Facebook rather (over)excitedly told me yesterday that it was our ten year anniversary. I had been on Facebook for ten years. Which means I've been blogging for slightly longer, and tweeting for slightly less.
In this decade of social media I've seen many creative endeavors evolve and grow.
There was the rise of the blog becoming a book deal. The film Julie and Julia (one of my favourites) came about because of Julie Powell's blog. Or we have the Belle de Jour blog which became a book and, later, a TV series with Billie Piper.
Back then social media was used to chat. 'Water cooler' chatting. Writers, working on their own all day, would come together to compare word counts and commiserate or celebrate accordingly.
Blogs were like diaries. A place to share writing. A place to be anonymous or to share projects.
It was a creative space.
Then social media became the way to get spotted. Vlogs brought people fame and fortune. Book deals, appearances on TV, advertising deals. And Twitter and Facebook became more business-like. The term influencer was coined and fees for tweets or Instagram pictures began to soar.
Tweets became pictures, links and gifs. Instagram introduced video, boomerangs and stories.
And then we got promoted tweets, adverts in the sidebar, sponsored blog posts and sponsored Instagram posts.
Each time they made changes users would adapt and use the new tools to further their creativity.
Bloggers realised they had a captive audience. They'd worked hard on this audience by being creative and were frustrated with brands worth millions only paying them in 'exposure'. They (rightly) started to charge.
Blogging conferences started to bring these people together.
And people were still finding their audience. Their accounts would grow, they'd be spotted by brands, or publishers, or production companies. It was an exciting time.
Then these social media companies brought in algorithms and suddenly, almost overnight, we - those who are trying to create an online platform for our small business, our creativity, our writing - saw our audience shrink.
Now it is becoming that much harder to promote ourselves and our work. Not impossible but harder. We can spend hours on a creative project, only for tumbleweed to blow across our screens when we post it.
This could be on Twitter, on Facebook (especially Facebook), on Youtube and Instagram. Even Pinterest now has an algorithm.
I am as frustrated with the algorithms as many. There's a knock on effect. People are turning to bots to grow their accounts. And creativity is stifled as creatives go for tried and tested pictures rather than experimenting.
Because of the algorithms we're told to grow our email lists. It's really important to capture everyone's emails as this data belongs to you and not to Facebook, or Snapchat or Twitter.
The thing is if everyone online has an email list the audience will (eventually) get fed up with being inundated or being sold to in their inbox all the time and they'll unsubscribe.
That's because the next big thing in blogging is courses. Teaching people what you know. Charging (sometimes) over a thousand dollars with promises of beating the algorithm, finding an audience, and bringing in money 'on autopilot'.
I've taken two paid courses. One was extremely overpriced but did help me in some ways. But in other ways I think it may have harmed my vision, my online brand. I was told to niche down, so I did. Only write about what your audience wants to read about, make it as specific as possible. So I did.
And in my effort to please my audience I stopped pleasing myself.
It stifled my creativity. Just because that route worked for the course provider didn't make it right for me.
But the other course I'm taking is based on creativity. It encourages me to ignore the Instagram algorithm and experiment with new ideas. Courses like that are ace.
Incidentally, I am not knocking courses in general (or working with brands for that matter. Advertising is another way of being creative.). I think it's amazing that many women are becoming entrepreneurial and thinking of ways to share their skills, make money and support their families.
Like I have an issue with algorithms stifling creativity I'm also frustrated with being told to do something a certain way just because it worked for someone else.
This advice is creating an online space of clones.
There isn't just one way.
And if you're told taking a particular course will gain you thousands of pounds in a month, or hundreds of followers in a week, then be wary.
Because it won't.
So, what's my point?
I guess it's this: don't follow the herd. Allow yourself to create. Develop your skills. Don't think you have to go in a certain direction because everyone online is telling you to. Listen to your gut. And don't just follow these get rich promises blindly.
Creating a creative business online is not something that happens overnight. It takes time, patience, experimenting and sometimes getting things wrong.
As an example here are three women who, I think, are doing it in their own creative way. (And, incidentally, all three have courses and at least two work with brands.)
Dominique from All That is She (her Instagram account is gorgeous at the moment)
Sara from Me & Orla (I'm currently taking her Bloom & Grow course).
Naomi from Naomi Loves
