You know that term fake it till you make it?
I honestly think, sorry optimists, that we might have to change that to just ‘Fake it’ and leave it right there.
It’s not like you’ll ever see me crying as a consumer over the fact that any given brand doesn’t actually care about me or my favorite issues. That Advertising degree isn’t for nothing. What gets me irritable as a professional is the extra layer of inauthenticity social media presences may have to slather on in order to have any organic reach.
I find it odious and frustrating that rather than take ‘risks’ like being more wordy or less playful, more small companies are pushing an overreliance on algorithm pleasers like all caps or that eyebleeding contrasting pulsing for instant attention when it doesn’t seem to suit what they do. Bending over backwards to look like everyone else is, despite what numbers might say, still a gamble; especially because once everyone is successfully homogenized, there will need to be a breakout paradigm in order to stand out again—and you’ll have to spend time and money on it.
But what if there was a new level to how fake you could get on platforms to boost those figures?
I was putting in my mandatory hours of dork time on Tumblr when user ackee shared something interesting from TwitteX—
Well, that’s…disturbing.
If you can’t quite make out the numbers there, this artist shared four Legend of Zelda based pictures (one of which I needed to uh…redact), one with a caption that makes it clear they’re the originator of the pieces, and another with text typical of swaggerjacking accounts. As if by magic, the reactions went up by over 10x reposts and about 23x likes!
It’s very sadly extremely common that, whether wholly original art, or fanart, across social media platforms, someone will copy/paste an original artist’s work onto their account and simply not credit the OG. Signature crops, watermark erasure, and even making merch with stolen goods is not unheard of—with the real artists having little recourse for recovery. And crueller still, it’s not unusual for ‘stolen valor’ type accounts to have many more eyes on “their” posts, due to a combo of unscrupulous tagging, farming particular subject matter into a niche that’d bore a real artist, or even a little more cash behind their promotion.
But as sad and geeky as all this is, it really might have an impact on small, non-strictly-art based businesses.
If your reach has been flagging lately, consider conducting an experiment on your socials. Post as if you were an account posting solely for “aesthetics and vibes?”, curated Pinterest style. Wonder out loud if those macarons are as good as they look, and ask if anyone knows. Who landscaped that hotel so perfectly, and how? It might be worth the temporary confusion to any of your loyal followers if it turns out it gets you noticed!
And if it does work, then it’s more than likely Xtter and its ilk will have something big to have to admit to. What might come of having concrete proof of favoring fakers? Lawsuits? A new age of organic importance in social media? Legislation? There’s only one way to be sure, and anyone who’s willing to risk a couple raised eyebrows would be a great help.
But if now’s not the time, keep doing what works! So long as you’ve actually found out what that is.
