Category: Social MediaCategory: Social Media

Great line from Skyr0 at about the 1:20 mark:

“Social media just completely broke me, rewired my brain, and changed me for the worse. I’ve had multiple times of burnout, and I guess that’s kind of just the nature of short-form content. But honestly, at this point, I feel like my future fans—wherever they are—they aren’t on these apps, and it’s just not the place to be anymore for me.”

It’s possible your future fans aren’t on social media.

Here’s a bit from my interview with Rusty Pilgrim:

Q. I have to be honest —my opinion of marketing is pretty close to that old Bill Hicks joke where he says, “Are there any marketing people here? You? Great. Kill yourself. Seriously —kill yourself.” That’s more or less how I’ve always felt.

But your approach is completely different. In fact, it’s so different that I wouldn’t even call it marketing. Was there a specific moment or event that led you to take this path?

A. Lots of Seth Godin books, starting with Purple Cow. Make something remarkable, and people will make remarks. It five people like it, maybe they tell five more. If they don’t, start again. Either re-work everything, or play to the crowd, or double down and find the right five people who might enjoy what you’re doing.

Not everyone is going to love what we do, and that’s okay. Even the most famous people on the internet are complete unknowns to most of the world. So to me it’s all about making a thing that you can make, making friends, having fun, building community. If that leads to paying some bills, great. If not, at least you’ve enriched the lives of those around you.

From What People Deserve by Sky Fusco:

“You can’t get enough of a thing you don’t need, and I wonder: Maybe you also can’t get enough of a thing that never ends. It’s like these apps are the cockroach of addictions. They just won’t die, and they’re designed that way.”

The scroll never ends. You can never catch up. Everything optimized to keep you engaged.

Sky mentions how social media isn’t like other vices, since you need to leave the house to go buy alcohol or drugs. Consuming enough shuts things down – whether temporarily or by death.

That’s the sinister thing about social media. “I don’t have a problem with it,” says most people. But some people can’t have just one drink. They can’t just post something about their business on Instagram and duck out.

Read more here.

I closed my Twitter account on June 3, 2023. Over two years ago now.

Could I have grown my email list by a few more people over those two years? Met some more great people? Had some posts go viral and then be discovered by a few more folks?

Sure.

But I firmly believe that in the two years that I haven’t checked Twitter (or Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn), I’ve become a better person.

When you’re not spending multiple hours per day scrolling, you’ve gotta find something else to do. I’ve gone on walks, ran up mountains, hosted many Zoom calls with amazing people. Written more newsletters.

I believe those ideas are better than the ideas that come from staring at my phone for 4+ hours a day.

If your a musician, you could write better songs. A painter, make better paintings. A photographer, make better photos.

It’s building the audience before you’ve fully built who you were to become. If I went viral two years ago, it would have broke me. Today, though, I feel more sure in what I’m working on than ever before.

 

A question I got via my Email Guidance offering:

Q. I saw you’ve been posting casual stuff (on Substack Notes) and I’m curious how you… justify that against an anti-social media ethos? That sounds like an argumentative question but I mean it in earnest!

A. If I post on other social media platforms, I need to get people from those services over to Substack in order to subscribe to my newsletter. With the casual energy I expend on Substack Notes, I get maximum value in return – as in, it’s just one or two clicks from gaining an email subscribers.

Substack is a tool that I use for now. Someday that will change. But for now, today, I can swap my time and energy “engaging” there because I know I can replenish that energy by building my email list.

Am I playing the game? Absolutely. But I am guarding my energy. I don’t rely on Substack Notes to “get the word out.” I am writing the answer to this question on my own website first, before I put it on Substack Notes (if I even do at all).

I am playing the game on my terms.