A Short Long Time: Digitally Different in 2018
As I like to say, a year is a long short time. Here are three digital themes that emerged for me in 2017 and what I plan on doing in 2018.
Social Media: The Love Affair is Over
Ah yes. Like all grand romances, what a whirlwind it was at the beginning. There was the never ending parade of new and updated platforms and features, the speed and ubiquity of sharing, the seamless transition to mobile. The pace of it all was breath taking.
For a while, social media was the gift that kept on giving. I loved the effortless utility of being able to find and keep up with so many friends all over the world. There was the unexpected miracle of having my best friend when I was eight years old, find and contact me on Facebook decades later. And there were the many new connections I made with people whose interests were similar to mine. Suddenly I wasn’t alone in my love for Cotswold houses, word puns and Star Wars (three separate groups, but hey if there’s a group that combines them all, I’m down.). And in the midst of all this, for marketers, a new window of opportunity opened. Connection became currency.
But in 2017, things changed for me. Social media wasn’t so much breathtaking, as leaving me gasping for one. It started feeling more like a treadmill, something else driving a pace I now had keep up with. In short, it just wasn’t as fun anymore.
What brought on this shift? For me, things like:
constantly being bugged by social apps to turn notifications on;
the suppression of organic reach for content providers;
the very real impacts the digital world is having on our real one;
The “engagement at all costs” mandate that continues to result in negative and questionable video content such as Honey, I Pranked the Kids! and Let’s Mock a Suicide.
Let’s not even get into the bias distortion of the news cycle and the continued degradation of civil public discourse. We don’t have that kind of time.
What I’m doing in 2018:
My social app notifications on lock screen are still turned off. They’re now getting turned off entirely. Social Media isn’t going to be a tune I skip to. It’s something I’ll access when it’s convenient — for me.
I’m changing what I access. For example, less Facebook, more Instagram. If Facebook is a rowdy, Gatsbyesque summer party, Instagram is a small quiet balcony overlooking the garden. I also follow a cross section of news sources that I’m going to start accessing directly.
In thinking through social strategies, I’m doubling down on the basics that I think still hold true. Don’t make “going viral” the end game. Choose platforms that best speak to your users. Prioritize content strategy to produce the best, most audience relevant content you can. Always.
Disrupting Interruption
Ironically, after nearly 20 years in the digital industry, I didn’t get a smartphone until late 2016. 2017 brought home to me why. Don’t get me wrong. Smartphones are amazing. I love being able to get online pretty much anywhere. Mobile payments and GPS are fantastic.
But I’ve found the various intrusions into the every day world isn’t limited to social media. For example, I’m not crazy about potentially being tracked everywhere I go.
And apps are seriously impacting communities in ways we didn’t foresee.
On a personal level I’ve discovered that sometimes it’s better to just put the phone down. Last year I attended a ton of concerts. I took a lot of pictures and videos and I loved these mementos of the experience. But towards the end of 2017 I got sick with a couple of bad colds. It was all I could do to get myself to the concerts I had planned and making a record of them was the last thing on my mind. I simply listened, took it all in and found I enjoyed the experience a lot more.
What I’m doing in 2018:
I’m only using Waze and other assistance level apps occasionally. It’s worth it for the silence.
I’m going to make a more conscious effort to look at the world with my own eyes, not through a phone screen.
As marketers, we need to think about the technologies we utilize. Are we attaching our messaging to solutions that assist and add value to our consumers’ lives, versus nudging and interrupting them?
Hey Sign up!! + ( -UX ) = CRAP³
What I love about working in digital is the endless supply of great ideas. It’s never boring. But in the end, great ideas don’t count; delivering them does. Solid UX is at the core of that mission. Yet, just when I think we’ve learned our lesson, just when I think we’re forging new territory, digital falls back into its old bad habits and de-prioritizes its own audience. As responsive design took off and gained serious mainstream traction a couple of years ago, the importance of delivering quick and accessible user experience took center stage. Great, I thought, things will really start changing.
And they did. Back to all the old, awful stuff we were doing in the heyday of desktop online advertising.
In the middle of trying to read an article only to have a prompt for a newsletter subscription pop up all of a sudden? Check.
Just gotten used to the cadence and content focus of your social media feed? Don’t worry — it’s all about to change.
Again.
And Again.
Suddenly jarred by a soundtrack you didn’t initiate? That’s just the auto play video nobody asked for.
Not sure what button to tap to move to the next page? It’s probably wrapped in with ad content with the same feature.
Here’s the thing. Digital media isn’t passive media. It demands a cognitive effort from its users, however minimal, to get what they want. And when brands don’t make that process easy and intuitive, those users will be less engaged. There’s no denying revenue and audience growth are important. But when your digital property aims to accomplish those goals by engaging in tactics like the ones above, what that tells your customers is that your brand doesn’t value what they want to accomplish or the time they’re investing with you to accomplish it.
What I’m doing in 2018:
I’m continuing what I started in 2017, which is that any brand that commits anything like the UX crimes I’ve outlined above is unfollowed.
I’m continuing to fight the good fight. User experience has always been in my top ten priorities for any digital initiative. It’s now moved into the top three.
