The Four Color Media Monitor

Alteia reports that Voyage Comics, dedicated to publishing stories with Christian values, has decided to leave social media:

In the face of this relentless pressure to market on social media, one comic book company recently announced a rare and countercultural decision. Voyage Comics & Publishing is getting off social media completely. [...]

This decision is consistent with the overall mission of the company.

Voyage creates positive, faith-filled entertainment formed by Catholic values that inspires people to live a heroic life. Through their products, the team at Voyage seeks to advance the truth, beauty and goodness found in powerful stories.

Their experience with social media convinced the Voyage team that abandoning their social media platforms would be best in the long run.

They're probably right. What they really need to do is make use of a blog. That's a far better way to discuss business and other comics-related topics. They told the news site the following:

Why did you decide to take Voyage off social media?

We believe social media has become an increasingly unhealthy place to be, both mentally and spiritually. It promotes negative interaction and we found that our positive messages were increasingly being lost. We found that it was no longer a neutral tool to be used for good, but a tool that can distract us from the important things in life.

Many people think social media is necessary to successful marketing. How would you respond to that for other entrepreneurs concerned about social media but not wanting to hurt their marketing strategy?

While social media is certainly a powerful platform, we should try to resist the idea that “social media is everything.” Social media is still relatively new in the history of communication, only gaining popularity in the last 20 years. What did companies do before social media? Will social media always be there? There are many other means of communication and sometimes the most effective is word of mouth. If you create a quality product that fills a need in society, you will be able to find ways to market it. You might just need to spend a little more effort to do it.

Well, they're correct in that social media doesn't add up to everything and can be pretty unhealthy. What they should really try and do is advertise their publications wherever possible, and again, a blog could make a good way to convey their thoughts on many issues too. So, good luck to Voyage Comics Publishing in looking for ways other than just social media to market and promote their comic books.

Labels: indie publishers, technology