If Your Followers Don’t See Your Posts, Where Can They Find You?
I’ve noticed that I’m not seeing posts from people I deliberately chose to follow.
It may be happening to you too. You open social media, scroll through your feed and realise the people you genuinely want to hear from are nowhere to be found.
That got me thinking about how much we rely on social media to connect us with our audience. If we aren’t seeing posts from people we follow, we can’t assume our followers are seeing everything we share either.
Followers don’t guarantee visibility
We can build an audience on Instagram or Facebook, but the platform still decides which posts appear in each person’s feed.
Someone may have followed you because they like your art or want to hear more from you. That doesn’t mean the platform will show them your next post. This is why follower numbers don’t tell the whole story. You may have an audience on paper without having a reliable way to reach them.
The question then becomes: where are you asking people to go next?
Marketplaces are useful, but they aren’t your home
Perhaps you send someone directly to a product on Etsy or Spoonflower. There is nothing wrong with that. These platforms make it easier to sell products and can introduce your work to customers who wouldn’t otherwise find you. The problem comes when somebody else’s platform is the only place your audience can find you.
You may be able to see that somebody clicked a link, but you often know very little about what happened afterwards. They might look at the product, become distracted or find another seller through the marketplace.
You have sent them somewhere useful, but you haven’t necessarily created an ongoing connection.
Your website can become the home base
Your own website gives people somewhere to learn more about your work. They can view your artwork, read your stories and explore the products or services you offer. You can also use website analytics to understand which pages people visit and where your overall traffic is coming from. It doesn’t need to begin as an enormous website. A simple one-page site on your own domain can give people a clear place to find you and decide what to do next.
You can still send them to Etsy, Spoonflower or another marketplace when they are ready to buy. The difference is that your website becomes the starting point rather than somebody else’s platform.
An email list gives people another way to hear from you
Your website can also invite visitors to join your email list. They may sign up to receive your stories, download something useful or hear about new artwork before you share it elsewhere. Once they have chosen to join, you are no longer depending entirely on a social media feed to reconnect you.
Email platforms also provide information about opens and clicks, although those figures have their limitations. More importantly, your subscribers have actively asked to hear from you. You can send an email directly instead of hoping an algorithm puts your post in front of them.
Social media can lead somewhere
This doesn’t mean abandoning social media or refusing to use established marketplaces. They all have a role. Social media can help people discover you. Your website can help them understand what you do, while your email list gives them a way to remain connected. The aim is to make sure your work doesn’t disappear completely when a platform changes what it shows.
If you’d like to see how I use my own email list, you can join Stories from the Dotty Side here:
https://jodraper.au/stories-from-the-dotty-side
If social media stopped showing your posts tomorrow, where would your audience be able to find you?
