I’m sure many of us have spent a little extra time on our phones this year. Whether this be for consuming or nurturing your online audience, we can all afford to practice fostering a healthy relationship with our online world. We have put together some tips below to consider, and help you remain a conscious scroller; remember, as important as building an online community can be, it does not replace the outside world.

Keep your ‘following’ list tip top.

Social media isn’t about being polite, and although it can be nice to ‘follow back’ the people that follow you, it’s more important that you fill your feed with things that inspire you. Social media is a portal and you can choose where that takes you. One of the biggest mistakes we all make is allowing ourselves to be sucked into ‘comparison mode’, and letting this overtake us. Sitting and comparing yourself to others can be the quickest way to diminish creativity. By being ruthless with who you follow and keeping a tight-knit feed, you’ll soon find that opening up your apps excites and spurs you on.

Remember that you’re a fan too!

When focusing on your own art it can be easy to forget that you are a fan too! Make sure to engage with the people you admire; comment, share and respond to what they’re putting out. Keeping an eye on the new things that are coming out around you will remind of how your audience feel when you release something. Help them out by saving any interesting posts you see, and if you’re in need of a boost, you can refer back to these later! 

Switch off.

Although social media can feel like a window into all the exciting new things that are happening around you, it is worth practicing taking breaks from time to time; failure to do so may result in seeing social media as your only reality, which it just isn’t. No one expects you to stay abreast with trends 24/7, and it is really important to take in the physical world around you. Letting people know that you will be taking a week or so off social media is a completely healthy way to manage your relationship with it. If this is out of the question, an afternoon or evening can do the trick. 

Assess which apps are eating up your attention.

We ALL have at least 1 app that takes priority of our attention. The worst part about this? After scrolling for 5-10 minutes we have probably seen everything we need to, but does this stop us from scrolling mindlessly for another hour or so? Nope! That vicious cycle is the worst, and without identifying and highlighting where our downfalls are we may find that we are slowly allowing ourselves to get addicted to our phones. Combat this by addressing which accounts are draining your time, and set a limit on how long you can use them for. Most phones will allow you to set time limits on app usage now, so there’s no excuse. 

Set aside time to research and catch up on what’s new. 

Social media isn’t always about ‘liking’ and ‘commenting’ on posts; it is a really useful research tool. Make sure to set yourself some time aside each week to actively research and catch up on things you find interesting. Read blogs, watch sessions, interviews, the news.. anything that takes your fancy! Just don’t fall into a black hole of scrolling mindlessly. By practicing this each week you may start to form a new/ healthier relationship with your device.

Join community based groups.

There are so many platforms around such as Patreon, Kickstarter, Disciple, even Facebook groups, or Soundcloud and Bandcamp, that have a heavy focus on creating a community. Many of these spaces draw in like-minded people and can be a great way to gain support as an artist, or if you’re a fan, reward you with exclusive content. Again, it works both ways, if you are a musician or an artist yourself, make sure to check out what other people in your community are doing. Helping out with a Kickstarter or subscribing to a fellow artist’s Patreon will give you ideas for your own content and by supporting them, you may receive their support in return, win win!

You don’t have to be ‘good’ at all social media platforms!

It is so easy to get caught in a trap of spreading yourself thinly on all social media platform. Most of us will have 1 or 2 that we are more active on, so why not stick to nurturing those spaces? If you are new to the online world, it’s completely okay to test out a few different apps and work out where your audience are; once you get a good feel for what’s working, hone in on the places that are generating most of your connections. 

If you have any ideas for us or would like to discuss any of these further, please feel free to reach out, we love to hear from you! Email us: info@laidbaremusic.com