Justine is a character in the novel, 40 Something and this is an excerpt from the novel.
About Social Media Marketing
Gary left for work and dropped the kids off at school, leaving me home alone.
I work from home. I’m one of the so called lucky ones.
My daily task list pops up on my computer. Today is my day to analyse the data from last week. I like analysing the data of campaigns to see what’s working and what’s not,so I can efficiently allocate resources. It’s a lot of work testing, analysing, trying to figure out what people will engage with.
It’s a game.
I reserve Mondays and Tuesdays for content creation and scheduling it to automatically post. Wednesdays are for analysing, so that on Thursday, I can plan next week’s content. Fridays are for research. There is so much information online it can take all day to read it, analyze it, and decide what is relevant and what is complete BS.
Most of it is BS.
The noise online is deafening at times. Everyone is screaming look at me at the same time, it’s easy to miss relevant information and hard to get a message in front of eyes.
People share the dumbest things and ignore the most intelligent information. The amount of fear based posts and articles going viral, shows just how stupid the populous is. Most of the facts in these articles are made up, rumours, gossip, and lies. Still gullible people believe it and pass it around as if it’s gospel, just because someone wrote it on the Internet.
My least favourite social media posts are the ones about celebrities and their stupid lives. They are just people and they can’t even get a cup of coffee without someone making up some meaning about it.
A-list celebrity was seen alone buying a cup of coffee, does this mean splitsville for this Hollywood powerhouse couple?
God, who cares?
I guess the majority of those wasting time on social media because sites capitalizing on high traffic don’t offer up good content. They offer up sensationalized content, celebrity gossip, and complete mind numbing click bait garbage. People click on it, the sites get huge amounts of traffic to entice advertisers to pay the big bucks.
It makes my job harder.
I had one client suggest we attach a celebrity to his product by photo shopping the product onto a celebrity pic, which he stole off the web.
“Think of the hits we’ll get and the sales.” He said.
“We can’t do that.” I said.
“Why not? Just take this pic, paste the product in and viola, instant celebrity endorsement.”
“The photo is copyrighted, you can’t use any photo you find online. It has to be a photo you either took or bought.”
“Buy one.”
“It’s not that easy or cheap. Sure I could buy a stock photo for ten bucks, but a celebrity photo, that’ll cost thousands.”
“No one is going to care.”
“The celebrity will because they will want a fee for using their image and the photographer will sue you for use of his property. That’s two law suits.”
“The publicity will be great.”
My head began to hurt.
“It’s illegal, unethical, and bad taste. I’m not going to do it. And if you do, it’s time we rethink our arrangement.” I told him.
“What? You thought I was serious? I was just kidding, Justine. I know we can’t do it, but can you imagine the traffic if we did?”
He wasn’t kidding. I finally cut ties with him over another hair-brained scheme to use cat photos. His product has nothing to do with cats. I hate it when companies start using cat gifs and photos to attract attention, it’s inauthentic and screams desperation.
Clients like him, end up finding someone who will bend the rules, find the loopholes, and, for the short term, it works. Thing is, these same clients are calling me crying about how their website and profiles are blacklisted by search engines and the social media companies. They beg me to take them back, but by then, the damage is done and it will cost way too much to fix.
The only thing they can do is start over.
It’s like authenticity and integrity got lost on its way down the information highway. Everyone wants quick overnight success and my clients expect me to get it for them. They don’t look beyond last week to see the years of work that it took for big names to get overnight success. Not to mention, the foresight and luck.
Phone Rings.
“Hello, Justine here, how may I help you?”
“Mom, I forgot my Math book and I need it for next period. Can you bring it?” It’s my son, Harper.
“I can, I’m totally able to get up, find the book, get in the car and drive it to you. The question is, will I?” I ask.
“Mooooom. You know what I mean. I need the book for class or I’m gonna get a detention.”
“Maybe you’ll remember it next time.”
“You know, other moms bring their kid’s their books.”
“Do they now?”
“Pleeeeeeease?”
Why do I go through this farce? I know I’ll end up taking him his math book. It’s what good moms do. We save our children from the evils of detention. We save them from their mistakes, just like Gary saves me from mine.
“What time?” I ask.
“In an hour. I’ll clean my room when I get home.”
“Riiiiiiiiiight.”
“No really. I will. Cause I won’t be in detention.”
“Alright. Meet me out front in an hour.”
“Thanks mom.”
“So, where is it?”
“Where’s what?”
“The book.”
“I don’t know. I think it’s in my room somewhere.”
“Be out front.”
I download the analytic data onto my computer, I’ll head over to the closest coffee shop and work from there today for a change of scenery.
Harper’s room is a disaster area.
I don’t even know where to start looking for the damn book. I put the dirty clothes, which are acting as carpeting, into the empty basket. I put the books on the shelf and carry all the dirty dishes into the kitchen. Where I discover the dishwasher needs to be emptied before I can put the dishes in it.
Always something.
Fifteen minutes have gone by and I still have to find the book and drive to the school. I rush back up to his room and look under the bed, on the desk, in the desk, and in the closet. I find lots of things I’d rather not, like the science experiment behind the desk that once might have resembled an apple or maybe a pear?
I make a quick trip to the bathroom to get some paper towel and cleaner, it takes me all of five minutes to clean up the mess. The carpet will have to be cleaned properly, another thing to put on my to do list.
I have to find that book.
The room is tiny. They build kid’s bedrooms so small these days that there isn’t any room in here to loose anything. OK, if I was a math book, better yet, if I was Harper‘s math book, where would I be? I strip his bed and then remake it. There are plenty of items that don’t belong in a bed, like video games and crumbs, but no math book.
Where the hell is it?
I’ve got fifteen minutes left to get the book and get it to the school. Maybe Gary knows where it is. I dial his number.
“Hey hun what’s up?” Gary’s chipper voice.
“Do you have any idea where Harper’s math book might be?”
“Math book? We were doing his math homework last night in the family room. Did you check there?”
“No. He told me it was in his room.”
“It should be on the right side of the computer screen on the corner desk. There might be a notepad on top of it and if he forgot his math book, his socials books might be there too.”
“Thanks, I really appr–.”
He hangs up before I finish my sentence.
I run down to the family room in the basement and there, on the right hand side of the computer screen, is a pile of textbooks. Math, socials, and science. I have ten minutes to get to the school.
40 Something follows the lives of 5 women trying to figure out life in the 21st Century. Do you have any insights or stories you’d like to share?
For more about the series go to www.shannonpeel.com
In her new Chicklit novel, Shannon Peel is exploring what it means to be a 40 something woman in the 21st Century. Each of the 5 women are personalities that we as woman are made up of in various degrees. We are too complex to be just one.
For more about this novel and her YA Novel, THIRTEEN, go to www.shannonpeel.com
Shannon Peel is the author of THIRTEEN a book about a boy and his mom caught behind enemy lines when soldiers attack their North American hometown. The story asks the question, what if it happened here?
Will it be different when my daughter is forty?
Shannon Peel 