The ups and downs of social media

So, I have a confession to make….Voyage Comics was essentially born out of social media. 

The beauty of social media at the time (2018), was that you could share something on Facebook and it would actually get shared. 

Social media was our main source of marketing for the first 2-3 years of our existence. 

However, something changed in 2020 that really turned out more detrimental than we would have imagined.  

Social media turned out to be an ugly place and the only people who could be “heard” were those who yelled the loudest. 

During this time I also stumbled upon the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma and was floored by what I saw. 

While social media might have started as a place where you could stay connected to your family and friends, it quickly turned into a dumpster fire. 

The architects at Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (now “X”) purposefully designed their algorithms to capture the attention of their users and to keep them on their platform as long as possible. 

This has had drastic consequences to our mental health, leading to a staggering increase in suicides and widespread depression and anxiety across all age groups, especially teens. 

This made me rethink my social media strategy. It also coincided with the reality that I was trying to play the “game” of social media that was invented. I had to pay to play that game and suddenly social media wasn’t worth it anymore. 

So Voyage got off of social media and we turned our sights on connecting with customers and expanding our reach with Catholic bookstores and distributors. 

While this has been a fruitful endeavor, I still wondered what to do about the social media question. 

The reality is that most people are still on it and for some, it’s their only source of news. Also, many of our customers have told us that social media is how they used to stay updated on our latest releases.

After much prayer and discernment, I’ve decided that while I still prefer human interactions to those on social media, I wanted to give social media one last shot. 

Except, I’m not going to play the game.  

We will begin posting on social media maybe 1-3 times a month, all on Wednesdays, and all related to product releases. It’ll serve as a way for people to stay informed about our activities outside of our popular e-mail list. 

Essentially, I’m looking at it from the stance that social media is like a busy highway. I don’t necessarily start walking out into busy traffic, but I’m going to stand next to that highway and hold up my sign. If people see it, that’s good, if they don’t, that’s OK. 

Above all, I’m not going to lose my peace over how many followers I have on social media or how many people” like” my posts. 

I’m just going to hold my sign and smile as people drive by. 

Our e-mail list will still be the primary way we keep in touch with our customers, and our LOCALS community remains the place to be to get a behind-the-scenes look at our company.

Please keep me in prayer as I dip my foot back into social media. I don’t deny that it is still a dark and dangerous place, but it’s my hope that we can light a small candle and be a beacon for anyone tossed on the stormy seas. 

And if it turns out that social media really is not worth saving, then I’ll take down my sign and move on to somewhere else. 

This topic also brings up the whole “screen” issue as well, which I’ll dive into next week in Voices of Voyage #7!

In some ways, I wish I was a luddite! So much easier!