Bursting the (Speech) Bubble

You’re Talking…. Is Anyone Listening? 

So you have something to say, a message to deliver. You are convinced of its importance and relevance. You are confident that this is something people want to hear. You are sure it will enrich your audience. But are you in a Marie Antoinette-level delusion – detached from the actual needs of your audience? (Marie Antoinette set the bar for being aloof and detached when she answered the concern of her subjects’ lack of bread to eat with the statement “Let them eat cake”.)

In today’s world, we have developed the idea that since we each have our own personal broadcasting station in the form of social media channels, this somehow makes us very relevant to the world. We have become obsessed with constant status updates, tweets, chats, posts, stories, snaps, plays, live streams, etc., through which we are constantly broadcasting, but do we stop to ask if it matters? Is anyone listening? 

Maybe the bigger question should be: While we are getting views, likes, or even shares, can we truly influence? Are we making a difference? Sorry to burst your bubble, but are you willing to contemplate the possibility that most people don’t give a crap about what you are posting?

A lot is made of “influencers” in this day and age, and plenty of clout given to celebrities and their ability to have an impact on marketing and messaging. Sure, such people have a much broader platform for disseminating ideas and content, and they have attentive audiences. But despite this, the general public is saturated with information and thus possibly quite desensitized to it. 

It stands to reason that much more than one-way broadcasting of information would be much more powerful to generate conversations! Before you double back by saying, “there is plenty of engagement and conversation surrounding celebrity posts and news,” allow us to interject that such chatter is generally somewhat detached from core messages being delivered, so there is parallel, almost competing dynamics at play because, with the “freedom” of online forums for dialogue, it has become almost impossible to “control the narrative.”

What if one were able to consolidate the two – to ignite conversation and then guide the organic spread? It would seem that this would be a dream response to our day’s challenge in terms of online marketing.

Let’s not fool ourselves with the metrics of online statistics. As much as we love social media exposure, we have to accept that many of the numbers considered vital performance indicators of effective online marketing represent little more than passing swipes in a media-saturated world. We are happy to pat ourselves on the back and “take the win” with great social media stats, but let’s not get lazy or have our heads in the sand, assuming that they represent authentic engagement. Let’s level up and start to leverage social media to generate actual interchange. 

PepPartner offers powerful tools to allow you to incentivize the sharing of authentic, accurate, and compliant messages that you create, you determine, you desire. Learn more at peppartner.com.