There was a time when we didn’t spray a firehose of images, videos, and words into our eyeballs for multiple hours, every day. Around the clock.
During that time we still made albums, published magazines, made videos, and everything else.
The thing I hear a lot, if we abandon social media, is how will we be found? How will our music get heard? How will our videos get watched?
Look, they will.
Back in the day you’d hand out flyers for the show you were playing that night. Put the flyers in the local music shop. Hand them to anyone wearing Chuck Taylors or a nose ring.
Social media is where you hand out flyers, but at a certain point you gotta head back to the venue and play a show.
We’ve all bought into the 24/7 social media marketing life style, heading both directions; both as the consumer and the advertiser.
But there comes a time when you gotta put the phone down and work. You’re going to have to miss that meme, or that person who did the thing, or that random video.
Trust that the wonderful people in your life will send you some of the highlights. Also be okay with missing shit.
Like, how many memes have you missed when they first came out? Then you discovered it three months later. Still funny, right? Great. What’d you lose? Nothing.
Get into your studio, your space, put on your headphones and make your art. That’s the thing that people will discover three months from now. That clever Tweet or funny IG story is nice and all, but it’s gone in a day. Poof.
Put your top stuff on a site. Your writing, your photos, your music, your whatever. Give it a home where people can find it. And keeping filling it up. Keep adding. Make it your home.
People will find you when they find you, and it’ll probably be for your art, the magic you bring to the world.
Photo by Mick Haupt from Pexels