3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Say Fuck In Your Business and 3 Reasons You Should
Swearing will have a major effect on your brand, but are you sure it’s the effect you want?
I frequently see people trying to be something they’re not in the spiritual self-development/entrepreneurial space that I spend most of my online time in.
One of the ways they do that is to start using language they wouldn’t use in their real life, or using it in ways that are damaging to their brand, like offending their core client base.
Here’s a guide to when you shouldn’t, and when you should, swear.
Why you shouldn’t say fuck in your business.
- Facebook hates swearing
They won’t censor swearing in organic posts, but in paid posts, such as boosts or ads, swearing is banned. Since I started Psychic as Fuck in 2015, offering Bitchslaps, to now having recently relaunched under Bitchslap.Life, I’ve had a sweary brand. I’ve been building my audience having a sweary brand. I’m known for being bold and blunt, but I can’t use Facebook ads. They are rejected every time I try. This is a risk I’m willing to take because I actually enjoying building my audience organically. It gives me a lot more time to scale my growth than a rush of clients from a good Facebook ad would give me.
I do have a non-sweary brand which I’m building and will use Facebook ads on because it is scalable in a way my primary business is not.
Before you start throwing F-bombs around the place in your branding, ask yourself if you can handle the slog of building a business without ads. If that works for you, swear away.
- You will offend some people. A lot of people. They will inbox you to tell you how offended they were by your usage of the word “fuck” in every way imaginable after the election.
Even if you’re not using swearing in your branding directly, such as Fuck, Bitch, Shit, etc. in your brand so you can still use Facebook ads, you might decide to swear in your non-paid posts, in your blog, and on other media.
You absolutely will offend people. They will dramatically announce on your post that they are so very, very offended by that bad, bad word that you used, and they are very upset that they have to unlike you now because they really enjoyed your content otherwise.
And if you’re a woman, they’ll tell you how unladylike it is. You must have a thick skin; people are assholes.
- You’ll come across as fake if you’re just trying to jump on a bandwagon.
A couple of years ago, people starting getting more sweary online. We’re still in the beginnings of this whole online world thing, and the culture is still evolving, but for a long time in business, swearing was a no-no. There’s still enough sparkletwats out there who are prudish about language, particular women who use language, that you’re probably going to regularly come across them. They’re usually conservative, so if you hang out in liberal corners of the net you won’t encounter as many of them, but they’re still there.
But for the most part? People aren’t fazed anymore. As culture grows the fuck up, it learns there are more important things to be offended by than a few naughty words. Like global poverty and the oppression of minorities and the fact that I have no Nutella.
This is great for people who are naturally sweary. I swear like a fucking sailor and get shooshed in public frequently. I give no fucks. My grandmother was a minister who swore in church and my uncles taught me my first word: fuck.
If you’re not naturally sweary? Swearers will be able to tell, and the inauthenticity will turn them off. Then all you have left are the non-swearers, among whom are the snowflake puritans who don’t like women who swear. Fuckers.
Why you should say fuck in your business.
- It’s seriously fun to be able to be radically authentic self.
I’ve always sworn like a sailor. I love the feel of a good fuck in my mouth. (Bring it trolls, I slay…) So NOT swearing is really fucking hard.
I mean, I can do it. Once, in my junior year of high school, I was late for class and running to get there. Just as I got to the door, my foot slipped on the slick tile, the bell rang, and I faceplanted.
I yelled, “Fudge.”
The French teacher decided not to mark me tardy and gave me extra credit for not swearing.
I like swearing.
That’s me. So when I can be myself fully online, I’m able to express myself in a more natural way. This is just what’s running through my mind, and the neural pathway for fuck is deep. Not swearing takes a lot of mental restraint for me, and what’s the fun in that?
- Facebook hates swearing.
It’s really easy to get dependent on Facebook, especially ads, for generating new leads.
That is very, very bad.
Facebook’s algorithms change frequently. If you’re relying on ads, what works one month might not work the next. If all of your clients come from Facebook, then you’re shit out of luck if you get banned from Facebook because some redhat got his knickers in a twist about a post criticizing the Don or calling out racist bullshit.
This is especially true if you’re a woman or minority. There are certain asswipes out there who are happy to report the posts of women and minorities in droves. But don’t worry, white guys, if you don’t fall in lockstep with them, they’ll report you, too. Some of my favorite writers have been banned from Facebook for days at a time because their posts were reported.
If you’re not dependent on ads, you’re more free to explore other ways to build your business. You’re forced to get more creative, and that’s good all around.
- It’s radically divisive.
People either like swearing or they don’t. And wouldn’t you rather work with people who feel the same way?
It’s a way to instantly narrow down your audience so they’re more tightly aligned with your ideal client. They self sort when you swear.
And not just when you swear. When you are boldly and radically authentic in your marketing, the people who are drawn to you will all be your ideal clients ready to throw money at you every chance they get. You’ll begin to build real relationships and raving fans who consume every word you post and beg for more.
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Gwynne is Chief Bitchslapper at Bitchslap.Life where she helps spiritual folx who are sick of the ish in mainstream spiritual spaces to dig deep into their Soul, mining for the treasures that have been buried by trauma and systemic oppression through journaling, creative energy and emotion management exercises, magical practice, and lots of F-bombs.
You can drop a buck a month on Patreon to keep her writing or you can drop a tenner on her first book, Bitchslap Journaling, on Amazon Kindle.
