I'll answer both questions and yes, I did answer my own question with a question.

Some context first. I've never been a fan of social media. I dip my foot in, it lasts about a month, and then I drift. Reading and commenting on other people's posts, watching their achievements and updates it always felt like a waste of time I could spend actually building things.

So that's what I did. I worked on my own projects. Built web apps. For years I had a captive audience, consulting clients who needed tools built, where the app was part of the service. No marketing needed. No audience required.

Then I built something outside that world and decided to launch publicly on Product Hunt. Hundreds of apps launch there every day, visible to people actively looking for new products. Seemed like a good fit.

Then came the step I'd been avoiding build an audience. If you're reading this sentence, you already know I hadn't spent enough time on social media to have one.

So we got the Product Hunt flop. Not even two months free was enough to get people to try DayBrain. And that's when it hit me, maybe you need a following just to be noticed.

Has social media become essential for anyone not working a 9 to 5? For freelancers, indie founders, product developers? I think the answer is yes. Your physical connections are your reality. Your digital connections are what put you and your work in front of the world.

By avoiding social platforms or more honestly, just not getting on with them I've set myself back. Would consistent digital presence have built that audience? Would the launch have landed instead of flopped?

I believe the answer is yes. Now I understand why people share their wins, their work in progress, their daily updates. As of writing this I appear to be years behind and I'm not making the same mistake again.

If the one thing I have to do that I don't enjoy is show up on X, make a comment, post about what I'm building then that's what I'll do.