music, but as a “feature” to highlight how broke the band was, but at least they could eat at Taco Bell.

It’s almost as if Seth Godin knew what I was going to write about today:

“When things don’t go the way we hope, one alternative is to look hard at the system that caused the problem. And another productive strategy is to figure out what to do with what we get, instead of seeking to find the villain that’s causing our problem.”

Right now, phones can shoot music videos, laptops can become studios, taking pictures with a disposable camera is chic, and we can post everything to the internet in seconds.

But the days of posting something on social media and getting 10,000 people to see it are over. That ain’t coming back.

If you’ve been a subscriber, you know I always say this – it will never get easier to reach your fans on social media.

Don’t blame Spotify, or Apple, or Meta – these are all companies that were built to make money for shareholders. They’re doing their job; are we doing ours?

Are we making the best art that we can?

Are we writing 1000 words a day?

Am I practicing my bass for 15 minutes a day? (No, I’m not)

If you were the lone creative weirdo in high school back in the day, well…, you’d better read some books and find some magazines because you’re on your own.

Now we have websites, Zoom, internet radio, email, and a thousand messaging apps – there’s no reason to do any of this alone.

We know the villains in the current landscape. We know what we’re up against.

Time to stop playing games we don’t want to play (and can’t win), and figure out what’s next.

My three quick ideas on that:

1. Write a good newsletter to your fans that they’ll want to read
2. Set up a website and fill it up with all the cool stuff you do
3. Delete the social media apps from your phone this week

Will that raise streaming rates and bring back organic reach on Facebook? NOPE. But it’s action, something we can do right now, and it’s a step toward new possibilities.