The Social Media Exodus Experiment

Friends, I'm tired.

I spent the past 18 months focused on social media growth and reach. I'm not an influencer, by any means, and I thought I could get my little Instagram account to grow so I could tell the stories of working dogs. It was an UPHILL battle and I am tired. Image theft, the constant pressure to create content, the negative comments, the comparison of my work to other photographer's work... it was all too unpleasant and draining.

Even Simone Biles knew when she needed a break, and that's where I am. Social media can be a fun place to connect with people, but I feel like those days are over. The ads, the algorithm, the politics and the trolls are just sucking all of the fun out of social media. So, I am rebelling, for 30 days, at least. We'll see how this experiment goes. My brain may be perfectly happy to stay off of social media indefinitely. Who knows?

A New Beginning

Blogging isn't a new concept, it's been around since people started to write things down. I haven't utilized it much because I thought social media would do the work to find my people. (Zuck, you've let me down, man.)

This is the new home for all things dog related. I've even changed the name of this blog page to "The Dog Blog". If it's about a dog, I am going to talk about it. I don't have hard and fast plans, like every single business manager and coach has told me to create... it's just going to be my voice and my stories, authentic, real and probably not for everyone. AND...fortunately for me, I get to approve the comments! Ha! So, if someone comes at me about a working dog being "forced to do a job that he/she doesn't want to do and you should be ashamed of yourself for supporting this" I can CHOOSE to answer the comment or simply delete it. My Dog Blog. My rules. =)

As a side note: the podcast will continue to be posted on YouTube and, I suspect, I will find a way to utilize YouTube to enhance The Dog Blog. We'll see.

Going Forward

I believe there is a huge difference between "moving on" and "moving forward". Moving on indicates that something has been forgotten. That's not what I'm doing. I am moving forward, finding innovative ways to share the stories of working dogs without social media. It's going to be a challenge, that's for sure, but I've got over 30 years of self employment experience to guide me. There will be no email list, because I find them annoying. I hate it when my inbox is overflowing with solicitation emails. I do not want to contribute to that kind of intrusion into your email box.

How will you know I've created a new post? Well, I guess you'll have to come back here and check. If you are interested in the stories, you'll come back. If you're not, that's ok.

You don't need me to remind you that this Dog Blog is here.

As for the rest of it, I'm winging it. Maybe I'll fly!

Hugs to your dog!
Holly