What’s the world’s most valuable resource?
It used to be oil and gold. Today it’s data. Those who own vast amounts of data and more importantly, know how to analyze and interpret it, rule the world. Data is the oil of the digital era.
When Gutenberg invented the printing machine and common people gained access to the written word, society was about to change forever. With the help of technology, we are now able to carry hundreds of books on a little device, watch movies and share information with a click of a button.
The attention seekers and mind hijackers have become more sophisticated in their approach. They deploy the same old marketing techniques wrapped in fancy applications designed to influence your perceptions in order to make the illusion perfect. It works brilliantly.
Imagine a handful of companies sending out free invites to their parties and billions flocking to these virtual laboratories where they can entertain their fantasies, express their deepest fears, desires and secrets only to be part of a very peculiar social experiment with a diabolic level of addiction.
Welcome to today’s game run by big tech CEOs.
Are you enjoying the perks of these centralized social media networks? Do you love the “selected” content you’re exposed to on a daily basis? How about those relevant, highly targeted and intrusive ads that make you question the kind of information these providers have amassed about you?
Actually, things haven’t changed at all since the early days when it comes to control. What has changed though, is the front line. Today, the data monarchy emperors have their royal palaces in Silicon Valley (Facebook, Google, Apple) and Seattle (Amazon, Microsoft). Obviously, the main show is still run from Windsor, Davos & Co. but you get the point.
Social Media Marketing Dystopia
Does the old marketing adage “If you can get into people’s hearts, you can probably get into their wallets” still apply?
Yes and no.
The old way of doing marketing as in telling an appealing story, captivating attention quickly and triggering a particular audience’s feelings and emotions is still valid.
However, all this effort isn’t necessary when you have access to vast amounts of behavioral data. You can increase order and customer lifetime value by using a lighter marketing version of the above. Often you will be able to generate an additional purchase with a simple sentence such as “frequently bought together” or “people with similar interests have bought these items”.
Internalizing everything we know so far, what should be your next steps? Does leaving all these centralized social media platforms make sense?
First of all, if privacy is a real concern of yours, then limit the type of information you post AKA be super aware when you share something. Have a crystal clear strategy as to whether you’re going to post personal stuff or stick to business exclusively.
Second, look into the newly emerging decentralized, censorship-resistant social platforms on the blockchain such as LBRY, Minds and Bitchute.
Third, mix and match if that is something you can live with. Otherwise, burn the boats and leave that which isn’t in sync with your values in life.
Ultimately, the most valuable strategy is the one that works best for you.
Some might find great success in uploading their videos to YouTube and distributing that link across networks. Others will opt for LBRY first and route everything from a decentralized platform.
You might as well be very comfortable with running Facebook and Instagram ads as the majority of your audience spends vast amounts of time on these channels while also attracting a more sophisticated clientele from Flote, Minds or even the newly released Twetch (similar to Twitter but you need to pay in order to play).
The Web 3.0 Hype
Semantic web and artificial intelligence are the cornerstones of web 3.0.
Simply put, the semantic web teaches the computer what the data means thus empowering AI to better utilize that information. The promised result is a greater connectivity between data.
There are two additional features that come along with web 3.0: 3D graphics AKA a more realistic three-dimensional cyberworld AND omnipresence, meaning accessible everywhere at any time.
The ultimate goal is the so-called “Internet of Things” where everything is connected. We’re not there yet but we’re moving slowly and steadily towards a new world that will change human interaction just like it did when we first got access to the Internet.
Do you see the value of the resource called DATA?
If you think a handful of Silicon Valley tech tycoons are powerful today, guess what role they’ll be playing in the future?
Sounds scary?
Technology shouldn’t be scary. What should scare you though is when there are no legal contracts and regulations in place to protect you from those who use these technologies and the data you provided them with to harm innocent people.
Will history repeat again, as in: will a few keep controlling the many?
We’ll see how that plays out — rather sooner than later.
MARKETING NUGGET
I’d like to leave you with the following marketing and advertising tip:
If you’re on the lookout for alternative social platforms where you can run ads checkout my blog about advertising on Minds.
Furthermore, download the Brave browser if you haven’t already and start using Presearch as your default search engine. For one, not only will Brave protect your identity but you will also earn crypto while surfing the web. When it comes to Presearch, you can earn the native token PRE while searching the Internet and on top of that, you can use your reward PRE tokens (or buy PRE tokens) to stake keywords and direct traffic to your website.
While Minds ads remind me of Facebook advertising in the early days, the same applies to Presearch ads. It’s like Google AdWords ten years ago.
Give it a try. You might be pleasantly surprised, especially when it comes to keyword staking with PRE tokens.
Interesting times lie ahead of us. To what extent marketing will change remains to be seen.
Image: geralt / Pixabay.com
Originally published on my blog at StrengthInBusiness.com.
