Reading Time: < 1 minI shared last week about finding the “middle place” when it comes to social media usage, and a recent comment I heard on a podcast helped shape that a bit further. While listening to a recent episode of Adam Grant’s WorkLife podcast, his guest Jay Van Bavel made this comparison of social media usage to […]
Social Media
Shut up and sing
Reading Time: < 1 minThrough the election cycle, a lot of were people upset that celebrities were using their fame to endorse various political candidates, with shouts to “shut up and sing” or “shut up and dribble” — stick to their profession and stay out of politics. I agree in theory, as political endorsements from my friends and people […]
Finding the “middle place”
Reading Time: < 1 minSocial media has some serious flaws, no doubt, but there is still a lot of good to be found on there. I enjoy seeing what my friends are up to and celebrating or grieving as we all go through life together. The problem, as social media sites are specifically designed to do, is that we […]
The Hamster Wheel of Social Media
Reading Time: < 1 minAbout a year ago, Jay Acunzo released an amazing concept called “The Idea Impact Matrix“, which was focused on creating higher-impact content. As part of the matrix, he encourages us to stay out of the “commodity cage”, where you produce content that is very general and not too insightful. There is a ton of that […]
Big fires aren’t started by big sparks
Reading Time: < 1 minThis is one of those things that we all already essentially know, but I had never really thought about. If you see a giant fire blazing, you never think “wow, it must have taken a huge spark to start it“. A tiny spark can turn into a giant fire just as easily as a huge […]
Fake photos have been a problem for a long time
Reading Time: 2 minIn the past few weeks you’ve probably seen this photo of a little girl holding her puppy during the flooding from Hurricane Helene. You probably also know that it was AI-generated. This type of thing seems like a growing problem, and it is, but I was surprised to see how far back the problem of […]
Hatred for outgroups is the best way to go viral on social media
Reading Time: < 1 minI have a great tip for you today to help you go viral more often on social media: show a lot of hate. While we all say that we want to more uplifting content on social media, hate spreads much more quickly. I know you’ve all seen it, often from very “nice” people online that […]
Who are you working for?
Reading Time: < 1 minPeople talk about “the algorithm” incessantly, and for good reason. If you’re sharing content online you want it to be seen, and the algorithm is a big piece of that in many cases. Chasing the algorithm is one way to approach business, and it’s one that we certainly take from time to time. Depending on […]
Almost all word of mouth is still offline
Reading Time: 2 minThere are a lot of influences in our lives, but word of mouth is still the top reason why people buy products and services. Ads are important, marketing is important, but people buy most often based on what other people have to say. Of that word of mouth, how much happens online? Most people guess […]
Just a little bit can ruin your day
Reading Time: < 1 minIt’s amazing how little it can take to put us in a bad mood. This can come from other people, but it can also come from just a bit of negative news. In his book “Big Potential“, author Shawn Achor shares this surprising bit of insight: “Indeed, we found that just a few minutes spent […]