“As a business owner, I love navigating the minefield of social media outrage!” … said no one ever.
Down one path, social media can be a wonderful way to connect with friends, family, and clientele. A place to stay in touch, share life moments, and as a business be able to interact on a personal level with current and future customers.
The other path? Yikes. Remember in “Beauty and the Beast” when the Dad looked down one path in the forest and the weather was beautiful, the birds were singing, and the colors were glorious? Then the other path looked like darkness, death, and destruction? Yeah … that’s what we’re dealing with here.
Side note: WHY DID HE CHOSE THE SCARY PATH??? The other path was lovely! Wanna know why? If we make the jump and compare this to social media, it’s because he was trained to take the dark path.
Researchers at Yale recently measured expressions of “moral outrage” on social media (specifically Twitter) and found out something very interesting … the algorithms and engagement metrics encouraged people to continue their outrage. You see this all the time on Facebook as well where someone expresses their outrage, and then basks in the glory of all the likes and comments that they get from their friends and followers. So guess what? That trains their brains to crave that attention and do it even more!
Feel free to also throw in a recent NYU study that showed that misinformation on Facebook gets SIX TIMES as much attention as actual facts. Six times! So basically now we have a situation where people are being spoon fed misinformation, and then their brains eat it right up with a dash of “moral outrage” to further complicate everything.
So what, as a business owner, do you do about it?
Nothing.
That’s right. NOTHING!
Remember that sunshine-filled path from “Beauty and the Beast?” Go down that one instead!
What I mean specifically when it comes to operating a business on social media, is to stay true to the identity and voice of your brand. Resist the temptation to get pulled into things that stray away from it. Instead, focus on creating the best possible experience you can for your customers.
I tell my clients all the time … stop caring about how many likes and comments ANY post gets, and instead care about how that post speaks for your brand and how it appeals to your customer. You don’t make money off Instagram likes, you make money by selling your product or services to your target audience. Don’t get tricked into pointing your arrow away from that target!
