This isn’t a tip on writing, but then again maybe it is.
I won’t bore you with what you likely know, but social media as we know it: Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and others are doing way more harm than good. The details of which I can’t and won’t get into here.
My real quandary is how do we get notices and broadcast our work if we’re in the digital sphere. After all, I make podcasts and blog, so how can I get the word out if I’m not findable in the context of social media?
We have to figure out how to be searchable and to get traffic to our sites and blogs. From there, it’s a matter of getting people subscribed to a permission asset like an email newsletter. I’m an email newsletter junkie. This subverts, so far as I can tell, the soulless algorithms of social media that aim to manipulate and divide us.
Here’s a first step toward breaking the cycle:
I created a collection of links on the right side of my website of blogs and people I admire. It’s short right now, but will get longer. And the plan is to simply and actively and intentionally visit their websites and check if they have new content and/or a newsletter.
This way, I don’t have to rely on an algorithm pushing things it wants me to see based on some careless internet search or if I liked a certain tweet that will subsequently preclude me from seeing someone I normally see.
In this instance, I’m creating my own newsstand of the things that nourish me and inspire me.
My grand experiment is this: Can you build an audience without social media? People did it before 2009 and I have to believe it’s still possible.
I have to believe that.
