I have been told it is not necessary to have a social media presence in order to be a successful artist, but that it is helpful. I know that some artists stand a better chance getting jobs or getting their projects approved if they already have a decently sized audience. Because of this, in the past I have put a lot more effort into my accounts. I've tried posting daily, using trending sounds, and switching from still images to videos. The result? A handful of new followers and months worth of burnout.
I don't know what it is but the process of content creation and posting is just exhausting to me, and once I'm at that point of exhaustion not only do I not want to post anymore, but I also don't feel like creating anymore. And that is a serious problem!
From there what normally happens is I fall off the internet for months while quietly working on things for my clients and myself. I relax back into creating again and my Insta becomes a ghost town. After a while I think to myself, "hm... maybe I should start posting again. This time I'll be better. I'll work harder. I won't let myself give it up." Sure. Definitely. I give it two weeks, tops!
A few days ago I was talking with a friend about this issue, wondering how I could keep up my drive to create. He agreed that it could be discouraging, especially if I felt like I was putting in a lot of effort and for essentially no reward (as has been the case so far). He then gave me this suggestion:
"What if you acted like you were just posting for your friends?"
Mind. Blown.
As we talked through it, it was like all my little issues disappeared. If I was just chatting with friends I wouldn't care if the quality of everything was perfect, they would just want to see what's going on in my life. If I was just chatting with friends, I wouldn't need to show them something new every single day, just when I had something cool I wanted to share with them. It could be more of a conversation, and less of a demonstration. Plus, with most of my followers simply being my friends, it would feel natural to just try to connect with them versus some faceless potential "audience."
To further this idea, I had been considering starting a blog, and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do so. I could post to my socials and point people to the blog to show them more of my process and all the little artsy things I constantly have going on.
So that's what we're doing! That's what this is. Welcome friends! Who knows if this will resolve my constant issue with posting (I doubt it) but at least I'll get the chance to chat with you guys just a bit more, and that sounds pretty great to me.
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