Great question, Ty! But here’s a curveball for you: I encourage you NOT to focus on boosting your social media presence right now.
Let’s hit pause on all that for a moment.
Why, you ask?
Social media can be a fantastic place to:
- Feel bad about yourself
- Practice mustering up genuine excitement for other people’s success stories
But you’re just starting out.
It might just be your mom, uncle, and an old friend from high school liking and sharing your content. So let’s hold off on this step. Maybe even consider deactivating your account.
Think of yourself as being in an incubator. You’re still growing and getting better each day, but you’re also fragile. Your creative spirit is squishable.
After you’ve deactivated your social media accounts, go read Cal Newport’s book “So Good They Can’t Ignore You.” Pair it with “Born Standing Up” by Steve Martin.
Call me old-fashioned, but I believe we need more artists like you holed up in your bedroom getting your reps in, rather than doing some schtick on social media because it’s funny and gets a lot of likes.
Plus, you run the risk of becoming a like-chaser. Trust me, I’ve been there. I once had a post go viral. It had nothing to do with music. It was about parenting. I started posting more parenting videos and then one day I looked in the mirror and said, “Espe, what the hell are you doing?”
So be a songwriter, working on the craft of songwriting. You aren’t going to have a career if you can’t connect with people through your music. If you can’t move them. And you can’t move them unless you’ve sacrificed time, energy, boredom, thinking, repetition—all the things that have been required of artists since Day One.
Ty, if you’re just starting out, don’t lose sleep over social media. Lose sleep because you were up all night playing your guitar and working on lyrics.
Love,
Aaron