Hi! Hello, I’m a social media failure. However, I am not disappointed that I can’t quite figure out the traffic thing, the tips and tricks of it all and content marketing. I graduated with a degree in Marketing Communications back in 2002 where blogging was the thing to be doing. There was also MySpace and Friendster to connect with people and well, the former was an all-in-one. You can blog, stalk, share stuff, communicate and discover music. Oh, I loved that.
When that was gone, in came Facebook that was somehow bigger than anything else. I think it was social gaming that made a mark for Facebook. For someone who enjoyed blogging, I stayed on Blogger (LiveJournal too for a bit and Wordpress) before deciding to have Tumblr. Tumblr just made it easier to post different types of media and gave a way to make it short. Then I discovered how long-winded I am so scrap that.
Twitter came along to make it even more simple despite the character limits. I too hopped on that because my Facebook was mainly for gaming, and I still wanted to say a thing or two. So, I tweeted. As marvelous as social media would get, they figured out a way to connect them all, share it to multiple platforms that you own and so on. If you tag or mention other people, you might get more RTs and hearts or thumbs.
Then came Instagram. Even better than all of it. It was all about posting pictures and as we all know, stories are the thing that you just have to do now. Out of all this, Instagram is my favorite especially after my daughter was born. Typically, for a first-time mom, I just had to share a lot of pictures of her growing up. At this time, no one worried about the safety of the content we shared.
While not putting safety aside, YouTube was one that scared me a lot as I watched my daughter grow up. She loves YouTube and its contents for kids made by other kids (hopefully supervised by their parents) on related interests. Until I sat down to watch with my kid whatever it is, she was watching then, I realized that it wasn’t age appropriate.
I’m talking about kids-theme videos made by adults who were basically playing dress-up in kid’s favorite animation characters but with adult-rated scripts. It freaked me out good. It took me a while to block them as much as I could before eventually telling my daughter that she can have the iPad for game only. Of course, she wasn’t very happy but did not protest. Lucky me. For the record, I was never into YouTube and I only consume them on occasions.
Still on videos, out came TikTok with tons of user-generated, viral-worthy contents. I’m not forgetting Snapchat but I suppose when that came out, it didn’t appeal to my age group. I was of course, in my age group so I consumed it very little. It’s just to send silly snaps to my partner or snap a couple together. TikTok however, made a huge difference. It was not age bound. Anyone can use it to consume and create.
There was one problem for me. I don’t know how to talk to myself in front of the camera. I wasn’t even into selfies much (still not), so you can imagine my discomfort in front of a camera that shoots moving pictures of myself.
The next best thing to do, is to practice. I just decide on a topic, have some talking points that I totally mess up with all the time, shoot away, try some simple editing with the app itself and post. Posting however is a lot more complicated to catch viewers. You’ll need to use hashtags, viral sounds, post regularly and in fact, you’ll need to do quite a lot of promoting. You have to connect to multiple platforms, and you must manage them all. This is standard across all social media platforms as I have discovered.
I just find that all this was a lot for someone who has nothing to sell. I realized that I was using this platform to share about stuff that matters to me. At the back of my mind, it matters to a lot of people too, but I can’t quite reach them. So, I tried to figure it out, do my research online, took some online classes, talked to some expert friends and tried out a few things. I still haven’t got a bite. Okay, maybe a little.
So, What Did I Do?
Enjoy it!
As much as I want to share with more people, I decided that it was okay for me to just keep doing what I want to be doing. I want to enjoy it because it helps me de-stress. Figuring out analytics and strategies, gave me the opposite feeling. So, I had to do what was right for me. Much like dieting and workout. It has to be done within what my mind and body can consume.
Give chance a go
By being more regular with my posting and filtering through my content, I’m pushing a bit further beyond my comfort zone. That means that I’m taking chances with some tips and explore the tricks. You’ll never know what you’ll end up getting. It might just be positive.
Go with what you really like
Baby steps is better than sitting idle and wondering what might’ve been. Between writing and talking, I much prefer the latter. When I’m on a stage, I can go on for hours without breaking a sweat because I know that even if a small percentage of my audience can be reached, then I’ve done well. Same goes for the videos that I post on only two channels now. My IG and my TikTok.
Keep to your intentions.
Ask yourself over and over again until you know for sure that your intentions are clear. If you want to share something personal and you’re okay with the feedback or no response that comes with it, then go for it. If you want to create awareness or help educate on what you truly stand for, keep at it. If you want to promote your product or services, then do it. As long as you know your intentions, I believe your audience will find you eventually.
Don’t rush the process
This is the mistake that I often make. I get too excited with trying different things that I start to expect different results. Consistency is very important when you’re trying to reach the mass on what we know as Netizens. It’s bigger than the mass audience that you can reach from TV and Radio. They’re complicated because they are also niched and exposed to as many media and content as you are a content creator. Be patient with the process. Everything takes time to bear fruits. Trust the process too.
Bottomline
I may not understand the engineering behind social media, but I do enjoy consuming and creating on them. I stopped caring about the views on my videos, the likes that I get and the followers that I stopped chasing. I just give my true content my all and share them with the best intentions.
This is also because I have nothing to sell. Social media was originally made for sharing and that is exactly what I am doing. It’s back to basics and the rest will follow. No pun intended.
I hope that I will continue and enjoy the process. I hope you do too.
