Marketing tips for social media

 I'm just going to say it bluntly, If you’re a business and you aren’t using social media as a marketing tool what are you doing??? No, like seriously….

The power of social media is truly remarkable. It is a way for brands/ businesses to connect directly with their audience which makes it more personable. As well as being able to connect with a wider audience which can boost new customers. So if you are a business you need to be using it towards your advantage, here are some tips for your platforms that can help boost your marketing game. 

1. Who is your audience and what do they want from you?

  

You need to cater to the people that will actually buy from your business, when customers feel like they are being heard there is more of a chance that they will walk away with your product/ service. 

2. What social media platforms do you want to use?

Depending on your audience, what platforms will help you the most with growth? If you’re catering to an older audience it would make more sense to use Facebook as your main platform instead of twitter. So deciding which platforms will be the most useful is important.

3. Be specific, what are your goals?

To make sure you are truly selling your business in the best way, make sure you are specific on your goals for your business. What do you want the outcome to be? What do you want your customers to walk away? Tell Them, customers love honesty. 

4. Be Unique 

What makes your business stand out? Customers want to feel special so how can you help that feeling? There are endless businesses on social media but how can you make yours stand out from the others? Use that creativity to bring people in.

5. Engage 

Because social media can easily connect others, you need to engage with your customers. Talk to them, answer questions, use connection as a tool to further bring people in. 

To bring it all together, your strategy on social media is crucial in todays age of marketing. If you really want to advance your business, using social media is the best way to go. 

The Timeline of Our Media

Dinosaurs! Ancient creatures. Nobody alive today has seen such a thing. And yet, they are still a HUGE topic of discovery. In fact, a new dinosaur was actually just discovered a few weeks ago in Argentina.

But even things as "old" as floppy discs from the '90s seem ancient to us now. And those were only 30 odd years ago. 

That brings me to the topic of the blog for this week: time. No, we aren't talking about dinos or floppy discs (sorry to disappoint). We are talking about how things that are popular at one time or another either die with the times or resurface another day. 

Raymond Williams, a Welsh socialist writer, actually has names for these things...

        Archaic

        Residual

        Dominant

        Emergent

The archaic stuff is like the floppy discs. Popular one day, but as new technology emerges we lose purpose or interest in those things.

The residual stuff is like vinal records. They come and go. The overall populations' interest in these things peaks and falls every few years or so. Right now, people love the idea of living in the past so the vinal records and record players are back in business...for now...

Dominant things are like Pokeman or dinosaurs. Things that will always have (or have continued to have) sway on people because the major population either is or isn't interested in it at the time. This is like when Pokeman Go was a big thing, but now if Jerry asks to go to the park for his Poke-stops everyone looks at him crazy. Or when Jurassic World came out and they decided to throw Chris Pratt in there. The series died a long time ago but because Chris Pratt was now the main guy and Dinosaurs, in general, are interesting, then why wouldn't you go to the movie to watch it. (But if your favorite movie in the Jurassic series is Jurassic World, don't talk to me).

The emergent stuff is like TikTok or Vine. What is popular right now. Normally it is quick-lived but we enjoy it for the time being. Everyone knows about it and everyone is on it.

We can actually play with this "timeline" so to speak. We see this a lot in movie remakes or reboots nowadays.

Jumanji, for example. Originally came out in 1995 with Robin Williams. Two kids play a board game that comes to life and accidentally free a kid who has been stuck in the game for 20 years. A crazy concept in the '90s!

22 years later, it's back. New people. New game. New times. They play off the nostalgia of all the people who saw the original Jumanji, but if you ask kids nowadays, they don't even know who Robin Williams is and have no interest in finding out. They are too caught up in the excitement of the idea that they too could be sucked into their own video games.

They even play off The Breakfast Club and through 4 completely opposite kids, who otherwise never would have met, into detention together, and by the end of it, they come out friends. So many popular movies with that trope have seen success, so why not Jumanji too?

The writers, directors, and producers all used these residual and dominant things to help create a new, emergent movie that feels new and fresh (and even went on to have a sequel).

We see this too with social media. Things coming, going, sticking around. Popular memes change all the time. Which app should be used the most, changes. What kind of content is popular, changes.

TikTok alone has been a huge social media platform for the last few years now. During the pandemic, it was popular to post dancing videos, simulating the previous app: Musically. Then it moved to short, funny videos like Vine. And now that stuff is harder to find. Now they take movie/tv show sounds and use them ironically, there are challenges, filters, storytime.

For now, TikTok is the place to be because regardless of how old you are, if you wanna reminisce, the for you page (FYP) will show you those archaic floppy disc repair videos. If you wanna see the newest dance video, it'll show up. If you wanna just scroll and see exactly what everyone is talking about, it'll show you that too.

Raymond Williams' cultural practices are a concept that has been around and will stay around for centuries to come. It continues to work and be true in fashion, television, media, and more

Spreadability and More Theories!!

 HELLO EVERYBODY!!!! I'm back with another installment of what I've learned in my social media class!! I did not think that I would want to post again so soon, but I figured I would give you guys two updates this week. I'm not sure how often this is going to happen or if it's going to happen again, but I thought it would be nice. Anyways, in this post I will talk about what hermeneutics is and explain four different theories about it. I will also include a section on the spreadability of content on the internet. Ok time for me to stop stalling and start explaining because that is what you're really here for. Isn't it? 

Along with last week's post about the four theories on relationships, we also talked about hermeneutics and the four theories that accompany it. Hermeneutics is the way we think about and practice interpretation. But the theorist that connects this blog post about hermeneutics and my last blog post about relationship theories is Gadamer. Gadamer's theory explains that all parties have to come to an agreement about the way things are to be interpreted. The other three theorists that have different theories about hermeneutics are Husserl, Riffaterre, and Bateson. Husserl explains that people have to section off parts of their life to only focus on and understand one part. Riffaterre believes that with everything someone does, something will pull them out of the moment and remind them of reality. Finally, Bateson thinks that people are able to be in the moment while understanding the reality around them. I found these four theories very interesting because I never thought about any of this when I am interpreting things. Because of discussing these different theories, I started to think about them and which one I applied to my life.

When thinking about how I could apply these different theories to my life and how I normally interpret things, I felt like I was trying to figure out which theory I felt matched how I felt about how relationships are built. If you guys remember my last blog post, I told you guys how I struggled with matching which theory went with how I made relationships. I ultimately was able to choose one theory that I felt was right based on most of the relationships I made. But if I had to only choose one theory this time, I would not be able to do that. I realized that I used different theories at different times. It also depends on what I am interpreting. The theory that I think I use more often is Gadamer's theory. I always make sure that me and the other people I am with. If I was dealing with something a lot more serious, I would use Husserl's theory and section off certain things to deal with the more important issue. I often find myself getting lost in a good book, TV show, or a movie, until something happens or I get distracted that I get pulled back into reality. So, when I am engrossed in media like that, I see myself in Riffaterre's theory.  When I am playing games with my friends or with the kids I work with, I see myself in Bateson's theory. I always get into the games that we play, but I have to keep in mind that it is a game to make sure that nobody gets hurt or starts an extreme argument.

Something new we began talking about was the spreadability of internet content. What I mean by spreadability are the things that make people want to share the content of the post. Spreadability is very important in today's society. It can help advertise projects and keep content relevant even when it has been released for a while. The spreadability of content will also show producers and writers of the content what the audience wants to see and inform them on how they can improve their content. Some of the strategies that could help the spreadability of content are: available when and where audiences want it, portable, easily reusable in a variety of ways, relevant to multiple audiences, and part of a steady stream of material. While it is difficult to come up with the best new ideas that people will want to share, there are seven choices that are normally used because they tend to follow the previous strategies. These seven choices are: shared fantasies, humor, parody and references, unfinished content, mystery, timely controversy, and rumors.

This unit felt like it went by so fast! Where did the time go? I thought it was really interesting to learn more about different theories and why some of the most popular content is so popular. I'm excited to see what the next unit has in store for me and what I'll learn!

I'll see you guys next time!

What's new? And how did it end up being "new"?

"trends" by Mike Cohen trends | trends on board. You are allowed to use this image … | Flickr

Every day we witness as new products, trends, and genre types rise into the view of the public eye with the hopes of solidifying themselves as the “next big thing”. This constant game of attempting to be popular has impacted fashion trends, top music genres, social media and digital movements, etc. We may not think about it as often, but we are the ones that directly contribute to what becomes big. We are the ones that actively participate within consumerism, social media, and other real-life platforms that offer us a multitude of options for us to determine what is to our liking. So, whether you like it or not, we are the ones that have helped things such as pop sockets, scrunchies, low-rise waist fashion, and movie revivals rise to fame in pop culture. It’s kind of amazing when you think about how much we collectively contribute to the ever-changing state of pop culture.

In this blog post, I will be explaining the multiple types of cultural practices that help to define what is favored within society, and how this impacts cultural meanings within pop culture.

The 4 Types of Cultural Practices:

Think about what is popular currently. You probably thought about a wide array of different things. Off the top of my head as I asked myself that same question, I thought of things such as bucket hats, mini backpacks, horror movie revivals/continuations, and Squishmallows. Whether you thought about a list of items that resemble my own or a completely different list, notice how your list can be constructed by “new” things and “old” things that have now found themselves to be popular again (ex: the bucket hats and movie revivals from my list). It’s strange to consider that currently trending items can either be brand new or familiar items that have been revived into popularity. 

To better consider the possibility of this, let’s consider the thought of Welsh writer, Raymond Williams. Williams described there to be four types of cultural practices that can be applied to things and the level of popularity that they experience: emergent, dominant, residual, and archaic. 

• Emergent: This type refers to what is, quite literally, the next big thing. These are the up-and-coming items and trends that are already proving themselves to be favorable amongst audiences. They haven’t confirmed themselves to be popular yet, but they are on their way to doing so. It can be harder to distinguish what falls into the emergent category since it’s not always as obvious what will be popular.

• Dominant: These are the items and stuff that are currently popular. Some of the items that are in this category may find themselves staying here longer than other items. They may be current for only a short amount of time, while other items might have found a way to constantly remain current and popular.

• Residual: This refers to stuff and trends that were once popular in an earlier time period, fell out of popularity over time, but are now currently popular once again. This is basically the recreation and revival of older items so that they can once again be accepted by the general public.

• Archaic: These are the items and trends that are considered to be super old. They don’t receive much attention other than by the niche audience that still favors and/or admires them. When it comes to gaining mass attention by an abundant audience, they aren’t as fortunate.

Residual Culture:

Like I mentioned in the previous section, residual refers to older items that have found themselves back in the limelight once again in the current times. A number of residual items that are present today in current society and pop culture can include vinyl records, bucket hats, scrunchies, and revival and/or continuations of older films (ex: The Matrix, Jurassic Park, Lord of The Rings, Halloween, etc.). 

In their book titled Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Media in a Networked Culture, Henry Jenkins, Joshua Green, and Sam Ford discuss residual culture. Residual culture basically refers to how older cultural practices find their way back into modern culture. This is often because the public gives these older items new meanings (whether that be continuously or uncontinuously). 

Residual material has a high potential to become popular once again due to their nostalgic values and their ability to encourage conversations revolving around the past and the present.

In the book’s section discussing residual and retro culture, it brings up the topic of collectors. You can collect all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons. The book points out that most traditional collectors of various items seek to collect items for nostalgic and sentimental value, not to re-establish their collected items into something new for the current state of culture. While media culture has the power to find new meanings in their collected media in order to create something new and meaningful for the present. More specifically, the book states that, “If traditional collectors erase use value almost entirely in favor of sentimental value, these retro media fans restore use value by discovering new uses for forgotten material.”

Let’s take me for an example for a second. I have collected a number of Star Wars figures from the 1990s for a while now. Although I’m still hunting for a few more figures, I do not search and collect these figures with the purpose of creating new meanings with them. I mainly collect them for, as the quote states best, sentimental value. As an adult who has grown up with Star Wars as being a present part of her life, these figures to me represent just how much value and admiration I hold towards the Star Wars franchise, when I was a child and now as an adult.

But it appears that Star Wars media has found itself finding new meanings multiple times since the initial release of the first movie in 1977. We have the initial trilogy that started it all (1977-1983), the prequel series that contributed to the Star Wars history that happened before the events of the original trilogy (1999-2005), and the latest trilogy that touched on the original Star Wars storyline by revisiting familiar faces and introducing new faces (2015-2019). Whether you like or dislike any of these trilogies, each one has helped to keep Star Wars present and meaningful within today's pop culture and society. 

Even after the completion of all three trilogies, we are still receiving Star Wars related series such as (but not limited to) Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Mandalorian, and The Book of Boba Fett. The Star Wars community is still expecting the release of other series such as the Obi-Wan Kenobi series and the Ahsoka series. Each new piece of Star Wars media is building upon the foundations contributed by the past trilogies, but also simultaneously builds upon the meaning of Star Wars by creating new stories. 

"The Mandalorian Season 2 Trailer is Is Out" by From Bricks to Bothans The Mandalorian Season 2 Trailer Is Out | Yeah, I can’t wait… | Flickr

Sure, this could be Disney cashing in on the residual economic and cultural values that Star Wars offers, but Star Wars still remains present and meaningful today because we as viewers have demonstrated that we favor the franchise and what it continuously still has to offer.

The Uncertainty of Product Success:

So now that we know that either new and/or old things can find themselves to be popular, let’s consider how we determine what will be popular and/or shared amongst audience members. 

Jenkins, Green, and Ford explain later on in their book that despite us always constantly seeing the “next big things”, it can be hard for creators to determine whether what they create will be successful. There are a few strategies and methods that they can consider that can potentially better the likelihood of their content becoming popular. However, even if they consider everything, there is no guarantee that they will receive the outcome they so desire. But that doesn’t mean they can’t reference back to different types of content that have already proven themselves to be popular and shareable amongst audience members. Some of these types of content include:

• Shared Fantasies: This can refer to types of creations that are commonly enjoyed by multiple types of viewers and subgroups. This can include fan-created works (art, writing, video edits, etc.) that are created for specific types of movies, shows, books, fandoms, etc. It can also include media that induces nostalgia for a certain generation such as old commercials.

• Humor: This is exactly what this is. Material that makes you laugh. It can help to connect people that understand or want to share in a particular joke.

• Parody and Reference: Parody is a term that helps to define pieces of material that have value because they have the ability to express shared experiences. Common shared experiences that parodies can reference can include topics of nostalgia and referring to shared history.

• Unfinished Content: This content leaves their material to be open ended. This helps to encourage audience members to contribute their own thoughts and/or something new. This can also cause audiences to think twice about what they say because it was shocking to an extent.

• Mystery: This type of content leaves viewers guessing. It can leave them uncertain as to what the rhetorical goal behind the content is, or even who created and or produced the content. It basically makes it to where the material's unclear motives excite and interest viewers.

• Timely Controversy: The timing in which this content comes out plays a crucial role in how popular this type of content is. The timing this comes out often strikes up conversation and intense attention. This is difficult to do since cultural relevance is constantly changing. It is important to know that this type of content can even work or backfire, so be careful.

• Rumors: I think it’s safe to say we are all familiar with rumors. They can be damaging but can also garner a lot of attention. 

So, with those listed out, let’s go back to the topic of Star Wars. I’m going to potentially ruffle some feathers with this one, but for this example, let’s look at the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer ( https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE ). It is the first movie that kicked off the third Star Wars trilogy, 10 years after the release of the last movie from the prequel series. Disney had a legacy to carry on and high expectations for them to reach, so they had to make sure that their first introduction to their new trilogy was received well by viewers. The trailer alone gained 108 million views on YouTube, 114,847 comments on YouTube, and for the exact same trailer on Facebook it was shared 432 thousand times. Needless to say, the trailer gained a lot of attention.

Now let's consider the types of content strategies and themes that Disney utilized in order to get this trailer off the ground. These are the ones I would argue that this trailer played on:

• Shared Fantasies: This was already one that the Star Wars franchise has right off the bat. Star Wars has acquired a large community of fans since its start in 1977. It is a franchise that many undoubtable know and enjoy. Fans have created fan-art, video edits, fanfiction, and cosplay related to Star Wars. Needless to say, this content plays on shared fantasies.

• Parody and Reference: The original story of Star Wars already gave Disney a lot to reference. As we get visuals of well-known droid and ship types, stormtrooper silhouettes, the remnants of Darth Vader’s helmet, current age Han Solo, General Leia, and Chewbacca. The trailer references a lot to gain the attention of older fans that are familiar with the start of this franchise.

• Unfinished Content: A trailer in itself is unfinished content. It only gives you a general snippet of what the next Star Wars centered story will be and will explore. This left viewers wanting to contribute their own thoughts and theories as to what was to come within this next trilogy.

• Mystery: The trailer makes it clear that this is a Star Wars-based story, but as to what the focus of this story will be is not totally clear. We get snippets of new faces and visuals that potentially give us ideas, but that’s all the trailer leaves us with: ideas. It left a lot of us guessing as to what this next trilogy was going to be about and how they were going to kick off this next story.

Whether you liked or disliked the latest Star Wars franchise, it is undeniable that the content in which Disney made for this film was considered to be popular and current at some point. Which helped to contribute towards keeping Star Wars popular in pop culture. I mean, let’s be honest, Star Wars has always been pop culturally relevant and well known. The franchise solidified itself as being iconic. But the new stories that are added to it in the current years gives it new meaning for new generations that enter into the Star Wars fandom. It also helped for new Star Wars series and stories to be continuously created and shared. 

Conclusion:

We help to determine what is popular and the “next big things” by being active members of social media and society in general. This can help to determine if new things will be made popular, or if old things will return to popularity. This post focused mainly on the topic of Star Wars for its examples, but these findings can be applied to multiple trends, genres, and items found with pop culture. Overall, we are the active factors that help to determine the state of our ever changing digital and physical societies.

Cultures and Relationship Theories

 Hey guys!!! I'm back with another update. But this time, I want to start by asking you guys some questions. I feel like I haven't gotten to ask about you. How are you? Is everything going well? Are you staying hydrated? Are you eating three meals a day? Have you been getting eight hours of sleep each night? How has your social life been? If you said yes to any of these, well, I'm glad one of us is doing good. If you said no, it's ok because I'm with you. Hahahaha! Now as Li Shang from the movie Mulan would say "Let's get down to business". We have just started unit 2 of class and have talked about new theories. So, let's just get into it (yuh)!!

One of the first things we went over in this unit was different theories about relationships and how we think they are created. The first theorist we talked about was Gadamer and how other theories compare to his. His first theory we talked about basically said that the relationships we make are natural and we do not have to try very hard to connect. Then, we compare it to Habermas' theory, which said it is really hard to connect with others and form relationships. We have to try and fit our interest with the other person's interest. We finally talked about Derrida's theory. He explains that no relationship is real and any connection we make is fake and made up. It is all an illusion.

When we were first going through these theories, I was conflicted on where I would put my friendships. I was deciding whether I would place them in Habermas' theory or Gadamer's. But after I talked it through with some friends and my teacher, I realized that a majority of my friendships have been because we clicked with each other. We would always have at least one thing in common with each other, and when we continued to talk to each other, we found that we had a lot more things in common. With each of my friendships, it felt like it did not take any effort to become close. I think I went back and forth between Habermas and Gadamer because it took some time for me to start talking with them. Because I was so shy and awkward around them for the first time, it felt like I did not have anything in common with them. But in reality, if I would have made conversation sooner, we would have been friends faster.

The next lesson we discussed in class was the four different types of cultural practices. The four different types of cultural practices are archaic, residual, dominant, and emergent. Archaic cultures are historical forms that no longer serve any recognized cultural functions. Residual cultures are things that were a big part of the human experience, but are overshadowed by the dominant culture. The dominant culture is whatever the big thing or the popular thing is at the moment. The final type of cultural practice is emergent culture. Emergent culture is what people predict is going to become the next dominant culture. It's pretty big right now, but it will become even bigger as time passes.

There are many different types of examples for these cultural practices. An example of archaic culture could be the language and phrases that were used long ago that are no longer used and considered cool. An example of residual culture is vinyl records. Vinyl's were extremely popular when they were first introduced, but as time moved on and different methods for listening to music were made, they slowly started to go away. More recently, vinyl has been making a comeback. More people are buying vinyl. Dominant culture is something everybody pretty much knows or knows of, whether they realize it or not. One of the most dominant things in our culture right now is TikTok. It has been the birthplace of many influencers and trends and has shaped our lives significantly. Finding an example for an emergent culture was a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be. But I finally found something that I think is emergent, that is crossing over into being dominant. Wordle is a word game that is sweeping the nation. It feels like everybody is playing it, but many became confused when people on Twitter started posting black, yellow, and green squares to show that they played that day's Wordle.

So that's what I've learned so far in this unit, and it has been very interesting. I think I liked learning about the theories of relationship building the best. We're currently in the middle of the unit, so I will have one more post for you. Well, that's all for now and I will see you next post.

Social Media and the Need for Fame

How famous do we think we really are?

This generation has become obsessed with the world of social media, moreover the desire to be relatable to crowds of people that surf social media. This train of thought leads to the thought, "why do we make posts?" Updating family and friends has always been a main point to consider for something like Instagram or Facebook, but what about social media like TikTok and Twitter? 

Seeing that TikTok is a platform that requires posts to be in video format, the ability to use it as a tool to update family and friends seems to become less of the main objective to posts. 

Twitter is a platform that has easier capability of express a person's random thoughts or feelings toward anything. I can tweet about a job promotion I received or getting a new car, but the replies to a tweet are nothing in comparison to a facebook comment section filled with distant family relatives I have never met before. 

If not all social media is "updating family and friends", then why is it used? 

People want to find fame on large platforms. How does one do this?? Pure luck in my opinion, or by understanding how to be influential to the majority of those using a platform. 

Henry Jenkins, Joshua Green, and Sam Ford wrote the book, Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture. In this book contains an introduction entitled, "Why Media Spreads" which focuses on the capability of information to spread on social media through their respective cultures. In this book, the authors utilize the term "spreadability" which refers to the ability to circulate information from audiences for their own purposes. Essentially, how well can a person reach large audiences with a tweet or TikTok video? 

Twitter is a specific platform for more than social networking, but also blogging to a certain extent. The ability to tweet short paragraphs at one time is basically similar to me making this blogging; both are giving open thoughts publicly. Spreadability of information like this doesn't come without having some luck of course. All it takes is one tweet to be seen by a group of people, and they show it to their people, and the chain goes on. 

Im sorry for the ugly emoji (#TeamiPhone), but let's take a look at this tweet of mine for example. Potential for relatability? Abso-freaking-lutely. This was at a time where the famous show, The Office, was removed from Netflix to be exclusive to Peacock. People were all going through the same thing here, and that thing was missing Steve Carrell and John Krasinski making an office job look fun. This tweet isn't necessarily a famous tweet, but it did reach audiences that aren't normally within my same "twitter-sphere" of connection when I tweet. People helped spread my tweet with retweets and likes!

So what about TikTok? 

Marcel Mauss writes a book called, The Gift, which contemplates the idea of a person's obligation to reciprocate gift giving if they received a gift from someone initially. Mauss states there are free gifts such as charity, but also a mutual gift exchange concept that can be applied or embedded within social media today. Although Mauss wrote this in the 1950's, there is still relevance to how we can apply the concept of the gift to social media today. 

People can make money from posting TikTok videos. Making money requires viral platforms however, which have created fame for people. A person like Addison Rae or Charli D'amelio has come to be famous through the use of spreadability on TikTok, but that isn't enough to create fame. People like them have to create media and develop interaction that will provide higher view counts and likes. Asking upfront for both of these isn't clearly defined through each TikTok, but it becomes more of an expectation from viewers as the fame grows. People become aware that there is a need for view count and likes in order to retain a high rate of revenue per each video made. Is there a certain moral necesity tied to a viewer that comes across these videos when a "TikToker" needs to generate demand on their profile? Where does one draw the line for what they consider fame? With all of this, what is a worthy TikTok video look like? The exchange of content for views and likes is similar to the concept of gift exchange by Marcel Mauss. 

Not all media is made for developing fame or a person's profile. Social Media can be enjoyed as well, but it comes at a rarity in this day and age, especially with the pursuit of money being a intrinsic motivation to life. 

How Genuine Are We On Social Media?

“Instagram” by Stock Catalog instagram | iPhone by Quote Catalog. Credit www.quotecatalog… | Flickr

Social media has allowed for us to document and share aspects of our real lives. By simply clicking on a few buttons, you can share photographed moments, song recommendations, and comments under the posts of other social media users. You would think that our social media profiles and the way in which we choose to utilize social media would reflect genuinely on who we are as our own individuals, but how genuine are we actually being on social media? Is the way in which we spread content and interact through social media reflect our truth, or rather does it reflect norms that have been unofficially implemented by social media and internet culture?

Think back to your latest post on social media. Whichever app (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc.) you posted on most recently, think back on what your latest post was. Feel free to open up your app if it’s been a while. What did you post? Perhaps it was a photo and/or video from a birthday, vacation, or a night at the movies? Whatever you posted, consider why you chose to post that specific image and/or video? What helped you determine that that content was the post worth sharing?

For most of you, it may just simply be that you posted just because you wanted to share the moment. After all, that's what the “post” button is there for. For you to share. However, for social media influencers and prominent users, their answer may be more complicated. 

Influencers and the making of “spreadable” content

Everyday people who have now found themselves to be popular and prominent social media users have to consider factors such as:

• Maintaining a particular type of image for themselves

• Pandering towards the interests of audience members

• Posting constantly and/or in a timely manner

Their answers are a lot more complex compared to a simple response of “I post what I feel like posting.” But this is the cost of creating relevant meaning on social media that is both appealing and that can be shared amongst others. After all, the views and the shares are what keeps influencers popular.

Consider the thoughts of American media scholar, Henry Jenkins. Jenkins ponders what determines whether social media content gets spread and becomes favored in his book Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture. Jenkins uses the term “spreadability” to refer to the technical resources that can help to circulate particular content over others, the economic resources that either help support or restrict circulation, the aspects of media that contribute towards the motives behind why people share content, and the social networks that help connect people through the exchange of meaningful material. That’s admittedly quite a mouthful but think of “spreadability” as simply the factors of digital society that help to define what material is shared, and why people choose to share and spread specific types of digital material. 

In terms of influencers and popular social media presences, they strive to maintain a sense of relevance amongst audience members by creating material that they intend to be shared. The more that it is liked and shared, the more they and their material solidifies itself as being popular.

But how can they predict what is meaningful and/or popular in the digital world? In truth, they can’t. They have to observe and take note of what is gaining attention online day-by-day. After all, people that actively participate on social media help to determine the level of meaning associated with different types of content every day.

Let’s look at some familiar faces that some of you may remember from childhood. Remember the popular doll line known as Bratz? These dolls were definitely one of the hottest toys since their initial release in the year 2001. The popular children's dolls were discontinued a number of times until they inevitably left the selves of typical retailers. In fact, most of the dolls that you can find in stores today are considered to be collectables. So, you wouldn’t think that these dolls would gain any significant attention on social media in the year 2022, would you? Well… think again. 

“Bratz” by Xenia Platonova Bratz | Xeniya Platonova | Flickr

Although the Bratz dolls are inanimate objects, the team that runs the Bratz social media accounts are very much real and very much popular. With their Instagram account sitting at 845 thousand followers, their TikTok account sitting at 665.7 thousand followers, and their Twitter account sitting at 106.9 thousand followers at the time of writing this post. For toys made in the early 2000’s they still seem to be quite popular. This is because Bratz creates and shares content that appeals to their audiences while also still harnessing the nostalgia of the dolls that much of their audience can recall from childhood. They basically saw their audience grow up and become the adults they are today. With that said, they now pander their content towards the adults they know their fans are today.

Some of their most recent posts on their Twitter include specially made dolls and doll animations that are modeled after popular shows and movie characters related to HBO’s original series Euphoria, Halloween, and Jennifer’s Body. Due to copyright laws, I can't show you the images of these dolls. Here is the link to their twitter if you'd like to scroll through to see the posts: https://mobile.twitter.com/Bratz. Here are the number of likes and shares/retweets each of these previously listed posts received:

• Euphoria: 15.6K likes, 1,778 shares/retweets

• Halloween: 81.5K likes, 12.7K shares/retweets

• Jennifer’s Body: 169.7K likes, 53.7K shares/retweets

Although Bratz may have left the shelves for the most part, their presence on social media is still very evident and their content is very “spreadable”. This is in part because they note what is considered to be popular amongst audience members and by using the nostalgia of their dolls to their advantage.

“Being real” on social media

So now that we have addressed that influencers and large social media accounts have to consider many factors when posting, then comes the question of how many of their posts are genuine? In other words, consider if some of the popular social media users you are familiar with are just “being real” while also simultaneously accommodating towards the parameters in which help make their posts “spreadable”. 

According to Brooke Erin Duffy and Elizabeth Wissinger in their paper titled Mythologies of Creative Work in the Social Media Age: Fun, Free, and “Just Being Me”, not every account on social media reflects a raw image of a person. Like I mentioned earlier, influencers consider a lot to maintain their high social media status and presence. And when they prove themselves to be favored on social media, others may like to take advantage of their popularity. Duffy and Wissinger point out how social media users today may be posting with the goal of getting compensated in some way. It is common nowadays for brands and companies to wish to use an influencers’ account and/or presence to boost the attention their name will get. In turn, when that influencer takes the time and effort to post certain material or post in general, they can get financial compensation just for simply posting. 

Let’s keep the nostalgia going for us Millennials and Gen Z-ers. Let's consider popular singer and actress, Selena Gomez.

“Selena Gomez” by dino slash Selena Gomez | Selena Gomez www.wallpaperstech.info/actress-… | Flickr

GoBankingRates reported in August of 2021 that Gomez makes an estimated $886,000 per post. Making it to where she can earn $10.6 million in a year based on the rates of her posts alone.

Perhaps this affects the way you view certain influencers and celebrities. Maybe the fact that they are getting paid to post rather than them just posting to be genuine makes you view them in a different, less flattering way. And by all means, that's valid. But what Duffy and Wissinger point out is that in this age of social media, it is inevitable to find instances such as these occurring. Social media has offered means of paying for content, and people will utilize those offers.

Give-give agreement on social media 

So now we have addressed that people can gain from posting online. And with social media presences analyzing, creating, and posting content every day for their audience members, one can wonder if they expect something in return for their efforts? After all, all it takes is a few seconds to like a post, comment, subscribe, share, etc. And this encourages and allows social media creators to continue to make content for viewers.

In The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, French sociologist Marcel Mauss describes the way in which exchanges have been maintained and what purposes they served within multiple societies throughout history. Mauss suggests that we as people have a “tradesman morality” that causes us to feel this need to give something in return when it is that something is given to us. In his own words, “Give as much as you take, all shall be very well.” 

So, in terms of applying Mauss’ thought process to social media, there should be a general rhythm of giving occurring online amongst content creators and viewers. However, the rhythm isn’t always present. Some just go on social media to consume rather than interact. We can possibly find ourselves just taking and not giving. Or perhaps you do interact, but there are certain reasons that cause you to feel the need to interact. Maybe it’s because you know the content creator personally? Or that you genuinely like the material a content creator makes and would like to see more of it? Or maybe you just feel guilty if you don’t interact at all, so you force yourself to do so. 

Since I can’t really talk about others and their reasons for interacting with the content of others’, let's look at me for this example. 

Yup. That's me with a pumpkin on my head. I posted the above photo in October of 2021. My friends and I had done a pumpkin head photo shoot that ended with us capturing quite a few photos. All three of us posted our own versions of the pumpkin head photo shoot on our Instagram accounts, and we all tagged each other in the posts. I liked my friends' posts because 1) They took the time to tag me, and 2) they’re my friends and I like seeing that they too are sharing the moments that we had together. So, in terms of why I like and interact with other content, I can say that knowing people personally is a factor for me. I like my friends’ posts, and they like my posts. So, although we probably never thought of it this way, we kind of had a mutual exchange through social media. A like for a like, a comment for a comment.

Conclusion

Social media offers us a lot of material and allows us the means of interacting in a number of ways online. But how genuine are these interactions? Do our posts and interactions reflect on us truthfully? Are we using social media as a means of doing whatever we want, or do we feel the pressure to post certain material and interact in specific ways in order to align with the unofficial rules of social media? Maybe for you it's’ one thing over the other, or perhaps a mix of both. No matter how you may view your presence on social media, we can’t deny that social media has offered a variety of opportunities and rules that we may perhaps find ourselves pandering towards. It is simply how we have adapted towards social media culture. In turn this can affect the types of content we choose to share, the reasons why we share, and how we choose to interact with others online.