This is SO accurate!! I kind of laugh when I scroll past someone on IG celebrating 30K followers (or whatever the number may be). It's such a weird thing to celebrate. 30K followers doesn't translate into anything tangible in real life. Followers are such a weird thing to chase 🙄 😄
I actually do understand why they're celebrating those milestones -- because it seems like it *could* be a useful thing! And in the past, it *was*. Remember when Twitter and Instagram used to have chronological feeds? Having a ton of followers on those platforms could really get your work seen. But adding algorithms to everything, curating For You Pages, has changed all that.
The opportunity for vitality is still there. You could still pop up on someone's FYP. But that simply doesn't happen reliably enough to make feeding the algorithms your best work worth it.
It's true, though, that followers rarely translate into anything real, especially now. After my small viral moment I described, I got a lot of new followers on Instagram -- thousands! -- but because of the way the algorithms work, most of those new followers never see my posts again. They're certainly not encouraged to leave the platform and immediately buy one of my books, even if they expressed interest in it.
That's the thing I find so sneaky and frustrating. Those companies are telling us to get followers, trying to pretend like they want to help us grow our accounts there. . . but they don't. They want people to see the ads. That's it.
Good advice! I actually stopped using social media entirely (except for Substack Notes) at the start of this year. It stopped being fun a while back (2016, maybe?) but I stuck with it, thinking that it was somehow important for my author profile.
Really, though, the main thing that has helped my author profile is simply writing and publishing consistently, and having an easy newsletter for people to subscribe to.
Curiously, I did have a mini-viral moment on Substack Notes a month ago and it led to a big spike in subscriptions (including some paid subscriptions). That interested me, because the raw numbers were tiny compared to 'viral' moments on Twitter, Facebook etc - but the end results were far more meaningful.
I'm really interested in the viral on Notes vs. viral on other platforms and how meaningful they turned out to be, especially given the difference in numbers. I definitely think it helps that people were already here, on this platform, which makes it easier to subscribe to the newsletter and go paid. It's much harder to get an actual CTA on other platforms, aside from "follow me, I guess? and maybe one day you'll see a post about my book and buy it?" That's a lot of steps...
Oct 11, 2023·edited Oct 11, 2023Liked by Jodi Meadows
Yeah, lots of steps combined with the platforms' design working against the likelihood of it happening.
Notes users have an easy path, and them being on Substack already makes me wonder if it's all a bit circular. Then again, they're on Substack because they like writing and reading good material. So it's like the audience has been pre-filtered to those most likely to be interested.
Great post, I have a sneaking suspicion we've reached the peak of social media popularity, and it will gradually start to fade away. I'd rather be reading/writing anyway!
I think so too. I mean, I don't think it will ever fade completely -- not without some kind of outside force removing it completely. But I think it's losing its power as people become disillusioned with it -- or realize that it's become bad for their own health. Both of those things have certainly caused me to take a huge step back.
So much truth!
Amen, Jodi! Excellent post! ....BRB....have to go...check my neglected TBR pile *blush*
The TBR is so real. I'm so behind. I need to read shorter books.
So much truth here!
This is SO accurate!! I kind of laugh when I scroll past someone on IG celebrating 30K followers (or whatever the number may be). It's such a weird thing to celebrate. 30K followers doesn't translate into anything tangible in real life. Followers are such a weird thing to chase 🙄 😄
I actually do understand why they're celebrating those milestones -- because it seems like it *could* be a useful thing! And in the past, it *was*. Remember when Twitter and Instagram used to have chronological feeds? Having a ton of followers on those platforms could really get your work seen. But adding algorithms to everything, curating For You Pages, has changed all that.
The opportunity for vitality is still there. You could still pop up on someone's FYP. But that simply doesn't happen reliably enough to make feeding the algorithms your best work worth it.
It's true, though, that followers rarely translate into anything real, especially now. After my small viral moment I described, I got a lot of new followers on Instagram -- thousands! -- but because of the way the algorithms work, most of those new followers never see my posts again. They're certainly not encouraged to leave the platform and immediately buy one of my books, even if they expressed interest in it.
That's the thing I find so sneaky and frustrating. Those companies are telling us to get followers, trying to pretend like they want to help us grow our accounts there. . . but they don't. They want people to see the ads. That's it.
Yes! Such a great post. Thank you.
Good advice! I actually stopped using social media entirely (except for Substack Notes) at the start of this year. It stopped being fun a while back (2016, maybe?) but I stuck with it, thinking that it was somehow important for my author profile.
Really, though, the main thing that has helped my author profile is simply writing and publishing consistently, and having an easy newsletter for people to subscribe to.
Curiously, I did have a mini-viral moment on Substack Notes a month ago and it led to a big spike in subscriptions (including some paid subscriptions). That interested me, because the raw numbers were tiny compared to 'viral' moments on Twitter, Facebook etc - but the end results were far more meaningful.
I'm really interested in the viral on Notes vs. viral on other platforms and how meaningful they turned out to be, especially given the difference in numbers. I definitely think it helps that people were already here, on this platform, which makes it easier to subscribe to the newsletter and go paid. It's much harder to get an actual CTA on other platforms, aside from "follow me, I guess? and maybe one day you'll see a post about my book and buy it?" That's a lot of steps...
Yeah, lots of steps combined with the platforms' design working against the likelihood of it happening.
Notes users have an easy path, and them being on Substack already makes me wonder if it's all a bit circular. Then again, they're on Substack because they like writing and reading good material. So it's like the audience has been pre-filtered to those most likely to be interested.
Thank you for this reminder! So much truth in this post!!
Sometimes I write these posts for myself as much as I do for others. It can be so easy to get caught up.
Great post, I have a sneaking suspicion we've reached the peak of social media popularity, and it will gradually start to fade away. I'd rather be reading/writing anyway!
I think so too. I mean, I don't think it will ever fade completely -- not without some kind of outside force removing it completely. But I think it's losing its power as people become disillusioned with it -- or realize that it's become bad for their own health. Both of those things have certainly caused me to take a huge step back.