Redirecting Some Creative Energy

If you’ve been with me for awhile now, you might have noticed that I’ve been rather absent online for…… well, let’s be honest… almost a year.

The truth is, social media exhausts me.

Of all the jobs I have to do in a week as a one-woman show, running a small handmade goods and services business - all the making, bookwork, equipment maintenance, facilitating classes and workshops, firing, glazing, cleaning, sanitising, new product design and testing, product photography, website maintenance, marketing, packing and posting orders, etc - the single most daunting and exhausting aspect is keeping up with social media.

For a long time I thought my aversion to social media was because I am somewhat of an introvert. I love spending time with people, I enjoy the occasional social outing and meeting new folks, but I also need a fair amount of solitude to recharge. I’m the anxious introvert - you know, need plenty of time between interactions so I can go over every word I said and cringe at myself, wonder what the feck I was doing with my hands and if my gangly, flexy limbs and overly expressive face were doing weird stuff that I hadn’t noticed. That kind of thing.

But I’ve seen my engagement with you wonderful humans eroding over the last year, and it makes me really dang sad. Because I genuinely enjoy you guys!

So it got me wondering, perhaps it’s not social exhaustion after all?

Thinking about it, what is really exhausting me is the ever-expanding time investment that social media platforms like instagram, facebook and tiktok ask for potential visibility, and the power these platforms have over the viability of my business. I realised I was spending many precious hours every week building my social media presence, only to be at the whim of an algorithm.

If they bring in some new feature I haven’t worked out quick enough (hello reels of 2020), I’m knocked around for a week with my health, or farm jobs take over for awhile and I can’t keep on top of posting, all my previous leg work is worth nada! Back to a shrivelled reach in an shitely short space of time, like Spongebob and Patrick when they visit Sandy haha.

So from here on out, I’ve decided to really invest more in the things that I control, that bring long-term value to my business, and that offer genuine value for you lovely people too. Starting here, with this blog. I plan to share longer-form info here, with a bit more guts to it - tutorials, techniques, updates, etc.

To start us off, I’m going to share some of my glaze making process! So stay tuned for a post in a couple of days.

For those that are into a longer read on this social media issue, I wanted to explain the dilemma for small business ‘content creators’ like myself, as I see it. If you’re interested, have a squiz below and let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Take care,

Rhi x

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So many of you have been here since the early days of my business. You have been incredibly encouraging and supportive. All of you, even the new-comers, have helped shape what I do here - the things I make, the services I offer. It is the interactions that I have with you folk that give me direction and continued purpose in this business. I LOVE getting to know you guys! Listening to your suggestions, chatting about art in general, meeting your doggo’s at markets, hearing about your first clay class last week or how you did clay in highschool 30 years ago, helping you with techniques and sourcing supplies, etc. I enjoy and am motivated by these interactions.

So why do I find it so hard to keep up with social media?

For starters, because of the constantly moving goal posts that Instagram and Facebook create in order for me to reach you. These platforms and their demands on our time as ‘content creators’ has grown astronomically over the last year or so.

It’s kinda like this. Imagine you wanted to chat to your neighbour. Last week, you just had to walk across your yard and sing out over the fence and there they would be. The next week, the fence was a bit higher, so you needed a step ladder. A week later, a ditch pops up in front of the step ladder in front of the higher fence. Another week rolls in, and you’ve got to perform a ditty in front of the ditch in front of the step ladder in front of the higher fence…..”there was an old lady who swallowed a fly”, you hearing me?

Secondly, the gimmicky, always-moving, trend-chasing focus of these platforms is completely inauthentic to my nature, and to the kind of relationships I want to foster with my fellow humans. I’m not about resharing the latest glib voiceover for the 27 thousandth time, nor do I want someone else setting the tone for my business.

Now I know people are going to come at me and say “but social media is FREE marketing!”.

Let me be clear. These platforms are in no way ‘free’ to use. The companies who own them are not social enterprises, they are hugely profitable businesses that sell screen time. Their main goal is to get you to stay on the apps longer so they can sell more sponsored/promoted screen time peppered amongst the funny memes and catchy videos. Every single piece of ‘content’ someone posts on these platforms costs an investment of time to create, and every single piece of that same content contributes to the overall profitability of that platform.

With every algorithm/focus shift of these platforms, there has been a bigger ask on the time/skill/tech investment of us ‘content creators’. Yes, if you jump through all the hoops, you have the potential to reach your audience, foster relationships and generate income. But it’s not guaranteed, and the value of the payoff is decided entirely by the platform after you do all the work and post the content.

This feels really close to the definition of ‘spec work’ (an exploitative tactic used in the creative industries, and something I personally think actively devalues creators).

As a parting thought, I don’t necessarily see social media platforms as malignant or benign to folks like me. They’re just another huge business using every available resource to hawk their wares.

Will I still post on social media?

Of course. As far as running an online business goes, these days there’s really no option but to jump on board. But I’ll try doing it with a new focus that serves my lovely audience and business more.