Notes from Aboveground

Dear reader,

A year ago, my modest Instagram account suddenly exploded. It took me five years to acquire a 20k following and the glorious title of micro-influencer. But over the next 10 weeks, I would cross 300k.

I did not change something to make it happen. I did not try anything new. I did not put any money into ads. In fact, I had accepted that I may never become a big account because I refused to play by the rules. (More on that below.)

So, how did I catch this wave? And what does it mean to have a big following? Why do some artists struggle while others seem to have it easy? How important is luck as a factor?

And, given all the answers, is it worth doing? Or is it better to abandon this predatory platform that manipulates and monetizes our attention?

These are the questions I want to answer in today’s post. If you have your own questions and aspirations around social media growth, drop them in the comments!

This post, and all my long-form writing, is made possible by the support of SneakyArt Insiders.

Subscriptions allow me to focus on my curiosities instead of chasing after the herd. They give me the time and space to write my best words. And they allow me to keep this post free and accessible to everyone who needs it.

Without the safety net of paid subscriptions, I could not afford to spend my time researching, writing, editing, and rewriting. I would have to do what all the other big accounts on Instagram do - jump through hoops with a fake smile and the hope that a big brand will throw some crumbs my way.

If you like what I do, and would like to help me keep doing it, grab the annual plan to support my work.

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We are all just prisoners here, of our own device

aka how social media and algorithms abuse you

The best kind of prison, argues philosopher Byung Chul Han, is one to which people voluntarily sign up. When we surrender privacy and freedom for endless content and same-day deliveries, we help build the walls of our panopticon… [continue reading]

Social media offered the promise of limitless free expression. The like button was supposed to bring us this freedom, a simple count of the number of people who liked your work.

But the like button is not simple. An algorithm mediates our access to our audience, arbitrating our right to show our work to the people who have already agreed that they want to see it. Sometimes the algorithm demands reels. Sometimes more hashtags. Sometimes less. Often it straight up asks for cash.

Sometimes you cannot succeed without using trending music that feeds money back to music corporations. The music is trending because people are using it. The people are using it because they can see the algorithm plugging it. Spot the circular logic.

The like button is a tyrant, not a liberator.

It locks us in a race that nobody wants to run, but nobody wants to lose either. We are racing against each other, because the likes must go higher and higher. But the likes are kept scarce in an artificial manner - a starvation diet maintained by the algorithms.

By enslaving you to the like button, social media forces you to jump through arbitrary hoops to create value for predatory corporations.

So the promise of creative independence and individual freedom becomes a kind of enslavement itself - rather than satisfy my creativity, or connect in the best way with the people who love my work, my only incentive is to please the algorithm… [continue reading]

Even before I had many followers, I reached a breaking point with this abusive system. Is it the artist’s job to provide quick dopamine to the most number of people? Is that … it?

Because that does not make sense. Does it?

A short quiz to determine if you can afford to leave social media

Do you have a strong offline network of friends and peers in your geographical area? (Y/N)
Does your publisher love you? (Y/N)
Do you maintain a growing list of customers and potential clients? (Y/N)
Are you able to sell at local galleries, gift shops, and marketplaces? (Y/N)

If your answer to all of the above is Yes, you can deprioritize social media.

Understanding the World Wide Web

I like to think of the internet as two kinds of places. For lack of better words, I go with sources and destinations.

Sources are where I go to cast a metaphorical net and attract potential audiences to my work. I do not expect to have a lot of time. I do not expect to get 100% attention. This includes all social media platforms, discussion forums, and online communities, i.e. everywhere that people go to see different kinds of things.

Destinations are where I try to send them once I successfully have their attention. This is my website, my newsletter, and my podcast. Here, I can expect to have more time with my audience - a few minutes instead of a few seconds.

My job is to be at both places to maintain the funnel from source to destination. Not everyone will follow me this way, there will always be some losses. Designing the funnel is my job. How well it works is my business…

In the remainder of this post, I speak about how IG has benefited me, how it ranks creators and followers, and the pitfalls of playing the Game of Likes. I also think about whether it is useful to jump through these hoops and if you should really want that kind of success. Tap the button above to continue reading!