The VOTE411 Virtual Launch Party is tomorrow, which means I'll be doing some live videos, my mom will be doint at least one video, and while it doesn't really matter, I feel a bit of pressure to promote this and be engaging and get people interested.
I recently realized that my posts on my personal page were getting less engagement. And when I'd mention something to a friend ("What you went to ___ and didn't invite me???" "I put it up on Facebook and you didn't say you were interested." "I didn't even see it!"), I realized that my posts weren't getting seen at all. Either my friends were unfollowing me or Facebook wasn't showing me because they weren't interested in the majority of what I was posting.
And what was that majority? Political stuff, naturally. Things I felt were important, things that people should know and care about. Things my friends simply don't.
Since I am a manipulative person, instead of just shrugging it off and continuing to do me, I intentionally started trying to share funny moments from daily life. (So far this has been pretty effective, btw.) But after a few posts, I realized I seemed to only have one inspiration for humor lately: Orion.
I love my son, and I love being his mom, but I never wanted his identity to eclipse my own. I wanted "mom" to be one of my titles, not the first and foremost of them. I don't ever want to introduce myself as "Orion's mom" the way some people do that seems to indicate that their own name is entirely beside the point.
And in my day-to-day life I don't think that's a concern. When I talk to friends, the baby doesn't come up unless they ask.
What does come up is business. Or politics. And that's where the problem is. I'm not very multi-faceted right now. I have work, hobby (League of Women Voters aka politics), and Orion. I do still read books occasionally, but unless someone is into fantasy, my topics of choice are just a little too serious.
So yeah. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm trying to entertain and I'm just not very entertaining right now. My son is hilarious. But "my child is so funny" only hits a certain audience, so if I want to manipulate more people into seeing my "let's save the world" posts, then I need the majority of posts to appeal a little more broadly.
I'm honestly tempted to come up with a content schedule, which tells you how far gone I am into the business/marketing hole. You shouldn't have to market yourself, as an individual person. You should be able to just be you. But I think the idea of having a trouble private Facebook account that's just people I care about has long since disappeared. My networking acquaintances have been creeping in since day one, and now there's league people, and total strangers who want to engage me in business or nonprofit opportunities.
So I might just roll with it and treat my personal account as a "personal brand" the way some people do. I mean, if it's online and shared with 100s of people, was it ever really "personal" anyway?
I recently realized that my posts on my personal page were getting less engagement. And when I'd mention something to a friend ("What you went to ___ and didn't invite me???" "I put it up on Facebook and you didn't say you were interested." "I didn't even see it!"), I realized that my posts weren't getting seen at all. Either my friends were unfollowing me or Facebook wasn't showing me because they weren't interested in the majority of what I was posting.
And what was that majority? Political stuff, naturally. Things I felt were important, things that people should know and care about. Things my friends simply don't.
Since I am a manipulative person, instead of just shrugging it off and continuing to do me, I intentionally started trying to share funny moments from daily life. (So far this has been pretty effective, btw.) But after a few posts, I realized I seemed to only have one inspiration for humor lately: Orion.
I love my son, and I love being his mom, but I never wanted his identity to eclipse my own. I wanted "mom" to be one of my titles, not the first and foremost of them. I don't ever want to introduce myself as "Orion's mom" the way some people do that seems to indicate that their own name is entirely beside the point.
And in my day-to-day life I don't think that's a concern. When I talk to friends, the baby doesn't come up unless they ask.
What does come up is business. Or politics. And that's where the problem is. I'm not very multi-faceted right now. I have work, hobby (League of Women Voters aka politics), and Orion. I do still read books occasionally, but unless someone is into fantasy, my topics of choice are just a little too serious.
So yeah. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm trying to entertain and I'm just not very entertaining right now. My son is hilarious. But "my child is so funny" only hits a certain audience, so if I want to manipulate more people into seeing my "let's save the world" posts, then I need the majority of posts to appeal a little more broadly.
I'm honestly tempted to come up with a content schedule, which tells you how far gone I am into the business/marketing hole. You shouldn't have to market yourself, as an individual person. You should be able to just be you. But I think the idea of having a trouble private Facebook account that's just people I care about has long since disappeared. My networking acquaintances have been creeping in since day one, and now there's league people, and total strangers who want to engage me in business or nonprofit opportunities.
So I might just roll with it and treat my personal account as a "personal brand" the way some people do. I mean, if it's online and shared with 100s of people, was it ever really "personal" anyway?
