What’s the Point... of Talent Without a Social Media Following?

 

You write so well. You sing so well. Your drawings are so beautiful. You are so talented. 

Your friends and family are your biggest fans. You’re one of the fortunate ones to have talent that you are certain will lead you to a bright future. So you put yourself out there, network, do the hard work, spend several hours a day honing your talent, only to be rejected repeatedly because you forgot to build a social media presence. 

In the modern world, not having a social media presence is a crime. You are supposed to be online most of the time and have several followers. Your posts should have instant likes and comments that you interact with. Only then can you call yourself relevant. 

Can’t hit all the right notes, but call yourself a singer? That’s okay because you have at least 10k followers and are growing. 

Your stand-up comic routine is hardly funny and is more controversial. At least you got the views, and over a hundred comments that say how bad you are. But your post has been engaged with, and that is all that matters. 

You can be a terrific storyteller, but while you were spending months working on your manuscript, you forgot to spend hours on social media, making reels or engaging posts. 

You could have had 100k followers if you had just given social media more time than writing a book that only one person may read now. 

Even acting jobs have taken a hit. If you don’t have a couple of million followers, don’t bother auditioning for a role. Studios now see how popular a celebrity is on social media, and can therefore indirectly promote a movie or TV show before they sign contracts. 

If a celeb isn’t trending on social media, too bad. It doesn’t matter how apt they are for the role, or how talented they are; they committed a sin by not spending every waking moment on social media. 

But the bias isn’t limited to creative fields. 

Surprisingly, many jobs like social media manager roles also require you to have a decent amount of followers before you even apply for said job. Forget about building someone else’s online presence; where is yours, huh?

Developing a social media presence is not easy. Unless you are already an established star, people won’t just flock to your profile and hit the follow button. 

In order for anyone to see your post, or to appease the algorithm gods, you need to spend a lot of time on social media. Most content creators have at least 2 to 3 reels out daily. Weekends are not off. That is how they build trust with the algorithm bosses, assuring them that they will be constantly posting. 

The algorithm takes a few days to ponder and decides the content creator is worthy of a promotion, so up go their reels, available to hundreds of users. 

These reels take a lot of time to create. There’s the script, the purchase of equipment, and the actual shoot, which takes time. Creating content is hard work, and if someone has targeted to put out 3 reels daily, well, say goodbye to any other kind of life. 

So, what’s the point of talent if you don’t have a social media following? 

At this point, do you only have to be good at making and editing reels? Because if you have any talent, when will you even have any time to showcase it? 

Whether or not you create reels and decide to just post thoughts, you still have to engage with other people on social media, comment on their posts, get them to follow you back, and post regularly for the algorithm to decide you are relevant after all. 

There may have been a time when having talent meant a fruitful career and praise from peers. 

Now, it’s all about competing to see who has more followers because then, no matter how bad you are at what you do, there are hundreds of people who still tune in to watch you make a fool of yourself. 

And apparently, that is all that matters now.