Finding Your Audience

Find your niche, consider your audience, use relevant keywords, focus on your pillars, is what all the expert advice for creators seems to say. After taking creating seriously for over a year now, all this advice is easier said than done. How do multi-dimensional, multi-passionate people narrow their audiences down to fit a few words? But the better question is why should we? Mothers are also daughters, daughters are also wives, wives are also writers, writers are also fitness enthusiasts, fitness enthusiasts are also musicians, and the cycle goes on.

Posting on social media used to mean the world was your stage that is, until the algorithm came along. For Facebook that was somewhere around 2009 and for Instagram, 2016. As always there’s two sides to every coin, and the benefits of the algorithm are sold to us as ease in finding what interests us most, helping us build community faster. But in reality our scrolling habits are just data, data to be used in the latest money making machine and your thumb is the key investor. Once the men in charge (yes, look it up, they are all men) realized how much money can be made off subscriptions, advertisements, and data monetization, they gave birth to a new job market. At first, for many this sounded like an exciting opportunity, but then quickly we realized it’s just another avenue for burnout.

Since I could first remember, the one lesson my mother consistently engrained in me was to find what I love and find how to do it for a living. The only trouble was I loved so much and I wanted to to do it all. Which is probably why I loved the Myspace era so much, because of how it blended everything I enjoyed from music, photography, art, writing, and connection. But also maybe because it was for the love of fun and not for the love of money or validation.

Creating content is just a small piece of my journey and I’ve loved sharing it with others. Similarly, I love hearing about others’ journeys and not just the one’s with largest followings or the ones highest incomes. So the question will always remain should I be working to make an algorithm like me or people like me? And out of all the things I love should I prioritize what makes the most money?

For me, authenticity will always be the name of the game. Especially in the age of growing artificial intelligence, the most authentic will stand out on top. We can already spot glimpses of it. Every now and then something new will slip through the cracks of the algorithm and its not like anything we’ve seen before and we “heart” it and we don’t know why but we want more of it.

If you were hoping for some real advice on getting started this is all I have for you… A year into this new creative venture and I’ve decided to take the “scenic route” as I do with most things, and stay present, enjoy the ride and don’t fixate on the outcomes. Granted I’m conscious of what my goals are but how I get there will make itself clear as the journey goes on. If you’ve ever wanted to begin creating for purpose or creating for fun, take this as your sign to get started. Your audience will make more sense once you see who your message resonates with or maybe you’ll end up not giving a damn whose watching anyway. Just remember the more we consume and the less we create, the more we have the formats and styles of others embedded in our brains before we even realize “Simpsons did it”.

Until next time <3

Melissa Marin, July 27th