It Costs Nothing to Support Another Business or Creator

It has been refreshing lately to see a few folks posting on social media about someone other than themselves or their own business.  And in this context, I’m not referring to people who are posting from a personal standpoint, meaning, sharing on, say, Instagram, a picture of an immediate family member.  (Although, to be sure, not that that doesn’t count for anything.)

I recently saw someone posting saying that it costs nothing to support someone else’s business.  This text was accompanied by a screenshot showing one person having hit the Like button on a long list of posts.  Never mind the argument that, “Well, if they’re supporting someone else, why are they going in and liking all those posts all at once instead of each and every time that the person posts.”

The fact here is that it’s so easy to get caught up in being the one creating our own posts and wanting everyone to engage with ours that the result is being stuck in receiver mode instead of being the giver.

Social media by its nature almost instigates the ego to where the feeling – perhaps subconscious – is, “I need to show everyone how great I am, how great I look, how great the things that I do are,” and so the deck is already stacked against us.

But rather than just the occasional, “Wow, you look great,” comment, how about the, “I always love what you share on here.  Keep up the great posts, (name).  I do see you/them!”

If you're reading this and thinking, “Oh, I do this every year on Small Business Saturday,” I have to hit the buzzer.  No.  Why just one time a year?  It shouldn’t take a special occasion for you to decide that that one time you’re going to publicly recognize someone that’s doing something good all year ‘round.



Someone that I know who is a bartender here in the greater Tampa Bay area was kind enough to offer to shout out what I’m doing, simply for following her.  In fact, she encourages others locally to do the same.  It’s disappointing how refreshing I found that to be because that implies that she is the exception to the rule.  Too many people are too busy focusing on themselves and wanting the spotlight rather than pointing it towards someone else.

Whether you believe in karma or not, what comes around does in fact go around.  If you put out negativity and selfishness, you can’t expect to get returns that are all sunshine and flowers.

The other part of this is thanking the people who DO go out of their way to notice what you’re doing.  I do this because I want people to know how sincere I am in my appreciation for them going out of their way to support me – even if it is “just” a nice comment on a social media post.  That means more to me than they know (I often tell them).


This all also goes back to that common refrain that you’ve heard from me over numerous episodes of my “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast and in posts here in my weekly blog.  The correct CO word is collaboration, not competition.  If you’re looking at someone’s social media account and intentionally not engaging with their posts because you don’t want them to get a lot of Likes, you’re operating from a combative posture instead of one from which we all need to help each other.

There’s a lot of bad things said about social media, and it has a pretty negative stigma attached to it, unfortunately.  The good news is, we can all do our part in turning the tide by using it to help prop each other up.

For close to 20 years, I’ve been helping indie music artists, authors, entrepreneurs, small business owners, creators, and more from around the United States.  I’d love to hear all about what you’re doing and see what I can lend to it.  Let’s have a call to talk about the challenges you’re facing so as to leverage all my years of experience to give you some guidance.  I’ll look forward to hearing from you.