The Rule-Breaker's Guide to Social Media by Keyes Damian

Author:Keyes, Damian [Keyes, Damian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DK Publishing
Published: 2018-06-15T16:00:00+00:00

PART TWO – Consumption

CHAPTER EIGHT – Consumption Is Key

‘ Think like a publisher, not a marketer .’

David Meerman Scott, marketing author and speaker

OK, now that we’ve looked at the technicalities of social media it’s time to dig into what I believe is the heart of the issue: social media is all about consumption and that consumption is constantly evolving . This is a major reason why it’s impossible to have rules when it comes to social media – our consumption of it is changing so fast rules can soon become redundant. But instead of resenting or fighting this fact, we need to embrace it. In this chapter, I’m going to show you how.

Technology is now evolving faster than the speed of light and we’re evolving faster than ever as a species to keep up. We’re also evolving as a society. We’re more impatient and inquisitive than ever before, and our consumption of brands and content is changing rapidly too. The job of social media platforms is to keep up with our expectations and look after us as consumers. As marketers, we get angry when the likes of Facebook changes its algorithm or layout but millions of pounds of research will have been behind that change. It’s all about improving the consumption experience. Google’s number one job is to give us exactly what we want with one click. If we have to click on four or five links to get what we want then Google will feel that it’s let us down. The same principle applies to Facebook. If we scroll through twenty posts and none of them are what we want to see then Facebook will feel that it’s failed. Facebook is striving to give us perfection with every scroll, just as Google is with every search. In order to do that they have to evolve as fast as they can. The evolution of our consumption creates the evolution of technology to meet the demand.

Ultimately, it’s in our interest that platforms make changes to improve the consumer experience because it helps keep our followers on there. Instead of resisting or resenting the changes, we need to find ways to complement them. When a social media platform makes an alteration try to understand why they’ve done it. Learn how it affects the end user and how it can improve their experience. For example, when Twitter increased the number of characters in a tweet from 140 to 280 your first response should have been, how can this help me improve my followers’ experience? How can longer tweets help me provide them with greater value?

Social media platforms aren’t for marketers, they’re for consumers

This is such a key fact, I’ll say it again. Social media platforms aren’t for marketers, they’re for consumers. So often we forget this and when we market to our followers, we don’t treat them the way they want to be treated. Think about your own personal consumption of social media. How do you feel when your Facebook or Twitter feeds get clogged up with advertising? I’m pretty sure you don’t like it.

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