I’ve just about reached the end of my tether when it comes to social media. As an early adopter of platforms such as Twitter, it’s been an interesting evolution to witness first-hand.
Social media is an incredibly useful tool for financial advisers. At one stage, we were generating around a third of our new business enquiries from the combined efforts of content marketing, our website and a variety of social media platforms.
That benefit has fallen away somewhat in recent years, as platforms become saturated with other advisers, and similar results are only achievable through paid advertising as part of a broader marketing funnel. Like all new, shiny marketing things, the rewards become less appealing over time, as others recognise the results the early adopters are seeing.
Shouting matches on social media aren’t real debate
As a platform for sharing ideas, debate and socialising, Twitter still has its merits. There are many, many advisers I have never had the pleasure of meeting in real life, but feel I know well as a result of years of online interaction.
But there are myriad negatives too.
Twitter is an echo chamber, whether we like it or not. The curated list of people we consciously or otherwise choose to follow is likely a reflection of our values and worldview. The all too easy option to block or mute someone sharing reprehensible opinions (sorry, President Trump) means this echo chamber is concentrated over time.
There’s no room for nuance on Twitter. Working with a miserly 280 characters allows little explanation of a viewpoint. You agree or disagree; there is no middle ground. Publishing opinions in the fear of those of differing political persuasions leaves little space for progressing debate.
Twitter is a huge time suck. As efficient as I attempt to be pre-scheduling content, the temptation to dip into Tweetdeck to observe or participate in the later tweetstorm is all too great. Software engineers designed the platform to perform precisely this way. By exploiting human behavioural traits, those crafty developers reward us with dopamine hits each time we clear notifications or raise the blood pressure replying to someone who is ‘wrong’.
Sam Sloma: Tuning out the noise
Of course, it’s not just Twitter that sucks. When I open Facebook on a typical morning, I feel like banging my head against a brick wall, relishing in the stupidity of otherwise well-educated people sharing stupid things. No, you are not going to win a free motorhome by sharing that spam page.
Social media is littered with #fakenews, fraud, and fear, uncertainty and doubt. Navigating this minefield of misinformation is hard work for even the most cynical online warrior.
If this enforced quarantine has taught me one thing, it’s that habits can be changed. A social media diet feels like the right place to start, before identifying a longer-term solution. Judging by the departure of several respected financial advisers from Twitter, I’m far from alone in feeling this way.
Martin Bamford is head of client education at Informed Choice
Martin, it sounds, from what you say early on in the article, as if you were quite a fan of twitter while it was profitable for your business, but now that it isn’t you are far less keen. Nobody is making you use it (or facebook) so why not just stop if you are fed up with it?
If you feel, on balance, that you do still want to use twitter, it isn’t all that difficult to, independently, research the many tweets containing fake news (much of which comes from Trump and Johnson). Especially if you are going to tweet a reply to it. It’s better to be on safe ground than to make a twit of ones self (which i mean in a general sense and not as an insult).
I have learned quite a bit, from twitter, with people pointing to good, independent, articles written about subjects I was not all that familiar with and the historical background to many issues that have been ongoing for decades (or even centuries) such as the Irish Question that most brits don’t have a clue about, and The Balfour Declaration of 1917.
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Dear Martin
I am glad you have seen the light. I remember being criticised because I have always considered these social media outlets pure moron fodder and have never been anywhere near any of them. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the rest – a plague on all their houses. I feel sorry for the fools who are trapped in their ambit.