A Necessary Evil?
As social media becomes increasingly entwined with work, Kate Wheeler asks whether communications professionals can learn to manage the pressures of living online.
Perhaps the greatest joy of coming out of lockdown has been replacing online versions with the real thing. Browsing round the shops instead of filling an online basket, going to the gym rather than trying to keep up with Joe Wicks and, of course, meeting up with friends rather than just liking their posts on social media. But as PRs know, the dominance of social media could be seen long before the pandemic shut us all in our homes, and the return to face-to-face interactions hasn’t been enough to stem its rise.
Social media is an established part of our media landscape, forecast to reach 49.25 million users in the UK by the end of 2021.[1] For many of us, it is now an instinct to check our feeds when a juicy news story breaks to discover the inside track, while watching Strictly without browsing through #SCD on Twitter can feel like being shut out of the party.
But the dark side of social media increasingly seems to be dominating. A whistleblower has alleged that Facebook knew that its algorithm was fuelling the rise of QAnon and other extremist movements. Research from Facebook, which of course also owns Instagram, has been leaked and revealed that among teens who reported suicidal thoughts, 13% of British users traced those thoughts back to Instagram,[2] [3] while the abuse of public figures on Twitter has reached such an extent that Parliament is thinking of introducing new regulations in memory of murdered MP David Amess.
Leadership coach and author of The Crazy Busy Cure, Zena Everett, believes, “We are so digitally connected yet our mental health has never been worse. Social media can be a blind spot. We believe it is useful and enjoyable but we never question what we are actually getting out of it or how else we could use that time.”
Chamath Palihapitiya, former Vice President of User Growth at Facebook, admitted in his talk to Stanford Business School[4] that social media has been designed to work like a slot machine to sap our willpower and keep us refreshing our feed. Our brain is designed to reward positive behaviour, particularly social behaviour, so when we see photos of our friends or realise that our post has received another like, we get a little dopamine hit. No wonder we don’t want to put down our phones.
I don’t know how people can work in communications and be effective if they are not on social media. I use it as my news feed and get all sorts of useful information from a broad range of UK and international media and industry influencers.
For communications professionals, it’s even harder, because involvement with social media is crucial. Mary Whenman, Director of Communications at British Business Bank says, “I don’t know how people can work in communications and be effective if they are not on social media. I use it as my news feed and get all sorts of useful information from a broad range of UK and international media and industry influencers.” Yasmin Khostovan,
Associate Director at Launch, agrees that social media is essential: “It’s important for us to be where our client’s audiences are, and be able to give informed recommendations on what channel best suits their objectives.”
Having the expertise to be able to advise clients and effectively use social media for research means that just dabbling isn’t enough. Mary Whenman is clear that there are no shortcuts. “If social media sits within your team and you are hiring social media professionals or a specialist agency, and you do not know how it works, you are not going to be able to make informed decisions about what is being recommended and what you are buying.”
But the PR arena isn’t the only one where social media can play a central role. Penny Batchelor is a thriller writer whose first novel Her Perfect Sister was published just as lockdown wiped out most of the usual promotional opportunities. However, as Penny has a disability, her access to networking and author events actually improved when physical events moved online.
“I have an author Facebook account and also an Instagram account. I’m most active on Twitter, which has been great for me for networking with the publishing industry and also connecting with readers.” Penny has been so active that when she took a week’s holiday from social media, a fellow author got in touch to make sure she was okay. Even more tellingly, Penny was also feeling the need to get back online: “Any longer and I think I would have felt out of touch and concerned that I’d missed out on opportunities such as finding out about online festivals or bloggers who are looking to interview authors. I’d miss the social connection too.”
For Hannah Hodges, PR and influencer comms consultant, social media isn’t just essential to do the job – it has also changed the nature of PR itself and offered huge new opportunities for switched-on PRs. “The rise of the influencer has democratised the job of raising brand awareness; it isn’t all about securing the advocacy of an elite set of journalists. Word of mouth is now a measurable tool and social media has given PRs a whole world of potential ambassadors to tap into.”
And if anyone is under pressure to put the hours in, it’s influencers. “I know influencers who have made the conscious decision to merge work and life, to always be actively ‘on’, answering every DM and comment, documenting their every movement, and they’re the ones who have grown their accounts and are being chased by brands for ads and sponsorship.”
So can PRs learn to switch off strategically? For Hannah, it’s a matter of balancing the risks. If you are offline for too long, you may miss important coverage for your client, like a time-limited Instagram story or a DM from an influencer you’ve been trying to attract. But staying online too much risks burn-out and, unless you are careful not to get trapped in a social media bubble, it can warp your perception of mainstream opinion.
PRs who are managing social media for a company or client can face additional challenges. Mary Whenman recalls, “When we were in the middle of the Covid-19 crisis response, the notifications in our corporate social media channels were pretty heavy going. Reading negative notifications and posts can have a detrimental impact on mental health and we certainly have had to manage this within our team. What a lot of people forget is they may think they are engaging with an organisation [on social media], but real people are reading it.” Hannah Hodges adds that the pressure of creating content can be overwhelming, particularly when brand owners see a direct link between successful posts and sales. She emphasises the importance of learning to detach. “There needs to be a wall between you and the wider audience as a protective measure.”
Zena Everett would also encourage PRs to question whether they are putting too much emphasis on the benefits of social media. When she runs Crazy Busy coaching sessions for companies, her first question has always been: “What stops you from getting your real work done?” Increasingly, social media takes the top spot when it comes to obstacles to achieving long-term goals.
...social media can start things off but you can’t just leave it there – you need to do the work to take it off social media and into real life. We kid ourselves that our use of social media is relationship-building, but does it lead to the kind of relationship where you could call someone if you have a problem?
“If you are trying to build connections and develop the relationships that will lead to better coverage for your clients,” she says, “social media can start things off but you can’t just leave it there – you need to do the work to take it off social media and into real life. We kid ourselves that our use of social media is relationship-building, but does it lead to the kind of relationship where you could call someone if you have a problem?”
But for all of its downsides, if we can learn to use it well, social media still offers huge benefits. For Penny, these have been tangible. “My disability means I find it difficult to travel. Social media is very freeing because it provides a simple way to connect. During lockdown we were all in the same boat – we could only socialise online so there were more opportunities to do so, and I hope some of that carries on.”
[1] Statistica Forecast of social network user numbers in the United Kingdom (UK) 2015–2025 https://www.statista.com/statistics/553530/predicted-number-of-social-network-users-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/
[3] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-whistleblower-sec-complaint-60-minutes-2021-10-04/
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMotykw0SIk