The 7 Deadly Sins or Viral Virtues of Marketing

I don’t know about you, but if you’re on Facebook and some other social media platforms, you probably have noticed that things are getting a little ugly and divisive, meaning that people are picking sides, picking fights, and things just are not happy. I have been spending time trying to figure out how to post things that are positive, including positive stories from my life, positive quotes of the day, funny things, trying to do something positive to counteract all this negativity floating around the Internet. So I thought I’d do a post about a counterpoint, and this is what I’ll call “The Seven Deadly Sins Verses The Viral Virtues of Marketing”.

Don’t hit the back button in your browser or close the tab…. this is not about religion. It’s about posting on social media, and the seven deadly sins are things that I see people doing on the social media and the viral virtues are things that we can do to counteract that.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing

Let me lay out first the seven deadly sins. They are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. That’s what’s laid out in the Bible. Now, I was born and raised so New York Catholic that my mother was a travel agent for guilt trips… (It’s a joke, people.) Don’t get me wrong, this has nothing to do with religion. It’s about the tone in which we compose our social media posts.

1. The first one is pride. If you’re going on social media and only talking about yourself all the time, people will not pay attention.
2. Number two is greed. Are you focusing on profits over people?
3. The third one is lust. Now, this usually talks about sex, but when it comes to social media, talking about sex or gender or religion or politics will often create division, and a lot of times, it’ll piss off 50% of your audience.
4. The next one is envy, where you’re beating down the competition. You’re talking about how people are doing things wrong.
5. The next one is gluttony. It’s constantly posting over and over and commenting on everything. Now, I’ve been known to do that a few times, but I am working on it.
6. The next one is wrath, posting angry replies to comments or posts, and I see this all the time when it comes to politics or religion or any kind of controversial posts. I mean, think about lately; have you seen the fact that there is a controversy over a mermaid? Seriously. It’s amazing how amped up people get about some of the simplest crazy things.
7. The last one is sloth. Sloth is not interacting with your audience. It’s being too lazy to actually engage with people. You just want to post and run.

Reverse The Curse

Now, let me give the antithesis of those. These are what I mean by the viral virtues. These are the counterpoints to those seven deadly sins (in my humble opinion), and these are humility, then abundance, purity, kindness, order, peace, and action.

1. Let me start with pride. I consider the antithesis humility, and that is doing something, instead of for yourself, but for the betterment of all.
2. The next one if greed. That one would be abundance. In other words, you’re not worried about what you can get, but what you can give. More importantly, are you giving your best? Are you showing people everything without worrying about being taken advantage of?
3. The next one is lust, and I look at that as purity. Do you have a heart to serve people? Is your heart in it to help?
4. The next one is envy, and the opposite of that is kindness. Are you helping to build up, not only your community, but when you go into other groups or comment on stuff, are you building up people within that community?
5. The next one is gluttony, and the opposite of that is order. What I mean by this is, it’s not just posting and posting and posting and posting, but doing it in small, digestible bites, something that people want to consume. You may know a lot, but are you sharing it in a way that lets people take a pause and breathe and think about what you’re saying? Don’t over-complicate it.
6. The next one is wrath, and the opposite of that is peace. Are you creating content that creates conversations, that encourages people to comment, and that encourages a group of people to engage with each other.
7. Then, the final one is sloth, and the antithesis of that is action. Are you creating content that promotes next steps? Are you encouraging people, energizing them, and getting them to act on it? One of the biggest things that I try to do is find a way to create a sense of accountability by asking questions, by checking in with people. Make sure that what you’re posting is being acted upon.

Recap

I know that 14 topics is a lot to talk about, but let me go through those one more time.

1. Pride: Instead of pride, be humble.
2. Greed: Instead of greed, give abundance.
3. Lust: Instead of lust, be pure. Think about how you can help people.
4. Envy: Instead of envy, show kindness.
5. Gluttony: Instead of gluttony, do things in small bites. Create order.
6. Wrath: Instead of wrath, invoke peace.
7. Sloth: Instead of laziness, promote action.

Final Thoughts

I want to leave you with a quote and a couple of final thoughts. This quote is from a blog post from somebody named Katherine Hurst, and I actually converted it and put it into a meme on Facebook, and here it is. “Connection, not competition. Truth, not things. Fulfillment, not a career. Abundance, not wealth. That is where true happiness and the very greatest riches in life can be uncovered.”

Finally, if you’ve never read the book, The 100/0 Principle by Al Ritter, I strongly suggest it. It’s an easy read and says, “Give 100% of yourself 100% of the time. Expect nothing in return, and watch what happens.” I have tried it and I’m here to tell you it just works.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas or questions about showing the concepts presented. Have you had to overcome any of the presented concepts? What worked and what did not live up to expectations? Do you have any ideas or advice you could share?