The Fame-Making Imperative Is Crowding Out The Business Value Of Social Media

The fact that some people get famous while others don’t is nothing new. But these days, most everyone believes they can — and must — get famous.

These days you need some measure of fame — as measured by a social media presence — before your work output will be taken seriously.

Seems like the cart before the horse? Well, there’s been a radical reversal in the order of “producing important work” and “getting famous” for doing it:

The Old Way

1. You do something important.
2. You show it to a few people who actually evaluate it and make a judgment of its value.
3. Some think it’s good and tell others.
4. Others try it and, if they find it valuable, tell others.
5. You get famous.

The New Way

1. You present your persona as that of a person who is famous.
2. Others decide it’s in their own, personal interest to endorse and promote your persona.
3. They tell everyone they know.
4. You do something — anything.
5. People assume that, because you’re already famous — what you’ve done must be important.

Some examples:

• Bands used to get signed when an A&R rep from a record company heard them at a club and liked what he heard.
• Authors got a book deal when an editor read and liked a manuscript they sent.
• Actors got roles when they “aced” an audition or reading.
• Executives and business consultants convinced someone to hire them, then they added value and then wrote books based on their years of experience.

By contrast, today A&R reps, editors and casting directors look for people who already have a huge social media following. “Experts” considered worth hiring are people who already have written a book. So, people with next to zero real business experience are writing books and getting them into as many hands as possible — by any means possible — just so they can market themselves as “best-selling authors.”

Why should people making an investment in talent make a bet based on their own meager evaluation when they can get a “sure thing” that’s already famous with the ultimate consumers they want to appeal to?

Nobody wants to — or feels the need to — make an independent judgment of the worth of content. It’s much easier to go with the crowd. This has led to a game of mutual, often reciprocal, fame-making — by any means possible — as the pre-eminent business imperative. 

Social media has made each and every person a “focus group of one” for every kind of product or service. And curating and promoting the work of others is now an activity practiced by virtually everyone who wants to be taken seriously themselves, thanks to the Liking, Commenting, Re-posting functions of social media.

The end result is that business sites have been cluttered up with a bunch of junk that doesn’t have any real beneficial purpose beyond getting well-known by as many people as possible.

Do you really think the 1, 676 Likes of that post from the retired Big Business CEO means the Likers were signaling their appreciation of the timeless wisdom of his warmed-over snooze from the 80s? More likely their intentions were more cynical ones — like snuggling up to his 1,927,686 followers.

This has led to the inevitable degeneration in the quality of content. Why wrack your brain for something important to say when you can get just as much mileage out of a short piece on an old chestnut like “The Benefits Of Having A Positive Mental Attitude”? I’ve seen more Likes on a photo of six people at a table drinking beer than on some of the most pithy business blog entries! Heck, even a Happy Face (posted by the right person) is almost guaranteed to get at least a dozen Likes, plus even a few thumbs-up emojis.

Folks, we can do better than to clog business social media sites with this kind of mess. Here are a few ideas for raising the level of content:

• Keep it “business.” There’s no need to promote your  weekend field day or fund-raiser.
• Make sure it’s helpful. Think: Is the reader likely to benefit from this?
• Add some value of your own. Don’t just Like it or re-post it. Add a comment of your own you think would be meaningful to people who read your own posts.
• Don’t expect reciprocity. Liking or re-posting an entry doesn’t entitle you to have that entry’s author do the same for your content. Doing it with that intention is cynical and doesn’t serve the purpose of the site.
• Don’t be a kiss-up. I understand how addictive apple-polishing can be. It starts off with telling the Big Guy you like his tie and, first thing you know, you’re Liking everything he puts up on Facebook. Before Liking the post of some corporate Big Wig, check to see whether the idea expressed really resonates with you and, if so, that you can express the reasons why.

I guess the free market of self-serving Liking and Friending is a fact of life. The least we can do is try to give it as much value and substance as possible.