I don't know about you, but I've got social media fatigue in a whole new way. I still find value in keeping with current events, industry news, and the personal happenings of friends and family. What I am so very tired of is the disregard which traditional social media platforms treat their user base.
I speak a whole lot about ownership. If you've every heard me speak about being a creator either in a podcast or up on a conference stage, then you will have heard this:
>Use the tools. Own everything
Yes, use the "free" social media platforms, but DO NOT treat it like it is something you own or control. None of us do. And it can all be taken a way at the push of a button from a central location without any of us having a say in the matter. Talk about building your house on rented land that is made up of the shifting sands of a beach. That is the part of social media that is especially exhausting.
So, what's a creative gal to do?
Go back to basics. In the early days of content creation BEFORE social media took the world by storm, we had blogs and podcasts and vlogs that we shared with the world through RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and that was groundbreaking! That direct first party connection between creator and curator.
It was powerful!
And even in the modern age of constant social media bombardment, RSS is still a powerful way to create and curate. Here's the kicker though. You as the creator and you as the curator do have to do some heavy lifting. It's not as easy as setting up a free account on Facebook, or Instagram or TikTok, or X. You need to pay for a domain and hosting. You need to setup your blog site. I'm partial to Wordpress, but there are other options. You need to update Wordpress, themes, plugins, etc. If you have multiple domains, blogs, podcasts, etc it can be an administrative headache.
So why would I go through all of that effort when social media platforms have already done all the heavy lifting and make it so easy to get started and stay connected?
Because I OWN IT!
Because as long as I maintain it, NO ONE CAN TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME!
Because I have a direct connection with the folks who subscribe to my blog or podcast and they to me. There is no gatekeeper who decides what gets seen and by whom. If you are subscribed to my blog or podcast, you will get everything. That's how social media was in the early days. It hasn't been that way for at least the last 15 years.
Ownership is another reason why Hive has been so attractive to me. Decentralized, immutable, and no algorithm filtering my feed. It's downright liberating. I am a HUGE fan of the democratization of content and connection.
So, if you've gotten this far you may be wondering, "Okay Jennifer, so what do you plan to do about it?"
I'm planting my flag on terra firma and taking back my creative journey.
What does that look like? I'm thinking through that, making plans and more importantly taking action. I know it has a whole lot to do with RSS which was the core connection point back in the early days of my creative journey back in 2005.
Stay tuned.
Building on rented land it's a great metaphor, @epodcaster! You spend years growing something, and then one algorithm change or policy update can just pull the rug. That's not good at all.
I think RSS feels almost rebellious now, but it means someone chose to follow you, not a feed. I agree with you, running your own domain is more work (I also use still Wordpress) and we have to deal with things we'd rather not think about, but I'd take that over handing the keys to a platform whose interests stopped aligning with mine a long time ago. I do need to up my game though.
!DIY
!PIZZA
!BEER
Agreed. I remind myself about the "WHY" ownership is important when I have to update all the websites, plugins, themes, etc. All of the ownership = investment in resources and time. BUT at the end of the day as long as I am willing to make that investment then I am not creating at the whim of others.
!LUV
So true! 👍
!HBIT
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