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Jenna Warner
Welcome to Shiny New Clients, the marketing podcast that helps you attract shiny new clients to your business. We'll talk about social media, what makes people buy, how to go viral, and marketing psychology all in 20 minutes or less. Whether you're a coach, a stylist or a wedding planner, if you've got a service based business to sell, this is the show you need to fill your calendar. I'm Jenna Warner, your new marketing coach and this is Shiny New New Clients. Let's get savvy, baby. Welcome to a quickie little social media literacy checkup so that you can be the smartest person in your friend group. No, I'm kidding. But so that we can be more aware of what we're consuming and keep ourselves sharp and keep ourselves aware of what's really going on out there. As a social media manager, as someone who has run a social media management agency, who has taught thousands of business owners how to get clients from their content, I have seen a lot. I've seen a lot in this space. We're going to talk about social media literacy, which doesn't maybe sound fun, but I'm going to try and make it at least interesting. Starting by telling you about the time that I worked on a massive Toronto wide PR campaign. I was hired as a wee social media manager in my 20s with all of these old men and me and I got to really see behind the scenes on how PR works in some maybe kind of occasionally dodgy ways. One of the things I got to do was actually watch a focus group be organized so you know what you see on the movies, there's like a bunch of people sitting at a big table in a boardroom and then there's a mirror that's like two way glass. So people in the boardroom only see the mirror and then there's all these people behind the glass watching them and listening. I was one of the watchers and listeners. And I remember when I got there that day, it was so intimidating. I had my notebook and my phone and I was among. I know there was not very many women in that room and there was definitely no one else my age. Everyone in that room had been in this career for decades. And we all sat and watched an expert in this process interview people. And if I'm being honest, there was an agenda, there was certain answers that they were trying to get out of this group of people and we were trying to get answers that we could use in the PR campaign where we very clearly were being paid to disseminate the viewpoint of our employer. All Right. We were one sided. That was our job. There were many times throughout my career where I was doing a lot more PR that I said, you know, I don't want to do this. I want to use my powers for good. And so now, in the way that I run my business, I definitely use my powers for good because I have seen the manipulation that's out there, and I've seen how PR works. This same person that was running the room that was questioning these people to get stories out of them for us to use in our campaign was a professional polar. You know, the old school polls where a robot or a person maybe phones you and says, do you have time to answer a couple quick questions? And you answer the questions yes or no. And then the next day the COVID of the newspaper says 95% of people agree, cheese is delicious, or whatever. He did that. And one of the tactics in our campaign was to do some polling and then share that with the local media and really use the figures that we got from that and use it to our advantage. This is years ago as well. And I, the naive young woman in the room, said, well, what if we don't get the answers we want when we do the polling? And I'm not kidding you right now. He left. This guy laughed because they know how to get the answers they want. They know how to get the answers that they want so they can fight for their viewpoint that they're being paid to get out there. All right? This is how things work, and they're not changing anytime soon. And sometimes, you know, you're working for the good guys. I like to think in that scenario, at the end of the day, we were the good guys. You know, I. I really believe we were, or I would have quit. We were fighting. I can't tell you what we were fighting for, but it was about safety and it was about keeping workers safe in an environment where they were not being treated. But there are a lot of other. Especially recently, there are a lot of other examples when social media is trying to persuade you of something and it's doing it very intentionally. Sometimes the opinions that are being shown to you online that seem really legit and are persuading you to believe something, people are being paid to make you think those things. Let's think of. Talk about. It ends with us. Justin Baldoni and oh, my gosh, I always call her Serena because that was her name in Gossip Girl. Blake Lively. It doesn't matter where you stand on this issue. You don't need to. I'm not even Going to take a stance on this issue. I don't know enough about it, but what I do know is there are multiple articles posted throughout this whole thing where the text messages of Justin Baldoni and his PR team were released as discovery, talking about full social media takedown efforts. I'll read you what was written in Variety magazine. Some power players were dismayed at the tough tactics being floated by Abel and Nathan to smear Lively. Nathan pitched a four month battle plan with $175,000 price tag to, quote, start threads of theories on platforms like Reddit and TikTok in Baldoni's favor and to create, quote, social fan engagement to go back and forth with any negative accounts, helping to change narratives and stay on track, end quote. Lively's complaint said. So what they're saying there is allegedly the PR team's job. Job. There was humans where their job for those weeks was to go on Reddit and start theories against Blake and pro Justin and then to hype people up when they agreed with them. And again, even if you don't believe this instance and this, you know, even if it comes to be that that's all proven wrong and the text messages are wrong and the allegations are wrong, do you think that that doesn't happen for real? Do you think that there aren't PR teams out there whose job it is that are sitting on their computers right now? They're programming bots to do it for them. Just look at the 2016 election where Russian operatives created thousands of fake social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to intentionally spread divisive content. US investigators proved that. So sometimes, you know, we're sitting there and we're looking at a post and we're going, oh, everybody can't agree with this. And we go down to the comments and it's like, oh, yeah, everyone does agree with it. Maybe I should agree with it too, right? It looks like this is what everybody is. Everybody's saying, meanwhile, those people were paid to make you think that it's dark. I know this is usually such a fun show, but as someone who lives and works in this space, I feel like it's like my duty to talk about this. It's my duty to help us all have better social media literacy, to know that everything we see isn't real. These algorithms are designed to show us more of what we engage in. Take threads, for instance. The other day I was like, man, how come threads just makes me angry every time I open it? Just like silly topics, you know, like those silly topics that just Bug you. It's nonsense stuff, nothing serious. And every time I opened it, I was getting mad. And then I was like, oh, it's because when this post makes me mad, I click it and read the comments and look for people who agree with me instead. And the algorithm sees that I do that. So instead of sending me funny dog memes that I want, it's sending me all of this divisive content because it keeps me on the platform longer, it keeps me engaging, and as far as it knows, that's what I like, because that's what I'm touching. And then we also end up with echo chambers, right? You're like, I don't understand how everyone doesn't like cheese. Every time I open Instagram, everyone loves cheese. Every time I open threads, they're talking about how great cheese is. It seems like everybody likes it. That sample size, my friend, is not real. It is totally invented by algorithms. You are seeing more of what you're interacting with. Even if you go out and occasionally look at other stuff and try and get other people's viewpoints, the algorithm is still going to be sending you the stuff that it thinks you're most likely to like. It's so hard to break free of that. And we've seen again and again how we create echo chambers in our communities, so we're just hearing the same thing over and over again. Do with this information what you please. All right? I'm putting it out there so that we can all pay a little bit closer attention, especially if you find yourself getting upset, like I often do, like I did with threads, like I keep experiencing with the state of things right now, it's so important to find reputable sources, not creators or influencers. When you're looking for real information, it is so important to question everything. And honestly, it is so important to be in integrity when you yourself post, to be honest with people. To be as clear as you can, I'm all up in that Mel Robbins let them theory right now. And although we can't change the state of things, we can try and be conscious of what we're consuming and be very intentional about what we create to give others to consume. Those are two things that we get to control, that we get to be proud of, and how we can contribute positively to the online space. Because it isn't all bad, of course, or else I'd have to quit. All right, that's all from me. Lately. I've been posting two episodes every Monday instead of just one as a bit of an experiment. Often a interview with someone and then a solo episode. Just trying to give you what you want. If you're open to it, please comment if you're listening on Spotify and let me know what you want to hear about. Or you can always DM me on Instagram. I'm ennaspage J E N N A S P A I G E I would love to know what your favorite episodes are so that I can create more of it. Or if you have ideas for the let me know that too, because this is for you, my friend. I'll talk to you soon.