I’ve been at this game for a long time. I work in digital marketing every week day. I always look to be honest. I may have annoyed some with that honesty, although I try very hard to communicate my digital marketing knowledge with good humour. It’s not always easy.
What we’ll uncover on this page:
- The Digital World is not Honest
- Who Can You Trust?
- Honesty is Going to Hurt
- Digital Marketing Dishonesty
- Tools for Honesty
The Digital World is not Honest
I’m honest. You are honest. The digital marketing world is not. It just isn’t. All around us we have the latest screaming-tech, we have gamification, we have social feeds in creation order, we have mad billionaires and their impositions, all for their vanity and power. ‘Do no evil eh?’ Not the real world then?
Who Can You Trust?
You. That’s it. Trust yourself but arm yourself with some tools, more of which soon. There are definitely people you can trust and businesses, they, in my book, are the majority, more of who you can trust in the digital world later.
Honesty is Going to Hurt
You know that. In real life. You’ve been hurt. We all have a story. We go on though, don’t we? That’s why we have ‘mental health’ initiatives, saving people and families and making our world better. Children now are equipped with an emotional vocabulary and respect for mental wellness, which is a good thing.
I’m not talking about that honesty, the human honesty that can hurt but is best for our wellbeing. I’m talking about the digital world in all its stupidity. It is stupid. Tech should be about removing stupidity. But it clouds our thinking.
Digital Marketing Dishonesty
- Analytical software
- Gamification, the algorithm and psychology
- Social feeds creation order timelines
- The Big Boys
Analytical software is never accurate. Nope it just isn’t. Why? Because it is telling you what happens (mainly) not the why. So, you have the change in privacy settings on the web and on mobile. Then you have the amount of people using VPN’s, then you have analytical software from the same company that never matches or never could track mobile traffic accurately.
Now the main problem here is the fact you’re tracking the figures and not the people and WHY they are doing things.
Analytical software can give you insights, don’t trust it with your life. Use it like a looking glass on a part of what you want to know.
Gamification, the algorithm and Psychology
I’ve lumped these together so you realise you are up against it. Get a ‘badge’ for completing a course or getting a lot of followers, that’s gamification.
The algorithm. This has become shorthand for ‘stuff we don’t know.’ I’m quite convinced only about three people at Google know what is going on in search and those are the marketing guys after your money by ripping off your content and promoting it ‘as its own.’
Psychology. Have you a rough idea of how often psychology is used AGAINST you and your thinking? Conversion copywriting is full of tricks, using the emotion (and God forbid ‘storytelling’) to seduce you. Sometimes it is just selling ‘the sizzle’ and not the ‘sausage.’ I don’t have a problem with that.
Where I do have the problem is the use of psychology by ‘f**k wit’ marketing ‘gurus’ to gull those with little knowledge, that just…well, is fraud.
Ask yourself this, why are there so many marketing gurus, why are there so many book about marketing and business and inspiration? It’s because YOU are not thinking for yourself.
The pressure on you is massive. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Just walk away. Spend more time outside, eating with friends and family, listening to music and reading books, you’ll soon come round to being more YOU and less the result of the algorithm.
Social feeds creation order timelines
That social post just happened, right? Nope. This ties in with gamification.
The Big Boys
They don’t care. It’s not the work of ‘evil empires’, it’s not a conspiracy, it’s a natural dynamic. That’s what the ‘Big Boys’ do. Just why do so many people stop taking the corporate dollar?
I believe there are forces for good out there but really, those who want to make the world a better world through a ground-breaking app, NFT’s or social platforms are people looking to make money. Nothing wrong with that. Good luck to you.
I’m going to sit under a tree with a glass of wine and thoughts of family and friends…
Tools for Honesty
You. Question everything and do not trust what an analytical tool says. A traffic source is just that it’s not the answer always. What other factors are there?
You. Go back to source. Where did that statistic come from, is it relevant? Is that source trusted by people you trust? Who gains from promoting this ‘statistic?’
You. Talk to people. It’s hard to talk to everyone isn’t it? Create a panel for your online activities, or use tools that gather visitors feedback eg Hotjar, bazaarvoice etc.
You. You have more than one analytical tool on the go and you cross check all the data.
Me. I trust these sources for digital information Rand Fishkin (founder of Moz and now running SparkToro), Conversion Rate Experts, Exploding Topics, Later and many more, depends on the info.
BUT! I’m only human and I make mistakes and sometimes I fail to double check. I just get on with it, a sip of coffee, a glass of wine, chatting with those I love and I’m over it.
Do me, you and those around you a favour and just take one thing from this piece. You choose it. Make the digital world a mite more honest for all of us.
O’ and don’t you dare talk about ‘fake news’ call it propaganda because that’s what it is.
Amen!
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