Social media is still a good way to publish your content. But as this investigation by the New York Times shows, the stats mean nothing.
Example: Kathy Ireland has one million followers on Twitter. Research suggests only 160,000 of those are real people. In numerous cases followers, likes, shares, retweets, YouTube views, etc. have been bought. What is funny is that big brands have paid people to promote products based on these fake follower numbers. It's like paying someone to pitch your product to his imaginary friends. The Facebook algorithm limits the number of people who see your page's posts. If the post features a YouTube video, it will limit its reach even more.
Some people who have large numbers of followers on Instagram are paid by various brands to promote products in their posts. Fair enough. But what happens when Facebook, which owns Instagram, decides it wants a cut of that?
The glamour of it all. I bought this stand so that I can have a temporary standing desk when I am in the kitchen and helping out our special needs child with breakfast or dinner. Life happens. You adapt. In the past, some social media platforms used to take pride in the fact that they could connect smoothly with others. That no longer seems to be the case. Your account on another platform, your website, the online store that sells your products or tickets to your events… that is now all seen as the competition. And they do not want to help the competition.
More and more, social media platforms have an isolationist perspective. They don’t play well with others. They want your attention all to themselves. As you develop and publish your content, I think it is important to keep this in mind. Right now the goal of any social media platform is to become the Hotel California, where you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. I read an article about some of the up-and-coming stars of Instagram, men and women in their 20s who have many followers and lucrative endorsements deals. Looking at their accounts, the common denominator among their biggest posts is that they feature the account owner and/or their friends in small swimsuits, their underwear, or partially nude.
And it is fine that they are taking advantage of the fact that they are young, in shape, and good looking. But if you cannot check all of those boxes or if the business you are promoting depends on people believing that you actually have knowledge and skills, then you might want to go elsewhere for content ideas. |
AuthorCris Cohen Archives
March 2021
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