I fell into the social media comparison trap, me the professional woman who runs multiple businesses social media channels. Me, the woman who knows what happens behind the scenes of that ideally put together photo. Me, the woman who goes through multiple images to choose the perfect one to convey the message that needs to be told.
Over the holidays, the comparison took hold of my professional brain and swallowed me up. I’ve been trying my best to dig myself out of it. I meditated and saged, I drank all the water, and finally, I went to acupuncture to get my energy re-aligned.
Meanwhile, amid my social media mind fuck somewhere in Los Angeles, watching influencers in their wild habitat, I realized something that deep down I already knew. Successful digital marketing on social media comes down to selling one of two things, a lifestyle or a feeling. And reader, these two things are not the same. Assuming these two things are part of the formula on how successful marketing is achieved.
Social media can be an emotionally manipulative son of a bitch. I learned this early on, and I’ll admit that more often then not, I tend to use it to my advantage. Please hear me out, I don’t use these powers for evil or anything, but I do understand how the brain, photos, and words work.
As a business, you are not just selling a product; you are selling either a lifestyle or a feeling. Yes, you can sell both a lifestyle and a feeling, but psychologically you are not selling both to the same person in one post.
As an example, let’s use a candle manufacturer. You might think by trolling the 1000’s of candle manufacturers on social media that they are selling a lifestyle. Based on the initial views of their photos, it would appear that they are indeed selling a lifestyle. A lifestyle that includes a well lit, immaculately clean yet cozy, well-behaved children’s and hairless pet’s home.
The photo has caught your attention, and you want to feel like your home has it all together. You want to feel when you light this candle, your children will magically out of nowhere, put their toys away without you asking them. You want to feel when you light this candle like you are not vacuuming enough dog hair off of that chair by the window to create another dog, the hair is just magically going not to be there. You want to feel that your home is bright, sterilely clean, yet cozy and overall has it’s shit together. The only obstacle in the way of this fantasy home happening for you is you need to purchase this magical candle.
The magic candle is a similar trap that I found myself in. However, I feel deep into all those smiling families around the dinner table and captions talking about how amazingly close and perfect their family is. When in actuality, the chances that perfect family photo I couldn’t stop looking at, came right before or after some family dispute. Someone is most likely annoyed, and there’s probably a broken wine glass on the other side of the camera.
We have all inadvertently learned to be very good at posting the incredible and perfect to us photos and things happening in our lives, but what I want to see as a consumer and challenge my clients is a brand that posts their product in real life, not perfect social media approved scenarios once in a while. Our individual psychology needs that.