did someone just say social media?
Social media. Hmmm…. I haven’t called this blog the ‘Introverted Crowdfunder’ for nothing. Putting myself ‘out there’ on social media isn’t something that comes naturally to me, which is why I haven’t. I am here now after 10 years of failed New Years Resolutions – ‘I will be better at social media this year.’ Social media is almost unmentionable in my house, we aren’t very good at sharing information about ourselves online, even with friends. I changed my profile picture once when I got married and once when I had a baby, I’m not sure if it will ever happen again. Call it personal security, call it shyness – whatever it is, I don’t know whether this will ever change.
I am well aware that to be successful on social media, both professionally and personally, you need to engage, not just promote. Speak to people, share ideas and creativity. My problem is that I don’t want to annoy people. I rarely feel like I have social media-worthy ideas. I am too much of a perfectionist to post my performances in case anyone will notice that mis-placed F# in the 3rdmovement. And as for contacting people I don’t even know on social media, just because we share common interests, or (shudder) I want to promote something – well, let’s not even go there. That’s almost as bad as having to ‘network’ face to face!
In other words I worry too much.
I found taking that first step into engaging more with social media to be a scary one – an imaginary minefield of judgement and silence to be conquered. How can I create content that will be entertaining? How can I let people know about my project – people that I know will be interested and supportive, if I can only find them in the first place?
There have been three key thoughts that have helped me progress on social media:
My motivation to spend time posting on social media, creating exciting recordings, writing interesting articles when I could be practising or, you know, spending time with my family does sometimes dip a little. But my social media interactions have brought me into contact with fascinating people from around the world – music enthusiasts, history enthusiasts, people who are already experts on Kelly’s life and work, those who’ve never come across him but are willing to explore more. People are very generous with their time and support, and are very nice if you open up and share, even if only a tiny bit!
Social media doesn’t need to be a minefield to be navigated – it is a world of wonderful, interesting, fascinating people who are just within reach, as long as you are prepared to take that first step, engage with that first person. I don’t intend to share my thoughts every hour of the day and I fully intend to remain stubbornly private about my personal life. However, I resolve to not be too wrapped up in my own projects, but to support my friends and colleagues more and celebrate their successes. I will strive less towards perfectionism and more towards joining a creative environment full of thoughts and ideas, fearing less what people think of me and sharing more of what I do that I think others can appreciate or learn from. Nothing ground-breaking perhaps, but I have to start somewhere!
*Steps down from soapbox, puts mega phone down*
I am well aware that to be successful on social media, both professionally and personally, you need to engage, not just promote. Speak to people, share ideas and creativity. My problem is that I don’t want to annoy people. I rarely feel like I have social media-worthy ideas. I am too much of a perfectionist to post my performances in case anyone will notice that mis-placed F# in the 3rdmovement. And as for contacting people I don’t even know on social media, just because we share common interests, or (shudder) I want to promote something – well, let’s not even go there. That’s almost as bad as having to ‘network’ face to face!
In other words I worry too much.
I found taking that first step into engaging more with social media to be a scary one – an imaginary minefield of judgement and silence to be conquered. How can I create content that will be entertaining? How can I let people know about my project – people that I know will be interested and supportive, if I can only find them in the first place?
There have been three key thoughts that have helped me progress on social media:
- Just relax a bit! If a friend says something that interests me on facebook, tell them – they’ll probably like that! If someone posts a fascinating article on twitter, retweet it. Go on, no-one will mind!
- Accept each engagement for what it is. The majority of my online activity recently has been linked to my kickstarter – facebook posts, twitter follows, even this very blog. In other words, they have all been for professional purposes, to sell a product, to encourage people ultimately to support my campaign. I worried about this initially, about how to post such content without being irritating, or money-grabbing, or needy, or a mixture of them all. But I’m not being needy or money-grabbing, I am in the middle of an all-consuming project that I am quite rightly proud of and I want to share with my friends and colleagues. People who follow me on social media do so because they support me and are interested in my work – people have watched my videos, listened to my recordings and have been overwhelmingly positive.
- (I’m going to say this very quietly now) Social media is fun! I have resolved to (mostly) steer clear of bland promotional posts and instead post material from the practice room (imperfections and all…), interesting articles – in short, let people engage directly with the substance of the project, not just bombard them with spam. If they are then motivated to support the kickstarter then great, but if they learn something about Kelly then my mission has been much more successful. Compliments about my superb piano playing are also always nice…
My motivation to spend time posting on social media, creating exciting recordings, writing interesting articles when I could be practising or, you know, spending time with my family does sometimes dip a little. But my social media interactions have brought me into contact with fascinating people from around the world – music enthusiasts, history enthusiasts, people who are already experts on Kelly’s life and work, those who’ve never come across him but are willing to explore more. People are very generous with their time and support, and are very nice if you open up and share, even if only a tiny bit!
Social media doesn’t need to be a minefield to be navigated – it is a world of wonderful, interesting, fascinating people who are just within reach, as long as you are prepared to take that first step, engage with that first person. I don’t intend to share my thoughts every hour of the day and I fully intend to remain stubbornly private about my personal life. However, I resolve to not be too wrapped up in my own projects, but to support my friends and colleagues more and celebrate their successes. I will strive less towards perfectionism and more towards joining a creative environment full of thoughts and ideas, fearing less what people think of me and sharing more of what I do that I think others can appreciate or learn from. Nothing ground-breaking perhaps, but I have to start somewhere!
*Steps down from soapbox, puts mega phone down*
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