Category: Social Media

YOUR NEXT BIG BREAKTHROUGH WILL HAPPEN WITH OTHER CREATIVE PEOPLE

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.

ABOUT SUBSTACK NOTES

Substack Notes came about in 2023. I wrote it about it last April, and thought it was great.

It lets you interact with plenty of other Substack writers and users, which is great for snagging few subscribers here there, but… it’s slowly devolving into Twitter.

Here and there I see some sea-lion activiy. I see crap I just don’t wanna see. I know, I know… I can block and hide, or just not use Substack Notes at all. This is probably the direction I need to go, which is a shame.

I’ve even seen the classic “let’s reply 13 times to the troll,” and when you click through, you see said troll has like 13 subscribers.

This happened all the time on Twitter.

I find myself in the middle of posting to Substack Notes, then remember this blog. It reminds me of all the time and energy I spent posting to Twitter, when I could have been writing my ideas here, where they’d be much more accessible.

“But Seth, how will people find your blog?”

I don’t care.

Seth Godin started writing his blog decades ago at this point, right? I visit his site a few times a week.

If people find my writing here and enjoy it, great. Book mark it, I guess. You’re an adult, figure it out.

Substack Notes, and so many platforms in general, all seek to build the walled garden. The ease of posting, coupled with the frictionless likes and replies, is just social media all over again.

Let’s stop playing games we don’t want to play

I was a one-man band called Seth W.

I played the drums with my feet, I played the bass, and I sang all at the same time.

I played “The Car Song,” “The Jock Song,” “Runny Nose,” and many more. I even covered Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” (The Titanic movie has just come out).

It did this from 1998 to about 2001 or so.

Around this time, I met Tommy (maybe he took the photo above, but I’m not sure). He drove from NJ to see another band on the bill, but he “got” what I was doing. He booked me for a show in his town.

I got to play with Folly. I met Ben Kenney from Supergrub, who would go on to play with The Roots and Incubus.

That was around 25 years ago, and me and Tommy are still buds.

Could I have kept playing shows, writing silly songs, and maybe started touring?

Sure. But I didn’t want to do all that.

As Scott Perry says, play your own game:

“You can’t win playing someone else’s game.

And you can’t win a game you don’t want to play.”

I never got to play arenas or do big interviews, but I met Tommy.

What has this got to do with the Social Media Escape Club?

Well, I deleted my Instagram account on January 1st, 2024.

I met many great people through that app, but after all these years, I didn’t want to play that game anymore.

Could I have met another “Tommy?” I don’t know, maybe.

But just like I don’t want to spend time writing silly songs, I don’t want to waste hours on Instagram every week for some mystical payoff.

I mean, I turn 48 this year. I have a limited number of years left on this flying space rock – do I really want to spend that time staring at my phone?

Sure, “growing my audience” sounds like the right thing to do, but how much time am I investing in the people who are already onboard?

It’s like when I see people on social media say, “Gonna send some goodies to my 1,000th follower!” Is that how you make your first 999 followers feel special?

Instead of chasing more, let’s seek depth in the new year.

Can you name five of your subscribers? Do you know what state or country they live in? Have you seen photos of their pets?

Depth isn’t a growth hack, but it has much better rewards.

Happy New Year.

BYE, INSTAGRAM

I deleted my Twitter account in June of 2023, but it was harder to let go of Instagram.

Sure, I might miss some things that friends are doing. BUT, who says I have to keep up with everything all the time?

Two people reached out this past weekend to go on some adventures in the woods. This was via my phone number, not a DM.

I talked to a friend today about iced coffee because he sent out a newsletter on the subject.

There will be things I miss. But there will be things that I don’t miss.

I might only have 20 more years on planet earth, if I’m lucky. No one gets out alive.

What if I read a book every week this year?

Or walk 5 miles every day?

And besides – the more time I spend on IG is more value I build for Meta.

Fuck that.

THE SOCIAL MEDIA TRAP

Why is it so hard to quit social media?

“(Social media) platforms are designed to trap viewers in a social media rabbit hole: They offer bite-sized content that makes it easy to quickly consume several videos or posts in a row, they often automatically suggest similar content, and many of them even automatically start playing similar videos, reducing the potential for interruptions.”

More, more, more. Unending more. This from ‘The Psychology of Your Scrolling Addiction,’ via The Trend Report.

CONNECT WITH THREE NEW FANS EACH DAY

This is it, right here (from Neil Mason):

Connect with 3 new fans each day, and you’re building a broad and deep audience.

Imagine — 1,095 new friends who can open doors to opportunities and insights.

Create value and connect.

Start there, then rinse, and repeat.

The algorithms will always work against you, but for now you can always DM a fan, you can always reply to someone who likes your work.

The vault is still open, take what you can get.

ZUCKERBERG’S SOLDIERS

This from ‘In 2024, the Tension Between Macroculture and Microculture Will Turn into War,’ by Ted Gioia:

I’m still puzzled why NPR and CNN and Harvard and other legacy institutions haven’t set up on Substack. But they clearly have zero interest in doing so—even if they could make money and expand their audience.

Yet these same institutions launched on Threads the very first day. They couldn’t sign up as soliders for Mark Zuckerberg’s new empire fast enough.

Also true for bands, record labels, and independent musicians.

That somehow the thing that has ruined our lives will also save our lives, our careers, our music, our art.

I don’t fucking get it.

These social media platforms are not on our side. Spotify is not on our side. Fuck, Bandcamp hardly seems to be on our side, now.

Can Substack shit the bed, too? Absolutely (and some will say they already have).

But with Substack I can export my fucking email list and go somewhere else. I will always have that. The day I’m fed up and walk, I didn’t lose a fucking thing.

Spending more than one god damn hour on Threads is just building share-holder value for Meta and making sure Zuck can top off his yachts gas tank this weekend.

MORE AIN’T ALWAYS THE ANSWER

Straight up, this post ‘How “Building An Audience” Is Different From “Finding Clients”—And Why It Matters‘ has haunted me since I read it.

Its conventional wisdom of more fans, more readers; more subscribers are somehow the answer to every problem.

This makes sense of course for someone who does podcast editing (like the author of this post); sure, reach out to your network, and find paying clients. Word of mouth. The power of your reputation.

BUT… what about the artist who posts about their new work on Instagram and only reaches 12% of their followers?

This is why social media pushes more – because 12% of more is at least better, right?

Whereas, if you could simply email and reach 100% of your fans, and former customers, with a message about your new offering, you could earn a living, or at least pay your phone bill.

I’ve been thinking of making videos for social media, and starting a YouTube channel. These two things are sort of expected, right? If you’re seeking to make an impact, more people seeing the thing can’t hurt.

But what about the almost 700 email subscribers I have already?

If I make a great video for them, and it’s so good they tell three other people, then I’ve done my job. If it’s a dud and no one watches it, then I’ve learned something new.

But to take the time to build a whole new YouTube channel from scratch?

Why don’t I hone my message, my style, my technique with nearly 700 who’ve already bought into what I’m talking about?

PLAY WITH SNAKES, GET BIT

Saw someone complain on a social media platform how they lost access to their Instagram account, and how this seemingly happens every year around the holidays.

Then they went on to say,” anyways, here’s my new Instagram account.”

I just don’t get it.

It’s like, “I keep getting bitten by snakes, but anyways, I’m going go play with some more snakes.”

Why do any of us keep investing in these platforms that treat us like shit?

MAKE YOUR HOMEPAGE A HOUSEPAGE

On the left, the Salomon website. Three images, hardly even 350 pixels wide.

On the right, the Salomon Instagram page, a carosel of five, giant, screen filling images.

As I wrote in “DON’T MAKE SOCIAL MEDIA YOUR TROPHY CASE,”

We’re quick to posts our biggest moments on social media.

The “SOLD OUT” marquees. Massive crowds from stage. The plaques. Photos with our heroes and fans and friends.

We take photos of ourselves standing in Times Square with that big Spotify digital ad in the background.

We’ll share those slick DSP images on social media, showing off our placement on a cool playlist (like mine, below).

It’s the same even if you’re not in a band: we post all our most interesting photos, the imagery that shows off our unique, creative spirit, the videos that capture our spontaneous, magical energy.

We don’t put any of it on our website, then complain that nobody goes to our website.

Imagine making your website the MAIN place to see your latest photos, your behind the scenes, your deepest thoughts, your biggest BANG.

Instead we’re all giving our best stuff to social media platforms for free in hopes that a few people can even find a link to visit our store.

And who even reads this way? Back and forth, big sections of white space? Might as well put some pop up ads in there, too.

People LOVE the social media feed – photo, text, photo, text, photo, text.

It’s how ZILLIONS of people consume the internet these days.

And websites are still out here with tiny fucking images, text that zig zags all over the place, and letting social media platforms get all the attention by offering a better reading experience.