first, i am not very notable so don’t bother trying to determine who i am lol. i am very close to 100,000 followers—just to demonstrate my minor success and relevancy to the topic.
i hate every algorithm-driven video sharing app. they are absolutely fantastic for the consumer; finding their likes and interests and exploiting them, but terrible if you are a creator whose content others regularly consume. i struggle to be seen by 10% of my audience. most days i wont crack beyond 400 views. Four hundred. And you might be thinking that’s 400 of my audience; maybe some new people in there as well, so at least a few are coming back regularly… right? no lol. according to my analytics, about 98% of my viewers are not following me. they’re from recommend pages and outside of my followers.
…so… what the hell? these people followed me because they wanted to see what i had to make. these companies are keeping viewers distracted with their recommended feed so they never check out who they’re following and only consume whatever the algorithm demands be seen. 2% of my audience are followers. that’s about it. i’ve seen it as high as 3% but never beyond.
i make content because i genuinely enjoy it and always will do it. i love the art of comedy and spreading laughter. i want a big audience to make more people happy. truly, i primarily create for myself as personal enrichment. the money aspect is enticing and makes me long for a chance at making this work professionally.
but it’s so unreliable… these algorithms are not rewarding, and they will zap you of your humanity and creativity. the cash i’m paid is like a reward i get for playing their game. it isn’t something i earn. i happened to do it their way accidentally to my benefit and theirs.
good boy 🙄
i am on TikTok and Shorts, so yes, short-form videos. it is a huge problem over here and it suuuuuucks ass.
not yet but YouTube has its own headaches! lol
you aren’t wrong. they know what you like very, very well. it’s disturbing. but if i’m gonna be forced into this dystopia can an online comedian get a little break here, eh???
ahhhhh i’m sorry to hear it. Those spaces are so calcified these days. Used to be that anyone with a half-decent online presence could break through as a creator, so online entertaining had that grassroots advantage over traditional venues and broadcast platforms. These days, it kind of feels like we’ve ended up right back where we started: platforms are dominated by the most popular (or most wealthy) entertainers, and everyone else is fighting like crabs in a barrel in the hopes that they’ll get lucky and break through.
I guess that’s a half-decent motivation to try making a name for yourself in your local community? It seems to me that creators that do break through do so by becoming popular in their local community first. People love to find a new, local comedian that they vibe with - it’s a source of local pride. You build connections and get exposed to new audiences that never would have found you on TikTok. I don’t know if you have any disability or other physical barriers to achieving that, but if not, and you aren’t already doing open mics or whatever, that could be one way to go?
i can’t travel for open mics, unfortunately. however, i tried stand-up once and hated it. i did decently but was terrified the whole time and couldn’t think straight or focus. i’d rather not feel that way again. online is where i feel safest. it’s okay, it is what it is. the entertainment industry has always been bullshit on top of bullshit. this is nothing new, just a shittier way for capitalists to get what they want our of artists.