“How can I keep in touch with artists I meet at markets without social media?”

Ugh, this is what's so tragic about social media: how we're all unwillingly keeping each other hostage on these platforms. 😅 Until we all agree to collectively jump ship from social media, there’ll always be some instances where we have to either experience FOMO, or keep using our accounts in some ways.

Here's what I would do:

For more casual connections, I would consider actually printing up some good old fashioned cards, with my profile pic, name and website address. This has the added benefit that not a lot of other people do this nowadays, which would make me stand out and be remembered better, just for that reason alone. Giving someone your card is such an easy thing to do. And I could ask for their website address in return. Or their Etsy shop, or online portfolio, or whereever they (hopefully) keep their work besides Instagram.

For deeper connections where I really want to stay in touch with someone, I would ask them if they have a newsletter I can get on, and ask them if they want to get on mine. Or just simply exchange email addresses. That way, I can stay in touch with them and they can stay in touch with me, without drowning in each others social feeds.

I want to add though: Just because we don't use social media actively for our business, doesn't mean we can't still use it for some things, if and when it serves us. Cal Newport calls this digital minimalism, when we make a conscious decision about what tech we're going to use, why we'll use it, and how we're going to use it. To actually USE a platform, instead of it using us.

For you, this might entail using Instagram as a form of virtual address book, and logging in once a week from desktop to catch up with friends and aquaintences, and connect with new people via DMs in a casual way. Perhaps with the goal of moving the relationship over to email or IRL.

Leaving social media doesn't have to be all black and white. If a platform is still serving an important function for you or your business, see if you can keep just what you need, and ditch the rest.

And if you really don't want anything to do with it, there are always workarounds. We used to make friends and business connections just fine before Facebook came along. It might take a little bit more effort to ask someone for their email address, but might that also nit lead to us putting more effort and value into the relationship? Do we really need all those casual Instagram connections whose content we likely won't see anyways? Perhaps connecting the good old fashioned way would lead to fewer, but better, new relationships?