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What’s on your social media wishlist? Now that social media has been around for — gulp — twenty years, we’ve all developed our passions and peeves about the various platforms.
But what if we entrepreneurs, social media managers and marketers could run social media OUR way? What policies and rules would we put in place?
I wanted to know — so I reached out to my community and asked them:
What if you were named the benevolent dictator of all social media channels for the day? What changes would you make?
Here are twelve surprising social media policies these small business leaders have on their social media wishlist:
Create a More Democratic Platform
As the benevolent dictator of all social media channels, the first thing on my social media wishlist would be to create a more democratic platform for users.
Social media has become increasingly centralized in recent years, with a handful of platforms dominating the market. This concentration of power has led to several problems, including the dissemination of misinformation and the suppression of dissenting voices.
I would work to create a more decentralized social media landscape. This would involve promoting alternatives to the major platforms and giving users more control over their data. By taking these steps, I hope to create a social media landscape that is more diverse, democratic, and tolerant.
Antreas Koutis, Financer
Ensure No Use of Others’ Content Without Due Credit
I’m amazed at how often I see posts that were literally copied or stolen from someone else. When I see the same content in my feed from multiple people, I know that someone hijacked the content. I love learning from others, but social media users should at least reference the person they’re taking the idea from. Even if they get more engagement or have a different audience, giving credit where credit is due should be the first policy enforced.
Logan Mallory, Motivosity
Sanitize User Data Collection and Use
Social media channels make a profit from their platforms by offering their user base as the target audience of advertisers and businesses. However, most users are unaware of this phenomenon. If I were the sole dictator of social media channels, I would mandate that all social platforms incentivize users who freely consent to share their data. Doing so makes the relationship between users, social media giants, and advertisers more healthy, as consent plays a massive role in the dynamic.
Users can also opt to get out of this data collection and selling scheme. This allows a better experience for online users as it highlights the importance of privacy and security.
Tristan Buenconsejo, TriBu LinkBuilding
Limit Social Media Use to Only Hours on Sundays
I’ll have all social media platforms blocked for use for eight hours every Sunday. Young children have developed gullibility in fake news and even addiction to social media, leading them to spend more time on it than studying.
Longer social media time is also the reason why many young children have become more vulnerable to mental health problems, like depression, because of the toxicity of the platforms. Career parents, influencers, and businesses that rely on social media can use a third of their Sunday, equivalent to eight hours, to do more meaningful things off work, like bonding with the family, taking a breather, or creating a plan for the next week. I think everyone deserves a few hours detached from social media to recalibrate their lives.
Jeffrey Zhou, Fig Loans
Regulate the Volume of Bots Allowed on Social Media
Not that I’m against our robot overlords, per se, but the bots are a big issue on social media. They bloat platforms and give false data to marketers. And they drive a false narrative, especially with things like AI-generated comments and likes. That can be dangerous. In enough numbers, bots have a lot of power over how we communicate.
Matthew Stibbe, Articulate Marketing
Abolish Subtweets
Having the freedom to share your opinions on social media is something to fight for, but subtweeting is the worst form of “opinion sharing” in 2022. It’s the social media equivalent to passive-aggressive behavior, saying something negative or downright harmful about a person or business without naming them.
Most subtweet-ers want the message to be heard by either the party in question or other “insiders” that know who they’re talking about behind the curtain.
Subtweets are for people who say something they shouldn’t do publicly or want to make it impossible for the subject to defend themselves. They don’t want the confrontation, just the dig. If they wanted a real and honest discourse, they’d tag the account or, better yet, take it to the DMs or a real-life conversation.
Marina Vaamonde, HouseCashin
Mandate all Social Media Channels to Promote Causes Beneficial to Society
All social channels must include links or tabs to promote causes that the company believes in and supports. With visual storytelling, you can do more than shine a light on your products or services. You can inspire others to join you in giving back or to do so in their own ways. In short, social media doesn’t have to be self-serving 24/7. It can be used by your business to raise awareness about needs in your community and beyond. The power of social media to affect positive change shouldn’t be underestimated.
Jeff Goodwin, Orgain
Have All Information Posted Screened for Legitimacy
Social media can be a cesspool of misinformation. As a benevolent dictator, my first policy would be to implement automated software to detect the authenticity of information posted on all channels—similar to how plagiarism checkers work with text, except this software would analyze links and texts for legitimate information. Anything flagged as faulty, illegitimate information would be automatically removed—warnings will be issued to users as a friendly reminder to verify sources before posting.
False information, especially as it pertains to business, politics, and our communities, can create mounds of confusion and unrest. Social media should be a reliable resource to safely digest credible information; the amount of people who frequent these channels is much too large to have misinformation spread amongst the masses. My policy for legitimacy will ensure that social media is a safe haven for trustworthy information.
Alex Wang, Ember Fund
Ensure Two-Factor Authentication and Private Mode Are the Default
Social media is a goldmine for cybercriminals, and gaining access to social media accounts is one of the easier tasks they can do. While it sounds a little paranoid and inconvenient, for my social media wishlist rule I would enforce two-factor authentication every single time someone wanted to open their app, and all privacy settings would be defaulted to “private”.
Most people personally know a handful of people who had to announce their IG or Facebook was hacked and to follow their new account. 2FA helps prevent people who don’t have access to your device access your social media accounts, and it would eliminate most of the common social media security issues.
The privacy one is pretty simple. If someone knows your full name because of your profile, and you post your Mom or dog or whoever is usually featured in password recovery questions, it is easy to hack into valuable accounts outside of the social media platform. The abundance of information readily available through public social media profiles is staggering.
Volodymyr Shchegel, Clario
Allow Business Accounts Access to Algorithm Updates
No more surprise algorithm changes! There’s nothing more frustrating for creators of any kind than having to constantly adjust strategies.
So, for my social media wishlist, I’d say that every social media site should be able to adjust its priorities and make changes, but it’s detrimental to marketers and creators when these changes come unannounced and shrouded in secrecy. If I were dictating social media law, the first rule would be that business accounts could access detailed information on algorithm updates.
Rachel Reid, Subtl Beauty
Get Accounts of Scammers Taken Down Within an Hour
There is a massive issue with scammers posing as influencer accounts and asking for money from legitimate followers to “buy crypto” or get “discounted services.” Many users spot the slight name variations and realize it’s a fake, but unfortunately, some people fall victim and send eTransfers to shady email addresses.
Platforms like Instagram are slow to react, taking several days to a week to respond. Meanwhile, users are losing money, and brands are losing credibility. For my social media wishlist, my first move is to increase the size of the review team and get these accounts taken down within an hour, before it can impact the livelihood of users, influencers, and businesses alike.
Fernando Lopez, Circuit
Limit Social Media Posts
No one likes accounts spamming their feed with tens of posts per day or multiple stories. In fact, it is so frowned upon, that even the social media algorithm is affected by posting many posts per day.
For that reason, the first thing on my social media wishlist is posting a maximum of 2 posts per day on each social media channel and focusing on engaging the user in at least one of them to create a user-centric strategy that is more interactive, engaging, and more personal to connect with the audience and prevent them from unfollowing us due to flooding their feed.
Denise Hemke, Checkr
What’s On Your Social Media Wishlist?
Honestly, I have to say these social media wishlist items surprised me. I thought that professional marketers and social media managers would want to see LESS restrictions and not more. But, as you can see, we marketers know that more authentic engagement and perhaps even LESS social media dependence can be a more powerful marketing tool than more.