After several long weeks, the accounting busy season appears to be slowing down for me. I severely undershot the amount of time I would have to sit down and write some thoughts for a longer piece. To our new subscribers who have joined since then, this is more of the makeup of MWF @ 8…
One of the things I’ve learned about writing, along with any performance-based activity, is consistency produces results. It’s hard to revisit writing after a month of minimal writing/creative thoughts. We’ll get back up to steam, and today is a good start -
The Gamestop/Hedge Fund-gate has simmered, but I’ve got a few thoughts regarding online business content -
The next generation of workers/investors are here and they (we) bring different rules
In a content consumption world, what does that mean for your job?
LinkedIn is the perennial platform for business content, but it’s almost unusable.
We brainstorm what it would look like to have a platform for everyday business content.
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The dust has settled on the Reddit/Gamestop/Robinhood/Hedge Fund fiasco from the other week, but I have to admit, it still feels weird writing about anything business-related. For one thing, we're to the point of comedic congressional hearings. For another (if it wasn't already a fact), social media is the greatest driving force behind our market trends. Anybody with a remote following can upend an entire institution. It's horrifying, to be honest.
Slowly, after seeing a lot of the "experts" gargle on CNBC for their respective 5-minute segments, it became clearer that nobody has any concrete answers. This is creating a growing schism among today's investors. The 40-year market veteran is out of touch with new investing strategies, and the Redditor is unaware of long-term market effects. It creates one big blob of unknown. Look at this graphic Bloomberg ran last week:
What do we make of the internet power that seems to be an inherent business risk for so many companies today?
I've been on a run of dissecting different platforms here at MWF (honestly, kind of tired of it). After "Hedge Fund-gate", I couldn't help but keep thinking about how powerful they have become. The de facto business platform is LinkedIn. You and I both never thought, "Hmm, I better head over to LinkedIn to check out the latest on this Gamestop drama." This is because LinkedIn's direction is formal business; meanwhile, the real business content and developments are happening on Reddit!
There is an intersection here that we need to discuss. Today's influence happens online, and LinkedIn is the only proclaimed business platform, at least that I know of. The problem with that is, LinkedIn is almost unusable. Therefore, we have a huge void for business content delivered on a functional platform.
The Next Generation of Workers
I don't have a large social media following by any means. I was off of socials for most of college (just enjoying the moment, man) but have since gotten back on. With social media spanning across all generations, there are easy trends to notice. If you grew up with it (middle school, high school, college), you have bigger followings. If there is one thing schools accomplish, it's producing lots of connections.
But, as living proof, school comes to an end. I'm five months into my first big boy job and it's definitely not social media worthy. Yours probably isn't either. I spend my days crunching numbers and my nights relaxing from all the numbers I crunched.
Hold on, let me share that on Facebook.
Yeah, not many shareable instances happening over here. What I have noticed is the same can be said for those with who I went to school. The Snapchats lessen; the Instagram stories shorten; the Facebook photo dumps grow further apart; the Tweets are non-existent. I keep thinking about the repercussions of this with future generations who grow up rooted in posting online. Routinely, there are middle schoolers on up to college students with thousands of followers. Two questions I have surrounding this -
Will future generations value continuing to post over jobs that don't present the opportunity?
Is it a fact of life you naturally distance from social media over time, assuming it's not your job (post-marriage, careers, kids, etc.)?
Posting or Working
Let's talk about the former question, and I'll update you on the latter down the line. It's evident companies or various career paths are growing based on the ease of posting. Take fitness, for example; did anyone in the 90s sweating it out at some disgusting gym ever think,
"You know what, people would love to know about how well my fitness journey is going."
No chance. Fitness is a glorified online industry that allows anyone with a heartbeat to monetize. I'm not saying it's a bad thing; alternatively, it's an extremely good thing. It gives an opportunity to those who have spent grueling hours getting their body in top shape.
I don't believe this potential is exclusive to Instagram-appeasing happenings. Businesses can harness youthful social media energy just as easily.
Let's say you have 5,000 followers on Instagram (congrats). There are real opportunities to further pursue social gigs, but the stability/benefits of having an employer are evident, as well. It's not happenstance that 2020 produced the highest number of MBA enrollments ever. Regardless of how well off somebody may seem, people seek out stability in uncertain times.
Right now, and over the next several years, there is a lot of social media influence sitting dormant behind a desk. Would it not make sense for companies to a. Attract a portion of people with influence and b. encourage posting?
If I were to start a business tomorrow, I would go out and get the smartest guy I can find to build it, and then someone with the most social influence to sell it. Pretty much the model of every startup to date. It does not make sense to me why companies don't harness the social capabilities of their employees.
The antithesis to this has always been the other content people post on social media. You know, the stuff we shout in our echo chamber of followers who probably all already agree? Needless to say, your political ridicule might not line up with your company's values. This argument has always been so elementary to me. There's a good chance you have your work info on your LinkedIn, so a simple trace to other platforms isn't that hard. Those who are worried about their messaging have burner/private accounts.
The point being... If you're worried about who can see your content on social media, you aren't a candidate for this idea anyway.
Maybe it is as simple as we have not created the platform for it, yet.
Future Business Content ≠ LinkedIn
Before we can create a platform, there has to be a need for it. It's evident there is a market for scrolling a feed produced by your network; we've accomplished that. I think there could be a market for your company in content creation, too. I follow a few brands that are interesting/entertaining, but not many. There needs to be an outlet where more companies can grow online.
This isn't only for monetization purposes. Going back to the intro, companies are under the stress of internet influence every day. Even though Gamestop was and still is dead, could internet mobs upend companies that are sustainable?
We've seen some wild market trends in the past couple of years. Maybe not to the level of Hedge Fund-gate, but unpredictable, nonetheless. Most of the time, it's difficult to find a financial-based reason. Instead, it's sheer inflationary influence from social platforms. When large-scale uncertainties are involved, people will cling to anything with an answer (which is why we need to ask more questions).
Companies exist to mitigate risk as much as possible to produce desired outcomes. The only way to minimize undue risk from social platforms is to play their game. Build a brand that is bulletproof to any sort of platform-based unknowns.
I remember being notably shocked when the first wave of brands began posting more candidly. One of the early instances that comes to mind is Wendy's Twitter account. It's hard to go back and pull all of the replies, but here is a meme of one -
Companies get slandered online all day (a good scroll is simply searching "Comcast" on any platform), but the rule of thumb has always been to take it on the chin. Fix that collar and tweet out the new computers your company just installed! Wendy's and others slowly started to break this barrier. The funny thing about Wendy's is that it actually worked.
Wendy's worst revenue year of the decade was 2017. As soon as they became laissez-faire, sales went up. I know what you're thinking, "It's the fast-food industry. It's already a joke." I still think there is something to be said about this. People relate to edgier brands.
Listen, I get that the main purpose of LinkedIn for individuals is to "build a network" or find career opportunities. For companies, it's used for hiring and publishing straight-laced material. Overall, that part is fine, even though my entire inbox is spam opportunities.
Actually, if you re-examine the core of LinkedIn further, it's probably the best platform available. The idea of making companies transparent and having access to some of the world's top business executives is flawless; meanwhile, you make connections with people in your professional field. Many of whom you would have never crossed paths with otherwise.
The problem remains, I don't use the app. It's wildly unfunctional, and the content is not interesting at all. Hence, the opportunity.
This circles back around to the minimal amount of content creation amongst businesses. Companies have a social media presence, but they're usually pretty dry. I've never even taken a scroll on my own company's social media pages. It's ironic because I judge basically everything else on social media presence. People, events, and organizations; the first interaction often happens on social media.
Even beyond the content, the interface of the platform is ridiculous. When you download an app, if the default features aren't initially pleasing, there is a good chance you'll end up deleting it. The only reason why people don't is it's almost an obligation to be on there!! That's the gold standard when you develop something that literally everybody must do, and they still can't figure it out.
I would not be on the app if it was not for perception. LinkedIn is about a weekly check for me. Pop in, decline a few connections invites from real estate professionals (sorry real estate readers), take a couple of scrolls, question what I am doing, close the app. Every time...
New Business Platform
(0.01% stake for whoever develops a good name for this)
One of the dumbest platforms ever conceived is Parler. The basis behind Parler was a place for conservative-leaning thoughts to be able to be flow free as Twitter was suppressing them. Consequently, I think Twitter has an expiration date with how poorly run they are, too. Both are wildly addicting if you like confirmation bias, but both are viewed as a cease pool of information overall.
I've always loved this Pew Research study on how 80% of all tweets come from 10% of users. To word it a different way, 90% of Twitter users scroll while the other 10% tweet and scroll…
A lot of people are starting to wake up to these big tech platforms. They control immense portions of our daily lives, and collectively, we need to use this time more effectively. I'm one of the largest proponents of social media there is if it's used advantageously.
The 9-5ers are content consumers. From the points already enumerated, most jobs aren't suited for social media. So, we spend time indulging in everyone else's life wondering what it would be like. Besides, we don't have much to share except the detail of our job.
Pandora's box is how to transform everyday jobs into consumable content. Here are a few ways this could look:
Actually, share what you are working on. Not the coach-speak version of "we're using technology effectively", but the details.
Streaming your work (we stream everything else). It might seem boring to you, but it could be infinitely helpful to hundreds if you're working through a common problem
Easing the barrier of collaborations across various sectors. The possibilities are endless for what would ensue.
Decentralizing information (we're a pro-blockchain newsletter).
The usuals (posting, updates, memes, videos, audio, etc.)
Finally, my favorite idea -
Allow businesses to produce consumable series. Literally, bring the TV show The Office to life. Hire a camera crew and start shooting/editing the film of the workday. Kind of a Barstool Sports mantra.
There's no way any of this is possible, right? Who knows. What I do know is to never rule it out.
Autonomy of employees
One of the indicators that a business platform would work out is the rise of autonomous employees. Recently, there has been a seismic shift in corporate strategies to appease modern workers. Everything from taking social stances (I wrote more on this here) to liberal employee policies (my employer just switched to unlimited vacation days). It's only going to get more progressive.
On top of those trends, work from home has expedited employee autonomy to the nth degree. No longer can companies physically control their employee. There is no seating chart by rank where the higher-ups get four walls and a door. From my vantage point, as long as one gets their work done, they can be at the Y playing pickup basketball at 3 o'clock on a Tuesday.
The power seems to be shifting to the worker. More autonomy means blurring the lines that were very clear beforehand. I attribute much of this to the knowledge gap we are continuing to see in the workplace. Every generation after the next will be savvier and smarter. They might not know the ends and outs of the operation, but they can find new ways to get you there. To keep these kinds of talent from a variety of other opportunities, a company has to grant them a level of freedom.
I don't want to dive too far into this (look for more on this next week.) because it's a good place to wrap this up.
Conclusion
It's no secret the influencers, Redditors, and content creators run the internet. Companies have to be willing to step into the ring with the internet, as they have begun to do so. Further, there needs to be an outlet to encompass business content. A place where employers and employees can monetize and strengthen their brand. A place where they can flow thoughts more freely. A place to enhance the current state of their industry. A place that is not LinkedIn.
The race to tap into this potential has already begun. New faces of the workforce are only going to change the rules, and it's happening right now.
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