Kat Kelly – Vexteo is going anti-social for a bit.
No, this doesn’t mean we will be fully embracing our extreme introversion. But, it does mean that as a brand and as a platform we will not be chasing the elusive “likes” or “followers.”
Please let us explain a bit more.
When we started Vexteo, our mission was really simple: to encourage us all to recognize that we have powerful stories and that telling those stories was a way to not only free ourselves, but to also lift and inspire one another. See, as humans who often live behind keyboards and screens, it is sometimes easy to forget about the incredible power that each of us have to connect with one another.
Celebrity culture is great. It’s entertaining. But, even celebrities are human. Vexteo is here to recognize the human side of things and to provide the platform where our stories intersect. From the lowest moments to the highest, we are here to level the playing field and get some of those stories told.
This is one of the reasons we don’t have any scoring on our content. We are not trying to create a place of judgement. We are open to feedback designed to create new communities on the platform and we welcome ideas.
Yes, we recognize it may seem counterintuitive for a publisher to not chase likes and followers for the platform in our social society. But, we are about the content. We are all about the stories that are shared and the people who share them.
In the earlier days of social, a brand could quickly grow their audience organically. But, the algorithms are so perfected today that it is nearly impossible for a publisher to grow their social following without paid ad buys and this is not something we want to support.
Over the years, this has completely stressed me as a business owner often wondering: “how does my business ‘look’ real and legit without the social capital of huge numbers of likes, fans, and followers?”
But, you know what? Who cares? It’s not about that.
We are about fairness.
We are about non-judgement (within reason – our goal is to do no harm).
We are about equity.
We are about building a bridge to the future.
And we are about our collective stories.
To everyone who has shared with us and through us, thank you. To everyone who has gotten excited for us and with us, thank you. To everyone who has said, “yeah, I want to do that too,” we gotchu.
We are still going to share stories from the network. We are still going to have social links for Vexteo – although I have de-emphasized them for the full network and highlighted for individual pieces of content. But, I personally am going to free myself from the weird guilt I feel when it is weeks between me posting on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter; and when my Pinterest game is not strong; and my ever-present worry about the security of Tik Tok.
So, here we go into our next phase! One where we can share content and focus only on the content. One where we encourage our contributors and partners to share their work published with us. So, we’ll call it anti-social because it’s not really about us after all. It’s about them and you.
Vexteo. These are your stories…always.
Let’s do this!
Kat Kelly is the founder of Vexteo Media Group. Social media has made her life both better and worse simultaneously. She loves it. She hates it. But mostly, she wants it to be used for good.
