Re-structuring social

It's been over a year and I thought I'd ponder on what a year of doing social media in a different way has brought me.

Autumn 2022 I decided to take a giant leap - backwards was how I considered it at the time. I'd had accounts with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and one or two smaller platforms. At one point I was managing accounts for several organisations, and was getting whispers it was time to step back. By the time I was hearing the shouting, it was definitely time - another lesson in listening to the whispers*!!

*In case helpful for reassurance they were not actual whispers, more that intuitive knowing sense.

I did it gradually, and mentioned it a few times in order that should people wish to remain in touch the newsletter was there. And I did it differently to how I thought I would, but with reflection it's a far healthier place now than it was before.

I left Twitter entirely, although I do think there may be an account lurking on there 'belonging' to my cats, Joey and Monica (Joey is the handsome chap below) that I was using in a twitter training course to walk people through getting set up. It's not something I've lost sleep over.

I chatted with my daughter about shutting down my Instagram account, and she mentioned that she sometimes looks through there at memories of fun stuff we've done if she's feeling sad. So that got made personal, the app deleted off my phone and sits there, and she can use it to cheer herself up if she needs anytime. I ignore requests, and barely do anything with it. It does have a post that mentions I've stepped back from social times and get in touch directly if you want.

LinkedIn was a joy to leave. I'm aware other homeopaths have used LinkedIn well but I have always felt it was clunky, unintuitive and I wasn't its biggest fan. No more LinkedIn account.

Facebook I went away from, with an awareness that it was something that would be useful when promoting the Ceilidh that I've been organising at Christmas time for a few years now. There is a peace and spaciousness with walking away but also a joy in connecting for me. Groups were hard to not be around, especially for hobbies or work, and I found a space of deleting the app from my phone and being more disciplined with it worked for me.

Telegram I had already had to step away from as found myself delving down rabbit holes, ending up terrified about the state of the world and the crazy going on out there. That got deleted, as did Signal.

In short I'd say I've more simplicity, less access to the vortex and more happiness about the balance and where it is currently at. More space to ponder and be delighted in the more immediate world around me. Less sharing and more quiet. I think that'll do for now.

Has it affected my business? Mostly I would share homeopathy related info, particularly on more work focussed pages, so perhaps affected client numbers. I'd say not, I'm as busy as I want to be now. What I would say is that it has brought me more space and enabled more creativity. I've produced several postcards, a compassion series of cards, my new 'taking LM potency' cards and the 'Play out' cards here if you want to take a look. I started writing a case up for the blog and wrote a book, in the process of editing and refining that currently. I'm not sure much of that would have happened without the space from stepping back.

In terms of client numbers, January is looking fairly full for the first part of the month with appointments available from the 22nd onwards. I've space for 5 new clients in January. More info on my home page here.

It's funny, from recommending everyone use social media to help promote homeopathy, I've retreated and am very happy here. It can be brilliant to be out there, and it's great to be quieter too.