Tag: blogging

Becoming a BIG SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER, THOUGHTS

When blog posters or social media influencers tell you things you already know…you already thought of…you already know how to do and yet they have HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of followers and subscribers, do you become resentful or irritated?

Why, you could have been doing or saying or writing the same thing–but like 23 years ago!

You may be disappointed in yourself that you didn’t start your internet game earlier. Those years of waiting “for the right time” led to thousands of other people jumping on a social media platform ahead of you and saying stuff you could have said–and gaining followers and $$ in the mean time.

I think we all have these thoughts when we stumble across various big social media accounts. Why are they doing this? Who are they to tell us things we already know and also, make a passive income on it to boot! Why didn’t I do this when I had the chance?

It’s tempting to write this whole game off and say “ah well, all the good ideas are already taken!” How could I possibly contribute now? There’s nothing more to invent, say, write about, design or suggest. People will just stumble across my content and think “I’ve already heard/done/thought of this before”. I’m done here.

I don’t think these are good enough reasons NOT TO TRY to become a creator on social media. It’s pretty clear to me that all the ideas aren’t taken, and certainly, all the possible angles on the ideas out there aren’t taken. And, even if you do happen to unintentionally recite, repeat or recycle the same stuff your readers have already heard or read or watched, it won’t be the end of the world! It certainly won’t be the first time anyone has done it. And if people unsubscribe or unfollow, no harm done! Thanks to the population of planet earth, there’s plenty of fish in the sea.

The popular children’s Youtube creator Blippi started making videos for children in 2014. He now has over 17 million subscribers on his Youtube channel. 2014 wasn’t that long ago. I think the recipe that he found was that he found an area that he was interested in and then he kept on track. He continued to upload video after video until he started to have a snowball affect. People start to see you as a legitimate youtuber, blogger, instagrammer etc. if you have a big following, and so, that leads to even more people pushing that subscribe or follow button on your account. It’s all very psychological at some point. That’s when the snowballing starts to happen.

But what about those months, years or decades before the snowball affect? During that period it’s all about consistency and regularity and not giving up. It’s about recognizing that you do what you do because of your intense curiosity for the subject! You like to write in the first place because you love the act of wordsmithing….making your words dance on the page. Maybe you like to make little videos showcasing your artwork or you like to build things and post before and after’s of your projects. You enjoy doing it this in and of itself, so why not use a social media platform and just continue doing what you love?

In the end it’s not about gaining a massive social media following but doing what you love and proving to yourself that you’re not a quitter. You determine for yourself that you will start creating digital content of some kind and you’ll upload and post regularly. I’m pretty sure this is the exact mindset of all thoes instagrammers, and social media influencers.

Finally, remember that everything on the internet is constantly in flux. What/who was popular last year is less popular this year. Some social media accounts will fall by the wayside because not everyone can stand the boredom of uploading and posting regularly. Not everyone can get out of the perfectionist mindset and JUST DO IT routinely. This means there is always room for new people who can (potentially) gain massive followings.

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Our Blogs On Their Way Out?

I’ve recently become extremely curious about the way blogs and written content on the internet is being viewed.

Are people going to write and READ blogs anymore? or written content on the internet? Are we, as a civilization, done with reading long sentences or…*gasp* paragraphs?

Has the influx, the demand and the reliance of fast paced Tik Tok videos and Instagram reels brought us to the lowest possible level for our attention spans?

I am worried that we have reached a new level for our brains. People want to consume information in bite-sized chunks more readily than lengthy paragraphs. This trend doesn’t seem to be going away. In fact, it seems to be getting worse.

Studies have found that the average human attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2015, which is shorter than the attention span of a goldfish (9 seconds).

This is shocking information! So many things in our lives require focused attention for a lengthy period of time. Learning requires attention and time!

Imagine what this “attention shortage” means for the future of education and careers? Not to mention everyday duties like household chores that are often long and BORING?

As much as I want to ditch blogging for good, I think I’ll stay a luddite for a while longer. I want to develop and increase my own attention span. Blogging large blocks of text will help in this process. This requires both my attention and time.

I believe attention is like a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it gets.

I stretch every day and I do cardio exercise each day on the Peloton. I neglect my attention span. I think it’s important to commit to a period of attention everyday. Picking a topic to blog on and working on it for a half hour or so is a way to train my attention span.

It’s important to remember that there are plenty of people who are still looking for content to read and not just “watch”.

You’re a Blogger? Just Who do you think you are?

I think every blogger or online creator has thought these thoughts. Who am I to think that I could be somebody? Who am I to think so highly of myself to think that I should be heard? Compared to everyone else, I’m nobody. I’m not some expert, published writer/author, or someone who is part of the elite or celebrity class of online creators.

And you know exactly what I’m going to say next: Anyone who became a prominent online Creator or blogger started somewhere–usually at the bottom. Some people have long paths ahead of them to get where they want to go. Some have to work at it much harder than others just to amass a small following. Life isn’t fair. Some people have naturally superior writing ability and creative prowess than others. They will have an advantage.

When we glance around online, we typically only see the “big ones”; those who have accumulated huge followings. So we are immediately shown a distorted view of things and how success and “progress” actually work.

Anyone who has become successful at anything has given it lots of awkward efforts. There have been tons of bumps and slumps along the way. If you’re lucky, you’ll get one or two people coming back to “check up on your blog”. Most of your spectators will simply move on, finding nothing valuable or intriguing with your content. No snow ball effect just yet. But it can happen. It just takes a certain threshold. 

Really though. You know why you’re blogging and that’s all that matters. You just LOVE it. Some people build stock portfolios and study the markets, some build sand castles and you build blog posts. You enjoy the creative process. All those feeble attempts to find just the right word. You like the integration of writing and pictures. You like the fact that even if you’re often dull and bland at least you’re “working on your writing ability”. Maybe when you’re 50 you can publish a book.

Recently the Mega Millions Jackpot was at 1.5 billion. Do you know what that means? It means that despite people constantly ‘hatin’ on the rich–all those “Wall Street Traders”–all those evil one-percenters–people actually don’t hate the idea of becoming rich themselves.  It’s not fair when other people have significantly more money that I do. Buuuut, when I win the lottery? All bets are off.

The numbers in lottery ticket sales are undeniable. People may hate rich people and think that it’s terribly unfair but they certainly don’t hate the idea that they might get rich. The evidence is in our behavior. Buying lottery tickets is a behavior. Let’s be honest. The majority of humans would have a surprised, pleasant feeling if they suddenly awoke and were in control of over 1.5 billion dollars–even if it was just to give away.

On a different note, I would love to make lots of money on my blog. So would you. Anyone would! But you know what? Unlike the random, “free” nature of the lottery (i.e. you only invest a few bucks to get a chance to win tons), it’s the market that will ultimately determine whether I EVER MAKE ANY MONEY ON MY BLOG. It’s also the effort, time and consistency that I put into it.  It’s the customer–the reader (or skimmer)–who determines whether they are interested in my (your) content. That said…

My goal isn’t to amass an enormous following and then suddenly be “restricted by my readers/followers as to what I can write”. I want to be able to write and post my creations for me.

I don’t want to feel like I have to censor myself for fear I’ll lose followers along the way. This is a struggle that many bloggers experience. If you’re not big yet, you may start to become big because of one blog post.  You’ll find that you have to reduce your blogging because your future blog posts may not all appeal to your current subscribers/followers. You’ll have lots of ideas slamming themselves into your consciousness, but then you’ll have to weigh them against your audience. Will they approve? Probably not.

You don’t want this to happen. Blogging is free. It’s a fun hobby where you get to polish up on your writing and communication, a skill that is considered invaluable in today’s attention economy. You get to weave your creativity and pictures into your posts.

I want my blog to be a grassroots process. That is, interested patrons coming back regularly because they are legitimately intrigued by my content…or how far I’ve gone (or not). It’s only just recently that readers are finding my blog via search engines–Bing and Google. This is completely new for me. I consider this progress! Now, if I can just retain those readers. 🙂