EP 459: Sorry, self-promotion doesn't work

What Works

Last week, Vox published an article by internet culture reporter Rebecca Jennings about how everybody needs to be a self-promoter now—and we all hate it. Then, I read a response by writer and book coach Leigh Stein, who was quoted in the Vox piece, in which she admitted to actually enjoying creating her social media content. Stein said that she was considerably more optimistic about the state of things than Jennings article was.

I found the exchange fascinating. I find it hard to disagree with either of their perspectives! And Stein wasn't really disagreeing with Jennings either—which left me with one thought: I don't think we're talking about the same things here.

So I resurrected an old piece from July 2021 that made the case I wanted to make—that self-promotion sucks and is contentless, but that self-promotion is not the only mode for creating content that gets the job done on social media—and updated it for today's social media moment. This episode has my response to both Jennings's and Stein's articles, as well as a description of how enshittification doesn't only apply to platforms but to creators, too. And then, I share the 3 Rs of Digital Content.

Footnotes:

• "Everyone's a sell-out now" by Rebecca Jennings on Vox
• "who told you it would be easy?" by Leigh Stein on The Attention Economy
• "autofanfic" by Leigh Stein on The Attention Economy
• "The 'Enshittification' of TikTok" by Cory Doctorow on Wired
• "Always On: The Hidden Labor We Do Everyday" by Tara McMullin on What Works
• "To Quit or Not to Quit Social Media" by Tara McMullin on What Works
• "Revisiting Remarkable Content to Consider Digital Ecology" by Tara McMullin on What Works

All new episodes are available in written essay form at whatworks.fyi

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• (00:00) - Introduction
• (01:53) - Enshittification
• (03:52) - Self-promotion doesn't work
• (08:48) - There's an alternative approach that works better
• (12:08) - Canva pre-designed templates offer ideas for another way
• (16:13) - The 3 R's of Digital Content
• (18:17) - 1. Respect the medium
• (21:18) - 2. Respect the audience
• (22:53) - 3. Redistribute the idea
• (24:24) - Next steps
• (26:30) - You're invited to Rethink Work

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