Leap Over the Rabbit Hole

This is 'Grow 1%', the short weekly newsletter with tips to improve your social media strategy by 1%. Subscribe so it gets delivered to your inbox!

And apologies for being a day late on this edition! I'll make it up to you by keeping this newsletter free!

Building valuable audiences on social media has a unique problem:

You're on a platform designed to make you consume while you're struggling to create.

The result? A lot of people on social media start with 'research' and two hours later, can't figure out why they're watching videos about UFO sightings in Malaysia.

They fall down the dreaded rabbit hole.

rabbit hole (noun) · rabbit holes (plural noun)

used to refer to a bizarre, confusing, or nonsensical situation or environment, typically one from which it is difficult to extricate oneself

And remember, social media platforms are designed for this. Their goal: get you to stay on as long as possible and engage with relevant ads based on the data gathered about you.

Rabbit holes are incredible for social platforms.

But as a productive social media creator looking to grow 1% today, how do you avoid rabbit holes?

Three tips I use:

1. Limit research time with an actual timer. Okay, I'm going to write a post about rabbit holes today. Let me see what else is written on the subject...for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, my alarm will sound, and I will have as much information as I need on the subject, lest I end up watching a 75-minute documentary on actual rabbit burrows.
2. Create off-platform. I didn't write this in a LinkedIn editor. And I don't write tweets on Twitter. I don't even edit TikToks in TikTok (sans a few killer features like adding music). When I go on social platforms, I'm on a mission. When I'm creating, I'm in Google Docs, Sheets, Premiere, or Photoshop. Why not avoid the temptation to scroll?
3. Never quit quitting doomscrolling. Dopamine is addictive like nicotine, heroin, or just completing one more quest in Skyrim. You will slip. That's okay. But get practiced at checking in on yourself: Are you still having fun? Are you using social media to procrastinate? Is this video worth your attention? I now do this in my mind approximately ever five minutes on social media, and it helps me swipe off the app and go try to be a good father.

Ultimately, our responsibility is to keep social media as healthy as possible for ourselves and others.

And there's a capitalist case for this, too: healthier social media = healthier audience = less regulatory scrutiny, more purposeful audiences for your handles, and an all-around happier world!

So my mission for you: if you have the feature activated on your smart phone that tracks your social media usage, check it out (on the iPhone, just search for Screen Time).

Now look at the time on your most-used social media platform (YIKES!)

Then ask yourself: how much of this made me happy/productive and how much was I falling down a rabbit hole?

Then, adjust appropriately.

That took 2 minutes. You have 8 minutes left. Now climb out of this LinkedIn rabbit hole and go grow 1% right now!

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About the Author

Phil Ranta, is the COO of Fixated, a content and gaming studio building IP around creators, a LinkedIn Top Voice in Innovation & Tech, and has been creating content for the internet and building internet businesses professionally for nearly 20 years, starting on MySpace and riding trends to the present. He was the Head of Gaming Creators, North America at Facebook, the first network lead at Fullscreen, the COO at Studio71, and spent 10 years as a working comedian (including 2 years on cruise ships). He's a husband, a dad of two littles, and an insufferable digital media wonk.

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