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Despite its prevalence, social media is often the least effective and most toxic platform for public engagement. Dr. Hotez ranks longer formats like books, podcasts, and even local news as far more meaningful for educating the public. Social media should not be the cornerstone of a communication strategy.
Posting content just for the sake of it is counterproductive. Low-quality, non-engaging content actively harms your reach by signaling to social media algorithms that users are not interested in your brand. This suppresses visibility for all future posts. It's better to post less frequently with higher quality.
When businesses claim social media "doesn't work," it's an execution failure, not a platform failure. The problem is a lack of skill and an unwillingness to learn what makes content effective. The channel's ROI is proven; the variable is your ability to use it.
Nuanced health discussions are lost on social media algorithms that reward extreme takes. While more experts should engage, the long-term solution is to build new platforms, likely AI-driven, that prioritize substance over engagement and aren't designed to exploit our primitive impulses for profit.
Contrary to common advice, treating the public like they're in fourth grade sounds condescending. A better approach is to explain the assumptions behind your conclusions. This empowers the audience and builds credibility, especially when scientific understanding evolves, as it does during a pandemic.
Most communicators mistakenly focus on the medium (podcasts, TV, blogs). The most leveraged approach is to first craft an irresistible hook and a compelling story. True distribution power is achieved when an idea becomes so interesting that people cannot help but share it themselves.
The medium dictates the message. Early blogging platforms, with their emphasis on linking and long-form text, fostered a culture of idea exploration. In contrast, Twitter's short, meme-heavy format inherently promotes conflict, one-upmanship, and extremism, fundamentally changing the nature of online discourse.
While certain content formats (like text-only posts on LinkedIn) may currently win algorithmically, relying on them exclusively makes you one-dimensional. Deliberately mix in formats like video that build deeper brand equity, even if they underperform on short-term engagement metrics.
ClickUp's Head of Social, Chris Cunningham, rejects any social post that doesn't make the audience feel an emotion, add value, or teach them something. This simple filter prevents the common B2B mistake of treating social media as just another channel for corporate announcements and ads.
Public figures are most vulnerable when they make short, context-free statements (e.g., on Twitter). The best defense is to articulate complex or controversial ideas in long-form formats like podcasts or essays. This surrounds the idea with its full context, making it much harder for critics to misinterpret or weaponize.
Major media outlets like The New York Times and Wired have shifted from adversarial to 'advocacy' journalism, pandering to a specific viewpoint. Founders should avoid them and instead invest in building a direct relationship with their audience through long-form podcasts and social media to control their own narrative.