I see this all the time. And what I think when I see it is that someone has been bought and then sold all of their friends for the possibility of winning some bauble...
Oh, I am sure that some people genuinely like whatever it is they have forced onto my newsfeed, and some people genuinely liked it but only came out of the closet with the possibility of a treat. Some people only care about the prize, and some people like me, will refuse to like whatever it is as soon as you start treating me and my relationships as commodities that can be bought and sold for advertising, regardless of whether we like it or not.
This of course puts me in conundrum, because I am working on starting a business in videography... And as such I am forced to wrestle into practicality the ethics of advertising and marketing and sales in general. The problem is basically that I loathe these fields from the very centre of my being and would literally be more comfortable being a criminal defence lawyer than working in advertising. So perhaps I will begin studying for the LSAT...
I know that to level a critique against advertising is easy and demands something more... I also know that many small local companies are doing good work and working hard within the system we have inherited. I just happen to hate the system and I know this means I need to not merely be critical but propose an alternative style or approach. I think what I want is a more genuine approach that doesn't appeal to people's self interest and rest its presuppositions of utilitarian moral theory. Part of the reason advertising particularly relational advertising works is because people trust their friends - they want to trust their friends... and it is actually relationally damaging to take the perspective I have because in my cynicism I run the risk of interpreting peoples actions very negatively, which may or may not be fair. This ironically betrays that my position also hold utilitarian moral theory as a presupposition and therefore finds it difficult to believe that people "liking" links or pages for prizes has anything other than self interest in mind and therefore find it offensive.
I have a friend who asked me what I thought about trying to apply this model to a manufacturing situation. I said I thought it would be difficult... North Americans don't like flexible pricing or haggling over products. Furthermore, we have been trained to think in utilitarian terms and so to do things differently one must simultaneously risk losses and present "pay what you want" in terms that push people out their utilitarian thinking patterns... For independently wealthy and famous creators of digital media with online channels of distribution these are of course not really risks or challenges at all. For anyone operating in material production and on a smaller scale the risks, of course, increase exponentially. I am sorry that I discouraged my friend rather than trying to imagine with him how to not just pitch his product but a different way of thinking about and doing business.
We write on this blog as a gift. We have created art and video as gift. How do we re-imagine our lives and jobs and businesses genuinely as gift? How do we recenter our live around trust rather than fear?
Gift Economics. Give.
I can't help but feel that this entry is based - at least partly, if not primarily - on my current advertising methods - encouraging people to "like" and "share" my facebook page. Am I advertising to my friends when I post something on my f...acebook page pertaining to my business? Yes, I won't deny it. Am I trying to get my friends to advertise my work to their friends? Yes, again, I won't deny it. That's precisely what I'm doing. I want people to share my work with their friends. My old business model of simply posting my work and hoping people would share it wasn't working, and so now I'm trying something new as a result.
ReplyDeleteMy facebook page hasn't grown in a long time, and whenever I post something on it it never seems to go further than the audience it has already established. If I want my business to grow I need a larger audience. So I find myself facing a dilemma. Do I stay the course, and keep posting images I've created, desperately hoping that people will share them, and that that will increase my audience? Or do I try and do something new, and ask my friends to my share my work, and offer them something in exchange, a way of saying thank you for sharing me with your friends?
I love my friends dearly, I really do. I don't want to exploit my friends trust for my gain - I don't try to do that. I don't want to advertise to them, but unfortunately I've entered into the business of photography, a business that is best served by word of mouth advertising. In our world today, Facebook happens to be the best source of word of mouth advertising, especially since it's a visual medium, rather than an oral one. I'm sure I could take out one of those banner ads like you see on the right side of your screen, but when was the last time you even read those, let alone clicked on one?
And so here I am, stuck advertising to my friends, something I don't really want to do. But what choice do I have? Gift economics won't work in my chosen field. If you don't like my advertising methods, I'm sorry. If they offend you, again, I'm sorry. But at the moment I don't have a better business model that will work in my industry. I've seen growth in the past week, something I haven't seen in months. And while I'm sure using gift economic policies would make me popular, they won't put food on my table.
These comments are direct response to Ryan, not Duncan's
DeleteFrom my time reading this blog, I would be surprised if it were a nameless attack or commentary on one person or action, instead its a cultural trend which I think we all notice.
I, like yourself am a photographer, and have mulled over (and never come to a perfect answer) about the work/personal balance, especially online. For Facebook I highly recommend separating Facebook identities to personal (profile) and businesses (fan page). As different individuals want to choose to interact with you on one level or the other, or both. This lessens the negative impacts of abusing your friendships, while increasing the ability for non friends to interact with you and your brand without stepping into your personal identity and seeing what kind of pork you had for dinner last week.
However, even with split profiles, asking for 'likes' 'shares' retweets and whatnots have diminishing returns. Genuine referrals mean the world, forced referrals are transparent: potential clients know they're forced
In the end you can't force people to become your clients, you win them over with product/brand/content/personality that they want to pay for. A social media brand is something you sell, it also can't be forced and be successful. People opt in, and spend their time and influence on social brands they enjoy.
I recommend writing off two days, and digging up and reading through the PhotoShelter guides to business/social media. They're free, and if you want to understand what I'm talking about, and have a hope of running a successful business, there is an amazing amount of great information in them.
Re-inventing when your business sees growth is core to your success and longevity. However the only thing making you 'stuck advertising to my friends' is a lack of ability to objectively look at your business, find problems, while creatively find answers and opportunities.
Here's the thing about Facebook advertising, it's white noise. It might of worked for the first little while because it was new and cool. Advertising is a business and like most business its not about a method you use.It's about the egde you have over someone else. Once the edge beceomes mainstream youve lost your voice because everyone else is is saying, "look at me look at me and you tune it out" and thats what i do with facebook ads. You see its not a particalr method My friends opinion of a product doesn't make me want to by it Some of my friends tastes aren't mine. (at least on facebook) I could really care less what like If I am interested in a photographer or a specials product. I will look for it
ReplyDeleteOn a blog which regularly avoids blanket statements, I am very surprised to read words suggesting complete intolerance of 'advertising' in general. Though I would expect the majority of the writer/readership to have a distaste for TV advertising by McDonalds or Kokanee beer, advertising also encompasses the means by which many of your found a school to study at, or an employer to work for.
ReplyDeleteI won't try to draw a line in the sand. To try to do so would be futile and very personal, I aim only to say that the generalization of advertising =satin's work, is a wild opinion to hold. If you're looking to comment or critique part of the industry it would pay off to be educated and specific.
Gift Economics:
http://www.gigwise.com/news/38378/majority-download-radioheads-in-rainbows-for-free
By most statistics indicated in that link, Radiohead's trial in gift economics was a failure. If you're looking at the direct profits from the free 'pay what you want' download, selling digital and CD copies would likely have netted a larger lump sum, and a much higher profit per unit. This points me to the sweet irony of Duncan's post.
Radiohead isn't really doing 'gift economics' in a manor that can have parallels drawn to economies in general, or hard goods (at least not in a direct way).
Radiohead did gift advertising.
They gave a product to potential customers so good, that many many more people will be exposed to their brand, and buy the physical CD, band merchandise, or go to a show. So 'Pay what you want even if you take it for free' really has dropped a bomb on the old standards of advertising (and, for another conversation, the way the music industry works)
So, for myself as a photographer, Duncan's future video business, and the mystery (might be Ryan) facebooker spamming their network, what 'Gift Economics' teaches you is to really be a better advertiser, and creatively adapt the lesons learned to your own business/industry.
Advertise in such a courageous, beautiful and enticing way that people opt into your brand and are glad to share it with their friends.
Reuban,
DeleteThanks so much for such great comments.
First I want to address that I am not against advertising, although I think that it can be difficult to do both well and ethically and often perhaps even primarily isn't. I am fully aware that at a basic level advertising is merely communication and communication is required for business. I suppose my defence lawyer comment perhaps lead to the "Satan's work" reference... this was not my intention. My loathing while real, certainly was not meant to theologically slander anyone and my interest in defence law is genuine. There are people in these fields that I respect appreciate not only because they wrestle with ethical challenges I find overwhelming but because they do so with vigour and grace and intelligence.
I am not as convinced by your link that Radiohead's "experiment" can be called a failure and not merely because it was as you also correctly identified was/is brilliant advertising. Percentages are not helpful... at least not with out some more percentages relating to previous albums. Did they make more money or less money on this album? And what percentage of their sales was from "pay what you want"? You may be right that it was a failure but the percentages don't necessarily indicate that.
I really like your final line about advertising in creative and beautiful way. Advertising that is simultaneously honest and enhances/beautifies the world in its own right, is advertising that I want to support and appreciate.
Finally, Ryan is a friend of mine and no this post was not about him. As I mention I respect and appreciate the challenges of running a small business and do not begrudge my newsfeed to those trying do good work in creative fields.
As I concluded in the course of writing this article and tried to articulate, what I am trying to get at is trying to think outside the framework of utility both in business and relationships and especially when the two are combined. utilitarianism is the moral theory pressoposed in consumer capitalism, so I am trying to cut at the heart of "the beast," I am trying to imagine a way to suck the power out of the system the way Paul does with slavery... and articulate in a way that is both understandable and energizing.
I get that Radiohead, is by no means a direct translation to service or manufacturing industries... BUT what if it could be translated in some fashion. What if I advertised "pay what you want"? can pick my clients carefully enough and pitch trust and relationship and care well enough that I could be sustainable? Would that be better or simpler or more honest than a la carte pricing or priced packages or whatever?
I have no idea but I am trying to think through this stuff and want to try stuff out and not just get sucked into the feeding frenzy. Thanks for the note about the PhotoShelter guides.
I think working through that is pretty awesome Duncan.
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