I Thought They Said Leave Out Politics (and Religion)?

Even though it was more than six years ago, I can clearly remember sitting down for an on-location interview recording for my weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast.  After finishing and having hit the Stop button, I asked, “With the huge social media following that you’ve gotten, do you actually (have time to) look through all the likes and comments that you get?”

Sure, we all watch our follower counts closely.  And depending on your interest level, how much time you do (or don’t) have, and the volume of likes and comments you get (or lack thereof), you might look almost as closely at that engagement as you do the big number up top that we all want to see increase.

Social media experts would stop me here to argue that you should be putting the emphasis on the comments and responding back to those people, rather than just simply sitting back and watching to see if one more person tapped the Follow button overnight.  And yes, I get that, but let’s move on.

The thing is, in the context of this blog each week we talk about songwriters, recording artists, podcasters, and similar creators (yes, you too, YouTubers).

And that’s exactly what your social media account should be all about.

You want people to purchase your original music and come to your live shows.  The goal is to get more listeners for your podcast.  Your accounts are designed to push people over to watch your YouTube videos and hopefully subscribe to your channel.

So why risk that by not staying on the track and instead detouring to post off-brand content?

While, yes, of course, I realize that it’s a very polarizing topic, I have been amazed at how many creators have strayed off the path from what they usually post about (their newest song, the latest guest that was interviewed, an unboxing video) to instead give their thoughts about the elections.  After all, I thought it has always been said that the two things you don’t talk about are politics and religion?

Let’s face it, the harsh reality is, we are all competing for social media followers and engagement – and, by extension, listeners, viewers, fans of our music, our podcasts, our YouTube videos, and so on.  Why risk losing people by getting on your soap box about which candidate(s) you like and don’t like?

The number keeps going down of how few seconds we have to hook someone in with our social media content, namely videos, reels, TikToks, whichever word best fits the platform you are strongest on with posting.  I’m here to say that people will tap/click away even faster as soon as they can tell that you’re about to start lecturing them on who they should be backing.

In a way, it’s actually not too different from the singers that go on reality competition shows and watch their social media following go up and up the further that they get on the show, only to see the number drop and drop once they’re off the show and didn’t leverage their 15 minutes of fame and have quickly been forgotten about.  All that work for nothing, you might as well say.

So, with all the time and effort you have put into that part of your creator career – and let’s face it, countless people (particularly on my podcast) talk about how social media is a necessary evil – why would you jeopardize it by deciding to start making post after post after post about politics?

I do need to issue the disclaimer here that, sure, if that’s your thing, if your YouTube channel or your podcast is all about politics, then I get it.  Certainly, that’s what you’re going to be posting about regularly.

But notice above where I talked about being off brand.  If you are a blues singer that is known for your smoky voice and compelling lyrics that really create a mood, yet your Instagram account has turned into a place where you bash a political candidate ad nauseum, guess what?  I’m hitting the Unfollow button and can very easily hop over to the account of someone just as talented (musically) as you who sticks to posting about their music.

And before you say, “Good, I don’t want you and others like you here (on my account), then,” I’ll challenge you to this; if we differ on fast food versus healthy eating or root for sports teams that are rivals or feel that buying is better than renting, are you just as quick to kick us to the curb, then?

Keep in mind too, music creators and actors, that your posts are being seen by the very same people you’re hoping will book you.  Do you think they want to invite controversy in?

This is risk/reward stuff here, folks.  You need to look deeply and then honestly answer why people care what you think about a political race.  (Hint: They don’t.  They turn to established news sources for that.)

You can express your dissatisfaction to your spouse, significant other, best friend, family member, next door neighbor, or someone else where you can get it off your chest in-person.  Otherwise, when you look at your follower count and see the number plummeting, the only person you should look to then is the one looking back at you in the mirror.

For twenty years I have been helping indie music artists, authors, actors, entrepreneurs, podcasters, filmmakers, small business owners, and more.  What challenges are you having in your creator career that I can lend some insight to?  Let’s get on a short call together so you can take advantage of all my experience, and I can help and keep you moving forward.