Rage-Baiting: The Viral Tactic You Need to Avoid

Andréa Jones [00:00:00]:
Rage baiting. This is one of the most viral and toxic tactics happening right now on the internet. And I want to talk about and explore why people use this tactic, how it's deployed, and why you should avoid it by all means necessary. I will also be talking about other viral tactics like satire, click baiting, shit posting, and more in the 320 second episode of the Mindful Marketing podcast. But first, a word from our sponsor. I've recorded over 300 podcast episodes. Yeah. It's a lot of podcast episodes and I've tried a lot of different virtual recording studios, but my favorite has been Riverside.

Andréa Jones [00:00:44]:
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Andréa Jones [00:01:32]:
Okay? Click that link. Use the 15% off coupon code. It's Drea, d r e a, and try Riverside for yourself. Thank you, Riverside. This is my 3rd time recording this episode. I'm just having a moment y'all. But I wanted to thank you for all of the support from last week's podcast episode where I announced that I retired my services, and I'm a full time content creator now. It's hairy scary, but I'm here, and I'm happy, and I'm loving it.

Andréa Jones [00:02:03]:
And then, of course, I sit down to do this episode, and I recorded it not once, not twice, but thrice. Thrice I've recorded this episode. Yeah. I don't know why I'm sharing that other than, you know, I think it's the realness of what we do. Sometimes this stuff looks easy, and it's not. It's hard. And, a lot of the reasons why I had to record this are, first, I had some incorrect information, then I sat down to record it and just halfway through, my brain stuttered, and I couldn't think of anything else. So I've got an outline that I'm following for this episode.

Andréa Jones [00:02:39]:
If you're watching the video, you'll see me looking at my notes. That's why, to help me stay on track. Also wanted to share the realness of it all because that's that's what's behind mindful marketing. It's not showing up perfectly, but just showing up. Alright. So rage baiting. This question came in from threads. I've been having a lot of fun on threads right now.

Andréa Jones [00:03:00]:
And, someone asked me about rage baiting, like how it works and why it works so well. And I was like, oh, this is a podcast episode. So here we are. Rage baiting is content that's specifically designed to make you angry or frustrated in order to drive engagement. Comments, likes, shares, all of it. It's a deliberate manipulation of emotions, and it works because rage is one of the most powerful emotions humans can have. Research shows that people are more likely to share content that makes them angry, and algorithms obviously reward this. Mister Al, the algorithm has no clue if you're commenting, liking, stitching, sharing a video or whatever because you're angry.

Andréa Jones [00:03:49]:
It just sees all the likes and comments coming in and he goes, oh, great. Let's show this to more people. And so people create this content, specifically because, they want to incite rage. They don't care. There's probably some sort of mental health issue behind it. They probably are seeking any sort of attention, and so this sort of attention gets them what they want. And, also, there is a monetary reason behind it. Creators on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, threads now even YouTube, they are paid based on how many times their content is viewed and the more people leave comments and share it, the more it's viewed.

Andréa Jones [00:04:30]:
So because of all of this, we're we're battling against rage baiting. And a lot of this content is staged. Okay. Staged or fake news or misleading headlines. And a lot of this comes from TikTok. And I talk about TikTok a lot on this podcast because TikTok kind of shifted the way that social media works. So before 4 years ago, when TikTok rose in popularity in 2020 during the global pandemic and economic shutdown, we all turned to our phones and we discovered TikTok at that moment. A lot of us did.

Andréa Jones [00:05:09]:
And a lot of the apps now are echoing what we see on TikTok. Prior to that, we followed people and then we saw their content. Okay. Maybe we saw content if our followers engage with them. So we're connected with somebody and then they get, you know, a and b people were connected and then person b comments on person c's account. Even if I don't know person c, I may still see their content because person b commented on it and I'm connected with b, not c. Okay. That's how social media worked before TikTok.

Andréa Jones [00:05:42]:
Now with the TikTok effect, you're seeing content rise in popularity that you would have never saw before because of discoverability. A lot of our favorite forms are leaning into discoverable content, which is both good and bad. So on the good side, as a business owner, we want people to be able to discover our content. It doesn't matter if we have 10 followers, a 100 followers, a 100000 followers. As long as it's great content, the algorithm usually favors that and it'll get seen. On the flip side, the algorithm has no idea if it's rage bait or not and also pushes out all of that content as well. K? So the virality component of TikTok is echoed across multiple platforms now. It's not just TikTok.

Andréa Jones [00:06:26]:
We've got Instagram reels. We've got Facebook. We've got threads. I challenge you to scroll through your favorite social media app and make a mental note of the people of the of the content you're seeing in your feed. Is it from people you follow, or is it from people you don't? Like, take a look at the balance of that, and you'll be surprised to see that they've sort of boiled the frog on us. And we're now seeing equal, if not more, content from people we don't follow in our social feeds. And this is all because of the TikTok effect. Now I want to talk a little bit about rage baiting and how it fits into a family of irritating content strategies, from satirical content all the way up to rage baiting.

Andréa Jones [00:07:07]:
I got to talk about the differences between these because at the end of the day, they're there to get attention. And to be honest with you, we are all on the Internet to get attention. I don't care what anyone says. As much as they crap on influencers and say, oh, they're just out here for likes. Hello. That's what we're all trying to do here with our businesses. Right? We're we want people to pay attention to the things we have to say. K? So it's not about the fact that they're doing it for attention.

Andréa Jones [00:07:35]:
It's the way that they're going about it playing on our emotions in human psychology. So satirical content. Satirical content to me is the most innocent in this family. It uses humor and irony to make a point or to critique something. So it can provoke a strong emotion, but, generally, it's done to encourage thoughtful engagement, not just outrage. And generally you're in on the joke. Like, if you understand it, it's satire. And I'm talking everyone's in on the joke.

Andréa Jones [00:08:06]:
It's not like the comment section is filled with people who are angry. The comment section is filled with people like, oh, I see what you did there. There's a Facebook page that I follow that does this, and I I tried to look it up before recording this podcast. I couldn't find it. But it basically flips patriarchal norms. So it'll say things like, like, the creators of the page will say things like, you know, that man should be careful of what he's wearing because maybe he was asking to be punched at the face. You know, something like that where you go, oh, right. Like, what you wear has nothing to do with other people's actions.

Andréa Jones [00:08:43]:
Right. And so it's things like that that can really kind of flip your thinking and it's intentionally satirical. Okay. I'm okay with satire. Satire to me is fine in small doses, but the creators of satirical pages have to be very, mindful about how they show up with the satire because it can lean into rage baiting if you're not careful, if you're not making sure that you're pointing out the joke and that everyone is in on the joke. Okay? Alright. Next step in this family, we have clickbait content. Clickbait to me is sensationalized or intentionally misleading headlines just to get clicks.

Andréa Jones [00:09:25]:
Okay? So not necessarily angry, but you feel like you've been gooped. Like, you feel like you've been tricked into reading the post. Do you feel like you've been tricked into clicking a link? You feel like you've been tricked into watching a video and it whatever it is on the other side of the trick, does it match the hype? Okay? Click baiting to me is another form of getting attention. I remember this from the YouTube days. Back in my YouTube days, there were a lot of ways that people would use clickbait. One of the most popular ones was to use, like, a traditionally beautiful person, usually female, on your thumbnail video, usually in a provocative way. Doesn't matter what your video is about, but that would get more clicks on the video. Okay? That's clickbait.

Andréa Jones [00:10:12]:
The purpose is to get clicks. Even this video has nothing to do with this, you know, sensual woman showing off her assets on the thumbnail. K? Clickbait. I also think of, like, BuzzFeed articles as clickbait where they'll say things like, 4 shocking truths about your toothbrush. Number 3 will blow your mind. It's like that kind of, headline where you're like, okay. Like, is is a toothbrush really that shocking? But then you're clicking it, you're reading it, and you're like, I knew all of this. Anyway, so that that to me is clickbait.

Andréa Jones [00:10:47]:
Okay? Then we have shitposting. Shitposting is different from satire and click baiting in that it is intentionally random or highly absurd. The point is to create confusion through humor, and it is the chaos griblins of the Internet. But to me, shit posting is usually harmless. And it usually has a lot to do with like Internet culture versus, emotional manipulation. Ship posting. I follow a few ship posting pages, and I just love how random they are. There's one person who I follow who, claims that they, ship post intentionally to build their business, and I still don't see the correlation.

Andréa Jones [00:11:34]:
But I sure be looking at those posts, and I'm in the comments because it's just chaos. It's drama for the sake of drama, but it's harmless for the most part. Okay? So that shit posting to me, to me, it's like for a little giggle, for a little moment. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. Shitposting, harmless. And there's a person who I follow on threads who combines all of these, but I'm gonna I don't know if I should say her name or not, but I'm gonna talk about her because a lot of her posts to me are rage baiting.

Andréa Jones [00:12:08]:
And rage baiting in this family, again, specifically provoking anger or frustration. The sole purpose of rage bait is to generate outrage. K? There's, like, an emotional manipulation there that to me is damaging. And it is a fine line to go from satire to rage bait. Okay? Rage baiting is like, I wanna make people angry. Satire is like, I wanna make people think. Click baiting is like, I wanna trick someone. Rage baiting is like, I wanna make them, like, explode.

Andréa Jones [00:12:43]:
You know? So, this person, I'll say her name. I'll put the link in the show notes. She's actually a journalist, Katie Natopoulos. Not not Natopoulos. Oh, I'm sorry, Katie. I said your name wrong. But I'll put her link to her threads account because I followed her initially because of a satirical post she did, and I believe it was around feminism, and, you know, the idea of, paternal leave and and mat leave. And, I can't I could not find the post, so maybe she deleted it or maybe it was not as far back as I scrolled.

Andréa Jones [00:13:17]:
I scrolled back about 6 months, and I couldn't find it. But, the post had a lot of people in the comments who didn't get it. And so this is the reason I followed her because I was like, oh, this is funny. I hit follow. Then I went to the comments and I was like, oh, people actually think this is real. And they were getting heated. When I say heated, heated. Heated about this concept of women taking time off and men taking time off after having a baby.

Andréa Jones [00:13:49]:
And me, you know, having just had a baby, having taken mat leave twice now, was interested in the conversation. The amount of men in the comment section who were just angry at the implication that they should be hands on with their children was wild to me. Absolutely mind blowing that she would, suggest that in her post. So this Katie, person, who I don't really know, frankly, I just follow her on threads, has an interesting satirical account that often slips into rage bait. And she does this very intentionally. K? I know she's a journalist. I've seen her articles in places like Business Insider. And yet, most of what she posts is intentional to enrage people or to incite some sort of response for them.

Andréa Jones [00:14:41]:
So I'll give an example of what I did find. One of her recent posts I did really well. Do y'all remember, the dress, the infamous dress? Is it white and gold or is it blue and black? Well, she posted this 3 days ago, basically reinciting this. And this to me is a shitpost. Like, this is why I'm saying she's a perfect example of all of these. It could be Sataira. It could be a shitpost, but she posted a photo of the dress, the dress, the white and gold, the blue and black with the, I believe, the original caption that says, wait. Help me check something.

Andréa Jones [00:15:14]:
What colors are these dress? My friend says it's black and blue. I see white and gold. And the comment section is full of people who are in on the joke. Right? They they understand that this was Internet culture from years ago. And then there's a bunch of people in the comments who are like, I don't get it. And then there's some people who are actually chiming in and trying to say if it's white or gold or blue black and blue. And, of course, Internet culture things are popping up. Like, someone said Laurel, and I was like, woah.

Andréa Jones [00:15:52]:
I forgot that that was a thing. Or yachty. Do you hear yachty? Do you hear Laurel? This was Facebook virality back in the day. Right? Innocent shit posting. But some of her posts lean towards rage baiting. So she posted this PSA back in May for male journalists calling them out and saying, when you, we can see you reply, fire emoji to Instagram models several times a day here on threads. You don't need to stop. By all means, enjoy, but it shows up on the feed.

Andréa Jones [00:16:26]:
And the comment section is mostly people, like, in on the joke, but some people aren't. Some people aren't in on the joke, and some people are getting angry. They're getting angry. Like, oh, what if this was a female? How would you feel? And so to me, the this is, the danger of this thin line, very thin line between satire and rage baiting. All of these tactics aim for virality, but the key difference is the emotion that they trigger. And we can't control people's emotions. So if you have an account like this, it could be very easy to slip into rage veining. And that's the most harmful one to me because it relies on negativity and completely dismisses the curiosity, the humor, or the chaos of of the other good parts of the Internet.

Andréa Jones [00:17:24]:
Now I don't know if any of you are considering rage baiting or if you're a marketer and your clients are, but I do have to talk about the long term consequences of this strategy. First of all, it can have, negative impacts on your brand long term. While short term engagement is great, these tactics erode trust. And I think satire, shit posting, and click baiting go into this category as well. Rage baiting being the most extreme version of this because people feel manipulated. And that manipulation, reduces credibility. It harms relationships with your community. It's just not a good feeling.

Andréa Jones [00:18:08]:
Like, no one wants to feel like they were tricked into something. There is a TikToker, Winter Zezus, I believe, is her last name. And, she creates these fake scenarios in her content that half the comments are like, oh, is this real? You know, some of the comments are like upset on her behalf, and then the other comments are like, it's fake. It's fake. And her community keeps saying it's fake. Right? And she has over 92,000,000 views on her videos. 92,000,000 views on her videos by creating these fake scenarios. Things like she'll pretend to be at a restaurant eating some food, and you'll hear a voice off camera come up and interact with her in a rude way or something like that.

Andréa Jones [00:18:58]:
And she doesn't say that it's satire at all. Her account just says she's 23 and she lives in New York City. She doesn't explain it at all. And so a lot of people think it's real and she's creating rage bait to get paid because TikTok has a creator program and, the more people like, share, engage with her video, the more she gets paid. Her top viewed video is has 26,000,000 views. 26,900,000 views. That's wild. Right? And so short term, she gets paid, but long term, my brain can't help but go to what are what are you doing? Like, where is this going? Yeah.

Andréa Jones [00:19:39]:
I think it could be very harmful for your brand. Second thing is I think there's a huge mental health component with rage baiting and the way the algorithms are today. Constant exposure to these rage inducing content pieces can negatively impact mental health, and you can very easily slip into a loop of only saying rage bait content. And this happened to me, briefly on TikTok. So I really enjoy TikTok. Their algorithm, chef's kiss, love it. But early days, TikTok didn't understand the difference in the style of cooking videos that I like, and I love watching people cook. I don't know what it is about.

Andréa Jones [00:20:16]:
I don't know what it is. I just love it. Give me a recipe. Let me see you start with, like, the scrap the the ingredients and then come up with something beautiful. I love it. However, there are these videos of people intentionally making terrible food so that people in the comments leave comments on it. I'm talking they'll take a burger, they'll wrap it in bacon, they'll deep fry it, They'll put ice cream on top with sprinkles with fireworks coming out of it. And by the end, you're like, what is happening? I can't tell you how many times I told TikTok, click those three little dots.

Andréa Jones [00:20:48]:
Do not give me this content. I like cooking videos. I don't want rage bait. Now TikTok understands me, and I'm in a very happy place with the algorithm. However, some people watch those videos and don't understand that the creators behind those videos are intentionally crafting these stories that are designed to incite their rage. Like, no one really is creating a hamburger covered in bacon, deep fried, add ice cream and sprinkles with fireworks at the top, and then eating it. They're not doing that on a daily basis. They're doing it because you're watching the video and you're getting upset.

Andréa Jones [00:21:24]:
And the thing that was upsetting me was the amount of waste. They would, like, not just create 1 burger. They would do this for, like, 20 burgers at a time, and the amount of waste was truly upsetting to me. I was getting upset. I could feel my emotions rising. And so I want you to know, like, as you're watching content online, this goes for anything. Just know it's all fake. Right? Internet is fake.

Andréa Jones [00:21:46]:
Okay? And it can you can actually harm yourself. You can harm your mental health the more you consume these videos if you don't recognize the toxic environment that's created by people with these this content and then the algorithm because we're rewarding it by reacting to the video. So to break the negativity, I do recommend you recognize this, and I wanna talk about how you can steer clear of these tactics as well as of these videos as a consumer. But from a marketing perspective, my mindful marketers out here, I we need us to unite and create positive content. I'm on a personal mission to do this right now. I do not love the content that is designed to provoke outrage or to make people angry. I don't like canceling content or cancel culture calling people out. To me, all of that content is a slow spiral into a very unhealthy mental health place for me.

Andréa Jones [00:22:52]:
And so my mission is to, create content that inspires, you know, curiosity and and joy and, thoughtful, meaningful conversations or moments of connection and levity, moments of I feel seen. And, so recently on threads I posted about crocs because I, always thought Crocs were ugly and they still are. I still believe that they're ugly. However, my mom came to visit and I actually tried on her Crocs because my feet grew in pregnancy and I'm now the same size as my mom. And I tried them on, slipped them on, and I was like, woah. These are comfortable and so light. And that was 3 months ago, and I haven't stopped thinking about it. And I finally bought my pair of Crocs, and I went to threads to talk about it.

Andréa Jones [00:23:41]:
And it felt like one of those unifying moments where in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't make a difference. It didn't, you know, build my business. It's not selling anything. It's not adding any value, but it is a moment where I got to connect with people. You know, people who, you know, may not have commented on any other post were commenting about their Crocs. Most people were team Crocs, to be honest. There were a few people who were, like, never in a 1000000 years. I was like, okay.

Andréa Jones [00:24:09]:
Talk to me after you've tried them on. There were some people telling me about the little I think they're called giblets that you that you put on there, and I I have not got that far yet. I just have one pair, my first pair, and I will tell you my my 2 year old wants her own pair as well. And so it was just one of those moments where I was like, this to me is one of the beautiful things about community on the Internet. It's not about always selling something or promoting something or trying to do something like that. To me, it's about those moments of connection. So focus on the positivity, key here. Also, if you're a marketer like myself, I'm on a mission to educate people on on what's rage baiting, what's even, like satire or shit posting.

Andréa Jones [00:24:54]:
Because to me, it's up there with, like, a scam, in that people who don't know may get taken in by it, and I don't want them to be manipulated in this way. It's the same reason I post about the Facebook scams. Every time I get one in my email inbox, I post about it and say this looks like it came from Facebook, but it's not. And here's how you can see that it isn't. Things like that. I just I'm on a mission to educate, and I I encourage you to do the same with your community. And then also set your own boundaries. As a content creator, as a business owner, just be mindful of getting caught up in the temptation of virality.

Andréa Jones [00:25:30]:
And there's the there is another thin line between a hook and clickbait. And to me, a hook accurately reflects what's happening in that content piece, whereas clickbait doesn't, and it's just a trick. And ragebait is just to make people angry. So, definitely avoid those quick wins of building anger in in favor of having, like, meaningful conversations with people. So that's my episode on rage baiting. What do you what do you think about all of these things? I love conversation about this. You can hit me up on threads, on Instagram DMs. Let's continue the conversation there.

Andréa Jones [00:26:12]:
Next up, I have an amazing interview next week all about blogging and is it dead. So this is another threads conversation. People keep saying blogging's dead. Is it? I don't think it is. And I will be talking to some experts next week about that. Also, if you're in the Savvy Social School, we are hosting a live workshop next week, profit from your POV. It is brand new content coming to you hot from my marketing strategies. I'm excited to bring it to you all there.

Andréa Jones [00:26:42]:
In the meantime, make sure you rate and subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I just saw we have 4,000 followers on Spotify. I had no idea that we had that video over there. So thank you for listening to the show. Leave your rating. It helps more wonderful people like you find us so that we can be in community together. I'll be back next Tuesday with another episode. Bye for now.