I was commenting on YouTube and the conversation about influencers being upset about FTC guidelines (not wanting to disclose they received products for free or have a pre-existing working relationship with the brand whenever they discuss the brand or use the productâwhich is to protect the audience and not to âpunishâ the influencerâif you donât want to be bound by business ethics, the simple solution is donât accept free products) and it reminded me of something. So Iâm going to repeat it here. And itâs going to boil down to: cut corners are cumulative.
First, and fairly obviously, I do not like the flippant way influencers regard marketing and business ethics. Itâs three red flags on top of each other in a trench coat, ensuring me theyâre professional and can regulate themselves.
It also sucks for the influencers, because they donât realize how much theyâre shortening their careers by cutting corners and trading in information they made up. Because, again, cut cornersâtheyâre cumulative.
Recently, and this is such an easy example, my husband and I were watching a video on something tech- and drama-related (the intersection of our two interests). He really loved the video. He kept âyes, andâ-ing the information, so obviously very excited. Then the video ended. I knew going in that it was going to be short and it seemed like a newer, mid-sized creator, so I was really prepared for anything. Thereâs a lot of competing information about intros and outros. My husband was not. He just⌠forlornly kept repeating, âthatâs it? Video over?â Because there wasnât an outro or credits or anything. It just stopped. And then he started to cranky as autoplay kicked in. Since Iâm not opposed to watching the channel again (no obvious red flags) and he clearly now was, I figured it was better to distract him than let him memorize the channel name and developing a petty grudge (he learned this from me). I decided to make this a lesson in marketing.
I said, âyeah, seems like they probably believed that advice about avoiding intros and outros, even though thatâs ridiculous.â Thatâs not what viewers donât like about how most channels do intros and outros. âAnd now itâs so jarring you probably wouldnât watch them again, even thoughâup to that pointâyou really liked the video and you had nothing bad to say about it and you even agreed with all their points!â Because they listened to some bad advice, they completely lost goodwill gained in 15-20 minutes in a couple of seconds. âBut, you know, the video left you wanting more, so it was a good video!â
Then his shoulders relaxed, and he thought about it, and agreed with me.
That advice is given because someone assumed overly simplistic about how either they or other people react to certain behaviours. This is hilarious to me.
And this led me on to a rant about how important focus groups and test audiences are to marketing and product development, because it helps with figuring out the real reasons for the reactions. Most people have no idea what they want. They know when something is what they donât want, and they assume they know why (which may or may not be true). Someone watching videos is watching them to relax.
Theyâre probably not going to interrogate their feelings, theyâre just going to interpret them. So, âI found this intro and outro annoying and a waste of timeâ becomes âall intros and outros are annoying and a waste of time.â
Anyway thatâs not true and I know thatâs not true because if it was, shows wouldnât have ending credits, opening credits, titles, or theme songs.
People like being eased into and out of what theyâre watching, but they donât like to notice it. What audiences donât want is the same thing every time (itâs a YouTube video, not a television show) unless itâs for a specific series (then they will treat it like a television show), and they donât want recycled material from within the show (bloopers are fine and encouraged). But thatâs nuanced and potentially difficult, since you might end up having to find a related tagline to the topic at hand for every video (a lot of people handle this by thanking the audience and including Patreon credits). You need to add more creativity and develop specific skillsets and tones and itâs just one more thing to do. So the advice gets boiled down to something easy and digestible, whether purveyors realize this or not. And then someone âbeats the systemâ and the advice changes.
But this is a short term solution because audiences can tell when corners are cut, even if they canât articulate why.
And if the problem is social media doesnât compensate influencers enough to be thorough, I wonder what kind of future it could possibly have.
TL;DR: cut corners are cumulative. And audiences can tell whether behind-the-scenes stuff is done or not. I really donât like the modern day social media landscape.
Also not wanting to flaunt existing business relationships is, just, such a red flag. Are you not proud of your career milestones???
