So, another day, another superficial list about influencers and how those folks on the list should be the 21/50/100 people everyone should follow, or die!*
This time around, it’s the turn of Inc. with their “21 Social Media Marketing Experts to Follow on Twitter”. It’s the usual parade of names you see on every other list, especially the equally pointless one that Forbes seems to run every six months or so.
Of course, because it’s on Forbes, or Inc., many of those that are on the list are quick to share the post – even though the author of the latest Inc. list states there’s no actual science or methodology behind the list, it’s simply people he finds useful to read and follow.
So starts the circle of superficial humblebragging and linkbait posts clogging up the web – but we can do so much better.
Do Personal Opinions Belong on Mass Media Publications?
One of the interesting, and humorous, results of these lists is how those included start to refer to themselves as “Top Forbes Influencer” or “Top Inc. Influencer”. Which would be nice, if it were the actual publications making the list.
But it’s not – instead, it’s usually a contributor (more often than not an unpaid one) that’s simply posting their take on who you should follow on the various social networks.
So enamoured are many of the recipients, they start to become the Social Face Slappers – regaling you multiple times of how they’re so humbled to be on these lists with their peers, blah blah blah.
Except if they were really humbled, they’d simply thank the person who created the list, and leave it at that, as opposed to sending out multiple updates about how humbling it is to be humbled like this.
It does raise the question, though, as to whether the likes of Forbes, Inc., Huffington Post, etc., should even publish these types of list.
Sure, they may be traffic drivers, and we all know how much the ad guys at these publications like traffic. But at what cost?
Does the continuous inclusion of these non-lists eventually harm the publication, as more and more people see through the facade of what is nothing more than empty content in lieu of whoring for traffic?
After all, you only need to look at BuzzFeed to see this already happening. In a recent roundtable about the future of content, David Kutcher made an excellent point about BuzzFeed’s paltry clickthrough rate.
Buzzfeed might attract 18 billion impressions per month, but is only getting 420 million clicks back to their website.?A paltry 2.3% click through rate.
Now, sure, 420 million clicks is nothing to sneeze at. But given the size of the impressions, and the ad costs involved with that, it would seem apparent that the BuzzFeed economy – high impact headlines, low impact content – is starting to take its toll on the audience.
Non-lists like the ones published by contributors, but not official lists from the publication, could see the likes of Inc. and Forbes start to go down the same route.
Actually, now I come to think of it, that may not be too bad a thing after all…
Make Lists Mean Something
In all seriousness, if people and publications like the ones mentioned here want to continue creating the empty list posts, more power to them. They’ll get the readers they deserve.
The sad thing is, they could be so much more.
Instead of the vacuous recommendation of someone else to add to the Twitter noise already in your stream, reputable publications could truly be shining the light on lists that mean something.
10 Amazing and Influential Women (for International Women’s Day), and?Helping Others Have a Better Life,?are just two examples – there are countless others (and I’m sure you have your own examples).
The point is, it’s 2015. The top social media lists thing was all the rage in 2010. Maybe 2011, too. And possibly edging in by a nose in 2012.
But we’ve moved on – or, at least, we should have. All they offer today is a nice clickable article title, some humblebragging opportunities, and (for the unscrupulous) a way to charge higher consultancy fees (“I’m an Inc. influencer, don’t you know? That adds an extra zero to my fee”).
I recently wrote about us deserving what we click. And it’s true. Let’s not be suckered into placing import on these Forbes and Inc. lists.
Instead, start placing import on the lists you’d truly like to be remembered for, and the ones that we can all support.
After all, let’s face it – a list where the achievements could impact 7 billion people is a little grander in vision than one that limits itself to just 21 on a niche little social network, no?
* You probably won’t?actually die if you don’t follow these people.