Advice – Social media overwhelm

Q.

I am an artist and a creator who feels overwhelmed by social media. It’s not just the burden of feeling like I need to post regularly; it’s also the content overload from other people. I know I need to take a break but worry about being forgotten or becoming irrelevant. What’s your advice?

A.

Haha, welcome to the 21^st century!! Actually, it’s kinda weird how the world has evolved to place such importance and reliance on these platforms, and I’ve gotta say that I do think that they’re here to stay. At least until the metaverse takes off. Social media has become the newspaper.

But for you, how do you stay relevant (as no doubt these platforms are handy for an artist and creator’s exposure), oh yeah, and while avoiding overwhelm? Easy. Self-awareness and strategy.

So firstly, I think you need to work out exactly where your overwhelm is coming from and why. Is it the doom scroll, compulsive postings, the private messaging, maybe even feelings that you need to keep up with the Joneses? But this is where the self-awareness comes into it. What is your trigger and then how can you minimise exposure to this? And yeah, there might even be several triggers.

Then, to combat these, I’d say it might take some discipline and balance. Eek, scary words I know. And in some cases, this might even mean taking a huge step back from your online world, Nobody is forcing you to read other people’s posts hey. And if you do (take a step back from your practice and interactions), maybe consider being open with your audience about this first?? I’ve found that people are very understanding toward honesty.

Still, taking a step back doesn’t mean you have to stop posting altogether. From a creator you can become a curator (maybe even strike a self-purposed balance between the two). You see, being a curator, this can be achieved simply by the type of content that you share. Even snapping a quick interesting pic and posting it (there’s no need for a big long spiel), it takes twenty seconds. Being raw and real is revered. Still, while most beneficial to your self-interest would be to re-hash some of your own old posts in some way, or another path you could take is to start sharing other people’s content (that provides value). Which, again this is something that you can tweak and monitor.

I believe that it is providing value that keeps us relevant.

And to provide value, instead of spending an hour masterfully crafting a post for fourteen likes, you can totally embrace some hacks here.

This will take some thoughtfulness and strategy though, you might even want to write down a plan and roster for posting or something. But the main thing I reckon is to, yeah have some structure, only also have fun with it, and if you stuff up one day oh well. Play around, experiment. Because really, the world is so serious now and this social media space so crowded, so if anything I’d say the best thing to go viral would be your spirit, soul and smile.

This is the best way to stand out and be remembered. Quality over quantity.

Hope this helps.

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