Writer, musician, wizardly guide to platform independence
I saw today that Metallica had the top five vinyl album sales, “the first time that an artist has claimed the entire top 5 of the #VinylAlbums chart, dating to its launch in 2011.” Neato.
“Slack is critical infrastructure now, but I just spent an hour in there and have no idea what I just did,” @ftrain
“Somebody said these weekends starting to feel like 30 min lunch breaks and I felt that in my soul,” @LifeAsHales
It’s okay to not have a brand new album on Bandcamp Friday, or ANY FRIDAY. There’s a lot of people in this world who’ve still never heard your album. There’s people that still haven’t heard Metallica’s “black album!”
So talk about the thing you do on social media. Don’t hide it. It’s not “gross” promoting your work. You don’t roll your eyes when you’re painting, doing another vocal take in the studio, or delivering your final design concept to a client, so don’t you roll your eyes when 99.9% of the world doesn’t even know it exists.
You are the caretaker of this art, and it’s not going to market itself. Be proud, include a link, send it to some friends. Don’t hide the potential joy of someones life for another minute.
Also…
I posted this video on Twitter, which has a shelf life of about 10 minutes. Blink and you’ll miss it. And without paying up, most of my followers won’t see it anyways.
But the video lives here, on my own site. We’re all renting on social media, but our websites are our homes. Two months from now it’ll be near impossible to find the original Tweet I made. It’ll be a lot easier for someone to find this video via a link, on the open web, and via search engines.
We had a nice morning of snow on Sunday (2/7/2021). I got outside with my tripod and shot some footage, much to the delight of the neighbors, I’m sure. Then I put together this loop as I was warming up. I guess from start to finish the whole process took about an hour or so. A fun exercise in capturing my own video, creating some music from scratch, and the editing together for the next day (Monday).
“Fun fact, my record shop sold 5 @phoebe_bridgers records after the SNL performance last night,” @gileadmedia
“Superbowl commercials: where beer tries to save America in 2 minutes or less,” @PostmodernPoser
“No one has talkers block,” says Seth Godin (in 2011). I’ve been on a tear lately with writing, producing, making. Objects in motion, really.
When I think of putting more of me on Twitter, my social network of choice, I just think of all the people not there. And the wide open web, accessible by the other 99% of the world with a smart device connected to the internet.
Lots of thoughts. Lots of ideas.
“There’s no reason for an artist to feel like they can’t share “old” work for all of time, while we sit here and actively let art from the dead be our teachers. art is timeless, including yours,” @afroxvx
“Anyone else feel like they’re spending more time on twitter to just banter and have rando conversations like we used to in the before times when you’d run into folks at Phoenix and Pour?” @danmoulthrop
Oh, no. You’re missing out if you’re not on TikTok.
“TikTok’s average monthly time spent per user grew faster than nearly every other app analyzed, including 70% in the US and 80% in the UK – surpassing Facebook. TikTok is on track to hit 1.2 billion active users in 2021.”
Social Media Today
Every social media network has an audience, just like every television channel has an audience. And you don’t have to be on the History Channel to be relevant.
You don’t have to be everywhere.
Have you mastered Twitter and Facebook and Instagram? Probably not.
If you have 58 followers on Twitter, those are your 58 people. Cherish them.
Only got 100 followers on Instagram? Would you be okay with 100 people at a show on a Tuesday night?
Work with what’s in front of you.
If the thought of starting from zero followers and learning a new social media network fills you with dread, don’t do it. It’s your art, your music, your career. You make the rules.
Have focus, have a plan. Schedule some social media posts (use Buffer), start an email list (use Mailchimp), and work on your art.
If I need to wind down, I usually put on ‘The Jedi’ episode from The Mandalorian. There’s just something about the pace of the action and the story that is soothing for me.
The scenery is gorgeous in this episode, mostly because I love gloomy, cloudy days.
Continue reading “My Comfort Show is ‘Chapter 13: The Jedi’ from The Mandalorian”Another day, another loop. About the only thing that changes are the bass lines.
“So, Clubhouse is a place where people who love having meetings are having even more meetings?” @ChloeCondon
Video by Kai Pilger from Pexels
Got stuck in the snow close to my house. Had to shovel out my car, with no gloves. At one point I was laying flat on my back, staring up at the stars, and realizing the absurdity of everything.
I ate some cookies and shook my fist at the universe, but life is short, so I got working on this loop.
For this one I stacked three audio clips from my Instagram feed, and then sampled it. Enjoy.
“I just don’t understand how kindness and gratitude is such a big ask of managers,” @brianne2k
target from Norah Lorway on Vimeo.
Video above by Alex Green from Pexels
This track started like three years ago. I’ve learned a bit about Abelton Live through the years, but what really stuck out is that bass line. Somehow, even back then, I was big on bass. It makes sense, having played bass for 30ish years, but something about a synth bass just gets my blood flowing. It’s in my DNA, maybe.
“Social media managers don’t have to build their own personal brand to be good social media managers. SMMs do not need to be creating their own content every day to be good at their jobs. We are online EVERY DAY for our work. It is okay to take time away. Be kinder to yourself,” @nicoletabak
“Said fuck it and raised my photoshoot prices to $1k minimum,” @moodydarkroom
You’re not overwhelmed with managing your social media, you’re over worked.
“Comedian in 1985: i made a joke about how women shop and now i am famous
Comedian in 2021: i do sketch, standup, improv, satire, i make dumb lil videos on tik tok, i have a podcast, a web series, 3 features, 5 pilots, i’m on twitter 22 hours per day & can’t afford rent,” @Brittymigs
And then this:
“As an ex-social manager, idk who needs to hear this but CREATING the social media content and MANAGING the social media content needs to be two separate jobs,” Health Magazine Associate Editor Taylyn Washington-Harmon.
People have full time jobs, with benefits and vacation time and an HR department to make content for companies. Like, for-real paychecks, and paid time of for when they’re sick.
So are you feeling lazy that you’re not writing, planning, designing, and scheduling content a week in advance? Do you feel like a failure for not growing your audience by 10% week after week?
You’re not bad at this, it’s just that you’re one person. One person can only do so much.
The common strategy these days is to create a few versions of each piece of content, and then post across several different social media platforms. Let me tell you, that’s work. That’s a job. That’s a paycheck.
On top of your creative endeavors, or small business? Yeah, that’s a LOT.
So do what you can, and be proud that you’re even doing what you’re doing – even if it’s not a lot. Because, dammit, social media is a job.
