Algorithm & Blues

Nearly a year ago, I bought myself a little patch of internet and started a website.

It was supposed to be a place to dump my thoughts, process some drama, and maybe make someone laugh or feel a little less alone.

It has, however, evolved into an actual platform, which sounds impressive until you realize “platform” is just a fancy way of saying you now have ten more jobs you have absolutely no experience doing.

I had NO clue how much more it would be beyond 'just' writing.

There are coding things you don't understand, fixing things you didn't even break, paying for crap you didn't know you needed, SEO, marketing, site tweaking, pitching, networking, and Google searches like, why are this week's analytics exploding with overseas bots?

And of course, social media.

Which is unfortunate, because I’m a writer. I HAAAATE making videos of myself. HATE it.

I'm more of a behind-the-scenes kind of person. There's a reason I chose a medium where nobody has to look at me while I'm doing it.

Now, I’d done a few reaction videos on my daughter's page, which was fine. I could pop in, be mildly amusing, and be done with it.

But with my own page, I just posted content, and the results were...meh.

The algorithm prefers video, it seems.

So I procrastinated and told myself I had more important things to focus on, which was technically true.

It was also avoidance. I'm nothing if not somewhat self-aware.

After a long, crazy day, I was about to go for a walk with The Balkan Storm when my daughter said, ‘Hey, come do a TikTok with me real quick.”

Um, no.

I was a hot mess. No makeup, hair doing its own thing, wearing my comfiest, baggiest sweater.

She scoffed and said, “Oh, just come do this real quick; it's fine. Nobody’s gonna see it anyway.”

Yeah.

That video got millions of views and hundreds of thousands of interactions.

I looked like hell but knew all the words to a 90's rap song, and for whatever reason, people liked it.

I’ve spent a year writing, learning, optimizing, and questioning every decision along the way…and this is what takes off?

I mean, I'm thrilled, but also...seriously?

Last weekend, I heard author and speaker Carlos Whitaker talk about a family video of his that went viral years ago.

His takeaway was that people crave authenticity.

Which, yeah, but "authenticity" has become a bit subjective now. Half the supposedly spontaneous crap we see likely required multiple takes and someone holding a lamp.

I'm not making fun of it; that's just content creation.

Writing isn't exactly spontaneous either. Even when I'm pouring my heart out, I've still pulled back and moved things around and cut out where I ramble.

Which is often.  

But our stupid little video had none of that.

There was literally no intention beyond, fine, I’ll do this real quick so my daughter will leave me alone for the night.

And maybe that's part of why it worked.

Or maybe people just really freaking love Shoop.

Your guess is as good as mine.

I did learn one thing though: algorithms don't give a shit how hard you worked on something. That thirty-second throwaway video blew well past things I spent time on.

I do not have to like this reality to acknowledge it.

But once I looked past the numbers, the comments became the more interesting aspect. People were talking about their moms. That song and how it was a part of their youth, when Shoop was everywhere.

Nostalgia. I get that.

That connection between life stories and stupid little pop culture moments is why I started all of this in the first place.

I also still have no idea what I’m doing over there – I barely have it together here. But as I’ve learned the hard way, the best moments tend to happen when you least expect them anyway.

And the algorithm can do with that what it will.

Heather Papovich is the voice behind Unfinished Business. She's seen some things. She'll tell you about them.