"I don't give a fuck; Twitter ain't a real place." Dave Chappelle
Last night I watched the “controversial” final Dave Chappelle special on Netflix, and this quote got me thinking that he's right. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram aren't real places.
We put all of this value, worth, and expectations of our "Human Experience" on these places that aren't even real. They aren't the next town over; they aren't a plane ride away; it's a place made of nothing and everything at the same time that one day we could wake up and it would be gone.
Last week I went to Red Rocks, and with the first hint that the band was coming on, almost the entire crowd pulled out their phones, slid over to the video setting of their camera, and tapped start. They were watching the concert through their phone when they were at Red Rocks, one of the top concert venues in North America.
Instead of choosing to be in the moment and have a human experience in a real place, they chose to have that experience through their phone. Watching this happen makes me wonder whether we are who we present online, or are we indeed who we are when we are walking around in real life.
We put all of this effort into being in real places but creating images or videos to share to this non-existent place to make us look the way we want the world to perceive us. And it makes me wonder just how much of the experience we are experiencing and how much of going to a place is to side brag to our followers that we've been there. If we don't filter and post our experience to social media, does it mean that it didn't happen in real life?
It may sound like I am hating on the social media spoon that feeds me when that's quite the contrary. I have been talking a lot in person about the core purpose of social media, and after 2020, many people are ready to jump the ship, and when people say that to me, I remind them that social media is a "necessary evil." The foundation of the social platforms is still there; with every user's post, it gets buried a little deeper down, but there is still an opportunity there to connect with like-minded people.
The fact is that your business does need to have a presence on social media. Social media is one of the top three search engines, and you want your business to show up on social media to connect with the searcher. Still, it's also true that you don't have to give up your human experience to do social media well.
When businesses hire me for coaching or management, my superpower is that each post, story, reel, email, or digital piece of information your brand puts out there translates to how the viewer, customer, or client would feel when they are around your real-life energy and the energy of your establishment.
Many people think that I will come in and turn your marketing upside down when I'm only coming in to redecorate the walls. You have a following because your voice has been established, and you, your voice, and your vision are why people have invested in you. The only change will be a decluttering to find the message, consistently share that message, and a zhuzhing of your visual assets.
If you live your most authentic human experience in worlds that don't exist, you are not doing your marketing wrong. You're doing it differently, and people stop their scroll for different. Every independently owned business is unique to the person who operates it, whether IRL or a made-up digital world, hold your uniqueness.