Jacquelyn Dohoney

December 8, 2021

Professionalism in your platform. What exactly do I mean by that? We’re all professionals in some capacity, right? Yes, but it's more than that! First, let’s talk about what platform actually is. Most people just think of it as your follower count on social media, whether that be Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, even TikTok. But it doesn't stop there. Think of it in a more broad scope. Do you have a website? That’s part of your platform. Do you already have an email list that you can use to give people updates on your next blog post or when you have important announcements (like publishing!)? That’s all part of your platform. What about your whole circle of friends, or even celebrities you know that would be willing to plug your blog/book/website? All of those things are part of your platform. 

Now that we have a basic understanding of platform, let’s talk about what it does for us. Most people love the idea of having thousands of followers that keep growing everyday and hang on to our every post. The more active you are on social media or your website, the more likely this is to happen. I’ve experienced this myself in my business. Everyday for the last four years I spend the first one to three hours a day working on social media. Posting, making stories, and engaging with other people. It’s an incredible amount of work. And it doesn’t stop if I go on vacation. In fact, during my month long motorcycle trip from Phoenix to Belize, I spent a lot of time on the back of the motorcycle working on this very thing, in addition to answering emails, sometimes in the middle of the desert in Sina Loa or on the “highway” in the Yucatán. When I took over the social media, we had about 1,000 followers on Instagram and somewhere around that on our Facebook. Since then, our Instagram has grown by at least 4,000 followers each year. This year we cracked the roof on that number, growing by a whopping 5,500 followers. We’ll be closing out this year with 17,500+ followers on Instagram and 11,400 followers on Facebook. Who cares, right? WE care, because word of mouth is essential to a small business, especially if advertising really isn’t in your budget. And you, dear writer friends, are your own small business. 

So what do I mean by professionalism in your platform? I mean the things you say and do on your platform get seen. And they will get seen far more than you know, unless you look obsessively at your analytics like I do. So, back to professionalism. At my studio, we have a very hard rule: no politics, and no hot button issues. Why? At the moment, we have 17 tattooers (including my husband), 6 piercers (including myself), and 5 apprentices. That’s A LOT of people with a lot of different personalities. Not to mention the tens of thousands of clients we’ve seen over the last 23 years. And all of those different personalities have different beliefs in politics and hot button issues. What that means is, there’s a lot of potential for strife, if you let there be. Luckily, we don’t have that issue. We know we all have different opinions, and we still love each other, despite those differences. And more important, our clients have no idea what those beliefs are. We accept people of all types at our studio. You can be of any political persuasion, sexual orientation, race, or occupation, and we don’t care. The major reason we don’t air our personal beliefs is because, no matter what, someone somewhere will probably get offended. It’s a grim truth. But we’ve all seen it happen, and more so in the last couple of years since COVID came on the scene. 

But so what, right? Your beliefs are yours, and no one can take that from you, right? True. BUT they can take part of your platform with you. Let’s say for example, you are extremely vocal about being Pro-Life. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. But then you go on Twitter and bash Pro-Choice people. Or vice-versa. You’ve effectively alienated a huge percentage of people that now may decide to never read your book simply because of something you tweeted that they didn’t agree with. The same goes for politics. But even more so now, because there are some really heated opinions on the subject. If you go online and rant about how much you hate Republicans, or Democrats, or Independents, you’ve risked alienating an entire group of people. Now, some people may not care, and there are definitely going to be people that disagree with me. And you know what? That’s ok. Because that’s their opinion and they are entitled to it. My point is simply to be aware of the things you say. How many times have we seen someone put something on social media and years later it came back to bite them in the ass? I’m guessing you just thought of at least five instances, right off the top of your head. So my opinion, for whatever it’s worth, is keep the politics and hot button issues to yourself. It’s even hard for me sometimes, but I find that life is much easier for me when I keep quiet about my opinions in the public eye and change the subject. That was something I didn’t really understand when I was younger. 

So, to me, that’s professionalism in your platform. I stay away from those particular subjects and only post things that have to do with my friends, family, work, or writing. Boring? Maybe. But I (hopefully) have managed not to piss anyone off! 

Remember, be kind to each other!

Jackie