Social Media Etiquette 101 for the Kajukenbo 'Ohana

Are you using social media to help our art grow?

I love that in Kajukenbo there’s so much variety from school to school. We have instructors with sprawling gyms that offer other styles to bring in to your Kaju, and we have community center/garage instructors who really get down and dirty with their students.

But both types of schools run the risk of shutting down, for various reasons, and when that happens I sometimes hear someone, perhaps someone on a board, say something like “I wish we could have done something to help their school before they shut down”.

Well, guess what. If you’re reading this you probably have social media and can do something free to help every school you come across. Actually three things, but they require a little knowledge on how the internet works, and unfortunately a lot of people with black belts in Kajukenbo are white belts in social media literacy.

It all comes down to that primordial creature known as “THE ALGORITHM” (*makes sign of the cross). “THE ALGORITHM” (*makes sign of the cross) is the programming on social media that ranks people’s posts and then recommends them to other people. “THE ALGORITHM” (*makes sign of the cross) chooses the people it thinks might be interested, and when you post a video you can even do things to trick “THE ALGORITHM” (*makes sign of the cross) into showing your stuff to more social media users.

For example, posting a YouTube video with a thumbnail of a shocked face or a thumbnail showing a lot of leg boosts the likelihood of people clicking on your post. This is because people like seeing shocked faces and long legs, and “THE ALGORITHM” (*makes sign of the cross) knows that.

Yes, long legs. Seriously.

Anyway, as a Kajukenbo practitioner yourself, you can help Kajukenbo schools online by doing three things to help them get the attention of “THE ALGORITHM” (*makes sign of the cross).

Like, Comment, and Share.

1. The Following Meme Says It All

The easiest thing you can do online to support a school is find any post they make that resonates with you and click the “like/thumbs up” button. This takes minimal effort from you, lets “THE ALGORITHM” (*makes sign of the cross) know that the post got someone’s attention, and let’s the instructor know someone saw the post.

And that’s important. Sometimes, a post will go unseen by anyone because it got drowned out by other videos of Dan Tyrell showing off his legs. A simple like lets the instructor know they don’t have to try posting the same thing again at a better time, and it literally takes you half a second to do. And, it tells “THE ALGORITHM” (*makes sign of the cross) to consider showing the post to other people.

2. Communication Breakdown, It’s Always The Same

Comment, comment, comment. This is the one most of you need to hear, but it requires some understanding of all that fancy lingo your kids are murmuring. A few definitions then, for those who only know what “lol”, “rofl”, and “lmaosohmsfoaidmt” mean:

troll: Contrary to popular belief, a troll is not someone who disagrees with you. It’s not someone who makes you angry. It’s not someone who calls you out on questionable promotions or posts letters officially stating your relationship to their association. Haikus echo my ethereal nostalgia escaping shadows. Etc.

A troll is a person who posts antagonistic and/or incorrect information specifically for the sole purpose of pissing you off. Sometimes they don’t even believe what they’re saying. Many people say the best way to deal with trolls is to block or ignore them. “Don’t feed the trolls.” One of my favorite authors has a different approach: “Keep the trolls talking until the sun comes out.” You can decide which you think is better. The thing about trolls? They totally boost your engagement with “THE ALGORITHM” (*makes sign of the cross).

And, if you don’t like a video, commenting that you don’t like the instructor’s technique actually helps get their video more engagement.

keyboard warrior: Contrary to popular belief, a keyboard warrior is not someone who disagrees with you online. It’s not someone who makes you angry online. It’s not someone who calls you out on questionable promotions or posts letters officially stating your relationship to their association. Haikus echo my ethereal nostalgia escaping shadows. Etc.

A keyboard warrior is someone who makes abusive or aggressive posts but hides their identity so you don’t know who they are. You can get into an argument with someone online from across the world and refuse to pay for a plane ticket to fight them, and still not be a keyboard warrior. And, like trolls, keyboard warriors boost engagement and make “THE ALGORITHM” (*makes sign of the cross) happy with your sacrifice.

bump: Commenting “bump” means you want a post to be “bumped” up higher on the page so more people can see it. Interestingly, by commenting that one word (“bump”) you are flagging down the attention of the “THE ALGORITHM” (*makes sign of the cross). The more comments on a post, the more the post gets seen by others.

With all that in mind, here’s the thing: the more text you type, and the more likely someone will respond to the words you choose, the more attention the post will get from the “THE ALGORITHM” (*makes sign of the cross).

So, the next time you see a small school put up a video you like, consider typing the word “bump”. Or better yet, ask a question. Or, consider more wordy phrasing like “By sooth, the imaginative angle of that powerful attack blew not only the metaphorical socks off me but also the literal socks off of my pet ferret that was currently walking next to the speaker in a Superman speedo.”

This also holds for posting Google/Facebook reviews about the instructors you know, for their schools’ websites.

Bonus etiquette point: Don’t give unsolicited advice when you comment on martial arts videos. Giving advice in person when you see someone training is one thing, because that person can try your advice right away (on you) and see if it works or not. On the internet, giving unsolicited martial arts advice is actually considered rude. Regardless of your intentions, you’ll only be embarrassing yourself.

3. Share

This is the biggest of the three. By sharing a post/video/podcast of another martial artists, you are telling the world a little bit about yourself. Again, “this post/video/podcast resonates with me.” You’re basically exposing a bit of your soul to the world, and if an asshole doesn’t like the video they may let you know.

But, because of that risk, you are also doing the instructor a huge favor. You are exposing their efforts, their skill, their own expression of the art we love to a wider swath of the world. If 100 people see your share, it may be that only 1 will enjoy the video, but it’s all about planting seeds. The more people share any link, new or old, the more likely it can go “viral” as them young kids used to say.

And that’s just a great way to get Kajukenbo out to the bigger world. Why wouldn’t you want more people to check out this awesome art we love?

The Final Shot:

Social Media is a relatively new thing, but so is talking on the phone. Humanity has only had the power to track you down, wherever you are, at anytime, and force you to socialize, for about fifty years…when the first cell phone was invented. Before that, the power to interrupt a person’s day and force them to talk to you (but deny them the benefit of eye contact) came with the first phone in 1849. For most of human history, if you weren’t close enough to talk face-to-face you could only communicate through letters that would take a day or months to reach you.

Kinda like e-mail, but with a much longer wait. Imagine being a troll back then.

The point is, despite social media’s faults and humanity’s propensity to be a dick when the person you’re talking to can’t see your face or crack your skull in, social media is a natural part of society’s evolution. We can use it help Kajukenbo thrive, and as 'ohana, it’s a small effortless thing we should be doing. So the next time you see hardworking students practicing, or your grandmaster drop some wisdom, or Dan Tyrell show off his legs while asking a conversation question, consider the trifecta of social media support: like, comment, share. The small schools and the big schools both, running a business in the modern mma world, will be grateful.