Last weekend, I received yet another 30-page report purporting to make my efforts more efficient, effective, and excellent. “The reach has continued to decline steadily for two years. Every. Single. Month. The algorithm was tweaked yet again in favour of engagement.”
Translation to English: “The social media tech bros have not finished squeezing every bit of meagre cash flow due to them from their social platforms. They prefer to showcase paid advertising to your silly attempts at helping business people with your ideas. And they aren’t stopping any time soon”.
In the past (before the mid-1980s), business people complained, dissected, and then copied the competition. The smart ones respected the competition, dug in, devised ways to be different, and then devoured their increasingly more significant slice of the market share.
Social media began as a communication methodology for specific communities. When the lightbulbs went on to make money, the gold rush began.
These days, anyone with a laptop, a social media account or two and absolutely zero marketing or business expertise can call themselves an entrepreneur. A few might make money as an ‘influencer’ – essentially the old K-Tel or ShamWow sales version dressed up with beautiful lifestyle pics and suggestively perfect poses. For most savvy, intelligent, and extremely competent people I meet, social media has delivered the equivalent of fool’s gold for their businesses.
I’ll leave it to others to fill in all the blanks as to why this is. Today, I ask you to think about one thing only.
Human Beings
Human beings run the world. Glorious, flawed, messy, lazy, productive, quiet, loud, shy, outgoing humans. Those humans are the foundation of everything good and evil in this world.
Over the years, you and I have seen vast swaths of business thinking change. We’ve seen great industries fall and even greater industries rise. And yes, there is still a crap ton that needs to be refined, redefined and recharged. Regardless of what the media and the barons want us to believe.
Yet,
The only thing that has stayed the same since the beginning of time is the human element. Humans still run the world in business, politics, education, and everything else. The ONLY way any human being can accomplish anything (good or bad) is by having a relationship with another human being.
The word relationship is derived from the Latin word “relatio,” which means “connection” or “relation.” When two people are in a relationship, they are connected in some way, whether through love, friendship, or a shared sense of responsibility or obligation.
All solid relationships are based on the in-person concept. In-person does not mean every transaction is done in real time. In the digital age, ‘in-person’ refers to video calls, voice chats, or any direct, personal interaction facilitated by technology.
Decades ago, when I worked for an international company, the telephone was my best friend—so many voices and names. And once every couple of years, I’d get the pleasure of putting voice to face. Even today, I have a handful of dear friends with whom we met and have sustained ourselves in a Zoom room for years. And we all acknowledge that the last remaining link for us is an in-person hug.
My point this week is straightforward.
Your business is an extension of you, the human being. How many real people are you meeting, conversing, helping, or sharing with each day? Embracing this human-centric approach is the gold standard for growing your business, and it’s entirely within your power to make it happen.
For most of us, social media has devolved into the entertainment site we take a break with. Nowadays, it amuses, irritates, confirms, confronts, and keeps us coming back for things not much business.
Today, the trend is shifting back to in-person interactions, whether online or in real life, face-to-face or simply by audio. This return to personal connection is a positive sign, as it reflects our innate human need for relationships, which have always been the foundation of successful businesses.
Algorithms are not real things. They are processes tweaked by the tech bros. We have no control over them.
Here’s what we DO have control over:
- Ourselves, thoughts, ideas and actions
- How we present ourselves
- To whom we present ourselves
We all get to control a big part of our destiny.
That means YOU get to create the business you want in the form you want it to take. That means YOU get to create the life that you crave in the form you want it to take.
We start with self-awareness. (You already know this is part of what I do with my business clients.) Only when we finally understand ourselves, what we want, and why we want it can we begin to ready ourselves to fight ‘properly’ for the business and life we want.
Because that IS the one battle, we can all win. NOT the one against the algorithm.