Social media
The State of The Internet
Why social media is like a Woolworths queue?
There are two problems with social. The demise of truth and limited attention spans. This is the state of the internet. Group think and your next dopamine hit.
Here's why?
If you’ve ever watched TikTok videos you’ll get an idea of how addictive the content is. It’s not uncommon to be drawn to watch video after video. Each video delivers a pleasure jolt to the brain. This is done by the body releasing the pleasure hormone Dopamine.
We land up in a cycle of seeking the next dopamine hit. This phenomenon is explained quite well in this TED Talk by Jarem Eastman.
It was much the same in 2004 when Facebook was launched. Companies started getting their network admins to ban access to Facebook because employees were addicted and productivity tanked.
Somehow the 30 odd second TikTok videos appeal to our dopamine response, We enjoy the entertainment value, the creativity and the humour and insight from these videos.
Some smart kids have even harnessed the medium to build really good content, which promotes brands.
Yay we all say!
This is another opportunity to promote our brands (if only we can get the viral tik tok formulae correct).
But hang on and roll back a minute.
The messages on TikTok and other social get lost in all the “noise”. No sooner have you finished watching the one video clip when you swipe up and you get to the next one. So how does anything become memorable? The truth is very little does.
The only way stand out in the “noise” is to get instant engagement or your insight is lost to the next dopamine hit.
If you’ve ever had ,or have, young kids you will appreciate how difficult it is to navigate the queue in Woolworths to get to the checkout tills. Because in most supermarkets you have to do the “walk of shame”. You have to bypass all the candy and chocolates and other instant gratification purchases that you are exposed to.
A sure trigger for the Ï wants..” for you and your younger children.
There is a lesson here. Online promotion isn’t that far away from real world temptations.
Companies that engage with users on social media that successfully lead their prospects down a sales funnel get more sales. (conversions).
So the problem with current social media promotion is that a huge amount of money is spent on creativity which trigger the dopamine hits but the finish is missing. Sales are rarely generated because the target audience is easily distracted. This is the current state of the internet.
Henry Ford said 50% of all advertising is wasted and 50% is affective but we just don’t know which is which.
Thankfully that is no longer the case because all online advertising can be measured and cost of acquisition of a client can be measured.
We know how much bang for your buck we can get.
I get clients that say Google Ads are expensive because they cost x per click and social media is cheap because they cost me x-y per view. But the proof is in the conversion.
And the conversion goes up rapidly if you are able to direct your prospects into an effective sales funnel.
Online promotion without a decent sales funnel is a waste of money.
So just like Woolies you need to funnel your potential customers through to their checkout and entice them along the way.
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