If social media disappeared tomorrow, what would you do?

I posed this question to my Threads account today, and it’s been my most commented-on post in a long time.

For the most part, the replies were from artists and other creatives, but I got a lot of responses from people outside of my follower list, many with no attachment to creative business, which brought a wide range of ideas.

Some clowns talked about sandwich boards and inflatable floppy men like you see at car dealerships. A bunch also talked about billboards, bus benches, and traditional media like television and newspapers.

A significant amount talked about going back to blogging and newsletters, which is where I’m leaning, even if social media isn’t going away yet.

The most interesting part of this social experiment is that even though I didn’t mention anything about places to sell the work, many people immediately went into a more analog approach to selling their goods.

I never mentioned online shopping going away, but people assumed that if social media were gone, there would be the opportunity to sell online. I think that’s fascinating.

What’s more fascinating is how many people recognize that there are several alternatives to selling and sharing their work, but they remain reliant on social media to communicate with their fans and followers and sell their goods.