How you should be thinking about your relationship to social media

Hey folks👋🏽

I blinked and now we're in June. Happy June! I've noticed an interesting conversation about why we're all more reluctant to be publicly enthusiastic, both online and offline.

It's in everything: the way people overthink every action for fear of being recorded and put online, to our hesitance to share the things that make us excited for fear of being seen as "cringe" or "uncool". It's even in our social media (Close Friends, Circles). I, for one, miss being childishly enthusiastic about things. Let's go back to letting people enjoy things!

💌 In today’s email:

• 🔓 Lloyd George shares some important perspective for anyone worried about how much and how quickly social media is changing
• 📱 Mitra recommends a tip for getting inspiration
• 📣 What’s happening in social: May the algorithm(s) be with you; TikTok is holding down its crown as the short-form king; feature updates and interesting reads from across the industry.
• +All our latest content from the blog

Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you next Friday!

Warmly, 

Tami & the Buffer team

🚀 Share click-worthy content and skyrocket your engagement with Buffer

Stand out from the sea of sameness online with visuals that catch the eye and are published at the perfect time. With Buffer by your side, organize content in one place, easily import your existing work, learn what works with analytics, and get more eyes on your content. 

🔓 Creators Unlocked: Lloyd George

In this edition of Creators Unlocked, we turn the spotlight on Lloyd George, a multifaceted creator, and founder of The Cre8tor Hub. Lloyd’s dipped his fingers in all content pies, from podcasting to TikTok, consistently producing engaging content that has earned him an impressive following and client base.

I asked Lloyd about the rapidly changing landscape of social media and what, if anything, he's doing to prepare as a creator and business owner – here's what he had to say.

When I first started as a creator, my career was highly centered around TikTok. Over time, I've realized an undeniable fact – no matter what social media platform you opt for or how they choose to remunerate or interact with you, you don't own that platform. This reality introduces a level of instability, even when things are seemingly going well. In response, I've prioritized diversifying as rapidly and broadly as possible and reconfiguring my expectations. 

At the outset, I thought achieving success meant having 100,000 followers across all platforms. I believed that once I reached this milestone, I could work with any brand I desired and attain my goals.

However, my new outlook is that with 5,000 solid followers or a similar number of dedicated subscribers to my newsletter, I can still achieve my goals. I have control over those email contacts; I can reach out to them whenever I wish and host live events if I want. They are genuine followers.

It's crucial to remember that we don't own these social platforms. They're never going to prioritize us, nor are they going to compensate us based on our perceived worth. There's never been a moment in history when creators have been wholly satisfied with a platform.

So, with this perspective, I've diversified by establishing an email newsletter list, which currently comprises around 500 subscribers. These individuals truly appreciate my content and are loyal followers.

I've also made a conscious effort to derive income not solely from social media but also through starting my own business. To be clear, I'm not anti-social media; I believe it's important for creators. However, as a creator, you should view social media as a tool for building a business rather than the platform that defines your business.

✍🏾 Be our (writing) guest

Do you have a story you want to tell? Tips or advice you’d like to share? We’re now taking guest posts on the Buffer blog! Check out our guidelines for next steps.

👇🏽 The latest from the blog

• Ask Buffer: What is Short-Form Video, and How Can You Use It? — This article explores the popularity of the short-form video format and some tips for making the most of it for your social media.
• From Zero to 30K YouTube Subscribers in Six Months, How This Creator Did It — In this interview, we dive into the strategies and techniques that YouTube creator, Paul O'Malley, used to rapidly grow his channel from zero to 30,000 subscribers.
• Creator Longevity: 4 Tips for Building a Lasting Content Career — In this article, we’ll cover some things that ensure content creators can build a lifelong career and practical advice for ensuring longevity.
• How I’ve Built a Million-Dollar Business in 3 Years Using the Power of Referrals — Learn the simple strategies this founder has used to encourage clients to recommend his work to others, leading to 70 percent of his agency’s business coming from inbound referrals.

📱 Social Tip of The Week from Mitra, Buffer’s Social Media Manager 

Not sure where to start with TikTok or Reels?

The easiest way to get inspired is to scroll through the platforms and see what other people are doing to help you get ideas. But don’t just copy what everyone is doing for certain trends - make it authentic to you and your brand!

Once you learn more about how people post on TikTok/Reels, you’ll feel more comfortable trying it out yourself. 🤗✨

🤳 What's Happening in Social

• 🔍 It’s algorithm-exposed week -- Instagram and YouTube let us into how their rankings work.
• 🎥 TikTok’s the short-form video king (for now), as but Instagram Reels is closing the gap, as found by this Social Insider study.
• 📲 Features: You can now remix YouTube Shorts; Twitter’s Community Notes now show up on visuals in tweets; Bluesky launches alternative feeds with custom algorithms.
• 🤓 Longreads: Feed are over, chats are next (The Information); The top creator economy experts of 2023 (Business Insider).

Thanks for reading! 💟

What would you like to see more (or less) of in the newsletter? How do you feel about our deep dives or newsletter-exclusive series? Give us all your feedback in this form or let us know on all our social channels @buffer!

Unsubscribe | Update my mail settings 

Sent by the team at Buffer
2443 Fillmore St #380-7163 San Francisco, CA 94115 USA