Providing “Value” on Social Media: What I Learned This Week

It used to be that writers had lots of help marketing themselves, simply because publishers knew that good marketing meant more money in their own pockets. Want to be a writer now, though? Well, hang on to your quill pen, honey, because that job now also requires you to handle your own marketing on social media. Publishing houses can and do decide what authors to work with based on the following they have. The conundrum is, how do you provide the value that builds and sustains that following?

Algorithms have redefined what “value” is in writing

I’m gonna be blunt here. In the past, writers were told that the industry is a meritocracy—that is, if you’ve got talent, then all you need to do is put out high-quality content and the readers will come. The reality I’ve discovered is less rosy. Even if you ignore the fact that publishers are trying to find ways to get more from authors while doing less of the heavy lifting, algorithms are killing us.

What’s happening to “value” on social media in a nutshell

Just about every social media platform—including LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook—wants people to stay on their sites. It makes financial sense. The more people are on the sites, the more they can advertise services from third parties or get you to use paid features. But it means that they’ve reworked their algorithms to bury or penalize posts with any outbound links. (You know, the kind that a writer might use to share the outstanding work of someone else or provide access to an original source…*heavy sigh*) At the same time, the algorithms favor elements such as time lingering over a post.

Because of this change, any “value” you provide must be your original (translated, you must comment on work, but not provide direct access to it). The only way you really can rank is to do long-form writing.

The rise of “broetry”

This would be fine if everybody on social media were committed to really publishing posts with substance. Alas, they’re not. In fact, in the quest for views, people have adopted what Hussein Kesvani refers to as “broetry”. This is

“…a type of combination of jargon from self-help books, viral motivational quotes you really only see shared on Facebook, and distilled chapters from airport books on starting a multimillion-dollar business. When put together, it becomes a style that, while lacking flourish and thoughtful prose, finds its value in its visual aesthetic.

To put it more succinctly, broetry takes up space, is difficult to ignore or simply skim past. It’s a type of writing that exists primarily to attract attention.”

Getting even more specific, broetry features elements like

• short sentences,
• double spacing between paragraphs,
• dull beginning anecdotes or observations,
• an “inspirational” but cliched life lesson,
• mention of a positive mindset, and
• a call to share the post.

These changes and the rise of broetry mean that “providing value” on social media isn’t really about the network or content sharing anymore. It’s not about what others have learned or even asking people what their thoughts on a topic are. It’s about what you have learned. You have to stand alone, even if you’re springboarding your ideas off someone else.

Responding to the mess

So how do you avoid the descent into narcissistic content production that reads like extended cat posters? How can you continue to share all kinds of stuff that’s interesting as hades?

Here’s what I’ve been experimenting with:

1.      Provide a summary of what you’re sharing along with the reason you’re sharing it. Make it clear why the content is relevant to the reader.

2.      If you must ask a question, make it open-ended.

3.      Instead of a link, provide a quote that will pique interest.

4.      Include the author/source and the title in the summary/description in a casual way.

5.      Include the title OR an intriguing statement/question and URL within a relevant image.

6.      Include a URL in the comments instead of the post.

Now, there are a few thorns in my side about this.

• Providing URLs in images or in the comments requires readers to do extra work to get to the source, which goes against ease of use.
• Images from original sources aren’t always eyepopping or contextually clear enough on their own to work with sites like Instagram or Pinterest. For this reason, or to include a URL, you’ll need to spend plenty of time finding and editing new pictures via tools like Canva.
• If you intend to leave a link in the comments, you might not be able to do so via a social media content scheduler, depending on the scheduler you can afford.
• Because you are spending more time writing long-form content and creating images, there is less time for your own original writing, videos, podcasts, etc. But if you don’t make those posts, you don’t get the following that will increase your visibility. It’s the worst kind of Catch-22.

Not ranking doesn’t mean your content stinks

I’m posting all of this because writing is a hard enough job without algorithms sucking the life out of authors. We need to understand what’s happening if a post doesn’t rank and remember it might have nothing to do with the content and everything in how you present it on the specific platform. If something doesn’t work, don’t give up on the idea. Just let people see it in a different way. Get feedback offline, have faith, and stay true to your voice regardless of what the app of the day tells you to do.