I'm amazed at how often I see posts that were literally copied or stolen from someone else. When I see the same content in my feed from multiple people, I know that someone hijacked the content. I love learning from others, but social media users should at least reference the person they're taking the idea from. Even if they get more engagement or have a different audience, giving credit where credit is due should be the first policy enforced.
Social media can be a cesspool of misinformation. As a benevolent dictator, my first policy would be to implement automated software to detect the authenticity of information posted on all channels—similar to how plagiarism checkers work with text, except this software would analyze links and texts for legitimate information. Anything flagged as faulty, illegitimate information would be automatically removed—warnings will be issued to users as a friendly reminder to verify sources before posting. False information, especially as it pertains to business, politics, and our communities, can create mounds of confusion and unrest. Social media should be a reliable resource to safely digest credible information; the amount of people who frequent these channels is much too large to have misinformation spread amongst the masses. My policy for legitimacy will ensure that social media is a safe haven for trustworthy information.
Not that I'm against our robot overlords, per se, but the bots are a big issue on social media. They bloat platforms and give false data to marketers. And they drive a false narrative, especially with things like AI-generated comments and likes. That can be dangerous. In enough numbers, bots have a lot of power over how we communicate.
There is a massive issue with scammers posing as influencer accounts and asking for money from legitimate followers to “buy crypto” or get “discounted services.” Many users spot the slight name variations and realize it’s a fake, but unfortunately, some people fall victim and send eTransfers to shady email addresses. Platforms like Instagram are slow to react, taking several days to a week to respond. Meanwhile, users are losing money, and brands are losing credibility. If I become the social media dictator, my first move is to increase the size of the review team and get these accounts taken down within an hour, before it can impact the livelihood of users, influencers, and businesses alike.
All social channels must include links or tabs to promote causes that the company believes in and supports. With visual storytelling, you can do more than shine a light on your products or services. You can inspire others to join you in giving back or to do so in their own ways. In short, social media doesn’t have to be self-serving 24/7. It can be used by your business to raise awareness about needs in your community and beyond. The power of social media to affect positive change shouldn’t be underestimated.
No more surprise algorithm changes! There's nothing more frustrating for creators of any kind than having to constantly adjust strategies. Every social media site should be able to adjust its priorities and make changes, but it's detrimental to marketers and creators when these changes come unannounced and shrouded in secrecy. If I were dictating social media law, the first rule would be that business accounts could access detailed information on algorithm updates.
It sounds a little paranoid and inconvenient, but I would enforce two factor authentication every single time someone wanted to open their app, and all privacy settings would be defaulted to "private". Social media is a goldmine for cybercriminals, and gaining access to social media accounts is one of the easier tasks they can do. Most people personally know a handful of people who had to announce their IG or Facebook was hacked and to follow their new account. 2FA helps prevent people who don't have access to your device access your social media accounts, and it would eliminate most of the common social media security issues. The privacy one is pretty simple. If someone knows your full name because of your profile, and you post your Mom or dog or whoever is usually featured in password recovery questions, it is easy to hack into valuable accounts outside of the social media platform. The abundance of information readily available through public social media profiles is staggering.
As the benevolent dictator of all social media channels, my first priority would be to create a more democratic platform for users. Social media has become increasingly centralized in recent years, with a handful of platforms dominating the market. This concentration of power has led to a number of problems, including the dissemination of misinformation and the suppression of dissenting voices. To rectify this situation, I would work to create a more decentralized social media landscape. This would involve promoting alternatives to the major platforms and giving users more control over their data. By taking these steps, I hope to create a social media landscape that is more diverse, democratic, and tolerant.
Having the freedom to share your opinions on social media is something to fight for, but subtweeting is the worst form of “opinion sharing” in 2022. It’s the social media equivalent to passive-aggressive behavior, saying something negative or downright harmful about a person or business without naming them. Most subtweet-ers want the message to be heard by either the party in question or other “insiders” that know who they’re talking about behind the curtain. Subtweets are for people who say something they shouldn’t publicly or want to make it impossible for the subject to defend themselves. They don't want the confrontation, just the dig. If they wanted a real and honest discourse, they’d tag the account or, better yet, take it to the DMs or a real-life conversation.
I'll have all social media platforms blocked for use for eight hours every Sunday. Young children have developed gullibility in fake news and even addiction to social media, leading them to spend more time on it than studying. Longer social media time is also the reason why many young children have become more vulnerable to mental health problems, like depression, because of the toxicity of the platforms. Career parents, influencers, and businesses that rely on social media can use a third of their Sunday, equivalent to eight hours, to do more meaningful things off work, like bonding with the family, taking a breather, or creating a plan for the next week. I think everyone deserves a few hours detached from social media to recalibrate their lives.
No one likes accounts spamming their feed with tens of posts per day or multiple stories. In fact, it is so frowned upon, that even the social media algorithm is affected by posting many posts per day. For that reason, the first policy I’d enforce is posting a maximum of 2 posts per day on each social media channel and focusing on engaging the user in atleast one of them to create a user-centric strategy that is more interactive, engaging and more personal to connect with the audience and prevent them from unfollowing us due to flooding their feed.
Social media channels make a profit from their platforms by offering their user base as the target audience of advertisers and businesses. However, most users are unaware of this phenomenon. If I were the sole dictator of social media channels, I would mandate that all social platforms incentivize users who freely consent to share their data. Doing so makes the relationship between users, social media giants, and advertisers more healthy, as consent plays a massive role in the dynamic. Users can also opt to get out of this data collection and selling scheme. This allows a better experience for online users as it highlights the importance of privacy and security.
From a marketing perspective, it can be tempting to publish new content (from webinars to press releases and ebooks, etc.,) and rush to ask everyone within your organization to share, like, and comment on social media. That's a solid way to get things seen by wider networks of people, but if you don't consider how you're then going to track that activity, you'll never understand its success. Adding UTM tracking for source, campaign, and medium can help you be more specific in understanding the ROI your work on social is generating and how it might be improved.
One of the most important policies any company should have when it comes to social media marketing is engaging with their audience. Too often, companies make random posts that don't initiate conversation, attract the right viewers or include the most important information. It's crucial to tailor your content to your target audience, and then to answer their questions, address their comments, and just generally "be present."
No negativity moving forward. There. I’m going to be the one to say it. If I were named benevolent dictator, I’m going to be the dictator who enforces positivity, support, and community on social media channels. As we move closer to conscious capitalism, every business needs to take a long and hard look at what they are contributing to the world - and right now, social media channels are getting more and more negative. They are causing a lot of emotional harm and distress to audiences and that needs to change. Social media has the power (and the reach) to be a major force for good in the world, but there needs to be a zero negativity and zero harassment policy for that to happen.
Create a cohesive brand or theme that ties together your separate channels if you don’t have one already. This varies from platform to platform, but when you acquire a new viewer, they should be able to seamlessly jump between your platforms without feeling a jarring difference in style or presentation. This issue tends to manifest itself more in larger companies that operate in separate teams. Regardless of your company's size however, it is always a great idea to keep everyone working on your company's social media on the same page when it comes to content decisions.
As a benevolent social media dictator, my first policy is to stop trolls and anonymous accounts from leaving abrasive comments on anyone's photos. Social media is intended to be a place for genuine connections, but malicious people use it to spread hate and negativity through online anonymity. When people share photos of their vacation, small and big victories, and a random moment in their day, people are quick to judge and say unkind things. My goal as the benevolent dictator is to stop that from happening.
There is a great deal of competition between social media channels, so the first policy I would put in place is that all of them must get along. Part of the challenge in growing your business is determining which platform will deliver the best results, when in fact the question should be how to create a well-oiled omnichannel solution. Therefore, I would implement a policy that enables all paid search, paid social, and lifecycle marketing channels to work together, so as to extend reach and capitalize on platform-specific strengths to boost effectiveness across the board. In addition, I would also stress the importance of sharing cross-channel customer data. In my social media world, my policies would make synergy between platforms the law of the land.
one of the most successful approaches to social media is using personal branding to raise awareness for your brand/company. One of the best ways of doing that is assigning brand ambassadors to be the face of the brand, to make it more personal, humanise the brand and give more opportunity to engage with users on a personal level making your brand become more interactive and boost your social media interaction in the process.
Regramming or sharing without credit would be against the rules. So many independent creators, influencers, and small businesses on social media thrive off the marketing juice credited reposting provides. If users like content enough to share it, they’d be required to tag relevant accounts and give credit where it’s due. Sharing off-platform content without credit may fall into copyright infringement territory, and though platform content is legally free to share, ethically, it’s still a bad move. Even non-creators benefit from required credit, so they can easily surf accounts and find new content from creators they like. Giving credit and lifting each other up would be my first rule of social media reign.