Social Media And The Shareworthy Case Of Digital Fatigue

In this fifth episode of the third series of Talking About Marketing, we focus on some sobering insights from the world of social media.

They come from one of Steve's LinkedIn contact, Jessamyn Hayden McLachlan from Felt Brand Stories, in the wake of the Adelaide Hills Winter Reds festival.

In the Perspicacity segment, we continue our focus on David Sandler's Sales Submarine, this time the fourth compartment of Budget.

In Problems, we share a question from long time client, Donald Kay, about getting momentum for an item that's been on the To Do list too long.

But first, we go back to the days when social networking took place face to face, with our last visit from Oscar Wilde and his "At Home" afternoons.

Get ready to take notes!

Talking About Marketing podcast episode notes with timecodes

01:22 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal.
At Home With Oscar Wilde

Matthew Sturgis's biography of Oscar Wilde yields one more tidbit worthy of discussion and it relates to the practice of "At Homes".

"At Homes" were invitiations to visit people for conversation at appointed hours. In Oscar's life, his first experience was with his mother, Lady Wilde’s, Saturday afternoon "At Homes" in the 1870s and 1880s.

Later, when Oscar and his wife, Constance, set up their married life at their place in Tite Street, Constance’s biography shows she set up on the "at home" circuit, where WB Yeats was a regular guest. It's been noted that these functions were more like a public performance than chatting with friends.

And that's why it's a good discussion point in the Person segment. Do we, as business owners or leaders, dedicate enough time to social interaction?

12:10 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today.
Social Media Not Working Well? Maybe It's Digital Fatigue

Just after the Adelaide Hills Winter Reds weekend, earlier this year, Jessamyn Hayden McLachlan, from Felt Brand Stories, opined publicly on LinkedIn about her observations about the performance of social media marketing for the event, after eight years at the helm.

Firstly, she noted it had been "much tougher to cut through than previous years with reach down (although started to observe this trend in 2022), Facebooks Ads a necessary part of the mix and the more reels in the content mix, the better! (Read fun, but extremely time intensive, content to create. Probably more time intensive than those not doing this job realise). #videofirst"

This prompted her to note that digital fatigue is not only real, but increasing across social media, with people less likely to engage because they're tired.

Secondly, she argued that marketers should understand that we need to be as active as we can but not to "sell". Instead, she said social media has become a place "for reference and research ... to book mark and remind ... to answer questions and pique curiosity."

David and Steve pick up the conversation and shared their thoughts.

David made some points about the storytelling of Winter Reds, prompting Steve to link the conversation to some insights from neuromarketing experts, Prince Ghuman and Matt Johnson.

On episode 225 of the podcast, You Are Not So Smart, which had been recommended by client and friend, Lisa Kennewell, the authors argued th