How have social media poets revolutionised the art form?

25th November 2019

Some modern poets have decided to make a radical change to how their poetry is presented- they post spoken word pieces on social media, as well as publishing their poetry collections. This is an ingenious new way of marketing to a contemporary audience and more and more poets are resorting to this revolutionary new mode of publication.

This is a strategic business move as social media can showcase the poems to a far wider audience than those who use conventional ways of publishing their poetry. By doing so, these ‘social media poets’ such as Rupi Kaur and R.N Sin can garner a large following of people who know they enjoy their poetry. As such, this keeps their readership steady, and the sales of their boos plentiful, as they have a consistent fanbase through the publishing of their poetry on Social Media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

This creates opportunities for poets with disabilities and other groups of underrepresented poets, as there are no third-party prejudices en-route to publication about the ability of the poet to write and present their poetry

Further, these social media Poets are seemingly more diverse than conventional poets, as the barriers to conventional publishing do not exist with posting spoken word videos or written poems on Instagram and Facebook. As such, this creates opportunities for poets with disabilities and other groups of underrepresented poets, as there are no third-party prejudices en-route to publication about the ability of the poet to write and present their poetry. There is no need for the media circus when publishing over social media, as your consumers will themselves market your poems for you, through sharing, retweeting and reposting, allowing more and more people to view the poems posted online.

Future students of poetry will look back on this phenomenon and ask themselves how they can revolutionise poetry to reflect the era in which they live

In my opinion, I believe that this change has been revolutionary and one that, as a creative writing student, I pay close attention to how changes in poetry publishing occurs. The surge of poets publishing their pieces online has sky-rocketed, with many also advertising their self-published collections online. This is just the natural evolution and progression of poetry as an art form, of which is has developed from the epic style, to the Shakespearean sonnets, to the Romantics, the Imagists and now the Social Media poets. Future students of poetry will look back on this phenomenon and ask themselves how they can revolutionise poetry to reflect the era in which they live.

That’s the lovely thing about poetry, it grows with human civilisation, it has been with us for a millennium, and it is likely to remain with us for many more centuries, developing and adapting to any challenges that we may face.