Drowning Loneliness in a Sea of Cheers

image shot at Aro Ha

“So how are the likes doing? Are they blowing up?” 

“Yeah! How are the sales doing? Are they blowing up?” 

Eerie silence ensues as you feel the steely stare stab you in the throat. 

You try to cut through the tension by pointing out: “Hey are those nimbo cumulus over there?” 

A tricky one no doubt, but a very important topic to understand and even more importantly, to be able to set realistic expectations. 

Let’s begin by looking at the renaissance of social media, the era of modern day Facebook when it was the reigning platform to connect, see and be seen; the moment when ads began to appear. It was a time when many were discovering the thrill of endlessly scrolling for hour and the freedom of being able to take a photo of the sloppy joe that they were about to impeccable dig into for lunch of the bowl of mac n’ cheese they had just thrown out of the microwave and share it with their friends with the caption reading “Heading into yum town” and about 20 hashtags. 

Businesses began to emulate this organic behavior and participate in the frenzy. Frenzy for what? For attention. For the most part, and in an overly simplified manner, the social media currency in the early 2010s was attention. The more you had, the better your chances of success were. Likes were more or less an honest indicator of the brand’s mindshare and perception; the more likes the greater the community of committed and like minded individuals that were hanging onto every word that flowed through their channels. 

With the ever increasing volume of content flowing through social media, it was beginning to get harder and harder to get your consumer’s attention, and even harder still to retain it. With an average time of a little over one second of viewing time per image, hyperinflation hit the social media currency; and I’m talking about Venezuela type hyperinflation. This invalidated the value of the like as a currency, no longer interchangeable for conversions. 

So the question now is: What replaces it? Gold? Seashells? Bartering? That would be neat: “Give me 33 likes and the ceramic mug is yours, 8 more likes for express shipping.” The question that we should be trying to answer is; What is it that consumers are searching for? More than a kick of dopamine triggered by mindlessly scrolling. Surely more than sharing with others that they approve or favor an image or its message. Consumers of social media have chosen to enter into the digital realm because there is something in there that they are hoping to find; something which isn’t as readily available in the real world anymore, something that makes them feel more human, that which gives them the confirmation that their struggle is worth it and tells them to continue to build towards the future that they want. A future with your brand. 

Trust. As brands we strive to build trust with our followers and strengthen our community by establishing ourselves as an authentic voice; not just following trends, but clearly articulating their place in our minds every time that we open our doors. Throwing endless volumes of content at our feed in an attempt to drown out the competition will no doubt make our brand more visible, but it won’t contribute to the construction of a relationship that stands firmly on a solid foundation of trust. 

Let’s first discover how to listen, observe, and feel; then begin to take the first steps towards building trust. 

If your followers trust you, they will listen to you; and that attention is worth more than any other currency.