I post videos, content, or articles almost daily on my social media to show tech companies that, yes, I’m the guy you need on your tech team since I know my stuff.
But each time it feels so…blah…because nobody ever reads anything I write. At least, nobody with money (despite me writing FOR people with money).
I recently asked people to submit questions for an AMA on databases. I got 3 questions back. I think I’ll use my local LLM app to generate a few more.
But it felt like…what’s the point? Even when I record and publish the video, so far nobody’s ever engaged with my last 100 posts. Why would they do it for this one?
Anyone else feel this? How do you cope or overcome?
Tech companies don’t hire people who know their stuff. Tech companies pay contractors who know their stuff to do the things their trained employees can’t. They arent looking for a full cup. They need new meat to exploit while it’s still too dumb to realize how hard it’s getting shafted and then to dump it before it makes itself irreplaceable.
It also doesn’t sound as much like you’re looking for engagement as you are employment (“people with money don’t pay attention to me”). If money is the end goal, you want to do advertising, not just engagement. If engagement and community are what you truly want, then I’m afraid to tell you those things generally cost money instead of generating it.
Contracting work would be the best case of having your cake and eating it too. Contractors form their own communities wherever they go depending on the trades in question. I think you’ll find the network of likeminded individuals you’re looking for there. However, be advised that contracting is regulation heavy and would greatly benefit from a few focused law courses before really trying to get yourself into bidding jobs.
Are you actively looking for a job? (Are your posts ONLY for a job, or are you also kind of looking for general engagement/interaction)
Pretty much only for a job at this point - clients/employers. I’m definitely better fitted for freelancing (wearing many hats), and had a lot of success with this strategy during the pandemic. Even on the job I think I’ll continue to publish content, but then it would be for engagement.
But in the end I’m someone who loves to share and provide value for people. If I made just one person’s day, I feel I’ve done my job…but obviously paying the bills is #1. Haha.
In that case, I think the two directions are signing up on all the freelancing sites (which I’m going to guess you’ve already done) and the second direction is to get traction is in small communities. For example, I like Deno, so I’m in the Deno discord and people post their libraries, blog posts, and tutorials in the #showcase channel. All of them get at least 12 eyeballs, and the same people post enough that the frequent posters know each other and can recognize new people. On top of that I end up coincidentally seeing some members in other discords like Lapce (text editor), or the AssemblyScript discord, etc. I’ll post on relevant Lemmy communities sometimes too.
From small communities I’ll get 5-20 Github stars on a library, which is enough for Github to start organically showing it to random people. I imagine the same is true for blog posts. I’m not even trying to get hired, or get a following.
So maybe start finding some small communities. If you still don’t get traction you’ll at least have some friends to give you feedback.
Honestly people who post daily with no traction seem more crazy to me than the people who feel defeated after day number 7 and just stop posting. It’s totally human to feel bad when talking and nobody stops to listen.
I know some people treat blogging like a journal instead of a showcase. Writing to their future selves instead of a general audience.
In terms of getting traction for employers, posting in small communities with people you are acquainted with seems like the way to go. (@people-other-than-OP, I talk about that more in a different comment)
The trend of video over text would be the main thing you should remind yourself of. They may not read your text, but will watch a ~5 minute video filled with fluff.
It also really matters when and where you’re posting them, and if you’re sharing them or not.
Social media marketing is an entirely different beast than any other tech field.
You don’t have the same skill set outside both operate on computers.
I have my master in Information Technology and had to learn from the beginning once I decided to learn social media marketing and marketing in general.
My best advice for you is to hire a social media marketing manager. You can get them pretty cheap, too. They’ll make you be seen guaranteed. You have to spend money to make money after all.
It sounds like you have invested a lot of time and effort and not seen the results you are looking for.
I would suggest you listen to an episode of the Freakonomics podcat. The upside of quitting.
Love freakonomics
