Opportunity Awaits podcast Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Aaron Henriques: So mark Zuckerberg, in the last couple of days of me recording this has actually followed in the steps of Elon Musk and has announced that there is going to be paid verification for Facebook and Instagram.Â
[00:00:22] And it's only starting out initially in New Zealand and Australia. But, we're looking at what, $12 a month for that paid verification like you can now do on Twitter.Â
[00:00:38] And that made me think about something. One about someone that I spoke to quite recently who's starting their business, trying to get some traction there. And another's around some things I've been reading around the focus. And that really made me think about.Â
[00:01:01] Are we focusing on sales that's important for our businesses or are we sometimes more focused on social status.Â
[00:01:15] And I asked myself that way also ask you because. I've noticed. it's what 24 hours, since I saw the first announcement of it. In fact, It's still on his Instagram story right now about it. from his post yesterday, and I've already seen a number of people, including grown-ass fucking adults who seem to be a bit upset about it.Â
[00:01:39] And. I just find it really strange. And one of the people that I saw who's even older than I am. I'm not exactly old, but they're older than me. By quite a bit. And they're upset. They put up a post today. about the fact that they worked so hard and [00:02:00] they've only recently got their blue tick on Instagram.Â
[00:02:06] And.Â
[00:02:08] Now it's going to be available to anyone. If you start a new, fairly new account, I don't know what the rules are for it yet, most people's accounts. You've had it for a while. They're going to be able to sign up to this 11. Dollar thing or $15. If you've got an iPhone. I think that's because apple steal some of the money from Facebook.Â
[00:02:25] But the social apps have been like really good at making you feel like the likes and the follows equal success. And I think if you've been in this space for a while and know quite a few entrepreneurs, you'll probably know by now that. Quite often the people making money are not spending that much time on social media. Quite often,Â
[00:02:51] they're not devoting their time to that. They're more devoting their time to their business and sales and to their customers than getting likes and follows. And there are people out there who will be constantly posting they'll do these content schedules,Â
[00:03:09] They must spend an in, I don't know how much time on creating content for Instagram and social media. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this. I don't think there is anything wrong with this. But when it gets to the point of, they're starting to feel deflated and not getting the traction they want.Â
[00:03:31] You may know people who are about to describe right now, you. they're not getting the attraction that they want. It's a bit deflating for them or very deflating, they may have put in so much effort for this amazing post that they think everyone should love. And then. Instagram shows it to like a hundred people and then stops.Â
[00:03:49] And then people start doing weird shit. They're buying likes and followers, they've got fake accounts that has been up for 20 minutes and then all of a [00:04:00] sudden it's on their story saying, "everyone please report this profile because they're impersonating me."Â
[00:04:06] Most people with even like a small amount of following, I just don't think that anyone's impersonating them. They're just not famous and there's nothing wrong with that. But, have you ever done stuff yourself to be like moving towards that blue tick to be, I want to get verified?Â
[00:04:25] Maybe you've requested it before and then got your rejection? I'll put my hands up. I have. I have. I haven't, done these fake accounts and stuff, but I've created content schedules and started posting all this stuff out and got deflated and was like, this is just bullshit.Â
[00:04:43] But I didn't take it to that next level. And I think a lot of people do. And I feel like they, maybe people feel a bit stupid if they're not. And their focus then goes away from the business idea that they had or whatever it is they want to do to.Â
[00:05:00] Trying to get that one more like trying to get that one more follower and that dopamine hit that they get every time. The constant checking of it, all the notifications are going ding,ding.Â
[00:05:11] If you can't admit that. if you've done it yourself, If you've been doing stuff like that. And you think, no Aaron actually, I'm more focused on my business. really think about it, because think about where your time is going. is it? Are you actually doing it? I can't hear you if you're responding to this, I can't listen to your thoughts or whatever.Â
[00:05:33] You don't have to admit it to me. I'm not saying, write me a post. a DM or whatever about it. I'm just saying, think about it for yourself. Is that something you've done? Is that something you're wasting your time on?Â
[00:05:43] Aaron Henriques: And,Â
[00:05:45] it's sad to see because there are some really talented people out there. The girl I spoke to the other day, she's not at all like this, to the extent of what I just described. Nothing at all.Â
[00:05:58] Aaron Henriques: But,if you're trying to get customers [00:06:00] that way as well. one of the things I spoke to her about was, particularly younger people, if you're sub 25, you've probably grown up with social media, pretty much all your life. And.Â
[00:06:14] You've only seen that. That's how you've seen success. You've seen people create, well appear to create their success through social media for you. Lots of posts through getting lots of likes and followers and stuff like that. And looking really successful with posing by airplanes and sorts of shit like that. And you think that's the way to go about it.Â
[00:06:35] But I actually personally don't know anyone who has made money from social media. In fact, I know someone who's quite recently is now got over a 100,000 followers who, I know works her socks off every day, every single day.Â
[00:06:56] And you think she's making a ton of money? Cause she's got stuff to sell and she doesn't. She doesn't. She earns definitely less than I do. And that's not me celebrating and that's not me with a big head. I'm just saying, for my businesses, it's very much in the background, boring shit. Nothing on social media, but,Â
[00:07:15] it makes money without me needing to do stuff for it. actively day to day. Certainly not the extent that it would take for these videos and stuff like that, that's being created. And. Her initial plan was to make money, enough so she could quit her main job for goodand unfortunately she's seems in my opinion, to have got stuck in this rut ofÂ
[00:07:39] getting the likes and the follows and, promoting certain brands who've endorsed her, who make them feel special. When really all they are doing for them is they're a glorified affiliate and they're making them promote their brand under this guise of making them feel special for it.Â
[00:07:55] And they take away from actually focusing [00:08:00] on their own business and their own goals that they initially had when they started out. And now they're just, a salesperson for these particular brands. And I find that quite sad and I think. if you are trying to get b2B customers particularly,Â
[00:08:17] particularly if it's high ticket stuff, like if you're selling services, that costs a lot of money, that's quite a large investment and large investment will be different depending on the size of business you're going to, if you're aiming at startups, Particularly if it's, average startup probably doesn't have much money. if they do have loads of money, you're probably not going to use you unless you are quite big anyway because investors may dictate which suppliers to use who they already trust. So it depends what you're doing. But if you're trying to get customers, I just don't think that spending all of your time on social media is the way to do it. Just posting day in, day out. You're trying to draw in these people to you.Â
[00:08:59] And you just got to think, the people who you're trying to attract, if it's a business that's established, you're probably not going after the owners. Anyway, it's probably someone who's in a job. Who's got a particular function in the job where they make the buying decision on a particular type of thing. And whatever it is, you're selling to them,Â
[00:09:18] it may well be difficultfor you to access them through social media, because they're probably not going on Instagram in the evening when they get home and thinking about, oh, I should buy this for work. They're probably not searching for anything like it. They're probably not looking for it.Â
[00:09:32] If they were, they're probably going to go on Google or Bing or something like that and search for it. Or ask other people in their network for recommendations. And I just think that you could spend all this what I told this girl the other day.Â
[00:09:42] You could spend. Instead of spending two hours on planning your content and then another four hours creating it and putting it up just to get a few likes from your friends and family that follow you. In an hour you could be putting out 10 to 15 phone calls to business owners, if you're B2B,Â
[00:09:59] in [00:10:00] the specific space to particular types of customers that you want calling them direct. And so it was taking up that, relationship. And I just think that. Yes, social media is very present there and it's in our face all the time. And that's why we think that's where we need to be. But a lot of business goes on away from it that you never see. And.Â
[00:10:23] Aaron Henriques: People still buy from people that they can connect with and stuff. And yes, there is the argument of, they can know, and trust you for your social media posts. Yes. Maybe, but, again, I go back to the point that they're probably not looking there for that. I certainly don't follow.Â
[00:10:38] I don't know, what do I use? One of my suppliers. So I've got an accountant. I've used an accountant for years. I don't follow accounting firms. I couldn't think of anything more boring to follow. No. it's exciting to them. They love it. My accountant's such a nerd. He loves all the accounting stuff, which is great because he's a fantastic accountant, but I've got no interest at all.Â
[00:11:03] What else do I use? Printers for some stuff. people who do clothing, Insurance company, stuff like that. it's just bizarre. I just wouldn't follow basically as my point. And I think I'm probably not that different from a lot of people who are just not interested because I'm more focused on business moneymaking sort of activities.Â
[00:11:24] Aaron Henriques: Now with what Meta has done. I think that's, they're hitting two major platforms. Obviously. It's not going everywhere right now. But it's going to be going across Instagram and Facebook if it works in Australia and New Zealand . And that's heavily, as we all know, something that people are striving forward to try and get their blue tick.Â
[00:11:47] But does that mean that the motivation is now going to go from people?Â
[00:11:52] I think that's going to be interesting to see, the motivation to create all this content. To keep people coming back to the platform. To [00:12:00] grow the likes and the following. Is the motivation going to disappear?Â
[00:12:05] Is that thing of, are we going to see the end of the,the fake account where, please report this to Instagram. You know that fake account, that, I think a lot of the time I'm honestly, I just feel like it's probably the people report. saying, oh, someone's made a fake account of me, who've actually done that themselves. Or got someone else to.Â
[00:12:27] In a way to get that validation of 'whoa look at these people, they keep creating fake accounts for me.' And so I need my blue tick to show I'm actually me. I think there's a lot of that goes on. And is that motivation going to go from those people? Are those things going to suddenly stop?Â
[00:12:42] And the people who worked so hard to get their blue ticks.Â
[00:12:47] And then they celebrated it. What's next for them? what's going to fulfill them and, fulfill their, I don't know the urge or whatever? is this actually a positive for them? Maybe not for them, they've already got their blue ticks and I'd probably have to pay for it now, if it certainly a Facebook do actually follow exactly what musk has done where he's like, if you want your blue tick, you're going to pay for it. if he does do that, then, maybe there is a positive in this to come out of this. is it going to give people more time back to focus on the activities actually make the money? To focus more on their business than generating traffic for Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and wherever? Is it going to allow you to focus more on your business and not worry about content schedules?Â
[00:13:38] Aaron Henriques: Yes, be present. I'm not saying don't be present and there are some businesses where social media may well be, really important to that business, I don't know, if you're starting up a clothing brand or, I don't know, you sell a particular type of quirky candle or whatever. Like whatever. I think products and stuff like that it might be more [00:14:00] relevant there.Â
[00:14:00] And for everything I've just said, there are individuals out there who, who actually can show different that yes, I've actually been very successful through social media, by doing this very thing that you said probably may not work for a lot of people. And my point is it. It may have worked for one in one in a hundred thousand, you're not going to be one in the hundred thousand.Â
[00:14:23] Do things that where you can move your needle where you can focus on the task that will move you more toward your goals, whatever they are. Unless your goal is just to get lots of followers and likes. that might be your goal and that's fair enough.Â
[00:14:38] But I just really wanted to share that there wasn't really any learning point or anything, I'm not really here to teach anything. It's just something that I thought about. And I made some notes on this pad today. It's not normally on a pad, normally do stuff on a computer, but I made these notes.Â
[00:14:55] I was thinking about it earlier and it's just so important, this focus thing. And I keep mentioning focus because we drift off. Well I do anyway. I do. Maybe you don't, maybe you're really focused, but I, my mind goes everywhere else. It drifts off into crazy places where I get distracted and sometimes you get that urge to create this social following. You might follow a couple of accounts and think, do you know what, I want to be like them.Â
[00:15:29] I know there are people out there talking shit.Â
[00:15:32] Aaron Henriques: Just a simple fact and I'm sure you do too. And you may have been one of the people that yourself have done and said things on social media that wasn't quite true. It wasn't really genuine. Maybe didn't quite have as much experience as you portrayed. And actually didn't resonate with who you really are.
[00:15:48] In order to make you seem better and bigger than you are. And there are people that go to extremes where they make out, like as if they are these extreme successes, the, [00:16:00] multi-millionaires. And this is just a thought from me. And I'd be really interested to hear people's views on this because unless people genuinely started to mimic me for some reason, I probably wouldn't bother with paying for a verified status. I just wouldn't understand why to do it. And to be honest with you. I don't know what checks are being done. It didn't seem like Twitter's one there as much in the way of checks. It was more if you pay then that their theory seems to be what if you pay like the $10 or whatever. That. fake accounts, won't do that.Â
[00:16:46] But then I thinking, if people by impersonating you, can generate hundreds or thousands of pounds or dollars, whatever a month. By faking who you are, then they probably will do that. They probably will pay for these fake accounts and they will keep putting them up, even if it's costing $10 or whatever a month, because if they can make hundreds of pounds.Â
[00:17:10] Thousands of pounds by faking to be you. And using your name because you're that famous, then they probably will. I dunno, I think now they'll have to up their game in how they actually verify people.Â
[00:17:22] But I certainly wouldn't be paying, but is that something you'd pay for? Do you think it gives you more credibility by having the tick? Would you trust now that maybe in six months from now there, isn't going to be like actually verified people. It's going to be people who are verified because they've paid.Â
[00:17:40] Would you trust that now? Or does that trust factor then just disappear?Â
[00:17:43] I'd be interested to hear what you think, but anyway, I've shared what I wanted to share and if it upsets you then I'm sorry. Well I'm actually not sorry. But. If you're one of them, people who've worked your arse off because you wanted that blue tick, then maybe you should start to really [00:18:00] rethink about your priorities and. What actually important.Â
[00:18:05] Are you trying to build a business so that you can have a better future?Â
[00:18:11] Or are you just trying to grow your social status?Â
[00:18:15] Anyway. I've been, Aaron as always goodbye.Â
