Trend Talk: Social Media is Fake. Or We Are?

Hi, I'm Brittany and I accidentally became a business owner in 2020. Since then, I've grown an audience of tens of thousands online and transitioned from done for you services to a leveraged business model, all thanks to the power of organic marketing and personal branding. However, I'm the first to put my hand up and say I still have a lot to learn. So I'm bringing you with me. Whether you're in the Delulu beginning stages or the messy middle of building and growing an online business, hit subscribe and let's learn and grow together. It's business and it's personal. Hello and welcome back to this episode of The One Woman Show. I'm bringing you today another trend talk episode and this is one that I've been wanting to discuss and no, I don't know, just share my thoughts on on the podcast. I initially held back because I wasn't sure how this was going to be received, but what I actually did was put it out to you guys. I asked all my stories, what you thought on this particular trend, just to see maybe if my thoughts were, I don't know, individual and my own, or if anyone else shared some of these opinions or I suppose just perspectives on something that was sort of circulating around Instagram now as I record this quite a few weeks ago. So the trend that I'm speaking about specifically is the social media is fake carousel posts that was sort of a trend that went around, lots of people were replicating it, doing their own version of it and I did too and I really want to make it very, very clear. This is a trend that I actually did participate in. I posted my own version and it's still up on my Instagram feed. I still stand by the version that I did. I think reflecting back and when I get into it, I have some reflections and maybe we may have approached it slightly different, but I still stand by that post. I'm glad I shared it. I do enjoy this trend and I think what this trend was trying to get at, I think it's being received wrong mostly because of I suppose the main sort of title of it. It's a little bit jarring, the words social media is fake, like yes, we sort of all know that to a degree, but we would like to hope that the people that we follow and invest our time in, in terms of who we consume content from, we'd like to think that they're not being fake and that they're being genuine with the things that they share with us. So a little breakdown if you completely missed this whole thing, initially the content started out as I think people were like designing, not really even designing, designing is a strong word. Creating these little stories in their Instagrams and instead of posting them to stories, they would download the static images with the text and then post it as a carousel to their feed and this was designed to be really casual and chill, low production value, which is great. I love that. And the hook on the first slide of the carousel was social media is fake, here's what I haven't told you or here's what I don't post about on social media or here's something to do with here's the truth, here's the reality and obviously as more and more people started seeing this and they were really loving the rawness and I think the original intention of what was trying to achieve, I loved it too. I also did it and many more people were also doing their own version of this trend. And initially, I was like, yep, cool, did my version, loved seeing some other people be raw and open, transparent about their journey. It's really great to always, you know, it's never bad to remind ourselves that social media is a highlight reel and I definitely agree that it is. I think it can still be a highlight reel in an honest and true authentic way, being genuine and not, I suppose, putting out misinformation or anything that's false, without, you know, just sharing every single thing about your life, obviously that's not going to be right for everyone, but I think the perception of it sort of changed as people sort of started to adapt it, potentially not adapting it in a way that was the best way to put themselves out there online. And this is not about, you know, not sharing anything personal, not being raw, not being authentic, it's just sort of not contradicting yourself basically. And I started to see some of this feedback shared by other people, also some stuff mostly by bigger creators and bigger sort of celebrities, I suppose, in the business space, sharing this and the feedback in the comments was a little bit different to what I had originally been feeling. It really started to open up my mind. And this is sort of where the podcast comes in because I was like, I wonder if anyone else was feeling this way. And again, I did participate in this trend, but my outlook has sort of shifted and it seems that I'm not alone on this. So let's kind of just get into it. This is kind of going to be like a, I'm sort of just riffing off with this podcast. I do have some notes, I have some things I want to share from you guys as well. So forgive me if I'm sort of just getting my thoughts out there and rambling a little bit, but I don't know, I just, I think this is a really interesting discussion and we've really seen this play out in front of us. And it's kind of shown the, the, I suppose, like obviously everyone was trying to show the real sides of them, but it's really shown even more than I think people expected to reveal about themselves. So let's get into what I think I want to share on this topic. So the whole concept of this post, which I've sort of touched on is to essentially share everything that you're going through behind the scenes. So obviously, despite, you know, regardless of whether you're someone who's very open and open to sharing all elements of your life, or if you're someone who mostly focuses on just the business things, things you offer and talking about things that are relevant to your audience, there's going to be things that we all go through behind the scenes. Some people choose to share those things, some people don't. So the whole concept of this post was sort of to like lift the veil on, you know, the way that people put themselves forward on Instagram to share the things that they typically wouldn't show, to potentially as well help people to feel like they're less alone, that things aren't always perfect. And I think lots of people did this well. My version was essentially doing something very, very similar. I didn't do it in like the casual low production value way. I personally loved some time in Canva, and I had actually stumbled across a really cool design that I had seen that I wanted to use, and I felt like I think I'd stumbled across the design first, saved it for a rainy day. And then this trend came about, and I was like, oh, I think that'd be a really fun way to use this template. So it's sort of like a mixture of I like this trend and I really like this template. I think this is going to work together. And the template sort of had like that handwriting font. If you've ever used like Procreate on an iPad, where you like, you know, write and make notes on photos, that's sort of the effect I was going for sort of scrapbooky. And I, yeah, I honestly, this was purely like a passion piece of content. I just, I think I had just fun putting it together, making it, making it look pretty. And my version is still up, you can go see it. And the things that I shared in my version of social media is fake, and I don't even think I used, it's on in front of me right now. I don't think I used that such jarring phrasing, I think I slightly tweaked it a little bit to make it sound a little less, I don't know, harsh. But the things that I shared was that I was struggling with switching off, I was struggling with creativity, I was struggling with my mental health in terms of my mindset and maintaining and managing friendships and other relationships in my life while I was working on my business. And I was also struggling with scaling and growth. And these are all true things. And in my opinion, if you feel differently, if you're someone that is watching my content closely enough, in my opinion, these are all things I've shared publicly before, like it's not new that I struggled to switch off, I've spoken about that before online, I've spoken about having a hard time when it comes to moving my business forward and having a really hard time not, you know, constantly working towards my goals. I've had breaks from posting on socials to give myself that time to reset. And I don't think I've ever like touted that I have a perfect relationship with social media and that I have a perfect balance in my business. I don't think I've ever like claimed that or displayed that. I've obviously said these are things I'm trying to implement, things I do that help me. But yeah, I'm not really ever someone that's gonna portray that I have this perfect balance going on 24/7. And then same goes for creativity. In fact, I have a whole masterclass about the fact that I don't like to rely on creativity and motivation when it comes to my content. I really like to lead with strategy and a top down approach. And that's what helps me to achieve my goals. And in the post, I say the business is doing well because of the content strategy, but I feel like I'm missing that creative element. So I was open about that. And the other thing was mindset. And I, yeah, I suppose that's something I'm not regularly discussing. It doesn't really fit somewhere in my strategy where it makes sense for my business. But again, I've never said I'm perfect. So not new. And then as well with scaling and growth, I've been open about hiring people, wanting to make changes, make improvements, things I'm working on. And I've been open about the fact that sometimes it's hard to get it all done. So I think the key thing here is that all of these things that I've shared sit around my specialty, right? So my specialty is content and marketing. So while I can make that look as flashy and, you know, maybe let's say it perfect as I want, there are going to be other areas of my business and my life that aren't perfect, right? Because they're not my areas of expertise. So I think where people started to get a little bit, I don't know, I suppose where people started to start giving, you know, the side eye to this trend is because people started to reveal a completely different story about what's going on in their life inside these posts, right? They pulled the facade down and basically like, yep, it's all fake, everything sucks. So I guess an example of this, because I don't even have like any ones to reference because I didn't save them or screenshot them or anything. I just went, oh, okay, interesting, moved on, but an example of what I'm sort of referring to if I used myself as an example would be me using this trend. And then in my version saying, I hate creating content that none of the systems or strategies I teach actually work for me or my clients. I actually hate reels and Instagram isn't what I've used to grow my business. I relied completely on Facebook ads, right? So hopefully that sort of explains what I'm trying to get at that would be completely contradicting all of the content, all of the messaging around my business, everything that my business is all about my values, what I'm focusing on, what I teach, what I share, what I'm known for. So that would be like, oh, so everything you've been talking about in your content is fake, all of your offers are fake, everything's real, it's just a facade, it's just a money-making scheme. Like, yeah, I think that's sort of what started to happen over time, this trend sort of started to shift away from maybe what it was originally set out to be, and maybe it was originally set out for someone just to be like, yep, everything's fake, but I don't think that's how people wanted to actually use it. I think they were trying to just have an open moment with their audience to connect, be raw, real, but I think it just sort of started to take the wrong turn. And the thing is, I mean, I get it. If you are someone that has to, in your business, feel like they have to show up in a certain way, that you have to put on a positive facade, that you have to, I suppose, share messaging and content that doesn't feel what's real for you and isn't real, it's not factual or it's not based on fact, based on real client results, or it's not based on the systems you actually use, whatever it is, it's going to feel exhausting to keep that facade up. So I suppose here, in lies my point, that it's really so awful and not maintainable or sustainable if you have to be fake online, if you have to put forward this fake facade, and are you really being genuine if you're not being genuine to your audience, if you're not being genuine to yourself. So, yeah, I don't know. I think that's sort of where the turn was made, where people started to go, oh, okay, so everything's fake, everything you're doing in your business is fake. Why have you been leading us down this path in the first place? So I suppose how real should we be getting, right? So I actually asked on my stories what my audience thought of this trend, if they had seen it, if they had done it, because just like myself, lots of people I follow and look up to, respect and love participated in this trend, did their own version, and there were lots of versions where I loved, and I thought, oh my gosh, so cool to see another side to this business owner, it's really nice to hear what they're going through, and while, yes, business looks great, everything looks great, that's not the full picture, and those moments are really, really important, but I wanted to see if anyone else had picked up on what I had picked up from a few different other posts that I had sort of stumbled across. So someone said that they thought it was great for creating more personable, relatable content, that have seen some fake takes, so yeah, I think this person had obviously stumbled across what I had stumbled across, where they went, oh, okay, that's an interesting thing to put out into the world, completely contradicts yourself, but sure. This person said, I like the concept, but the fact that it's a trend takes away some of the genuineness for me, and yeah, I totally agree with this, it doesn't give you a whole lot of confidence in someone, if the only time they're going to be authentic and real with you is because of a trend, because they want to leverage something that's popular, something that's circulating, maybe for their own growth, so I think this person is trying to say, the person I look like, again, investing my time, potentially money into, I would like them to be genuine and upfront all the time, especially if it's to do with something that maybe I've invested in, like a program or a service or something, so that's a really good point, and I definitely agree with that. This person said, the trend inspired me to try something new. I'm shocked by how many people got mad, and yeah, I did love how this really gave people an outlet to be open, for some people it's a really hard balance to work out how much of themselves to share and reveal, and I think it had, it mostly had a negative connotation to it, obviously when people say, social media is fake, here's what's really going on, it sort of sounds like, well, the truth is everything sucks, here's what, all the negative things in my life, but I don't think everyone used it in that way, I think some people did use it in a way to be like, hey, I know I talk a lot about this, but here are some other things that I've got going on, here are some things that can impact me, here are some ways I work around it to make sure that I'm able to show up for my business, whatever it might be, whatever that angle might be, so I do agree that this was a good opportunity and got people outside of their comfort zone, and I do love, I love the format, the people that chose to create it in that really like low production style format, using stories as their kind of design template and then just posting them, not fussing too much about the design or the look of it, I do love that it trends like that are really accessible, lower the barrier to entry for people, so I do agree with that point, and this other person has said that they liked it, the vulnerability was good, however, some people contradicted their messaging, looked bad on biz, so yeah, that's sort of my point where people sort of completely, I don't know, just turned a corner and they did contradict themselves, maybe they are super passionate about something, a certain approach, a certain methodology, and maybe they were like, oh, actually, I don't even use that at all, I can't keep up with it, whatever it is, so it doesn't give you a lot of faith, and despite that even being true, if that is true, that is totally fine, there's nothing wrong with failure or not meeting certain expectations you have of yourself or we have of each other, that is fine, there's nothing wrong with that, and there's nothing wrong with going through these issues, I should add, I think it's when we promote a certain message, when we publicly position ourselves in a certain way, obviously, in our case, it's going to be because of revenue and to make sales and to make our business grow, when that in fact is like false, and yeah, so that's kind of where people got a little bit misled and I think a little bit frustrated because it's like, okay, so what is the truth, what's really going on, I even had another person actually DM me, because I posted the question box but someone actually DM'd me with a full example of someone, which I won't read out, but you know, they sort of saw the intention of being vulnerable and showing the not so picture perfect of business and social media and behind the scenes, but she felt that some people went overboard with the drama and it took things to a really wrong place, a bit too dramatic, trying to create a sob story, and it was an odd thing to share that really just proved that everything that she's showing on social media is completely fake, which I think it's like it is the point but it's also not the point, so yeah, it's tricky, I'm glad I'm not the only one that sort of experienced this, it seems to be common, and if you have any thoughts on it as well, anything you observed, I'd love to hear what you think, both good and bad, because I think there are absolutely positives when it comes to this trend and also trends of this nature and style, I think at the end of the day, it's important to remember you're still needing to position yourself as someone who is genuine, authentic, and trusting and that the messaging that you put out there is true. So the question I get all the time from clients, from people just in my DMs, I get it all the time and they ask, you know, how much should I be sharing online when it comes to my own personal life and things going on in my, I suppose, my personal life? And the truth is, is that there's just not one right answer, so for me, the sort of guideline I like to live by is that I will share different elements of my life and the behind the scenes of my business that I feel are parallel with the journey that my audience is going on, so for example, me wanting to scale my business, not so much scale it in terms of audience growth on Instagram or I don't know, things that are like, you know, relevant to my speciality, but you know, scale it in terms of team and scale it in other ways that are not relevant to what I'm specializing in, that would be relevant to my audience because they would also be interested in scaling and growth. As well I'm getting married, a lot of people in my audience are of a similar age, at a similar time in their life, so it's interesting and they can relate to it, they can connect with it. That's sort of how I judge things, I don't know if that is a clear, I don't think there's always a clear answer to that because it's not always black and white because there's going to be lots of things that are parallel with your audience that they can relate to and connect to, but still, does it make the most sense? Will it add value to your audience's day if you share your experience on something or your advice on something? So I always just ask my question, is this going to resonate with them and is this going to continue to take them along the right journey that I'm wanting them to go down in terms of their relationship and understanding of me, building the trust, building the no and trust factor, sorry I said that all in the wrong order, and as well warming them up and priming them for the offers that I have in my business because ultimately that's what I'm creating content there for. So where I think the line stops for me, where it's a hard stop, is if it's something I'm struggling with that I don't feel I need to open the doors to public opinion on. So not that I get that a lot, I don't get a lot of, I used to back when I was getting a lot of extra reach and visibility from an unwanted audience, but I don't get a lot of that type of response, like bad opinions and negative comments or anything, but I think there are just things that we don't need to get everyone involved in. It's not just worth having, I don't know, just putting yourself out there for that, you never know where that information could lead or get back to. So as well, it's something that you need to have personal judgment on and I think it's less about what you don't share in terms of what you keep private, but what you do share because what you do share is really going to make an impact and matters. So if I was really struggling for example with sales and revenue in my business, I wouldn't be having all of my content saying that I was making sales really easily, that I made six figures last month, I'm basically lying about something that's not true or that hasn't actually happened to me because that's being deceitful and that's being disingenuous and truly it's false misleading advertising. So the worst thing you'd ever want to happen is you have to backtrack in the future. For example, when a trend like this comes out and say, oh yeah, I made that all up, it's not actually happening, it was fake, it was just for marketing. So I think really what it comes down to is you can be as real and raw as you want as long as it makes sense for your audience, the journey that you're taking your community on and how you want to be positioned in the market and against other people that do similar to what you do. So making sure it makes sense for your strategy, making sure it fits your personal brand. The main thing is just to avoid lying or making up things and making things seem one way when in fact they're really not because you might have someone that invests in you that selects you over someone else because they truly trust you because they believe that you have a solution that actually works for them because it worked for you or it worked for your clients, whatever it might be. So whether it's a lifestyle that you're sharing a specific piece of advice, an approach, a strategy, a system, as long as you're being truthful about that and not being deceitful about the actual results or outcomes or experiences that you're having, you can really be an open book as much as you feel comfortable with. All right, bit of a juicy one, I hope that gave you something to think about and I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this topic too. I think this trend has sort of hit its end, it's sort of blown over now, but I'd love to know if you participated, what you think of it, what you thought of other people who participated and what you think of people being raw and if that authenticity is important to you, where you believe it maybe crosses a line, I think it's really interesting because there's no black and white rule for any of us and at the end of the day we're able to create and share what makes us happy and it's important, I have always been saying make sure it relates back to your strategy, make sure it fits your personal brand, but that personal brand and strategy can be whatever you feel is best, what works for you and your audience and your goals, so I suppose there are no rules as long as you're being genuine, being authentic and you really are showing up as the person that's going to show up to your client's calls and showing up to the Zoom meetings and the services and you're actually going to provide them with what you're promising, I think that's really what it comes down to. So, thank you so much for tuning in, I hope you enjoyed this one and if you've spotted any trends or interesting strategies or approaches that you would like to hear me chat about and give my two cents on, I would love to know, so please send me a DM, send me any requests, I really love making episodes that you guys actually ask for, so head over to Instagram now, hit follow if you haven't yet, I'm Brittany from The Social Brutify and you've been listening to the One Woman Show podcast, until next time, I'll see you in the next one. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of The One Woman Show, whether it's a day of Zoom calls on your agenda, content to film or a laundry list of other tasks to tick off, including your actual laundry, I want you to know that I see you and you've got this. Be sure to hit subscribe and I'll see you in the next one.