Hi friends and new subscribers - I’m glad you’re here!
I’m Seth Werkheiser and I do D2C email marketing operations for Grammy Award Winning MNRK Heavy (omg, new High On Fire record announced), and I also worked with Death Row Records doing their emails, too.
Over the last 20+ years I’ve been running music blogs for the likes of AOL Music, doing admin work for independent music publicists, writing metal trivia on Twitter, and helping folks send out email newsletters.
All that to say - I write Social Media Escape Club to help any creative person reach their audience with email newsletters and websites because this has been my mission for over two decades now - if more bands and artists and photographers and writers do well, WE ALL WIN, and I just wanna help you win.
Let’s go.
Seth
Craig Lewis of Running Tales left a comment recently, and I wanted to answer it for everybody so we all benefit (though I did post a note about it here):
How do you practically make that move to talking to those closer to you/simply putting out quality content if no-one is seeing/interacting with it?
If you never post on socials etc, no-one ever sees what you do. If you have an audience already, it’s cool to get stuff out to them and they will hopefully do you a good turn and shout about it for you.
But if you’re still building an audience… back to shouting into the void?
Imagine you play the game, and you get 100 new followers on whatever social media platform. Big win!
But the next time you post something, only 10-20% will see it (probably).
That’s 10-20 people - out of that 100!
This is why getting “just” 10 new email subscribers is worth celebrating - because you can actually reach them!
So, where do you find those ten people?
They’re in your DMs, or Discords, Messages - send them a link to one of your latest posts in a cool and chill way
If you sell something online, you have email addresses! Send them a link to subscribe (DON’T just add them to your list, let them opt-in)
There are people you talk to every day who have no idea you even have a newsletter (I’ve been doing this one for 2.5 years and some friends still have no idea)
You can collaborate with someone and make something together, expanding your work to a new audience.
Ask to be a guest on a podcast (via
)Take online courses relevant to your field and expand your network of cool people
Start your own online video chats (like Raz from Running Sucks), or Discord hang outs, or streams based on things adjacent to what you do and build a community (musicians do this a lot with video game streams)
These ideas require some thought to get your point across in a way that feels good.
It’s hard work.
But it ain’t “make video content that you hate doing four times a week” hard.
That said, it’d be way easier to forget all this Social Media Escape Club nonsense and upload a new piece of content to social media and get that dopamine rush when it gets four likes in the next 10 minutes.
This is how social media rots our brains.
They’ve convinced us that the only way to market our work is by using their platforms, every one of them optimized to get you to spend more time using their products.
Do you have time for more unpaid work?
Are posts not doing well? Try a carousel (which is more images you have to make).
Are carousels not working? Try making short-form videos!
No, thanks.
The power lies in our networks, our communities, our scenes - things that social media has done its best to rattle apart, but they still exist.
“Are we so powerless to change the current situation that we sit back and hope somebody else fixes everything?
And then what? That person will sell the company to a Nabisco+Tide hedge fund subsidiary, and we’ll be back where we started.
Maybe centralized kingdoms of power and influence aren’t the answer.”
Here’s an example: every week, a friend of mine emails creative people he sees making things he enjoys.
He’ll cold email the person who did lighting on a music video he saw on YouTube, or the person who edited a great essay.
No agenda, no pitch, just an appreciative note to say good job, keep it up.
Does it lead to work? Sometimes, but most often it doesn’t.
Did I mention this friend has a Grammy and an Emmy award?
And he’s not on social media anymore, either.
Don’t just follow other cool artists; BECOME FRIENDS. Creative partners. Support one another. There is strength in our collective magic.
Make cool stuff, and show it to your friends in casual ways without social media.
Get to work.
GOOD QUOTES
Share the work of other artists and creative individuals in spaces like this.
“I’m saving 10+ hours a week by not having to bend over backwards to feed the algorithms and respond to comments.”
Louise Stigell from ‘Quitting social media didn't ruin my career’
“When I was her editor, Dolly Parton said to me “write this down and tack it above your desk: If I don’t tell them who I am and what I’ve done, how the hell will they know.”
Elissa Altman via Substack Notes (I have a post in the works about this, with video)
“Complaining about how things are won’t change a thing. Community and a cause can.”
Scott Perry from ‘How To Be & Do More & Better’
“We are the creative professionals who base our entire careers on making things look interesting. Why would we stop with our branding, our collateral material, and – for the love of God – our website?
Don Giannatti from ‘Beware the Circle of FUBAR, This Quick Way to a Miserable End Seems Like a Surprise, But It Shouldn't Be’
“Find people who inspire you and create dope shit together.“
Jesse Nyberg from ‘Creatives Need Community’
I’m Seth Werkheiser. You can support my writing by becoming a paid subscriber (click for more info). Write me, fight me: hey@sethw.xyz
Build a network of good people instead of shouting into the void