WARNING! You Are Being Manipulated! The Role of Social Media in Shaping Your Negotiations
Pre-Conditioning and Influencing ‘Them’ When ‘They’ Don’t Even Know They’re Being Influenced!
The Weekly Walkaway highlights negotiation in its ‘good’, ‘bad’ and sometimes ‘downright ugly’ forms. Issue No. 101 (17th January 2025)
Summary
I’m concerned for my kids future so in our 101st edition I thought I’d make a prediction and a warning for our future.
And so in this week's edition of The Weekly Walkaway, I focus on the deadly influence of social media in negotiations, highlighting how it manipulates our perceptions often without our awareness.
I am concerned over social media's ability to influence not only my teenagers but also our perceptions and decisions.
I dive into The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of social media influence.
On the positive side, social media democratises influence;
On the negative side, it spreads misinformation;
All of which can be and is being used to manipulate you and your negotiations.
I finish by dipping my toe into the ethical threat that AI, in conjunction with social media, poses and I predict a future where AI could be used to create hyper-targeted campaigns.
It is up to us. You and me.. To keep struggling through and adapting to ensure we bring up our kids in a flexible way that accommodates and yet keeps them grounded. Grounded in our older, more ethical, world, and yet accommodates this modern world and these powerful influences.
Read on for more…. and please comment, share your own worries and concerns or maybe you have an alternative view, please share. I do not want this.. The Weekly Walkaway, to be an echo chamber.
Oh.. and please remember to Click ❤️ to trigger the algorithm (the irony) and spread the word with one click. Thank you.
Happy Friday You Awesome bunch of Walkawayers
If you have teenagers like mine you’ll probably have a house that looks more like a showroom of influencer conditioned products. The new normal someone said..
I feel besieged by hair products, kitchen gadgets that do everything but cook and so much opinion, opinion based on some unknown person in an unknown country without any form of fact check.
I do not like this new normal.. But like you I’m struggling through and adapting to ensure I bring my teens up in a flexible way that accommodates and yet keeps them grounded. Grounded in our older, more ethical, world, and yet accommodates this modern world and these influences. Cos some are good and some are darn right bad, nasty and ugly!
It’s frightening. All it takes is a smartphone and an ability to find a signal, even when I’ve turned the internet off.. Oh and of course one of the many social media platforms.
Watching them navigate insta this and tok that gave me an insight into the modern power of social media in shaping teenage desires and outcomes.
These platforms aren't just a way for my kids to waste time.. they influence and shape the way they think and feel, the way they buy and by looking at us adults we can therefore see how ‘we’ are being pre-conditioned to perceive negotiations and their outcomes one way or another.
Social media is shaping everything from investment markets to political movements.. Fact! You can not hide from it, it is all around.
It's hard out there peeps and, yes it got me thinking… which then meant I was up stupid late trying to articulate it. (writers note: still not sure if I have done that yet..)
Can we harness social media to pre-condition our counterparts to think ‘our way’ for negotiation?
Harnessing Social Media for Strategic Influence in Negotiations
Social media has evolved into a formidable tool in shaping our perceptions.
Not just school playgrounds for chit-chat but battlegrounds for influence and control.
These are the arenas that polarise, create echo chambers, and deploy subliminal messaging and repetitive anchoring.
We're herded into digital rooms where opinions are amplified and opposing views are algorithmically silenced.
Thank god my rooms are all about skiing and rugby. I’m not in an echo chamber.. No.. really.. I’m not 🙂.
But these platforms worm their way into our heads, into our subconscious, tweaking our attitudes without us even noticing.
Consider how political ads and social movements use specific phrases, images, and ideas repetitively to resonate, establish, and cement beliefs in our minds. Over time, this anchoring influences our acceptance of certain negotiation outcomes over others.
Take, for example, the recent US general election, where social media played a pivotal role in influencing public opinion through targeted content and personalised messaging.
The sheer power of these tools to shape perceptions and expectations is incredible and you’ve got to admit it.. If you had that power.. What would you do with it to reach your negotiation objectives..
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Social Media Influence
The Good: Leveling the Playing Field - A significant advantage of social media is its ability to democratise influence. I love that word.. Democ-ratise..
It enables grassroots mobilisation, helping small, possibly powerless unknown causes and nonprofit organisations gain visibility and support, thus leveling the playing field between the powerful and the powerless.
Imagine using these tools to counterbalance or even overpower a dominant negotiation counterpart.
Imagine using these tools, appropriately, to put your client and all of their decision makers into an echo chamber where your service or offering is the ‘ONE’.. the one they need.. That all others fail to deliver the required quality or innovation.. Powerful, right?
This is pre-conditioning on steroids..
The Bad: The Spread of Misinformation - Personally I have an ethical view on this but I can not be the one who condones nor condemns the use of it. Fake News is everywhere.
However, we can all agree that the spread of misinformation is a new normal and used… well.. Everywhere and it seems by everyone. From politicians calling out crazy pet eating statements to polarise to tanking a competitor's share price by stating unethical practices.
If unchecked and un-countered fake news has a profound negative effect and an echo chamber, created specifically to distort ours and our clients perceptions be used to powerfully control, weaken and condition negotiation counterparts.
I would struggle with this, if a client wanted to use mis-information, to achieve its aims. Being a consultant negotiator I’d strongly warn against it and depending on the circumstances would even consider Walking Away to protect my integrity but we all must be realistic. Fake News and Mis-Information is becoming more prevalent and unfortunately ‘more normalised’ due to.. Well.. its ongoing and unchecked use at the very highest levels in our society so why wouldn't the youth, my teenagers, consider it.. Normal?
We must remain vigilant, nothing ever happens by accident, and your counterparts may resort to fake news to achieve their objectives.
The Ugly: Cyberbullying and Coercion - The ugliest aspect of all of this influence surfaces as cyberbullying and coercion.
Recent attacks on British Members of Parliament give us a window into our kids, my teens, future and it looks ugly, disgusting even.
If bullying via social media is normalised and unchecked, just like fake news, you or our negotiation partners could be targeted with derogatory comments and bullying tactics that look to create power imbalances and manipulated, coerced concessions.
Imagine that future.. I don't like it at all.
My Prediction for The Future: AI's Role in Social Media and Negotiations
Let's take this a step further… Sorry Walkawayers.. It's getting darker!
If the misuse of social media to manipulate teenagers, and our opinions, and negotiations isn’t concerning enough, the integration of AI should be.
AI's ability to analyse huge amounts of data and identify strategies for influencing opinions could lead to hyper-targeted negotiation pre-conditioning campaigns that exploit individual vulnerabilities.
We must tread carefully.
When AI and social media finally and fully come together, especially in the processing of personal data for behavioral predictions, it will centralise control over our, the general public's opinion, and negotiation dynamics will change forever.
Whoever controls this terrifying blend of technology will wield immense power. Are we already there? That I will leave up to you.
Conclusion
From the democratisation of influence to the dark corners of misinformation we need to keep flexible and adapt to these realities, the challenge remains to navigate this complex terrain with integrity.
Our responsibility, especially as parents and influencers in our own right, is to foster environments where our kids and the kids we may have responsibility for can engage with technology critically and consciously.
We need to embrace the benefits of social media while guarding against its abuse.
So.. I will keep struggling through and adapting to ensure I bring up my kids in a flexible way that accommodates and yet keeps them grounded. Grounded in our older, more ethical, world, and yet accommodates this modern world and these new and dangerous influences.
Thank you Walkawayers. Please leave a comment, a like or counter my argument to ensure The Weekly Walkaway doesn’t become an echo chamber.
Remember; You are a negotiator!
Oh.. and please remember to Click ❤️ to trigger the algorithm (haha) and spread the word with one click. Thank you.