Social Creatures.
During an archaeological dig, a 15,000 year old femur was found that had been broken and repaired. Margaret Mead, the anthropologist, said that this was the first sign of civilization because in the animal kingdom, if you break a leg, you are dead. Either from dehydration or because you become dinner.
The person with a broken leg had help from someone. To nurse them back to health, give them food and water, keep them safe from predators.
…homo sapiens were off to the races.
We developed civilization. We created languages. Culture. Music. The Pyramids. Art. Technology. Moon landings. Conspiracy theories about the Moon landing. Computers. Social media. Substack. This article.
But how did we, humans, get from a broken leg 15,000 years ago all the way to… this article.
I pondered that all weekend, and I kept coming back to one word.
Share.
People Share.
Everything about our lives today is based on sharing. You go catch a bunch of fish. I will go pick berries. That guy will gather kindling for a fire. And we will all meet back up later to cook dinner.
We share in our respective activities because if we had to do all that on our own… civilization would not have developed.
Sharing gives us the ability to do other things. So we share everything. Our ideas. Time. Skills. Knowledge. Advice. Tools.
Sharing allows for efficiencies, which give us more time and headspace to explore other ideas. Therefore, development.
Network Science.
Do you remember the Six Degrees of Separation? It is based on theory is that everyone in the world is connected to everyone else by as few as 6 connections.
As in, I know someone, who knows someone, who know someone, who knows someone, who know someone, who knows Kevin Bacon. Me and Kevin Bacon are basically besties…
This notion came from Stanley Milgram in the 1960s.
In his experiment, people in Omaha, Nebraska were trying to get a letter to a certain person in Boston. The sender could only send the letter to 1 personal connection, who would then send it on to someone they thought would be able to get it closer to the target.
In Milgram’s analysis, it took about 6 connections. The study was not exactly conclusion, but further research in network theory has shown that it is fairly accurate.
This is exciting if you think about it from a social media perspective.
Within a few shares, your content could be seen by Kevin Bacon.
Where am I going with this?
Social media was built on these ideas, that we are social creatures, who inherently want to share, and are linked to the entire human race by 6 connections.
Go look at your any social media post. Instagram. TikTok. Facebook. Pinterest. Snapchat. LinkedIn. Reddit. On every post, there is a small icon at the bottom encouraging you to SHARE the post with your connections.
But do we?
Not as much as you would think given the nature of our nature…
There is too much content on any social platform for us to share all the time. We let the algorithm do the sharing. It is a mathematical model. So we figure it knows its stuff pretty well.
But ever so often something leaks through the cracks and goes viral!
Why do People Like and Share?
Here’s the million dollar question…
We don’t know why something takes off, but through network sciences (you have to read this article on hbr.org) we are confident that once people start do something, other people follow suit.
Think of it as The Macarena Effect.
Do you remember that dance? That was 1996. Pre-social media. I shutter to think what would have happened if TikTok had been around when that dance took off.
Back then, and probably even today, if someone started dancing the Macarena, everyone around would join in. It’s a shared experience that was as contagious as it was obnoxious.
Or a busy restaurant vs. a non-busy restaurant. People will wait 45 minutes to get a table at a packed restaurant, and ignore the half empty one across the street.
Is the food better? Doesn’t matter. The anxiously waiting patrons have no clue. People don’t need a legitimate reason to dogpile on something…
To misquote Forrest Gump, People is as people does…
It’s not me… it’s you.
Ok given the above… the million dollar question is actually how do we get those likes and shares in the first place? If all we need is a number of people to pile on, how do we get that boost?
It is all about the Ego…
People spend time on social media for a number of reason. Discover new things. Watch people cook. Find new products. Learn dance moves. Lots of stuff.
But all of that is what you watch…
When you push like or share on something, people in your network can see that.
All of that is what others see about you…
Therefore whatever you liked or shared is part of your social identity.
So people are not going to like or share anything that does not, in their opinion, affirm or elevate themselves.
For example. There was a post of Bella Hadid getting a dress sprayed on in some fashion show last week. It was on LinkedIn, so not really the right platform, but it still got around 1500 likes and several dozen comments.
Everyone knows who she is, and that has nothing to do with the stupid spray on dress stunt… she is just famous. So likes she gets.
But scrolling down a bit, there was a post with this picture. It shows us what transporting 60 people looks like with cars vs. bus vs. bikes.
That post had 39,000 likes and hundreds of comments.
How then does a photo of 60 cars/people/bikes beat out one of the most famous supermodels?
Lego My Ego…
It’s not about the photos or post. It’s about me…
If I pushed like on a photo of Bella Hadid. What am I saying about me to my network? That I respect the innovation she contributes to spray on dresses?
No…
If I pushed like on that other photo? That I understand the unnecessary waste caused by a society that built its infrastructure and and lifestyle around the individual use of automobiles?
Yes! That makes me look cool.
We don’t like posts to express approval. We like posts to show others that we are expressing approval. That is social media.
And 10X if we share something. We are not only showing others that we approve, we are telling them that we approve so hard that we think they should approve.
Ecommerce on Social.
Ecommerce businesses are probably the worst players in the social media game.
Social media in the eyes of ecommerce is pay-to-play. Organic reach is so low it is negligible, so paid social has taken the front seat.
And that direct response pipe dream turned everyone’s focus to just maintaining a standard presence to show their goods…
And it is lame.
I follow a bunch of bike brands, and their ads are fine, collaborations are good, but the regular posts on their main account… I’d rather be looking at spray on dresses…
A few companies have broken the mold and stood out. Wendy’s with their snark. Ryan Air with self deprecation… these are funny and meaningful because they have nothing to do with what they sell.
They figured out that social media isn’t a marketing channel but a social network of humans. When a social creature reads their message, they relate.
Be a social creature.
I can’t remember the last time a brand got my attention because of their social media posts. Ads on social, yes, the relevant ones get my attention.
But organically, if your product doesn’t require a lot of explanation, don’t lead with the a beige attitude and static product pics of regurgitated UGC. That is what I label as a placeholder account…
As in, it is a branded account that is a placeholder until you figure out how to be social.
I am big into cycling. The bike brands I really like bore me to death. Endless photos and videos of… you guessed it… people happily riding bikes. I guess it does keep them top of mind, but then they are just using organic posts in the same way as ads.
Being social does not mean being ON social. It means interacting with people. So interact with people on social, show interactions of people on social.
Highlight your brand’s personality. People will related. It can and should be a two way street.
Social media as we know it today is built on 15,000 years of civilization… civilization that was build on sharing… not product pics.