3 Things Learned Using Social Media for Performance

These days people take their social media seriously. I mean, really seriously. Most have a challenging time separating reality from the screen. Given, for most us, reality has become the screen, nonetheless I expect more from people in general. Though I must admit, I become seduced by it at times too. We all do.

Make no mistake about it, social media is virtual reality. No Head Mounted Display needed.

I’ve fought the urge to unplug ever since my divorce left me a full-time single father stuck in a dead-end teaching job unable to pay my mounting debts.

When I was at my worst and calling for help, I woke up and realized people didn’t even know who I was anymore, they believed what they read online, or what they heard, almost worse yet, whatever they wanted to believe. The facade I had created, yes my own content and stories generated by others had been so effective my old self, my pre-entertainment industry self, was almost gone. All that remained was some data carcass, a ghost of data entry past.

You see, among other things, I’m pretty good at branding and identity. Really. I’ve done it for the big boys and about a decade ago I turned it on myself, despite the challenge. I started calling myself a “narrative designer” a role I had created for a big video game publisher. The role got out of my hands and into the larger industry. Before I knew it people decided I was a writer. I’m still amazed when people tell me I’m a writer — even a good one. Sure I write, I’ve been nominated for awards, and I love it, but it’s actually quite challenging for me. I’m a visual person.

I grew up on Nintendo and wanted to press ‘reset’ on the game of life, so I dropped out and have tried to kick start my dreams. It worked, I published the kind of of game I’ve always wanted, cut my first feature film, released a couple albums and sales from the game go to benefit a real world cause. I spent years developing characters, some for my startups and then using social media to become them. Why? Hip hop taught me everything. It also seemed that it was the ultimate form of social pseudocide I’d been looking for and, yes, the perfect drama for my crowdfunding campaigns.

Most of us are visual people, that’s what I learned most as a professional writer. No one, not even the people who pay you to write will read it. They might skim a few lines, speed read a page or five if you’re lucky, but mostly they just look and react based on whatever garbage they’re rolling with.

So for those you just tuning in:

#1 People Take Social Media Very Seriously

Shoot a video segment in your underwear, or try something experimental and waves will crash upon the shores of your fictitious online relationships. People I once thought competent would rebuke my efforts with sobs or worse yet Orwellian statements like “Don’t you like friends?”or “Take that down or I’m never speaking to you again.” etc. (Trust me, I made a feature film about it.)

Change your profile photo and your closest associates might NOT know who you are anymore. Hell, you might not either and that’s okay. It may take them days, months even, to even realize something has changed, but when they do let the judgments roll. “Please tell me you’ve been hacked” one longtime associated confided.

If you use a picture of Fidel Castro, or Che they will think that’s what you look like. No, they will most likely will have no idea who those people are.

If you make a joke about cats they’ll assume you’re a psycho killer, and yes cats are evil. Look it up.

If you like a post about terrorism, they’ll assume you’re a terrorist — never mind the ambiguity of our ‘loves’ and ‘likes’ or profile proclamations “RT does not = Endorsement”. That content gets resold to others with your name on it. I still recall American Express using my 12 year old daughters Likes to try and sell me credit. How she clicked ‘like’ on such a subject I don’t know, doesn’t matter.

Now, I’ve tried to use this to my advantage, and I saw some higher conversion rates from it. You see. I make media, media like this. I’m also a performer and artist. In the end I’m a showman, and I want you to buy so I can make more.

I began working in web development as a child of the 90’s and for me this is a fluid medium ripe for experimentation and rule-breaking. For others it’s become a thing of institutions.

Hell, Facebook has started asking for government issued ID recently and thinks it’s some kind of world governing authority on, well, all things. For some of us it’s become a prison with algorithmic rule-sets, one where we are both corporate prisoners and guards.

You see, the internet was once an open trove of promised digital freedom and there’s no reason it can’t be again. We can rebuild it, this is all, after all, virtual.

What was the first thing you ever did on the internet? For me it was the early 90’s and I got into the internet through a university’s system and as seventh-graders we did the first thing that made sense — downloaded the Anarchist Cookbook to make stink bombs. Even just searching that book for this post probably just put my name on another NSA list. So to that:

#2 Everyone is Crazy Online

No really, it’s so crazy real people actually trust Facebook, a for-profit firm that turns public social life into a private commodity, and there’s no shortage of loco here.

It’s hard to tell here what is real and what is not. We live in a culture that has little rational thought, let alone logic. Regardless of how clear something might seem to you, subtext is next to impossible to infer for the other — and it will be inferred. F is not for Fake — F is for Facebook.

There is no safe route. You will be ignored or judged, and at times disinformation works better than actual information. See? I’ve become a total propagandist. I’ve tried to escape by deleting my profiles, only to be pulled back to some. Realizing you can’t find work in this crazy world or apply to Techstars without a profile on a third-party website, one that profits from reselling your profile as a living data set.

Yes, right now you are represented as a string in an multidimensional array by privately held machines, and without them you might as well not exist. Forget about what other people think, and they will generally love you, hate you or plain not care. I’ve managed to kill my Facebook presence, but continue to experiment with others. And yes, I was persuaded to reopen my Linkedin account again recently. Lost my endorsements, but that’s about it. So don’t delete unless you mean it, and please, for the future of humanity, mean it.

The biggest tip I have came up with is the ever sacred female breast, yes:

#3 Boobs

Lady boobs are fundamental internet hook. In a marketplace with shelf-placement of infinite depth (I’ll take that pun) T&A does wonders. Among other things, I changed my LinkedIn profile to be a good air-brushed set of red-white-and-blue for a while; as a test.

Sure I felt like a pig, but my profile views skyrocketed! It was unbelievable and it attracted a range of targeted demographics aka “dudes” and “chicks”. You see, running a crowdfunding campaign I just wanted to rank and increase my rank within certain markets. It worked, I was part of the 1% in my network.

Yes, as my chart explains, I used man-boobs too ladies. (Mostly so I could pat myself on the back for being unbiased). Hell, I even tried full male nudes. They simply aren’t as effective, especially when attracting foreign buyers (particularly in The Middle East and Asia; see chart below).

You can’t argue, this is science people.