So, the influencers lied. Now what?
In Part 1 of this series, we learned the influencers are lying to us and the dangers that invokes.
Now, in Part II, what in the world can we do about it?
This article is part of a two part series.
Part 1 (here): Why it matters
Part 2 (below): What we can do about it
Two weeks ago we pealed back the curtain on the dangers (and inequities) of the creator influencer. Turns out the dangers of this system, this almost blind worship, are very real and very deep. They tap into systemic inequities, race, income inequality, and more.
When I set out to write Part I, I was fearful of being alone in my frustration and angst at what was going on. Turns out, I wasn’t alone…
So, I’m not totally crazy. Now what?
What You See is Not What You Get
First, it’s important to remember the lens of which we are looking at the problem. If you are on social media and have encountered a creator influencer (let’s say on Twitter), perhaps even taken one of their courses, signed up for one of the 800 newsletters, context is super helpful here.
Only 2.80% of the world is on Twitter.
Read that again!
Not even 3% of the world has and is active on Twitter. For every 100 people you see on the street, 97 don’t use Twitter.
Only 23% of U.S. adults use Twitter.
Only 11% of the world has a LinkedIn account. Only 11%! Again, if you see 100 people in a room, 89 don’t have LinkedIn.
So, now we can breathe a bit. I find it helpful to remind myself of the echo chamber, the small incestuous sliver of reality social platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn truly are. These platforms are not indicative of the world, and I’m sure if we had the data, skew even more heavily to wealthy, affluent users (at least when taken in a global context).
Can You Hear Me?
Not only are these platforms a sliver of the global population, they also reward the loudest, not the most indicative, voices.
As we saw in Part I, these platforms are not just simple platforms anymore. They are global businesses where crazy bazillionaires argue over purchasing them for $44B. They are publicly traded companies with shareholders to answer to. They are no longer here to connect us but are here to make money — Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter — you name it.
And because they are profit machines, they have algorithms. And those algorithms show us things that are not the most healthy, not the most credible, not the “best” for us, but content that is getting engagement — clicks, re-shares, reposts. The platforms are fundamentally built on a flawed assumption that engagement = good.
But we all know things that are controversial, hate filled, fear mongering, are good for business, are bad for us.
But in the day to day trenches of life, when you see something that has 5,000 likes, or 10,000 retweets it is incredibly hard not to equate that with useful, or important, or reflective of what the world is thinking.
We are humans, we have survival instincts baked into our DNA — we don’t want to be left out, we don’t want to miss what the rest of the world knows. And our fear of being left out is rooted in our survivalist instincts.
Even within the tiny subset of the global population on these platforms, the content we see on these platforms is no longer “for us” or in our “best interest” but, unfortunately, to drive more engagement, more users, more advertising dollars, and to feed the beast.
Here’s an alarming statistic:
$521 Billion (with a B) was spent on digital advertising in 2021.
$31 Billion (with a B) was spent by the private sector and governments combined on global humanitarian aid in 2021.
For every $1 dollar we spend as a global society to help populations affected by poverty, famine, climate change, health crises, we spent $16.80 dollars to advertise crap to the world. Seems a bit off...
By now, we can remind ourselves the digital pressures we feel when operating online in places, like LinkedIn and Twitter, are:
- not indicative of the entire world and are
- unfortunately, driven by disproportionate, uncapped capitalistic greed
So, what to do in our lives & our own work?
There are many ways in which we can all build it better. Build our own companies, expand our work, find new clients, in a more sustainable, healthy, and equitable way.
1. Use the platforms for good!
As much as I see the harm in social platforms, I also see the good. I have a LinkedIn account, I have a Twitter account. When used appropriately these platforms can be amazing tools to connect with anyone around the world — I’ve created lifelong friends, met people online first and then in real life, and leveraged these tools to grow businesses over my entire career.
So how do you use them for good?
Set goals!
Often times we find ourselves mindlessly scrolling platforms. Or we join / sign up for them because it’s what we think we should do. Or we just enjoy them. Those are all totally valid! But in the context of your work, your creation, your sanity in leveraging these tools for good both personally and professionally, this is a reminder to set some simple, achievable goals.
Examples in a business context: Network with 5 contacts in a particular sector. Meet 3 new contacts in a country of particular interest. Connect with 5 folks working in my industry! Follow 5 people who are working in a field I hope to work in one day. Find the underdogs — folks doing amazing work WITHOUT large followings. I think these are one of the most underutilized aspects of Twitter. There are authors, speakers, changemakers, founders, and amazing people who have under 1,000 followers. They are just harder to find — make it a challenge!
Examples in a personal context: join 3 groups that support my values. Groups working on equity, climate justice, political reform, whatever you feel inspires and speaks to you! Remove yourself from any groups / channels that drain your energy, that don’t charge it. It’s nice to clean our digital baggage from time to time.
Important: to continue to create a more equitable and prosperous future, join groups that help address underserved communities, help in not just building equality but equity. These might mean going outside of your comfort zone (additional helpful framework for finding these below).
Take breaks.
We all know the digital advice — take breaks, unplug. But by actually setting clearer goals on how and when you use social media for business, you will in turn feel like you are accomplishing something and it actually eases the pressure to connect!
“Ok, I want to connect with 10 climate change leaders this month. Done! Now I can take a break.”
And be ok with your algorithm suffering.
Value Quality over Quantity
Remember, we are all human. Any time I connect with someone new on LinkedIn or Twitter, I try to immediately move the conversation OUT of that platform and over to email, a zoom call, or something more personal. These can become friends for life!
Remember, the influencers will still be there….
I’ve unfollowed the influencers now so I’m not force fed their content ALL the time. They all have public profiles so their content, suggestions, ideas, are all just one or two clicks away — on MY terms, not theirs. And it feels great.
I’m blocked by Justin Welsh on Twitter but I can access and save content I feel valuable without having to engage with it, see it all the time and come to it when I’m in the right mindset. Plus, I’m not feeding the algo nor his made up metrics.
2. Grow it your way.
If you are a freelancer, SMB owner, creator, remember you can grow your business your own way!
The loudest voices (the influencers) are just ONE way of doing things. It’s skewed because of an inflated sense of scale due to the machines at play.
The incredible female executive coach that has 2 clients a year that each pay her $150K, so she makes $300k a year, might NOT be on Twitter bragging about her work. She might not need these platforms because her work doesn’t need the same level of volume, the same scale. And that is totally OK.
The black photographer who does AMAZING work, may have 7 followers on Instagram because he’s been too busy collaborating with Nike, Patagonia, and Coca-Cola to build his online portfolio.
Reminder as in section 1: what you see is not what you get.
Here’s an exercise I recommend to anyone looking to start, or to grow, their business:
If I gave you $100, what would you like to do together / give me in exchange?
It could be a digital tool, a picture you took, a 30-min brainstorm session.
Now, if I gave you $10,000, what would you like to do together?
It could be a 6 month project, a 2-day workshop, your BEST painting (lol), you name it. What makes sense at that price that you’d LIKE to do?
You can build for both, which also can influence your need and/or use of social media. If you want to sell a $100 product and make $100,000 a year, ok well you need 1,000 customers. Where and how you find them varies greatly. You can leverage existing communities, newsletters, networks, companies, and more — beyond just social media.
If you love the idea of selling a $10,000 product (helpful here is to think about it in terms of time — if you bill at $100/hr thats 100 hours, or not even 3 weeks of full time work! I’ve found this reduces the ‘stress’ that comes with thinking, what could I possibly deliver for $10,000), think about where you are going to find your 10, super valuable clients. (Spoiler alert: I’m willing to guarantee most of those connections and customers will come from or result in email.)
3. Ask THIS Question.
As we saw in part 1, the build in public and creator influencer world creates a lot of inequity and disproportionately hides the privilege that comes with those leading the way.
In order to build it better, we have to ask ourselves a tough but important question:
Who is unintentionally getting left out by my work / this project / this business?
For example, if you decide you want to mentor students. Well, if you come from privilege, odds are you are going to naturally mentor kids also of privilege just due to the circles and networks you find yourself in. Find the students and the organizations that need mentoring the most, or whom have never had access to a mentor — they are the ones unintentionally being left out by your decision — even if on paper a seemingly harmless decision. This speaks to the systemic equality.
If you offer services — such as branding or design services — there are probably a lot of unintended consequences of working with “whom you know.” You can actively seek out BIPOC owned, female owned, minority owned businesses to help. Sites such as Black Women Owned (https://blackwomanowned.co/) help you connect with organizations, companies, and founders that you can support.
Another idea is to leverage creative ways of providing your services. scholarship programs, digital gift cards, buy 1 get 2 free, or pay it forward customer payment models can enable you to provide discounts or even give services pro-bono to those who need it most.
There is no limit to the creativity I have seen utilized here.
4. Stay True to Yourself
And lastly, stay true to yourself. Your biggest asset is the fact that there is only one of you in the world. No one can be you like you can be you.
The irony of many of these creator influencers (my Jack Butcher and Justin Welsh’s of the world), is they all LOVE Naval Ravikant, Founder of Angelist.
They quote him incessantly. But, Naval himself has a wonderful quote about being true to yourself:
“If you stop trying to figure out how to do things the way other people want you to do them, you get to listen to the little voices inside your head that wants to do things a certain way. Then, you get to be you. No one in the world is going to beat you at being you. You’re never going to be as good at being me as I am. I’m never going to be as good at being you as you are. Each person is uniquely qualified at something. They have some specific knowledge, capability and desire nobody else in the world does.”
The irony, is in the Jack Butcher and Justin Welsh journey to creator, they in turn lose the ability to be themselves, and instead, become merely a product of the system that we falsely equate ubiquity with success.
It’s time to re-define success.
By being you, selling things and building things that feel right to you (you can of course learn and absorb along the way), understanding who may be unintentionally left out of our work, and not succumb to the algorithms demands, we can in turn build it better.
Should you have an interest in Building it Better together, I now offer a chance for us to do the work together. For every course sold, we will give a course away to underserved communities through our scholarship program.
(Yes, I made fun of influencer’s courses, but fortunately I am not an influencer! :)
Join by 11/8
Thanks for being here.
Z
