I’m pretty good at coming up with excuses for not doing something. For not staying at my goal weight. For not working out. For not writing. There’s always some weak excuse or reason for not following through. I know I’m not alone in this.

The news on all the social media marketing blogs lately is all about Facebook’s announcement about the upcoming changes in users’ news feeds. They will now see fewer posts from pages they follow, (e.g., celebrities, businesses, media outlets, etc.) and more from their friends and families. The intent is to improve the individual user’s experience on Facebook, which might also lead them to spend less time on the platform because they don’t have to scroll as much to see content from their friends. This of course also affects bloggers and other entities like local musicians, all trying to extend their reach.

So Facebook’s announcement is a really good excuse for those struggling to get through to our readers and “fans” to just give up. Right? Maybe so.

But maybe it also just means we’re going to have to work that much harder to be seen, to be noticed. Maybe we’ll have to experiment with other channels. There’s still e-mail, although people already complain about getting too many emails and much of it goes right to the trash folder. There’s Twitter, but I’m not convinced anyone’s gone to my blog, or come to a show because a tweet inspired them to do so. Instagram might be a good option, but there’s a lot of competition for views there too, and of course, that’s owned by Facebook. Snapchat? Think I’m too old for that platform. Don’t really get it. YouTube is a good platform for musicians, but how do you get people to your videos? Does it come down to word of mouth?  I think so.

We may need to go back to the practice of asking our family and friends to share our content — if they like it of course. This is actually a little uncomfortable for me. I’m not very good at it. And there I go making excuses again. Gotta stop that.

So I’m going to publish this post and share it on the blog’s Facebook page. And then I’m going to share it with my friends and ask them to read it, let me know what they think, and then sign up to follow the blog. And share my posts if they like them. No more excuses.

Written for WordPress’s Finding Everyday Inspiration course. Day 7: Let Social Media Inspire You