Social Media & Makers; Why Am I Here?

Posted on by Samantha Ziegenfuß

Following an interview I did on my last blog post (find it here) I was left with some pretty big questions for myself.

One of which is this; why am I sharing my art, cards, etc on social media?

I think that this is an important question we all need to ask ourselves. Why are we doing this?

I feel that when you know your ‘why’ it can help direct you in being intentional with how you go about doing (or not doing) things on social media.

My ‘why’ is several things:

I want to connect with others; to make friends, to be inspired.

I want to share my work with other people; to inspire them, to make them laugh, but mostly to connect with them.

I want to have opportunities to work with companies and other artists.

I want to grow as an artist.

These are my ‘whys’.

There are many others that may be motivating you or others you know:

  • Fame
  • Financial gain
  • Likes
  • Attention
  • Opportunity
  • Community
  • For the heck of it
  • For fun
  • Because they just want to
  • On a dare
  • Popularity

I’m sure you can think of other reasons why.

Now that I know my reasons I can be intentional about the things I want to accomplish.

As to my goal of connecting with people I just realized that I’ve already done quite a bit, not even knowing that that was my motivation: I’ve started this blog, I’ve started taking part in the #thursday3 in which you take a selfie and share 3 things (although it makes me feel extremely vulnerable doing it 😬), and I’ve also started trying to strike up conversations with my posts and in the comments of my posts.

I want to connect with others. Knowing that that is a reason why I’m on social media enables me to be intentional about trying to meet that motivation.

As for inspiring others with my work, I’m not so sure that that’s something I have a lot of control over. Sometimes I’ll make something I am crazy about but it won’t get much engagement. Then the next time I’ll make something I like but maybe don’t care as much about (I know you’ve got things you’ve made that you feel the exact same way about!) and it will get tons of engagement. I think that people like what they like and if they happen to like something I share- cool. I refuse to make things I don’t like just because I think other people will like them.

I want to work with companies and artists. That is another reason why. I don’t want to do it to be famous or well known. I want to do it because I enjoy getting to work alongside really talented people and I especially love bringing some attention to smaller companies (I also love getting free & discounted supplies to feed my habit hobby!)

I think the best feeling for me is when someone tells me they spit their coffee out after seeing my card because it made them laugh or when they say that they get excited when they see my ‘warning: will post card in the comments’ post show up in their news feed on Facebook.

It makes me happy knowing I made someone laugh or smile. Connection.

Lastly, I share because I feel that doing so helps me grow artistically. When I see the beautiful things others make it inspires me to branch outside my comfort zone and try something a bit different. Sharing my work online is a bit like keeping a digitalized museum 🤔

Things to remember:

  • Think about why you’re sharing your artwork on social media.
  • What do you want to gain?
  • Think of ways to achieve those things which are motivating you.
  • Be intentional about working towards meeting your reasons why.

Until next time,

Cats, bats, giant rats,

Samantha

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8 thoughts on “Social Media & Makers; Why Am I Here?”

  1. So, I don’t know how old this post is… I don’t see a way to sign up to follow this blog by email and I don’t see a date for this post. I follow your other blog and remembered you were doing this series so I’m trying to catch up. I think your motives for sharing are all understandable and admirable. You can tell when someone is just doing it for fame or attention. Not that those things are inherently bad, but if that was all you wanted you will either burn out or become bi-polar depending on how many likes your last post had. I originally started my blog cause I thought I wanted to be on a DT. Instant crafty friends, free or discounted product, exposure… what’s not to like? I’ll tell you, deadlines and restrictions are a mojo killer for me. I can get a card done in time for someone’s birthday, but I CAN NOT get a generic project done in time for a challenge, much less a blog hop or release date. The more important the deadline, the harder it is for me to get my crap together. Frustrating, but at least I know my limitations. I’m disappointed that the year I posted frequently and entered challenges (and was grumpy as hell about it) that I never developed any crafty friendships or camaraderie. The only commentors were by 1 friend I’ve had forever (she’s obligated) and the also obligated members of the challenge design teams to thank me for participating. Blogging is more time consuming than anyone would imagine, especially if you are trying to keep up with challenges, due dates, linking back, or the craziness of product linking. Now I just post an occasional project when I’m genuinely inspired by a challenge, or for those have-to holidays or family cards. I craft more frequently than that, but mostly creating backgrounds or stamping and coloring images to use later. Keeps me sane, but doesn’t give me anything significant to post about. I wish I could find a local group of ladies to get crafty with. I won’t necessarily be more productive, but it would satisfy the goal of making crafty friendships. My real life friends don’t get artsy at all :-(

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    1. Hi! If you download the WordPress app there should be a follow option. Other than that I will go into my settings and see if I can tweak things to get the follow by email option working. Thank you for letting me know that you were having an issue with that.
      As for the dating of the posts I have no idea how to do that 😂
      Oh for sure, those deadlines are brutal! I find that I will put things off and then am having to rush like a mad woman to get it all done. But that somehow works for me. Definitely does not work for most people.
      I really dislike crafty tutorial blogging.
      This blog I like because it’s meaningful to me. It’s writing with a purpose and writing to express myself and to connect.
      Writing blog post tutorials is very time consuming and tedious. The linking, the photo editing 😑
      A crafty friend is one of life’s most treasured gifts imo. There is something very special that happens when you craft with others. Think back to quilting bees. Yes, there was the practicality of it but I really think that it must have been so special for those women to do something like that with other women.
      I often have crafty YouTube videos on while I’m crafting because then it’s like I’m crafting with a friend. 💚

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      Reply

        1. Do you have any favorite crafty YouTubers? I really love Tmika from Scrapdaworld, Katy of course from Hook, Line, and Inker, Jess from Matter of Crafts, Suganthi has a YouTube channel which I love to have on because she’s a crafting goddess and her accent is beautiful

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