Category: Business

Ernst & Young, Meta, etc, firing folks for misuing benefits

Carl Setzer
woman organizing her belongings

The past few news cycles have featured employees being fired for misusing benefits. Whether we’re talking about EY letting people go for cheating on required education, Meta letting folks go for misusing meal benefits, companies seem to be more willing (eager?) to let someone go. I think this is related to the calls for a return to office, which some feel are about encouraging staff to resign and, thus, not receive any severance, etc.

So, what I think we’re seeing is companies looking for ANY excuse/reason to let people go. So, I would be cautious, very cautious, about giving them such. Be thoughtful and be wary.

Think I’m on to something? Or am I just paranoid? Let me know what you think.

More Tech Sector Layoffs

Carl Setzer2 Comments
man in white shirt using macbook pro

Yesterday, I came across this video from an HR guy I follow.

Then I read this article this morning about more layoffs, specifically at Google.

Google Cuts Hundreds of Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

So, even more layoff pain in the tech sector as we launch into 2024. My heart goes out to my friends at Google, Meta, and Amazon. It’s a hard time to be in tech.

I wonder when we’ll see a rebound. I’ve seen some guesses about later this year, or 2025. That’s really hard to guess. It will, I’m sure. But what will the economy look like when that happens?

What I’m confident in, though, is that the market has changed and keeping up on those changes will be critical. I need to proactively manage my career. Which is a bit intimidating, but also liberating.

Anyway, onwards.

Some Thoughts On GaryVee’s “The Power of Gratitude”

Carl Setzer
black android smartphone

Lately, Gary’s videos and podcasts have given me lots to think about. I really appreciate his focus on thinking higher. Why are we doing what we do? Why are we pursuing whatever goals we have?

I’ve long held that gratitude is critical to living a good life. Thus, I think he’s spot-on here.

It’s roughly 4 minutes and think it’s well worth your time.

Help your audience find your stuff

Carl Setzer
man holding mug in front of laptop

A few days ago I was scrolling through Instagram, as we’re want to do these days. On a rather popular site (for some pop-star) was a post featuring some product. Whoever crafted the post wrote the standard “link in bio”. Then the top comments were asking “where’s the link”? Interest piqued, I followed the link. The landing page showed links to a blog and plenty of pages, but where to find this specific link, this product was unclear at best. This caused me to cringe. People are interested in this item and they’re having to play “hide-and-seek”. You don’t want to do this with your fans!

I am reminded of a developer maxim (I believe it was said by Jeff Hawkins, creator of the Palm Pilot) about minimizing the number clicks you need to access information. I can’t remember the specifics of that quote, but the basic premise is the fewer the better. Each click builds frustration, which is worsened when the process isn’t clear. Also, having to guess where to click next is a key element of bad UX. I assume they shared the information in that post hoping to engage their audience and sell some stuff. Clearly, that wasn’t successful, or at least not as successful as it could be.

There are a number of ways that this could’ve been executed better. Now, I understand that Instagram gives you one link. One! And no links in the content are allowed. Plenty of folks have developed solutions, however. The easiest (to me) is linktree. Elegant in it’s simplicity, linktree simply collects your links and serves them up in a clean, clear list. This is a highly used tool: you see it in many profiles. Here’s mine for example.

Another, perhaps slightly more complex solution, is to create a landing page on your site with all the links you reference in your posts. I would itemize them in list, with the dates and post titles and also the images of the Instagram posts to make it very clear which link goes with each post.

Put a little thought into your anticipated user flow, into how you want them to find your information. How easily do you want to make it to buy your stuff? To interact with your latest “thing”? Providing clear calls-to-action, clear directions, and clear paths to finding what they want makes your user experience good and enjoyable. That helps good ol’ conversion, which ensures your project keeps moving. Great things, right?

What are the seven steps to successful SEO?

Carl Setzer
SEO Graphic
  • “What are the seven steps to successful SEO?”
    • Successful SEO has seven key steps, per MOZ’s “Beginner’s Guide To SEO“. These are valuable ways to help your website be discoverable by new users by ranking high in Search Engine Results Pages.
      • Crawl accessibility so engines can read your website
        • Enabling search engines to find and index my site
      • Compelling content that answers the searchers query
        • The site needs to answer questions in an interesting and engaging way.
      • Keyword optimized to attract searchers & engines
        • Be thoughtful with the composition of the website so that relevant keywords are featured in the articles
      • Great user experience including a fast load speed and compelling UX
        • The site needs to be streamlined so that it loads quickly, yet also has an interesting and engaging design
      • Share-worthy content that earns links, citations, and amplification
        • Content that engages your audience enough that they feel compelled to share it.
      • Title, URL, and description to draw high Click-Through Rates in the rankings
        • Thoughtfully considering article titles, the site’s URL, and description to make it compelling to someone, seeing it in a search, is very interested in clicking on the link and coming to the page.
      • Snippet/scheme markup to stand out in SERPs
        • Make the additional comments that show up on the Search Results Page engaging and encouraging the viewer to click over to the site.

What is SEO?

Carl Setzer
SEO Graphic

This quarter I studied SEO techniques, mainly working off of Moz’s “Beginner’s Guide To SEO”. Let’s take a look at some of my main takeaways. Today, let’s start with the basics: What Is SEO?

  • SEO is otherwise known as Search Engine Optimization. Essentially, this is a technique to strategize your website’s content to place better in the search results of Google and Bing. This requires deeply understanding your target demographics, what they are interested in, what sorts of things they search for, how they search, and the way they structure their searches. Also, you need to understand how search engines work. They crawl the internet, creating indexes of the content they find. Ultimately, SEO is about creating better organic search results, as opposed to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns. SEO has 20 times more traffic opportunities than PPC (via both mobile and desktop). SEO also pays off over a longer time.

Edit: corrected the link to Moz’s “Beginner’s Guide To SEO”. 

Seth Godin: I Hate This Restaurant

Carl Setzer
Photo by Burst from Pexels

I always appreciate Mr. Godin’s insights. Today’s blog post reminds me of something I’ve long thought about: understanding what you, and your business, offer the world. If you try to please all people, well, you aim for the middle and become a commodity. That only seems profitable by the large, mega-brands that can operate on huge scale. Most of us need to focus on the niche, on being unique. This requires creativity and insight. Those that master this space impress and inspire me.

Seth Godin: I Hate This Restaurant 

Featured image by Burst from Pexels

Some reflections on “What CEOs Really Think About Remote Work” in the Wall Street Journal

Carl Setzer
Photo by Marc Mueller from Pexels

Here are some reflections on “What CEOs Really Think About Remote Work” in the Wall Street Journal.

When I saw the headline, my first response was cynicism. It’s easy to label many “leaders” as simple tyrannical micromanagers, unable to release even a little control, no matter how helpful it would be for productivity.  And that’s, as this is the Wall Street Journal, mostly what I expected to see. However, I was pleasantly surprised. What I actually read was a nice blend of viewpoints. This article is a collection of quotes. Just one or two sentences each looking at what these execs have observed, and where they think office culture will be shifting to. Quite a spectrum of thought, really. I came away pondering a couple of notions.

First, direct human interaction holds great value. We gain by working collaboratively. The “rugged individual” is a destructive myth. Yet, as I’ve seen myself the past few months, there’s value in working in isolation, in minimal distraction. We exist in continuums, each of us unique in our blend of traits.

When looking at the wide array of thoughts, it’s helpful to remember we’re all different. “Working From Home” is wonderful for me: I’m an introvert. The quiet of my home office is invigorating. Extroverts are living in hell.

A healthy working life and corporate culture accounts for the full spectrum of human experience. Finding ways to individualize working environments should be part of an effective future work life.

The Monday Peeve: Help Lines

Carl Setzer1 Comment
Angry on the Phone

Paula Light’s “Monday Peeve” for today resonates with me. I hate automated help systems, too. Unanswered emails, the chat messages that go nowhere, or the dreaded calls navigating multiple menus. Nothing says we aren’t valued by your business than hearing “your call is very important to us” every 10 seconds while on hold for an hour.

I hope your Monday was free of such misery.

The featured image is by Moose Photos from Pexels.

Gravity Payments Boldness Pays Off

Carl Setzer

I remember back in 2015 when Mr. Price made this bold decision. It gives me great delight to see such solid results. Seattle is a greater place with innovators like Dan Price, especially those willing to disrupt more than just markets.