Why The Gentlewomen has our own social media platform.
Facebook… love it or hate it, it’s sticking around for the foreseeable future and us business owners have to go with the flow.
If our community is on there then we should be there too.
But the problem with Facebook (among others) is that it feels very shallow. Not in a pretentious way but in a quick and easy kinda way.
Lemme explain.
The decision to start The Gentlewomen on its own platform was for this big reason.
Depth of connection.
I’ve been doing a bit of research into focus and learning. iOS 12 has a sexy new feature that shows the time spent on your apps and it’s been an eye opener.
Yup, you guessed it, I’m addicted to my phone. I didn’t need an app to tell me that but seeing the data, it was way more obvious.
The data also showed something else. Or what the data didn’t show was the amount of focus and attention I was giving some apps and not others.
The time spent on Medium and Blinkist were averaging over ten minutes for each session and I felt like I’d learnt something. Whereas time spent on Instagram and Facebook was longer but I couldn’t recall anything I’d looked it.
Interestingly… I went on to discuss articles after I’d been on Medium (and shared more) but not on Facebook. Except cat photos. Cos come on, who doesn’t share cat photos?!
What I’m saying is that Medium and Blinkist were deliberate actions and Instagram and Facebook was mostly mind numbing attention sucks! Obviously, they’re a completely different proposition. Social media platform vs reading app but the fact remains the same, deliberate action is better than shallow interaction.
So after all this… the conclusion was that if we want to get the most out of The Gentlewomen, then the action had to be deliberate and building it on something that *makes* it deliberate. It’s a different style of app and platform with a different use. Learning and deep connection not shallow and full of cat photos (aaah)!
Hold the phone, there’s more!!
*puts on nerd glasses*
The platform HAD to be accessible on mobile. Big reason, convenience. User experience is everything and clunky websites that aren’t optimised for mobile aren’t going to be used. Even the big education platforms aren’t getting it right resulting in having to access courses on desktop. I’m having this experience with a Teachable based course right now even with their iOS app.
So does Mighty Networks do courses? Hell yeah it does! Not gone deep into it but they do and with it being on all one platform, no doubt the community part will go well alongside the learning. It will be developed as and when the masterclasses are available.
One more thing… Wordpress 😬
I could have built this on Wordpress with a host of lovely plugins which I’ve done before and vowed never to do again. I would disappear down a hole of customising and tweaking never to be seen again which defeats the object of doing what I’m mean to be doing. Ie. Building a community around teaching and learning.
All in all, I’m excited to pull away from the “make do and mend” way that Facebook have created groups and crappy UX from the big boys in education. Plus, there’s the added bonus of not giving myself RSI from building something from scratch.
🥂 A toast to Mighty Networks and a long and prosperous relationship.
