I DELETED SOCIAL MEDIA AND BECAME MORE VISIBLE ONLINE

Keli H, the author, in a collage for the Quintessentially Keli blog

I've been promising this post for months, and haven't delivered because everytime I sat down to write it, I felt weighted by the amount of honesty and vulnerability that would need to go into it. Social media, for many, and especially for me, is a loaded topic. 

Allow me to procrastinate a little longer and tell you about my week. I had a meeting with the team at Axone Universe. Our unique journey started together a few months ago when someone from Axone contacted my publishing company, The KREST House, to become the first publishing partner on their new venture. The Axone Universe is an initiative newly started up by the University of Cape Town's Innovation Hub. They are a web-based writing platform (think Wattpad) where writers create stories together. The project Axone and KREST have been working on over the past months was called the 'Co-author in the 400 Universe Campaign.' Aspiring authors were given a copy of my first book, The Four Hundred Club, and wrote their own short stories on the Axone platform, using the characters and universe I had created. The writers of the best stories would be awarded signed copies of Splitting an Empire (my second book in the 400 series), creative writing mentoring with me, cash prizes, and the potential for a traditional publishing contract to co-author the next books in the series with me. (I've also previously co-authored a book with the bestselling ghostwriter Theresa Bhowan, called Creating Literary Art, and it was a beautifully collaborative experience.)

The meeting this week was for Axone to present me with the post-campaign statistics (I'm pleased to report we exceeded all our goal metrics) and to show me their favourite stories. Now all that's left is for me to read all the entries and give my own input on the winners, because these writers will be working closely with me to continue the 400 series I have spent years creating. While I'm procrastinating on that too, because it's a big responsibility to choose the winners, I will note that it has been a surreal experience to watch this process unfolding. Readers enjoying my book, having fun with the characters and world I created, writing fanfiction and taking my idea in new directions, creating their own romances and friendships within the 400 universe. It's what every author dreams of; readers just thoroughly playing with their creation. I owe everyone an update when the winners are picked. 

So, I guess it's back to the actual topic at hand. What happened after I deleted my Instagram and Tik Tok accounts, as I'd been threatening to do for months? For context about why this has been an almost manic on-off decision for me - because social media is not meant to be that serious, right? - I've never used social media for the purposes of being a 'content creator' or 'influencer'. I primarily used social media for personal branding, which ultimately drew thousands of viewers into my glittering literary world, resulting in book sales and business exposure. Marketing. So for me, it was that serious. 

The Decision to Delete 

The urge to do it was insidious. After months of a growing unsettling feeling as I continued to create, post, repeat in a churning, endless cycle, I came to some realizations:

 

- Managing my social media was starting to feel like another job. It required brainstorming for posting ideas, hours taken to create those posts, uploading them and writing SEO-friendly captions for them (because Instagram and Tik Tok are the biggest websites in the world). And, oh, don't get me started on staying up to date with the algorithm changes for each platform!

- It started feeling too performative after some time. Think putting on a show for others to feel a certain way about you, or have certain opinions about your work. 

- It stopped being fun. What was once a playful space for individuals to share of themselves and form like-minded connections, has now morphed into mental and emotional labour. Between algorithms, and adverts, and paid posting, the creative expression was taken out of the apps. And artists like myself stopped enjoying it the way we once did. 

- If you're going to do social media properly (that is, aim to grow followers and stay on everyone's feeds - to give my books visibility, in my case), then it requires constant posting. It felt like unnecessary pressure to turn every moment into a photo or video, to have something to share multiple times a week. 

- The nature of Instagram and Tik Tok feeds, with confirmed billions of users worldwide, is that every post becomes a quick hit and immediately disposable so you can move on to the next. These apps were starting to make my work feel meaningless. My writing, my art, my business accolades were just quick clickable content instead of thoughtful moments on Keli H's journey. 

- The thing I'm most embarrassed to admit is that scrolling through Instagram and Tik Tok introduced thoughts of comparison. There were always authors with bigger readership bases, fashionistas with larger wardrobes, business people with greater milestones. I began to question my own timing, progress, and success - perhaps I wasn't doing as well as I'd thought. And I know I shouldn't have allowed those sentiments in, but, well, that's the honest truth. 

The Hesitation to Do It 

I recognized what needed to happen long before I drew the courage to press that 'delete' button. I had some worries, you see, about what would happen to the traction I'd already built: 

- After having a significant amount of visibility on my personal brand (as that fashionable author) originate from my social media, I was afraid that deleting it would make me... well, invisible. And, sure, it's laughable now, but that's exactly what I was worried about. That stepping away would fade me from relevancy or public awareness. 

- My presence on Instagram and Tik Tok brought a lot of attention to my publishing company, The KREST House, and my own books. It garnered newspaper and magazine features, interviews, influencer collaborations, and podcasts - resulting in sales, clients, and new paying readers. I thought that the interest would disappear if I disappeared. 

- The topics I posted about, and the unique creative styling I used in the visuals, music, captions, taught people how to see me. The tagline of my content was 'an intersection between authorship, fashion, artistry, and inspiring thoughts'. Would this still translate to anyone, that I am an erudite thinker who enjoys art in all its forms, without me displaying it online? 

What Happened Next 

It was about 6 months ago that I did it. I started with Tik Tok, the most consuming of the 2 platforms, and later followed with Instagram. I pressed delete and haven't been tempted to go back. Facebook happened to survive this social media cull because it's always been a low pressure platform. Post, don't post... there won't be repurcussions either way. Unlike the aggressive algorithms of the other platforms, your friends and family connections on Facebook will remain. 

Without all the admin work and time Instagram and Tik Tok required, I've been freed up enough to start the Quintessentially Keli blog, which, as a wordsmith, I'm thoroughly enjoying. Because it's my own platform, I make the rules and I say I don't have to post more than once a month for it to still be an interesting space. 

And as for all my fears:

- Ultimately, nothing fell apart. 

- Now months later, I still have people saying to me, 'I love your ideas about books and publishing' or, 'I'm looking forward to watching what you do next.' People hadn't even noticed I'd disappeared from the platforms! Rather than feeling ruffled that my exit had been that quiet, I felt contentment - people who were genuinely interested in my work would always remember it even without an app to remind them. 

- My publishing company, The KREST House, and my published books didn't lose traction just because I wasn't promoting them myself. Like the people who hadn't realized I'd vanished from the apps, my business and books seemed not to notice my disappearance either. My company continued to sign clients and be called up for press as usual, my books sold at the same trajectory they'd always been on. It was empowering to realize these things were brands of their own now, that didn't need me personally propping them up. 

- Through the way I speak, dress, my comportment, and the work I produce, people understand how to interpret me in real life, as a sophisticated artist. I've realized that the identity I've created has never relied on it being projected onto a screen. 

- The biggest of all... When potential business and book partners look me up now, the information they find about me on the internet is much more streamlined. Remember when I said Instagram and Tik Tok were some of the biggest websites in the world? Turned out that my selfies, reels, and viral trends were part of what anyone saw when looking up Keli H the author. My online presence is now pristinely curated to news articles about my publishing company growth, multimedia features of my books with direction to places they're on sale, the selected best articles from my blog, and sage literary advice I've imparted. My digital footprint for my books and work has become more visible and elegant. People are now seeing, online, about me me what I'd always hoped they would in the first place. 

In Conclusion 

I won't say never - perhaps the future will draw me back to the loud dynamism of the platforms. But for now, I will enjoy the gentle peace of a limited online life. It's interesting to note that exiting the mass stage of the world did not make me irrelevant, as I'd feared would happen - it only created a more defined version of me, and made it easier for the internet to see. Contrarily - I deleted social media and became more visible online.

For more articles written by Keli H, the author, visit this blog's home page on keli-h.com

Keli H is the award winning author of the 400 series, which includes The Four Hundred Club and Splitting an Empire. The 400 series is high brow contemporary fiction revolving around the lives of wealthy circles. Keli's other works include Creating Literary Art. She is also the founder of The KREST House, a storytelling empire.