Social media feels like a video game that I just can't win. I'm getting really tired of it. There are influential accounts following me that never ever retweet my work. It's so demoralizing.— Tiffany Gholar (@tiffanygholar) May 31, 2019
Lately social media has been getting on my last nerve. I had been telling myself that suffering its various slings and arrows would be worth it if I could just sell a few more books because of it, or even get some clients from being on there. I have been looking at my site analytics a lot recently. 20 to 30 percent of what little traffic I get to my blog and my website comes from social media, so I feel like it's a necessary evil.
"Evil" is an appropriate word. Just look at Twitter. I feel like some people just get on there to fight. They can't even express an opinion about something they like without putting other people down for not liking it. They hate-follow accounts they disagree with, eager for the opportunity to pounce on them. They challenge strangers to debates. Some are more insidious and only retweet artists when they're posting about social issues and never share the posts about their work. Some are mercenaries that will "like" my tweets about my work but won't retweet anything if I don't pay them to. And then, at the risk of sounding ungrateful or self-centered or like some sort of diva, I am also really disappointed that I have some really influential accounts following me that never ever retweet my work. When I say influential, I don't just mean "internet famous" people. I mean news anchors, bestselling authors, famous artists, curators, gallerists... people who have been profiled in magazines you've heard of. And of course I know they're really busy and important, but how I wish just a few of them would take the time to boost my work. It's such a simple way to "give back," if they're ever inclined. It would only take a second of their time. I just don't want to look pathetic and beg them to do that for me. And I know this part is really going to make be sound like a snob, but I get so tired of my posts only getting shared by random weirdos who only have a handful of followers because it's a dead end that never leads to anything I do going viral or getting seen by new customers and clients.
Facebook, in addition to all the other awful things it has done to make itself a force of evil in the world, has also tweaked its algorithms to be averse to posts with links in them. Good luck sharing something that directs its users away from Facebook. How dare you interfere with their hostage situation? Stockholm syndrome is good for the shareholders.
And then there's Instagram. All Instagram seems to care about is selfies. I hate that expression and prefer self-portrait, but whatever. If it's a photo containing eyes, a nose, and a mouth, Instagram encourages you to promote it and share it with the world!
I mean, that's nice but my primary goal of being on there is to get interior design clients and sell my books and artwork. And what happened when I did pay to promote those things? No sales whatsoever.
Finally, Pinterest. I hadn't realized it until yesterday, but Pinterest is actually my favorite. For years, I've been in the habit of not browsing a furniture site without pinning what I see, resulting in a board with over 8,000 pins on it. And I loved being able to scroll through the various images I collected in my downtime, or even show them to friends and family who aren't on Pinterest using the app on my phone. Now some people call it a visual search engine and say it isn't really social media. But I still think it is. So much of it is based on sharing what others have already shared. You can even send private messages to other users. And as a designer, I appreciated being able to share images with clients, and them being able to share them with me.
And then yesterday, things took an unfortunate turn. Suddenly I was unable to log in to my account, getting an error message about having been suspended for "violating community standards." I was told that I got an email about it. So I searched my inbox in vain for an explanation. Hundreds of messages with "Pinterest" in them turned up, but none were from the company itself. Suddenly, I had no easy way to bookmark all the beautiful interior design stuff I saw in one place, and no access to my favorite recipes, or the ones that sound good but I hadn't got around to trying. I sent two messages to their customer service account and didn't get a reply. I searched the internet and found that there were other people who had also found their Pinterest accounts suddenly suspended. They had been accused of spamming. Honestly, some didn't surprise me because their blogs looked spammy and one even offered the solution to getting reinstated in a downloadable PDF. The others, which belonged to artists and designers, were puzzling. But none of them had been accused of "violating community standards" like me.
I wondered if it was for a political cartoon I had pinned. I've been doing that for a while, so long, in fact, that the board where they reside is called Occupy My Pinboard. Then I wondered if I might have pinned something that they thought was too sexy for Pinterest. Honestly, these social media companies need to stop being so prudish. The human body is beautiful and should be celebrated in appropriate contexts. Why is American culture so much more comfortable with violence than sex? You could write a whole dissertation on that, but I won't, and still don't know if that's what happened or not because today my Pinterest account just started working again. The only email I got was one saying that someone had logged into my account. Thanks, Captain Obvious, for notifying me that I logged in to my own account. I never could have solved that mystery without your help.
Not knowing what I did to incur the wrath of the powers that be over at Pinterest makes me feel wary about continuing to use the site. I now see even more the peril of building an empire on rented land, as digital strategists say. It also makes me feel even less inclined to rely upon social media as a way to get clients. As a Xennial who remembers what life was like in the era before social media, and even before the internet, I began to wonder if I should just take my marketing efforts offline. I even came across this episode of The Kate Show podcast that made me wonder if my ideal interior design clients even use social media at all.
Seriously, this is deep. Think about it. If you ever go to any of those ubiquitous Social Media for [insert creative profession here] seminars, you already know that the self-proclaimed expert at the front of the room will tell you that you need to find out what social media platform your ideal client likes to use. But what if the answer is none of the above? This is a notion that has lingered for years in the back of my mind, as I pondered whether to allow anonymous comments on this blog because I have friends who strive to leave no digital footprint of any kind. Some of the most brilliant people I know have no social media accounts whatsoever. Nothing. Not even LinkedIn. Meanwhile, I have a decent number of followers on some social media sites, some of whom I follow in return. But a lot of the most active users are broke grad students, and they are definitely not my target demographic. Or if they're not grad students, they're definitely broke. People who are literally crowdfunding their living expenses (which is devastatingly common, unfortunately) aren't looking to hire someone to redecorate a home they might get evicted from at any moment. People that age with money seemed preoccupied with traveling. They're living out of their suitcases. They don't need a designer. Which is why being on Twitter often feels so absurd to me.
I'm not giving it up just yet, but I have been spending less time actually on Twitter, though you can't really tell because of all the posts I scheduled in advance. As for spending money on advertising, I am looking into direct mail and print. I also bought a membership for a monthly networking event that I try to attend regularly, and have gone to a few additional events as well. The thing I like about promoting myself online is that it feels less awkward for me as an introvert, but it's gotten way too crowded on here. I wish people still read blogs like they used to 10 years ago.
UPDATE, 6/25/2019 -
Pinterest restored my account about 10 days after I wrote this. Then on the 25th they finally got back to me about why I my account was suspended. It was a glitch.
I have been pinning again since my account was restored. I don't have any new clients at the moment but still have concerns about whether Pinterest will randomly lock up on me again.
"Evil" is an appropriate word. Just look at Twitter. I feel like some people just get on there to fight. They can't even express an opinion about something they like without putting other people down for not liking it. They hate-follow accounts they disagree with, eager for the opportunity to pounce on them. They challenge strangers to debates. Some are more insidious and only retweet artists when they're posting about social issues and never share the posts about their work. Some are mercenaries that will "like" my tweets about my work but won't retweet anything if I don't pay them to. And then, at the risk of sounding ungrateful or self-centered or like some sort of diva, I am also really disappointed that I have some really influential accounts following me that never ever retweet my work. When I say influential, I don't just mean "internet famous" people. I mean news anchors, bestselling authors, famous artists, curators, gallerists... people who have been profiled in magazines you've heard of. And of course I know they're really busy and important, but how I wish just a few of them would take the time to boost my work. It's such a simple way to "give back," if they're ever inclined. It would only take a second of their time. I just don't want to look pathetic and beg them to do that for me. And I know this part is really going to make be sound like a snob, but I get so tired of my posts only getting shared by random weirdos who only have a handful of followers because it's a dead end that never leads to anything I do going viral or getting seen by new customers and clients.
Facebook, in addition to all the other awful things it has done to make itself a force of evil in the world, has also tweaked its algorithms to be averse to posts with links in them. Good luck sharing something that directs its users away from Facebook. How dare you interfere with their hostage situation? Stockholm syndrome is good for the shareholders.
And then there's Instagram. All Instagram seems to care about is selfies. I hate that expression and prefer self-portrait, but whatever. If it's a photo containing eyes, a nose, and a mouth, Instagram encourages you to promote it and share it with the world!
I mean, that's nice but my primary goal of being on there is to get interior design clients and sell my books and artwork. And what happened when I did pay to promote those things? No sales whatsoever.
Finally, Pinterest. I hadn't realized it until yesterday, but Pinterest is actually my favorite. For years, I've been in the habit of not browsing a furniture site without pinning what I see, resulting in a board with over 8,000 pins on it. And I loved being able to scroll through the various images I collected in my downtime, or even show them to friends and family who aren't on Pinterest using the app on my phone. Now some people call it a visual search engine and say it isn't really social media. But I still think it is. So much of it is based on sharing what others have already shared. You can even send private messages to other users. And as a designer, I appreciated being able to share images with clients, and them being able to share them with me.
 |
| all I wanted to do was pin this pretty chair... |
And then yesterday, things took an unfortunate turn. Suddenly I was unable to log in to my account, getting an error message about having been suspended for "violating community standards." I was told that I got an email about it. So I searched my inbox in vain for an explanation. Hundreds of messages with "Pinterest" in them turned up, but none were from the company itself. Suddenly, I had no easy way to bookmark all the beautiful interior design stuff I saw in one place, and no access to my favorite recipes, or the ones that sound good but I hadn't got around to trying. I sent two messages to their customer service account and didn't get a reply. I searched the internet and found that there were other people who had also found their Pinterest accounts suddenly suspended. They had been accused of spamming. Honestly, some didn't surprise me because their blogs looked spammy and one even offered the solution to getting reinstated in a downloadable PDF. The others, which belonged to artists and designers, were puzzling. But none of them had been accused of "violating community standards" like me.
I wondered if it was for a political cartoon I had pinned. I've been doing that for a while, so long, in fact, that the board where they reside is called Occupy My Pinboard. Then I wondered if I might have pinned something that they thought was too sexy for Pinterest. Honestly, these social media companies need to stop being so prudish. The human body is beautiful and should be celebrated in appropriate contexts. Why is American culture so much more comfortable with violence than sex? You could write a whole dissertation on that, but I won't, and still don't know if that's what happened or not because today my Pinterest account just started working again. The only email I got was one saying that someone had logged into my account. Thanks, Captain Obvious, for notifying me that I logged in to my own account. I never could have solved that mystery without your help.
Not knowing what I did to incur the wrath of the powers that be over at Pinterest makes me feel wary about continuing to use the site. I now see even more the peril of building an empire on rented land, as digital strategists say. It also makes me feel even less inclined to rely upon social media as a way to get clients. As a Xennial who remembers what life was like in the era before social media, and even before the internet, I began to wonder if I should just take my marketing efforts offline. I even came across this episode of The Kate Show podcast that made me wonder if my ideal interior design clients even use social media at all.
Seriously, this is deep. Think about it. If you ever go to any of those ubiquitous Social Media for [insert creative profession here] seminars, you already know that the self-proclaimed expert at the front of the room will tell you that you need to find out what social media platform your ideal client likes to use. But what if the answer is none of the above? This is a notion that has lingered for years in the back of my mind, as I pondered whether to allow anonymous comments on this blog because I have friends who strive to leave no digital footprint of any kind. Some of the most brilliant people I know have no social media accounts whatsoever. Nothing. Not even LinkedIn. Meanwhile, I have a decent number of followers on some social media sites, some of whom I follow in return. But a lot of the most active users are broke grad students, and they are definitely not my target demographic. Or if they're not grad students, they're definitely broke. People who are literally crowdfunding their living expenses (which is devastatingly common, unfortunately) aren't looking to hire someone to redecorate a home they might get evicted from at any moment. People that age with money seemed preoccupied with traveling. They're living out of their suitcases. They don't need a designer. Which is why being on Twitter often feels so absurd to me.
I'm not giving it up just yet, but I have been spending less time actually on Twitter, though you can't really tell because of all the posts I scheduled in advance. As for spending money on advertising, I am looking into direct mail and print. I also bought a membership for a monthly networking event that I try to attend regularly, and have gone to a few additional events as well. The thing I like about promoting myself online is that it feels less awkward for me as an introvert, but it's gotten way too crowded on here. I wish people still read blogs like they used to 10 years ago.
UPDATE, 6/25/2019 -
Pinterest restored my account about 10 days after I wrote this. Then on the 25th they finally got back to me about why I my account was suspended. It was a glitch.
I have been pinning again since my account was restored. I don't have any new clients at the moment but still have concerns about whether Pinterest will randomly lock up on me again.
I can totally relate to all of this from a music artist space. I've resolved to create my own lane. It's crazy out here but I'm still learning. Good writing cuz!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Aasha! I'm sure you can definitely relate after working so hard to make your music and facing all the challenges to getting it out there. I think it's great that you're making your own lane.
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