This is just one person’s account, of course, but I think we’re going to see more of this.
In March 2024, I ran an experiment in my Portuguese-written blog: I stopped distributing its content on social media (Mastodon, mostly) and messaging apps (Telegram and WhatsApp channels). It has a small following in a few places — ~2,9k on Telegram, ~450 on WhatsApp and three Mastodon profiles (two with autopost) that sums ~5k followers.
The result was that… little has changed.
From Almost no one cares if your site is not on social media
Yes, if you do the bare minimum and “just” post when you have new stuff, new things, new projects – sure – some people may find your stuff. The alorithimic gods may show your post to 5% of your followers, and you’ll get two clicks, and that’s nice.
If you want more, though, you gotta give more. Show up, engage, maybe “create content” just for the platform by way of vertical videos and other multimedia assets.
Then you’ll get seen by 8% of your followers, and maybe get four clicks. Great.
Or – what if we made the best fucking work we possibly can, and instead of spending 100% of our “marketing budget” on posting to social media, what if we spent 80% of our time reaching out to our contacts? Emailing galleries, venues, agents, etc.? Spending time in places where we want to spend more time in, surrounded by people we want to be around?
What if that was our marketing budget? Time and care in the creative world that’s already around us.
The “creator economy” existed long before tech-bros came along and tried to squeeze it for every last 3.5% surcharge.
We’ll be here long after they move onto the next market to destroy.