Two books on what the internet does to us

My day job has long been helping big brands get heard online. These books are about the other side of that: why the feeds are so hard to put down, and how a picture with a caption can sway an election. Both written by me, Rory Wilmer.

Cover of Social Media and the Seven Deadly Sins by Rory Wilmer: black striped triangles on red

2021 · Kindle

Social Media and the Seven Deadly Sins

For every vice, there is a virtue

Likes, shares and notifications work like a dopamine hit, and the platforms are built to keep you coming back for the next one. The book takes the seven deadly sins one by one and shows how each of them drives engagement on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google. Then it asks what we've traded for the next notification, and how we change our habits to get some control back.

Written by Rory Wilmer. Illustrated by Bobby Newall.

Read it on Kindle
Cover of MEME POWER by Rory Wilmer: a cat in a spacesuit floating above the Earth

2024 · Paperback

MEME POWER

Meme culture and its impact on politics, conflicts and popular culture

Memes stopped being just internet jokes a while ago. They sway elections, start social movements and play a part in real conflicts. MEME POWER follows the rise of meme culture and draws on years of digital strategy and behavioural economics to show how a picture with a caption became one of the most persuasive formats there is.

Written by Rory Wilmer.

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On stage and in print

Where Social Media and the Seven Deadly Sins took me.

32 min Play the interview from the Reeperbahn Festival Conference 2021 (32 minutes)

Hamburg, September 2021

Reeperbahn Festival Conference

Interviewed live from Prague, over Zoom, at the conference that runs alongside Hamburg's Reeperbahn Festival. The host opened it as a meeting of Internet Addicts Anonymous, so I started with a confession:

“My name is Rory Wilmer and I am addicted to social media. It's been about 43 minutes since I last looked at Instagram.”

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What the books have to do with InkByte

The same question runs through the books and the client work: what makes people pay attention, and what makes them trust what they read. It's why I care about brands sounding like real people, and about AI that helps a brand's voice rather than flattening it.

What InkByte does

Want to talk about the books, or have me talk to your team?

Email me and tell me who'll be in the room.

hello@inkbyte.co.uk