SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE FOOD COURT AT THE MALL AND THE LANDLORD SUCKS

Time to set up your own shop and build relationships directly with your fans

Photo by Kamizzle

Linda Bloomfield ran #OpportunityTuesday on Twitter since 2018.
Then she told her 16.5K followers “I’m moving this to a newsletter,” and 1,200 people subscribed.

Tegan and Sara started a newsletter earlier this year, and they promote it to their 544K Twitter followers usually twice a week.

Tegan and Sara @teganandsara

For years people have been yelling “Superstar” at our shows (it’s like our Freebird). What most people don’t know is most bands have a set list and almost nothing will make them veer from it mid-show. Why? I get into it on Substack this week:

teganandsara.substack.comHow To Craft a Set List and Why!Listen now (18 min) | It’s harder than it looks.

Paid subscriptions on their Substack start at $6/mo, and they have thousands of paying readers.

“A lot of the writing and connection that we crave, it just doesn’t exist on social media anymore,” Tegan says. “Social media has become this super curated, very flat-feeling world for us. So Sara and I were hesitant as we looked into the future with all our projects, like, ‘How do we promote these things without feeling disingenuous?’”

They’re not repurposing the newsletter content for socials. For what? To gain more followers they can’t reach?

No.

They publish a story, they link to it. Subscribers get it delivered to their email inbox.

The same inbox where fans get email receipts from records and concert tickets they buy.

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Look, you command a room, and you command your narrative online.

So lead your fans.

Lead them to your website. Show them your newsletter.

Not all your fans hang out at the food court at the mall anymore, subsisting on a diet of pizza, smoothies, and chicken nugget outrage.

Social media is the food court at the mall, where your posts appear next to sports news and racist tirades, and the landlord keeps raising the rent.

It’s time to leave the food court at the mall.

Your art is your restaurant.

You set the menu and you set the hours. You adjust the lights, the atmosphere and the vibes are up to you.

I can’t get handle the food anymore on social media, so I started Social Media Escape Club, because I can’t live on milkshakes and fries anymore.

Let’s all stop hanging out at the food court at the mall every day and start thinking about our Social Media Escape Plan.

Time to upgrade to a paid subscription here on Substack and help support my work!

You could also buy me a coffee via Ko-Fi, Venmo (@Seth-Werkheiser), Cash App ($ethwerkheiser), or PayPal.