Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Boomers, Facebook, Generation X, Instagram, Millennials, silos, Social Media, TikTok, twitter
The venue told us to tag them on social media so they could share our posts. I said, “We’ve tagged you multiple times on Twitter, TikTok and Facebook. Are you not seeing them?” “Oh,” they said, “We’re not active there. I guess it’s really just Instagram.”
For some people (mostly Millennials, I guess), “Social media” just means Instagram. I happen to loathe Instagram the most. So for me, I lean toward Twitter and Facebook – but it’s all social media to me. I still post things to Instagram, even though I don’t like it. I figure I can’t afford to leave anyone out. Sometimes something hits on LinkedIn. Sometimes a thing is a hit on TikTok. It’s possible that these are sort of generational silos, where different generations gather in one place or another. I guess since Friendster and MySpace are gone. Gen X tends to go wherever – and I think that is actually a useful instinct because our numbers are small. So when sharing our work, for example, we can’t just talk to ourselves.
If you just use the social media that your generation is using, you risk silo-ing yourself and your ideas. The venue that doesn’t use their TikTok account is mostly not communicating with its (possible) younger audience. Twitter is a cesspool, I know, I can understand why you’d skip it – but there are still a lot of people on there, it’s still the place to go in a crisis or time sensitive event and I’m not even sure it skews to any particular generation. Gen X trends on Twitter a lot but it’s usually because someone has left us out of some list or article again – and Twitter tends to share that with me because it knows I’m likely to click on it.
But I don’t think that means it’s a Gen X platform, even if it was invented by a Gen X-er and currently run by (a highly embarrassing) one.
Younger people say Facebook is over-run with Boomers but that’s where I still find most of my Gen X friends – and my Millennial ones, too, really. So – if you think you’re just leaving out the oldsters when you ignore Facebook, I might look at that more closely. Unless, I guess, Millennials are the oldsters now? The elder ones are in their early forties.
When Twitter started tanking, I was surprised to see a lot more activity on LinkedIn. I’m not sure how to describe that lane except that it’s where I tend to have conversations with guys in tech and women in voice acting.
I have known for some time that I was missing a lot by not engaging with Instagram more. I found ways to post this podcast there and I’d pop in, post, scroll through maybe three posts and then get out of there. I know I was leaving some engagement on the table, as it were, but I just couldn’t bring myself to it much. Then, I hired a producer for my audio drama who is very much at home an Instagram. I gave her the keys to the company Insta and watched her work her magic. Likes and follows like I’d never seen before!
I have accounts on Twitter, Mastodon, Blue Sky, Hive, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr and Instagram. It does feel crazy to have to keep all these spaces active but in trying to promote things (and I am constantly trying to promote things – this blog, the blogcast, the audio dramas, shows, etc). I can’t afford to ignore any audience. For my last audio drama, the audience numbers skewed heavily Gen X. This time we’re most popular with older Gen Z and younger Millennials. Gen X and Boomers are listening too but we’ve got no numbers for the elder Millennials this time. (These numbers are inaccurate; I know because several people from those age groups have let me know they’re listening.) I’m tickled to be reaching an age bracket I’ve never reached before. It’s nice! Is it because we’re on TikTok? Who knows? But I am leaving the possibility open. We go where the people are, even if it means maintaining too many accounts.
Do I LIKE trying to stay present and posting to so many places? Nope. It’s draining and silly. Personally, I’m happiest on Facebook because I engage with my friends and family there – but I can’t just promote my work to my friends and family. That’s not fair to them and it doesn’t help spread my stuff around. It’s just so clear to me that, while it’s very popular to leave platforms in blazes of glory, they do each have their own audiences and if you want to speak to everyone, you’ve got to go to as many places as possible. Your home silo might be comfortable but it won’t open you out to a wider world. Of course, the other platforms might not either but at least you’re not isolating yourself from them. And as far as I know, that venue who told us to tag them never shared a single one of our posts, even on Instagram – so maybe it was all an excuse.
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Songs for the Struggling Artist 