Social Media is defeating me

[Pinball]

Hi, For years I have been using social media to find gigs and opportunities to play, as well as for solo and band promotion but am finding it too difficult to navigate.

Thinking of just packing it in. Is it really getting more difficult or is it my perception?

I have been active on Instagram, X and Facebook 

Edited Sunday at 16:29 by Pinball

[Woodinblack]

Doesn't seem that much trickier on facebook (I don't use the others), as long as you remember which dashboard you need to go to to get the events page.

[Woodwind]

1 hour ago, Pinball said:

Hi, For years I have been using social media to find gigs and opportunities to play, as well as for solo and band promotion but am finding it too difficult to navigate.

Thinking of just packing it in. Is it really getting more difficult or is it my perception?

I have been active on Instagram, X and Facebook 

 

 

It's not your perception.

 

I only use Instagram.

It's still immensely useful, but a poor relation to how useful it used to be up until a few years ago.

 

 

The algorithmic approach where it feeds you more of what you like is completely at odds with the organic way people search for things.

 

Previously I discovered many, many artists, labels and promoters through basic general searches (and was discovered in a similar way).

These connections proved very fruitful leading to releases, gigs, tours etc etc

 

Now whenever I search, Instagram just shows me stuff it thinks is related to what I have liked previously, Usually from an American perspective. 

 

Similarly people don't discover my stuff unless they search for me specifically.

 

A lot changed when they stopped you being able to search hashtags chronologically. It was great to see the latest posts tagged with #whatever, but now it's just the most popular posts tagged with #whatever, which could be years old and just become a cyclic regurgitation.

 

I don't know what the answer is, but I would suggest you're better off on there than not in the short term and look for something else in the meantime.

 

 

I never got Facebook or twitter to the point of being useful for me even with a fair amount of time invested and deleted both years ago.

[Cliff Edge]

Facebook is just too popular to be useful any more. It’s too crowded with rubbish and fake posts. Instagram is no better, Twitter has lost all the interesting contributors and Reddit is full of illiterate American kids of all ages.  I like this place. 

[SteveXFR]

I gave up with Facebook and Instagram. They seem to prioritise showing you some butt-wagon ranting about politics over the stuff you actually want to see.

I couldn't care less what Juan thinks about Bernie Sanders, I want to see my favourite bands tour announcements but no, Facebook wants me to see Juan. If its not Juan then it's Esmarelda with her proof that the earth is flat.

[Pinball]

Thanks, so it isn't just me.

I just don't seem to see the stuff that interests me anymore and don't seem to be able to advertise releases or gigs without paying some sort of promotion.

Note: I do pay for promotion for releases and radio play but prefer it to be more targeted.

I think I'll maybe step back a bit and use it more like "a notice board" and not worry about it too much  

[Woodinblack]

12 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

I gave up with Facebook and Instagram. They seem to prioritise showing you some butt-wagon ranting about politics over the stuff you actually want to see.

 

I have facebook purity, so I don't really see that much of that stuff.

 

I only get it on youtube when I want to quickly work out the bass to something, so I listen to other peoples attempts, so you put in something like 'bass cover of wantedsong' and then get a load of 'bricklayer reacts to listening to wantedsong', 'proof that wantedsong author was miming on totp', 'professional dancer reacts to bricklayer reaction video' etc

[Dood]

If social media platforms weren’t necessary for my work, or I didn’t need them to stay in contact with friends, family and work contacts, I’d probably have ditched the worst offenders, if not all by now.

 

I appreciate they need to make their money through advertising, but I’d love the option to choose to see only what I follow or subscribe to. Everything else is an endless cesspit of where good content goes to drown. Fake news and propaganda, endless spam videos, stolen content recycled, AI posts that haven’t been checked and click bait that makes my brain itch. But, you only get to see that once you have sifted through vacuous wannabes, the look-at-me and the desperate for validation. 

[Norris]

We've found that Facebook works as long as people follow you. To that end I created an A4 sheet with our band logo and a massive QR code to take people to our page. I then laminated it and it goes in front of the band at every gig. I make sure I create events a month or so in advance, and the guitarist does an amusing "call to action" post with photo a day or two before. It seems to work. The photo is a must, because text-only posts just disappear into the ether

 

I don't use Facebook on a personal level because I hate it, nor any other socials