“You Don’t Have To Be On Social Media To Have A Successful Business” goes the mantra of Off The Grid Media.

Damn, I hope they are right.

On one hand, I know the stuff I do through OutWord isn’t for the kind of people that find me via an algorithm. On the other hand, I’ve developed some supremely cool relationships with people through these apps.

BUT, it is worth knowing, that many of these relationships started *outside* of the social media apps, but developed through how we engaged with each other’s content.

You may not have someone’s phone number, but the DMs always seem to be open. Also, getting a DM is always less intrusive than a text message nowadays, isn’t it?

I’m not a saint, I struggle with social media as much as anyone else. At the core, I hate it. The promise of the platforms haven’t evolved well – less social, more media, less “show what you do” and more “design content for engagement. Make stuff to win at algorithm distribution – for the metrics – and not so much because you care about the person on the other side of the screen.

And the AI slop is fucking everywhere (archive link.) Why bother making something organic when it has to sit next to stuff that was made by machines, for machines? The internet dies a little more every day.

But, without social media, how do I promote my business?

At this point, anything else will do just as good of a job. Literally anything. We used to do it all of the time, didn’t we? Now, social media is the kneejerk/ defacto thing that we turn so we feel like we’re doing something, but are we?

I will say, the ability to quickly publish a thought regardless of the metrics has been a great way for me to talk about my business to myself – if only to better understand and find new ways to articulate my process. A lot of my ideas seem to come from the act of creating something.

And maybe that’s all it needs to be. Fuck the metrics, just listen to yourself talk. It’s a tool, not a means.