Introducing: The Everyday Post
I couldn’t do it. It wasn’t the butterflies in my stomach that comes from presenting in a Fortune 500 company boardroom; it was the fact I was holding untrue data. “Tell them about the impressions, but whatever you do, don’t mention the fact we had zero conversions.” My colleague told me. “That’s the only metric that matters.” I protested. Then I was called on for the marketing update. I stood, swallowed the fear, and lied through my teeth.
This is how it felt handling the social media marketing in-house at a massive corporation. There’s a constant massaging of the metrics and data to keep the lie going.
Here’s the thing: This isn’t a business problem. This bleeds into the culture.
When aggressive business objectives are posted without guidelines things get ugly. It’s what led to the fraudulent sales practices Wells Fargo did.† The now-defunct Gawker Media had a leaderboard of page views per story. This lead to desperate journalists destroying the lives of others just for click-bait.‡ We saw this too with Facebook doing anything for growth and pleasing shareholders.§
I found that the lying continued once I began freelancing. Most marketing teams wanted to present only vanity metrics that don’t really help the business.
After seeking advice from my peers I realized that very few people talk about honest communication. To fix this I want to do my part and write a post every day that pushes to do better.
The Everyday Post will feature commentary on honestly engaging with your customers and community.
This will not feature “growth-hacking” tricks to get more 10X more followers. Instead, this is a dialogue on doing what’s right for the client and the business owner.
Every day I’ll show up and share what I’ve observed.
I hope this inspires you to put your honest work out there. Not to rant, or complain, but to make something and stand behind it with pride. To elevate the conversation. To build something that provides value to everyone in the transaction.
I’m here to play my part. One post at a time.
My honest ask: click follow this publication or give it a few claps. Thank you.
Works Cited / Excerpts / Notes
† “The sales scandal erupted last September when the San Francisco bank admitted that employees opened customer accounts using fictitious or unauthorized information to meet lofty sales goals.” (Glazer 2017)
‡ “Denton experimented with different forms off compensation in the early years, but his most important shift was away from a raw number of posts per day toward pages views […] He calls it the ‘NASDAQ of Content,’ but is to the millennial id.” (Holiday 2018)
§ “Reports cited rifts over recent product changes, such as how posts are shared between Facebook and Instagram; clashes over “growth tactics” and expanding Instagram’s user base;” (Tiku 2018)
Works Cited
Glazer, Emily. 2017. Markets Section. August 31. https://www.wsj.com/articles/wells-fargos-sales-scandal-tally-grows-to-around-3-5-million-accounts-1504184598
Holiday, Ryan. 2018. Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue. New York: Portfolio/Penguin.
Tiku, Nitasha. 2018. Business Section. September 25. https://www.wired.com/story/with-instagram-cofounders-out-facebook-all-the-way-down/
