Social Lives | I don't need no good advice
Let's make 2024 the year we stop listening to social media 'experts'
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I DON’T NEED NO GOOD ADVICE
When I was twelve years old, I was obsessed with a book called “Sophie’s World”, written by Jostein Gaarder. It follows the adventures of a Norwegian teenager, who is introduced to philosophical concepts through a series of mysterious letters. If you’re thinking “that’s quite a nerdy thing for a twelve year old girl to be reading”, you would be right (it also inspired the name of Spritualized’s best album - Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space - but that’s another discussion for a different newsletter). I reference “Sophie’s World”, not because I want to talk about the history of philosophy, but because there’s a line in it I always recall when I attempt to be an expert on something - “Wisest is she who knows she does not know.”
The world is full of people sharing advice on how to create “good” social media content. Whenever I’m stuck for ideas, or want to get a different perspective on an aspect of the internet, I turn to newsletters like Garbage Day or Link in Bio. I have paid subscriptions to both and I’d strongly recommend them to anyone who works with the internet. However, there’s also a lot of advice that stinks - and a lot of it can be found on LinkedIn.
This is not a rant against LinkedIn. While I have my issues with it, I also find a lot of value in it, especially when it comes to finding work and making connections with my peers. Besides, any social media channel is only as good as its people. The problem with LinkedIn is that it’s a social media platform where people are encouraged to be experts. It seems like more and more people feel that the only way to get ahead is by posting something incredibly obvious on there every day, usually accompanied by a selfie of them staring into space or looking pensive. “Social media HACK: make great content!” You don’t say? Why had I never thought of that before?
It's maybe easy to see why a social media channel aimed at professionals is straining under the weight of people’s egos. One of the many reasons I enjoy following Richard Cook (Senior Social Media manager at Monzo) on LinkedIn is that he is so good at skewering this type of post. I take great delight in seeing people respond to his content seriously, chiding him for poking fun at other people’s pomposity.
As other social media channels crumble, it’s unsurprising that LinkedIn is expanding to fill that gap. And you can see the same things happening there that have happened so many times in so many other places. People saying incendiary things in order to get engagement. Others elevated as spokespeople, even when what they’re saying isn’t very useful. And bad advice. Really bad advice.
In a post I saw highlighted recently, a ‘social media expert’ advised not using the #ad hashtag on influencer posts because it “ruined the aesthetic”. Granted, they were based in the USA, but this wasn’t immediately visible in the post. While I’m for great content from great creators, I am very against not declaring it publicly. The ASA - the governing body for advertising in the UK - happen to feel the same way. If you don’t use #ad or #gifted in a post where you’ve worked with an influencer, they will come down on you like a ton of bricks. You may not think that there’s anything aesthetically pleasing about the #ad hashtag polluting your copy, but it’s even less pleasing when your brand gets hit with a whopping great fine.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - the best social media specialists I know aren’t constantly yakking it up on LinkedIn because they’re too busy doing the work. I’d much rather get advice from my peers in the industry than from some random guru going on about ‘growth hacking’. That’s not to say all the advice there is bad. Just use a bit of critical thinking and remember Sophie before you rewrite that client strategy deck.
JOBS BOARD
Freelance: Friends of Friendless Churches want to work with a part time, freelance Social Media Content Producer
Freelance: Dandelion Social need a freelance Social Video Producer
FTC: Red Sofa have a role available for a Community Manager on a six month FTC
Full Time: ASOS are recruiting a Social Content Lead
Part Time: Sadler’s Wells East are advertising for a part-time Social Media & Campaigns Officer
INTERESTING THING OF THE WEEK: HOW SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS DECAY
If you’ve been thinking that the internet has been getting worse over the past few years, congratulations! You are not alone. The tech journalist Cory Doctorow has coined a great term for it - enshittification. In this interview with NPR, he talks about the life cycle of social media channels, why obsolescence is built into them and if we’re all just aging out of the platforms which we grew up with.
IN THE NEWS
Instagram and Facebook will hide more harmful content from teenagers (The Guardian)
Meta is removing more detailed targeting options for ad campaigns (Social Media Today)
WhatsApp is rolling out an in-app tool for making custom stickers (TechCrunch)
What we lost when Twitter became X (The New Yorker)
Speaking of X…it appears to have a verified bot problem (TechCrunch)
THINGS I LIKE
The weird, secretive world of crisp flavours (The Guardian)
“‘I am not a haruspex,’ I said to my therapist.” A beautiful, moving piece about bodies, the things they do, and what it is to be a cog inside the machinery of the NHS. (Granta)
Excellent tattooed ladies in history (The Guardian)
What can board games say that other art forms can’t? (The New Yorker)
A GOOD TIKTOK
Millennial pause king
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