Page 429 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

The solution: Force an evidence-driven approach to decision-making within your
company. Ask for evidence when strong opinions are expressed. Vigorously chal-
lenge opinions that are not grounded in fact and don’t give them equal treatment
to those based on hard evidence.

Encourage Those Who Don’t Conform

When you’re building a team of social media marketers or hiring in your company
(big or small), it’s easy to get trapped in finding people who look and sound like
you. That’s not good enough though. Studies have found that non-conforming
employees report being more confident and engaged in their work, display greater
creativity, and receive higher ratings on performance and innovativeness from
their supervisors. Most critically, they help you combat conformity and group-
think where everyone begins to agree with one another a bit too much. With
groupthink comes the inability to separate the truth from the fakeness. To avoid
that, have peers and teams who don’t conform too neatly to your world view.

Ask Yourself “What if the

Opposite Was True”

To fight fakeness it’s also important to recognize your own limits. In a social
media world where opinions are in abundance and evidence often rare, learn how
to evaluate information more critically. One way to do that is to ask yourself,
“what if the opposite was true?” It’s not simply enough to ask people to be fair
and impartial. By asking them (and yourself) to think about the opposite condition
to their own conclusions forces them to reflect and removes bias.

Engage in Active, Critical Analysis

As a social media marketer, you have a lot of influence. Very often you make daily
judgment calls on what to publish, how to respond to a comment, and whether
to use a specific photograph when sharing information with thousands and
thousands of customers. It’s very important that you don’t leave the thinking to
anyone else. You’re ultimately responsible for the decisions that impact the suc-
cess of your brand on the social media channels. Take guidance from your peers
and external consults but always remember you’re the one responsible — both to
publish smartly and also to avoid falling for fakeness online.

CHAPTER 31 Ten Tips to Navigate Fakeness 413