It feels like every day I see another announcement from a creator who is leaving social media. While some of the reasons they give are extremely valid, very often the conversation comes down to the fact that it's too much work for not enough new followers. The algorithm doesn't help them get seen. It's a popularity contest where only artists and creatives with big followings get noticed... But what if instead of using social media as a way to attract new followers, we instead used it to nurture the community we already have? Let's talk about that in this month's subscriber only episode!
Each week The And She Looked Up Podcast sits down with inspiring Canadian women who create for a living. We talk about their creative journeys and their best business tips, as well as the creative and business mindset issues all creative entrepreneurs struggle with. This podcast is for Canadian artists, makers and creators who want to find a way to make a living doing what they love.
Your host, Melissa Hartfiel (@finelimedesigns), left a 20 year career in corporate retail and has been happily self-employed as a working creative since 2010. She's a graphic designer, writer and illustrator as well as the co-founder of a multi-six figure a year business in the digital content space. She resides just outside of Vancouver, BC.
It feels like every day I see another announcement from a creator who is leaving social media. While some of the reasons they give are extremely valid, very often the conversation comes down to the fact that it's too much work for not enough new followers. The algorithm doesn't help them get seen. It's a popularity contest where only artists and creatives with big followings get noticed... But what if instead of using social media as a way to attract new followers, we instead used it to nurture the community we already have? Let's talk about that in this month's subscriber only episode!
Each week The And She Looked Up Podcast sits down with inspiring Canadian women who create for a living. We talk about their creative journeys and their best business tips, as well as the creative and business mindset issues all creative entrepreneurs struggle with. This podcast is for Canadian artists, makers and creators who want to find a way to make a living doing what they love.
Your host, Melissa Hartfiel (@finelimedesigns), left a 20 year career in corporate retail and has been happily self-employed as a working creative since 2010. She's a graphic designer, writer and illustrator as well as the co-founder of a multi-six figure a year business in the digital content space. She resides just outside of Vancouver, BC.
Speaker 1:
Hello everyone and welcome to the November Premium Subscriber episode of the and she Looked Up podcast. Thank you all so much for being here. We are welcoming a couple of new people this month, which is very exciting Big welcome. Thank you as well for being here. Your support every month makes it possible for the free version of the podcast to keep going and it also is a huge boost to my morale, which I very much appreciate.
Speaker 1:
I am so sorry that this month's episode is so late. If you read last week's newsletter actually probably two weeks ago by the time this comes out then you know that I lost my my pupper and it's been very weird being in my studio without him. He was such a big part of the podcast. You could always hear him in the background having a drink of water or flopping down on the floor and it's just very empty here without him. So yeah, I've just been kind of taking things easy and not being too hard on myself if I don't get things done. But I am getting back to the point where I'm ready to get moving and get on with things and even before he got sick, I was kind of struggling with an idea for November's podcast.
Speaker 1:
I really didn't know what to talk about. I was initially thinking I would do a show on how to handle social media during times of crisis, conflict, catastrophe, all those big things that happen that can make social media very challenging. But as time went on, I sort of felt like all the rules that I knew and understood weren't really making sense anymore, and I didn't know how to tackle the topic in a way that would be helpful, and so I've given up on that for now. I think it would be a good episode to do, maybe as a public episode at some point. Yeah, it's a very challenging line to navigate. When you run a small business and there is something horrific or mind bogglingly horrendous happening in the world, it can make everything seem like it's just pales by comparison, and so I just really didn't know how to tackle the topic anymore and I had given up on it. And then I was trying to come up with another idea, and I had a few in mind, and I will probably do one of them for December. And then YouTube sent me a gift, and I want to talk today a little bit about a video that I watched yesterday on YouTube and some of the comments that went with this video. That really just had me shaking my head in a little bit of frustration for many reasons.
Speaker 1:
But before I get into that, I do just want to say that if you are a premium subscriber which you obviously are if you're listening and you have a topic that you would like me to address in these private podcasts, it could be a question, it could be a topic, it could be just something you want some advice on, I don't know. Please let me know. The biggest challenge with doing these private episodes is coming up with topics that I hope will be of interest to you. A lot of times I feel like I'm just kind of throwing a dart, seeing where it lands, and hopefully it's something that you all find useful or helpful. So if there is something that you would like me to address, please drop me a note at and she looked up at gmailcom and I will happily do my best to tackle whatever it is that you throw at me. I am totally open to doing more than one of these episodes per month, but I just need the topics to make that happen, and sometimes they don't come to me super easily.
Speaker 1:
But this month, what I wanted to talk about was a video. These are very common videos that they pop up on YouTube quite frequently of artists who are quitting Instagram or quitting social media, with a big announcement video, and the reasons why and very often when you watch the videos there are reasons are very valid. There are many reasons why it could be a good idea for you to either step back or completely remove yourself from social media, and I am a big believer in doing what you need to do to protect your mental health. And if that means less screen time or less interaction or less feeling the need that you have to grind out content that isn't particularly quality content or just seeing how other people interact on the platform and it's not good for you and your mental health, by all means step back, take a break, remove the app from your phone. I do highly recommend that, if you do decide to take a break or even leave, that you keep your account because you don't want somebody jumping on that account name, especially if it's related to your business. You always want to protect that asset, no matter what, even if you're never going to post again. Hold on to your name. That's really important. But if you need to take that break or you need to leave. By all means do it.
Speaker 1:
But one of the things that kind of bothered me about this particular video and about a lot of the responses to it was that it was all based around disappointing follower accounts, and in this video is specifically Instagram that this artist was leaving and she felt it was being detrimental to her business for a number of reasons Again, some of which were valid, some of which I didn't agree with. But all that to say that what it boiled down to was this idea that if you don't have a big follower account on Instagram, what is even the point? And it boiled it down to this whole conversation around the algorithm and how it doesn't let us grow and how art isn't valued. If we don't get all these followers, our art isn't valued, and a lot of really good points. But the underlying nagging theme of it all that really frustrated me was this idea that this follower count number was the only success metric for social media. That is completely the wrong attitude to have about it, and I know dopamine hits every time that follower count goes up and I know how frustrating it is when the follower count drops and it's just this number that's in front of our face all the time and we can see the numbers that other artists and creatives have, and we get into this comparison trap and it can be extremely frustrating when you feel that the work you're putting out is really good quality compared to somebody else who has 10 times or 100 times the number of followers that you have. But it's really important to remember that. First of all, anybody can buy followers. This happens all the time. You don't even know if those followers are legit.
Speaker 1:
Second of all, when you launch yourself on a platform, it really depends where that platform is in its life cycle, and all social media platforms have a life cycle. When they are new, it is in their best interest to attract as many people as possible, to attract as many people as possible to the platform. That is why, if you jump on a platform when it's new, you have a much better chance of growing your follower count quickly to a bigger number than somebody who joins when the platform is three years old, five years old, 10 years old. It becomes harder and harder to attract people to you the more mature the platform is. This is just the life cycle of social media platforms. It's happened to all of them. It happened to Twitter, it happened to Facebook, it happened to Pinterest. It is happening to Instagram right now. The attract platform that is out there at this point in time is TikTok. Tiktok is where you can go and attract a lot of attention to your content because they're still in that early phase. They haven't hit the maturity point in their life cycle.
Speaker 1:
If you jump on Instagram today and you try to grow an account, it's going to be a really tough slog. I know this because I have joined Instagram with multiple accounts over the years at different points. I've had accounts with thousands of followers and I've had accounts with hundreds of followers and everything in between. Really honestly, if I was to look back at what it was that made the difference in my follower account, it was really just when I joined with that account. That is something to keep in mind with social media. It's always going to be a tough slog when you join a platform that is mature, because at that point the algorithm is in a different place. It's doing different things and on Instagram, those things can be very confusing.
Speaker 1:
What's important to recognize is that that follower number represents actual human beings in most cases. If you're buying your followers probably not it's probably a lot of bots. For most of us who are going about trying to grow organically, each one of those people in that 400 follower count number or that 2,000 follower count number or that 15,000 follower count number is an individual. It's a human being. It's somebody who saw your work and felt a connection to it, or they saw you and felt a connection to you. They are your people.
Speaker 1:
Instead of letting yourself get caught on this insane treadmill of just trying to pump out more and more content to somehow make the algorithm notice you and get all these new followers, what if you just took the time to focus on the people who are already following you, because they've already told you that they're your people. They're there because they get you, they get the work that you're putting out there. They like it, they want to see more of it. And instead of abandoning them or disappearing, and instead of constantly trying to get another follower, what if you just took a few moments out of your day to interact with the people who are already following you and I don't mean responding to their comments or liking their comments or that kind of thing I'm talking about. What if you actually went to their profile and visited and checked out who they are.
Speaker 1:
These are people who are potential customers, if they're not already customers, and it's always a good idea to know who your customers are. So go check out. Do they have kids? Do they create? What do they create? Comment on some of their posts. It could be as simple as saying something like wow, it's so, it's so nice to see you out and join time with your family. Or, oh my gosh, I didn't know you were a fiber artist, your work is beautiful. Let them know that you're invested in them as much as they're invested in you, because you should be invested in them. These are the people who could potentially, or are already, buying your work.
Speaker 1:
And so once you get out of that whole mindset of trying to get as many followers as possible and instead focus on your social media as your community, it really changes how you approach content creation, both in the types of content you put out there, but also in the frequency of your content. You realize that I don't need to show up every day. Okay, these people will see me if I show up next week or if I take a break the ones who are really true fans. They'll come looking for you. If the algorithm doesn't serve you up, they'll come. They'll come looking for you just to be like, wow, I haven't seen her in a while. Is she still around? They'll come.
Speaker 1:
So I think that is a really important thing that gets lost all too often with social media. I do think if you're looking to attract people to you, I do think that short form video on platforms like TikTok or YouTube is where you need to be right now. Those, at this point in time, are platforms that are trying to attract more people to short form content, and so that's something you really have to pay attention to, and it's something that I personally have pushed back against for the last year and a half. But I've realized in the last couple of months that if I want to bring people to me, then I need to show up on TikTok, and if I'm already creating short form video for Instagram, such as Reels, then why am I not posting them over on TikTok, where more people are going to see them and where I have a chance of getting in front of new faces? And so that has been my strategy for the last couple of weeks is, I'm just and I'm not even creating new content, I'm just going through my Instagram account and downloading my Reels and posting them to TikTok. And yes, they are. They're getting seen by far more people than they're getting seen by on Instagram.
Speaker 1:
But at the same time, my Instagram people are important to me. They are the people who followed me for a long time. They are the people who buy from me regularly. I have many people who follow me on Instagram who are regular customers of my work, and it would be If I were to disappear from the platform. I would feel a little bit like I'm abandoning these people who have supported me for a very long time, and I'm not willing to do that. I'm very willing to take longer breaks of a week or two weeks when I feel that I need them. I have no problem doing that. But I'm not going to delete my content. I'm not going to leave it. I'm not going to stop being on the platform. I will just change how I work with the platform.
Speaker 1:
I think sometimes that's the key is that stop letting the platform dictate how you show up. You are in charge of your business. You get to dictate how you show up, how you market your business, where you show up, who you interact with. If people aren't coming to interact with you, you can go out and interact with them. I think that's a really important piece of the puzzle.
Speaker 1:
Some of the comments that were on this video just gave me a headache. One person said they felt that social media had turned art into a popularity contest. There's some truth to that, but I think if you look back throughout history, you'll find that art has always been a bit of a popularity contest. A few more people made the comment that now it's all about your personality rather than your art. That is not new. People have always wanted to connect with the artist behind the work. That is what gets people invested in what we do. It's us, it's our personalities, it's our quirks, it's our faults, it's our talent. It's all of that. You need to show that.
Speaker 1:
If you're not going to show who you are as a person, people can just go buy art at Ikea or home sense, where they really don't care who the artist is. They just want something pretty for their wall, or they just want a really pretty dinner place setting or a jug, or you get what I'm saying. They're not interested in who made it, they just want something that looks cool for their decor. The people who are really genuinely want original art or want to purchase from an artist. They want that connection. So, yeah, absolutely, that's part of marketing yourself.
Speaker 1:
I think it's also important to think about are you doing this because it's your business or are you doing this because it's a hobby? You can have a hobby that earns money. That's totally fine, but that's very different from having a business that pays all your bills. If you have a business that pays all your bills, you have to market yourself. You have to be able to bring in enough money every month to pay all those bills, as well as fund your retirement, put aside money for an emergency fund, a rainy day, your next project, your next vehicle, all those things. People aren't going to come knocking on our door, and so, yes, social media is part of a healthy marketing ecosystem. It's not the only part, though, and we've done so many episodes.
Speaker 1:
Heather and I have talked about this so much on the show about how important it is to get involved in your local community, how important it is to network with other creatives and artists, and it's not all just social media. You never want to build your business on entirely rented land. That's why I'm a big believer in having our own websites, even if it's just a placeholder website. I'm a big believer in going out and getting to know other artists and creatives in your local community. This is why my email newsletter list is so important to me. I have a very tiny newsletter list it's under 200 people but I routinely sell a lot of product through it that I wouldn't sell otherwise. So all these channels are what makes a healthy, robust art or creative business.
Speaker 1:
And if you're doing this as a hobby and you just want to earn a little bit of money here and there to help you out, make life a little easier, that's a completely different mindset. You don't need to market your business if that's what, because it's not a business, it's a hobby. You don't need to market it. You don't need to get yourself out there. You don't need to show up on social media. You don't need to worry about follower counts. You can pull back, you can leave the platform, all of those things.
Speaker 1:
But that, I think, is the key. We need to decide what it is that we're doing. Are we doing this because this is our job, because all jobs have things associated with them that aren't great, but we have to do them because it's part of the job and hopefully you have many, many, many more things that you are passionate about with this job that outweigh the things that you don't enjoy doing, and at some point, hopefully, you are in a position where you can bring in help to take over your Instagram account or your social media platforms or the other things that you don't like to do, but in the beginning it can be a bit of a tough go. So all that to say is that, if you are struggling with this whole idea that nobody's following you nobody new is seeing you, first of all, you need to think about what platforms you're on, as I said at the beginning, and second of all, you have to remember that you do have followers, and you should never neglect those followers at the expense of trying to find new ones. The people who currently follow you should always be your top priority because, as I said, they are your community, they are your super fans, they are the people who buy from you or, hopefully, will buy from you. They are the people who tell their friends about you, and that's all really, really important for your creative businesses ecosystem, and sometimes it's just nice to remember that you are brightening somebody's day just by showing up.
Speaker 1:
Maybe it's not 10,000 people. Maybe it's 2,000 or 200 or 20, doesn't matter. But could you imagine if 20 people showed up outside your door wanting to see your latest piece of work because they missed you? Like how would that make you feel? You'd feel so warm and fuzzy inside. So, yeah, just remember that next time you're looking at that follower count number is just like these people chose to follow me. They're here because they like what I do. What can I do to show them that I appreciate them today and don't be afraid to reach out and talk to them and comment on their work or their platforms all the things that I've already mentioned. And remember that Instagram isn't the end, all and be all. Neither is TikTok, neither is Facebook.
Speaker 1:
You need to have multiple ways to connect with people and, trust me, when you have multiple ways to connect with people, it is such a boost to your mental health because you don't. If everything is channeled into one platform, you become so live or die on that platform and it becomes almost an obsession and that's not healthy. But when you have multiple ways to bring people to you or to go out and to reach people, it just takes the pressure off and if one thing's not working, chances are, another thing will be working and it's such a bonus to your mental health and it makes you feel so much better about things and it's easier to kind of let the bad things go when there's other ways to achieve the same result. So that's what I wanted to comment on today, because I think it's really important that we don't allow ourselves to blame a social media platform for everything that's going wrong in our day, in our business, in our life. It's.
Speaker 1:
I'm just scrolling through the comments as I'm saying this and one person said it's called starving artists for a reason and that really irritates me. Like, yes, you have to be starving if you're going to be an artist and social media helps with that. It's, oh my goodness, I've allowed myself to be distracted here by the comments. It's just, it's painful. It is painful how much entitlement there is in this comment thread that people should just flock to us. Nobody owes us anything. It is on us to go out and make the magic happen and if a platform's not doing it for you, figure out something, figure out a way to work with what it is giving you and think about other avenues to build your business and to meet new people and to grow your community.
Speaker 1:
I always think about whether it's the listeners of this podcast or the people who buy my art or the people who hire me as a graphic designer. They are my community, they are my people. I am doing something that has resonated with them enough that they want to purchase something from me, listen to me or hire me for my services, and that's really important. It is so important to nurture that community. I am at a point now where I think I could run my graphic design business purely through word of mouth, and that takes a while to get there. That actually might be another good episode idea. I'll have to think about that, but that takes a little while to get there. But getting there was basically getting up every single morning and doing something, one thing to try and build a connection somewhere. Heather talks about this quite frequently as planting seeds. She goes out and she plants seeds. She has no idea if those seeds will grow and, if they do grow, what they will grow into. But nothing can grow if she doesn't plant the seeds, and I think that's a really important thing to remember.
Speaker 1:
So on that note, I'm going to wrap it up for this month. Again, I'm so sorry for being so late with this month's episode, but hopefully this gave you a little bit of a pep talk if you're struggling with social media, and hopefully this is a little bit of a pep talk if you're struggling with social media. And again, if you have something that you'd like me to address or to talk about, please send me a message. I would love to hear from you. So that is it for this month. I will be back next month with another episode for you all, if not sooner, although we're pretty close to the end of November at this point. So it'll probably be next month. And yes, thank you all so much for your ongoing support. It means so much. I'll talk to you all next month.