The missing strategy
Pick on someone other than Triceratops if you want an easy meal. (Photo by John Margolies)
“Don’t post if you’re new on this platform,” she warned, and then told us what to do instead.
But...why? What is the context?
Social media — and the Internet — and the world — is full of people giving imperious commands and aggressive advice. “This is the number one mistake you’re making...”
It reminds me of the things girls on the playground told me not to do back in middle school. I accepted this controlling behavior without context as a twelve year old, but as an adult, I am more skeptical. I want the other part of the sentence: “Don’t do X if you want Y result,” for example.
If the strategy is missing, you haven’t earned my trust. We’re not on the same page with what we’re trying to do. I don’t know what your tactics are supposed to accomplish.
In the musical Hamilton, Aaron Burr tells his titular nemesis to “Talk less, smile more.” This advice couldn’t possibly be more poorly suited to the brash young Alexander Hamilton, who literally gets up on a soapbox in the next number.
Burr has a different set of values from Hamilton’s. His strategy is to make sure his opinions are a mystery, and his recommended tactics (shut up and be amiable) follow from that. They aren’t going to work for someone whose goal is to die heroically for a cause and whose strategy is to incite revolution.
Mine is far less of a dramatic stand, but I object to the idea that you shouldn’t post on a platform if you’re new. And I object to the idea of giving people formulas without saying what those formulas are meant to achieve.
If you’re new on a platform, you shouldn’t post if you’re likely to be disappointed by low views or impressions. You shouldn’t post if your goal is to impress people from day one. You shouldn’t post if you have some kind of allergy to posting. If a family member has been threatened with bodily harm if you post, you shouldn’t post, and you should alert local law enforcement. Otherwise, post, if you feel like it. The stakes are low.
Unfortunately, the stakes are not always low when it comes to the tactics that people advocate for.
Ideas like “everyone should own a home” and “everyone should go to college” have ruined the financial futures of millions of people for whom these paths were anything but strategic.
Modern dating is full of damaging contextless advice that undermines a hopeful single person’s chance of finding meaningful connection.
I’ll never forget the conversations I used to have when I was carless in Atlanta in the days before Uber. I would mention that the only time having no car was a problem was when it rained or I had to transport something heavy. “You should get a bike,” people always said, even though a bicycle solves neither of those problems. A lonely tactic in search of a strategy.
People like to tell each other what to do, and I guess they like to be told. The particular post that I referenced above has hundreds of enthusiastic comments.
But I’m contrarian enough that I want to defy such a statement. I don’t know, there’s just something so backwards to me about telling grown adults not to do something.
That said, I don’t want to perpetuate the same cycle. So I’m not going to tell you that there’s a right and a wrong way to do things. It really depends on your strategy.
Therefore, go ahead and tell people what to do if your growth strategy is to attract an audience of submissive people.
But if that’s not what you want, consider a lighter, less authoritarian approach. In other words, you might follow the tactics that fit a strategy that will give you what you’re looking for.
If, like me, your purpose in posting on social media is self-expression, connection, and exploration, post whenever you want.
And if you want a life of freedom and satisfaction, listen to people who have earned your trust and who are advocating for a strategy and tactics that will lead you there.
Or don’t — fine with me either way.
