Sometimes Social Media Can Surprise You
We all know about the negatives of social media platforms: the trolling, the complaining, the ghosting, the victimising, the shaming, the normalising of bad behaviour and far right opinions. It can be a mire of muck, which no one in their right mind would want to get stuck in. We know it can be addictive: playing for likes can be a high our brains seek out. It can be a time-waster and great procrastination tool. It can also be dangerous for the vulnerable and unwary.
Social media as a ‘tool’ can also be equally powerful. As a creative, I use it to share ideas and connect with other creatives: artists, writers, photographers, cooks and others. I can also connect with potential customers - readers, art lovers and people who want to eat my baking. There is no way I could achieve such a diverse network of people to connect with under my own steam. The sort of reach social media platforms give me is astounding. I’m here for the connections, the sharing of ideas and information, but it would be daft not to try and leverage that as a self-employed baker, writer, photographer and artist. I don’t get many sales via social media, but I have made some friendships with lovely people, some of whom have gone on to buy things from me. It’s always a delight to see an order in my inbox from someone I don’t know and to find out they’ve found me via one of my social media channels. I don’t have planned marketing strategies and adverts and all the tricks, I simply engage and share myself and what I’m doing. Sometimes that can be enough. I’ve made some lovely contacts in the creative, outdoor and photography communities that would have been virtually impossible without the reach of social media.
Sharing your creativity can be exposing. You have to make yourself vulnerable and open and that’s not always easy. When I share a piece of writing, a piece of art or even a photo of some baking, I’m sharing something of myself. Something I’ve made with my own hands, something I’m offering which could be criticised. More often than not, posts slip through and can be largely ignored. I have no idea how the various algorithms work and I don’t believe many people do. There is no foolproof way to garner visibility and interest. Occasionally, however, something gets picked up and people respond to it in unexpected and surprising ways. This weekend was a case in point. It was Father’s Day in the UK and as people were sharing lovely tributes to their Dads’ I decided to share an ambivalent piece of poetry about mine, that I’ve tinkered with over the years. It’s not a terribly good poem, but I think it gets a feeling and an idea across and that’s not a bad thing to do with some words. As a result of posting this poem last weekend, I had private messages from a number of people sharing their own experiences of how they were parented; of how they fought for approbation and approval; how they felt unloved and unacknowledged. It was touching that people reached out and sad that so many have had similar experiences. Let’s remember that we are not our parents, nor are we the negative things that have been done to us (or maybe too, the positive things that are withheld).
Sometimes social media can surprise you, or really, I suppose, people can.
I include the poem I posted below, for completion.