You are the Algorithm
Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp all went down this week. It reminds me that the folks on my email list are my coziest loveliest inner circle. My number one advice for any artist who is serious about their career is to start an email list and we can talk about that more in the Level Up Workshop!
Do you feel like you’re at the mercy of the algorithms of social media? You may find that posts by accounts that you treasure aren’t reaching you—meanwhile, accounts you don’t follow are slipping into your feed.
I don’t spend tons of time keeping up with the “how to beat the algorithm” news. I also choose not to spend too much time shaking my fist over the algorithms: While it may be maddening, it is also something that’s outside of my control.
What I do instead is to control what I can. From time to time, I follow ZERO other accounts on social media. You may gasp at the thought of this. Perhaps you wonder whether I’ll become too isolated and miss out on what others are doing.
Nope! I still follow all sorts of artists and other creatives by signing up for their newsletters and subscribing to their blogs. I also do in-person networking and socializing with other artists, where I learn about them and their art and they turn me on to new artists and ideas.
By doing this, I’m creating my own algorithm! I’m consciously choosing what kinds of input I want to receive, and I’m filtering out the noise that I don’t want. If you think about it, you’d never consume any and all food that is offered to you—your body has a limit! It’s healthier to make informed decisions about what food (and how much food) powers you up and helps you perform at your best. Social media is what we’re all consuming—sometimes all day and night! Doesn’t it make sense to only consume what nourishes you?
I’d love to hear what input nourishes you. Do you thrive on your social media consumption, or is it giving you heartburn? What ideas do you have for acting as your own algorithm? Email me to share your thoughts with me.
Speaking of social media and algorithms, here's one way I'm acting as my own algorithm. I basically give pep talks for a living these days so I love the idea of #peptober that Andy J Pizza put together. Check out his prompts - there is one fun idea each day this month and they are all about connecting and reclaiming our experience as a community here on the app without feeling like we need to churn out content just for the sake of it. Here's a link to my response for the first day: introductions. Are you going to play along?
