I saw this just 5 minutes ago on Twitter.
On the surface, it seems innocuous enough– an article by the Washington Post about how is banning “propaganda ads” against climate change.
But look closer at the bottom of the tweet and you see it’s a Twitter ad, applying the “dollar a day” approach to influence you, my friend.
This article has nothing to do climate change, conspiracy theories– or any polarizing issue, for that matter.
Rather, I want you to see how the media is using micro-targeted advertising to subconsciously convince you. And how the ad platforms (which are synonymous with network media) have a self-reinforcing loop.
When the Cambridge Analytica scandal hit, CNN called me to their headquarters in Atlanta to explain how the Russians and Chinese could manipulate elections. State-sponsored social media accounts pumped out thousands of highly charged posts, putting a dollar a day against them.
As I told the Washington Post in this article, that $100,000 spent on ads could have reached over 80 million people because of the 20X multiplier on “viral” posts.
There’s nothing “evil” about boosting posts. And in a world of free speech, I believe people should be able to say almost anything they want. I’m not here to argue about censorship, but to show you that boosted posts are incredibly powerful if you know what you’re doing.
Back to when I was on CNN talking about Facebook in front of 3.5 million people live– I explained how people could manipulate the media for a dollar a day. They didn’t catch the irony.
Because of social media, we are all media– even if we’re just one person with a Twitter account. If you can craft the right message, you can influence exactly who you want to reach. And even influence the media!
How long will this continue?
As long as social media is free to users, the only way networks make money is from advertising. The networks (TikTok, Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, etc) will favor ad dollars that keep people on the platform and drive more engagement.
Thus, your boosted posts get a “discount” for driving conversation– and get a penalty for sending users away from the network (to your website).
Learn how to use boosted posts on every single network, especially TikTok spark ads, to drive whatever business objective or cause you have.
