I’ve invited the artist, sculptor and jewelry-maker Brenda Schweder to provide a few guest blog posts. Please enjoy. And please visit Brenda at https://brenda-schweder-found.myshopify.com or drop her a note to b@brendaschweder.com
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Going Viral
I’ll cut to the chase: I had an Instagram Reel [a short-form video, generically called a Tik-Tok] go viral this past week, reaching [as of the time of this writing] 2 million views!
For those who may not be as entrenched in Insta as this fanatic, all this metric means is that this social media platform [and its algorithm] has pushed your content out to accounts that it thinks will connect with it, keeping more people watching on their channel longer.
Basically, the goal is to garner attention [aka stop the scroll] and gather interactions: Likes, Comments, Shares and Direct Messages [DM’s] in order to build a brand or community, influence, advertise, and yes, get paid.
I’ve been reaching for this crowning IG achievement since the term-of-contagion meant something different than multiplying cells in a Petri dish and—as with any long-term goal—once it happened, I was at-once:
+ Dumb-founded: by the numbers and growth,
+ Mystified: analyzing the why’s and how’s for this particular content,
+ Giddy: this moment had been a loooooong time comin’…
And then:
+ HORRIFIED: that you’re ill-prepared to make the most of it!
So, with this reach came all manner of people. The:
+ Supporters: These peeps run the gamut. At best they’re hyper-fans bleeding your favorite color and wanting to take-in your already-breathed air. They wanna-be you, or be simply near you—preferably on your lap! Conversely—at tamest, they see something of themselves in you or simply cheer you on for the love of what you stand for, OR a faint whiff of something similar.
+ Trolls [Mean Sons-of-Guns]: I’d be lying if I said a few of these ignoramuses’ comments didn’t get under my skin. This segment becomes the hurt-people-hurt-forward type; I like to think of them as the sad clowns at the circus-come-to-town. And honestly/unfortunately, sometimes they’re fun to spar with, but you can always count of their wrath to be provocative, polarizing, and best of all, parlay into more content that rinse-recycles-repeats.
Now, in all honesty, I expected these first two groups and their output—after all, I’d had my nose in these online rabbit-holes for almost two decades.
But it’s this next group that both surprised and delighted! Maybe I’m a bit jaded at 62 or maybe social’s growing up a bit, but to me, they seem to have come outa’ nowhere. I’ll call them:
+ The Truly Curious: I gotta’ say, these Loves really turned my head. Like, wait!? Commenters actually caring to understand something they’d previously went all knee-jerk on?
Some earnestly asked for further definition, some wrote-it-out starting with one premise and swaying themselves to a much more open stance, and some? Well, it’s as if you could see their squinty terrible-two’s side soften to the loveliest shade of wide-eyed tolerance!
They made me want to [gently] explain; gave me pause, challenged me to better define my part of the discussion; and they [here’s where I get goose-bumps] OPENED DISCOURSE!
I wanted to simultaneously laugh, hug, and cry tears of hope!
And all from a 10-second video on a tiny account about weird-ass art jewelry!
well – when you open yourself up to any group small or large of people from wherever there any number of types of individuals who may choose to comment or view and do any number of things to catch your attention as you have caught their attention and so it is up to you at that point to continue on a develop a relationship or to drop the ball and simply do nothing
the choice is your as the responding to your post was theirs and so you could from the beginning not post and save yourself from being in this questionable situation or (since you did send out your post) continue n and see what there is to learn
that being said:
I just received a message on telegram from someone that I connected on LinkedIn with in April 2014
what this person has to say now – ten year later certainly peaks my interest if nothing else
You articulate so beautifully. No rambling or filling in content merely to extend an article. Reading what, and how, you wrote makes me want to write this comment, I think you could write about old fruit and turn it into an epic. Thank You truly for the inspiration. I’m tempted to tackle something myself.
Thank You for the inspiring article. You articulate beautifully.