A Whole New World

I just never liked social media.   I tried to avoid it.   I didn't check in on friends and I never told people what I was doing.   Now, I seem to be embroiled in social media all the time.   But there's a difference.   In this case, I'm not me, I'm the entity that is Filament Stories.   People think of Filament Stories as me since I'm the person they see in the videos.   But it's just as much my husband as it is me. 

And yet it feels different.  I am going online to talk to people who are talking to the me that only is Filament Stories.   My personal life is what I want to share and most of the time people are only interested in the 3D printing side of things.   It's less me and more the persona that is Filament Stories.   And for some reason, I don't mind as much. 

There is a lot of pressure but that's mostly because I have so much content I want to get out.   The traction and response we're getting is a little crazy, and we're small in comparison to some of the contemporaries in the space.   Some of them have launched into the million or more followers on one or more of the platforms.   In a way, I'm glad we're not attracting that amount of attention.   But also it would be nice if we did.   That's a tricky thing. 

Some of them have lots of followers, but they're almost all people who aren't interested in 3D printing, they're just people who find the videos interesting.   I'm looking at building an audience who (mostly) has 3D printers or wants to get into 3D printing.   There are several things we could do that would likely get us a lot of views and followers, but I, along with other people, are avoiding them because once you have an audience, you can get into a trap of having to cater to the audience to keep them.  

So for now, I'm just continually amazed at how we've attracted the people we have.  We have a video on Instagram that has now been seen over 1.4 million times, which seems crazy.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son came in to find me after school.  He said, "Hi mom, I haven't had a chance to say hi since I got home."  I asked hin how he was doing and that I heard he had a presentation tomorrow and could he tell me what it was about.   He said, "It's on the excretory system.  You can watch the video later."   It makes you proud as a parent, seeing your child all grown u and talking about the excretory system. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is reading to me on the way to and from school.  I'm only catching bits of what she's reading but the best part is the intonation and voicing she uses as she reads.