Category: Social Media and the Web

Social media presents huge opportunities to engage with all your stakeholders: customers, owners, and the larger community.

Social Media Meditation

Carl Setzer

So many articles about how to make zillions on social media. I’ve long ago grown weary of that discussion. Don’t get caught up in the “magic money” mindset: “Set up Facebook/Twitter and watch the money roll in”. 

Social media provides great opportunities to engage communities. Connecting with a wider audience without much monetary cost is fantastic. However, there is the time cost to consider. Also, everyone is on these channels, as the cost is so low. Developing a distinct voice can be challenging, yet is critical. A key part of that is focus: you can’t be everything to everyone. Trying such dilutes that focus, and you lose sight of what’s critical. It’s better to have 300 engaged fans than 10k unengaged ones. Follower and Like counting are not always the best metrics. Be thoughtful how you measure success.

Your social media meditation for Sunday. Go forth and do great things!

Scaling to the personal

Carl Setzer

Something that struck me this morning: the internet grows bigger, driving us to go closer. We have tools that let us broadcast to unimaginable numbers. Yet it’s the personal that works. Even with thousands of Twitter followers (or more), the relationship is based on a one-to-one feeling of connection. Even large brands are trying to push into that space. It makes sense: none of us want to be just a number. Our marketing and PR tools need to be built focussed on creating that sense of connection.

Social Media Success

Carl Setzer

One common element to successful social media campaigns: fun. Seems quite simple, yet it’s everything. Simply trying to make money, or gaining popularity, shows. That’s trite and pathetic behavior offline, too. But delighting in human interaction, in these discussions and conversations; connections get made. All those “success metrics” build out from there. Genuineness: social media’s gold standard.

Social Media Success

Carl Setzer

One common element to successful social media campaigns: fun. Seems quite simple, yet it’s everything. Simply trying to make money, or gaining popularity, shows. That’s trite and pathetic behavior offline, too. But delighting in human interaction, in these discussions and conversations; connections get made. All those “success metrics” build out from there. Genuineness: social media’s gold standard.

Distraction

Carl Setzer

Laying upon my couch this lovely sick day, Twitter has been a dear friend (autocorrect changed “sick” to “suck”; might be something there). Yet, there’s a tyranny present. I grab my tablet to look up self-publishing options (Kobo vs. Amazon). Then I came back to myself some time later, trying to remember what I was doing. Just one tweet popped up, and my mind was gone.

So, exploring those options, I struggle. Amazon has a larger audience. However, do I want to align myself with them? What are my expectations of a company? I interviewed with Amazon a few years ago, plus I did several projects with them back in the mid-90s. So clearly I find then tolerable. Yet, they are getting gargantuan, which I suggested find concerning.

Writing-wise, at this point I’m planning on assembling a collection of my poetry. It’s been requested of me, and it sounds rewarding. Plus, I’ve been meaning to put side short-stories out, too. So I think this would be an interesting and viable channel. The main limiter of my success is time, and not getting sidetracked by the scatter of modern life. Sick-days challenge me enough without Twitter and it’s kin absorbing my attention and creating suck-days.

Distraction

Carl Setzer

Laying upon my couch this lovely sick day, Twitter has been a dear friend (autocorrect changed “sick” to “suck”; might be something there). Yet, there’s a tyranny present. I grab my tablet to look up self-publishing options (Kobo vs. Amazon). Then I came back to myself some time later, trying to remember what I was doing. Just one tweet popped up, and my mind was gone.

So, exploring those options, I struggle. Amazon has a larger audience. However, do I want to align myself with them? What are my expectations of a company? I interviewed with Amazon a few years ago, plus I did several projects with them back in the mid-90s. So clearly I find then tolerable. Yet, they are getting gargantuan, which I suggested find concerning.

Writing-wise, at this point I’m planning on assembling a collection of my poetry. It’s been requested of me, and it sounds rewarding. Plus, I’ve been meaning to put side short-stories out, too. So I think this would be an interesting and viable channel. The main limiter of my success is time, and not getting sidetracked by the scatter of modern life. Sick-days challenge me enough without Twitter and it’s kin absorbing my attention and creating suck-days.

Thoughts on Chrome, Firefox and Open Platforms

Carl Setzer

I’ve noticed over the past few days that Chrome became boggy and SLOOOOW. There are things I love about Chrome, but it’s propensity to hogging resources and, thus, degrading my machine’s performance have long bugged me. Being deeply enmeshed within the Google ecosystem might play a big part in that. But, the more I think about things, the more I’m concerned about my personal trend towards the Chrome/Google system.

I highly value the Open Source community and what they bring to the table. Even though I’ve worked for several large corporations, I really appreciate all that this community brings to the world. It’s more than simply free software, but also open standards. To me, it’s critical that corporations cannot lock out access to our data. So, utilizing open standards is critical.

With that, though, I look at tools such as Gimp, Open Office, and Scibus and see so much potential. For, say, image editing, wouldn’t it prove better to the world that the default image system wasn’t Photoshop, or desktop publishing InDesign? Dependence on one company causes me great concern. I really want to start pushing towards the adoption of open standards as the default for most industries. I don’t mean to disparage Adobe, Microsoft, or any one else. It should just scare the crap out of us to have only one real player in an industry.

So, going forward, I shall find open alternatives for my work (see the links above to start with). First, today, FireFox for browsing. I know this will also improve my system performance. And will I really notice any of the missing features. Heck, other than drag & drop attachments from Gmail to Windows Explorer, is there anything that is in Chrome but not available in Firefox? I’m not too concerned.

Digital Legacies

Carl Setzer

I just received an recruiting email, where the writer found me via my long neglected Indeed.com resume. It got me thinking about all the sites I’ve used over the years, that I’ve eventually abandoned, or at least dropped into neglect. Profiles on Monster, Indeed, NWJobs, MySpace…what do these say about me? To the recruiter emailing me about positions at Microsoft, what is there expectation of who I am, and would any elements of my current reality match?

On a somewhat related note, Om Malik recently posted You’ve Go (No) Mail. He talks about the sense of loss accompanying the ending of his Gigaom email. I’ve felt these twinges in the past, with the suspending of my Starbucks and Microsoft emails. But those were different at an elemental level. Regardless of my emotional connections to those institutions, I didn’t found them. They didn’t hold my name, they never represented me at the same level. The closest I could imagine is with this site, and the email associated with it.

carlsetzer.com is mine, it is me. If this were to become part of a larger institution, which subsequently failed, I expect that would hurt at a deeper level than the losses I’ve felt.

These footprints we leave across the web, and that the web leaves upon us. Intertwining, weaving with all those others, those we love, those we don’t, and the masses we’re unaware of, the active and neglected, loved and forgotten, all blend into this thing: the internet.

Automating Your Blog? No!

Carl Setzer

Just got an email that promised to “put your blog on autopilot”. Of all the things to automate, pawn off, whatever, with social media, this NOT a solution. EVER! The closest thing I will ever do is suggest a copywriter. However, this is YOUR voice. It’s better to spend a few minutes a day on this than rehash commodity content. Oh, and there are SEO considerations as well.

Personally, I’ve seen blogs that are publishing the same content as others. Occasionally the EXACT same posts. Those sites lose all credibility with me.

One person I know experimented with one of these services. Their blog’s rankings grew rapidly, for a brief time. Then, abruptly, their rankings and page views plummeted. I believe Google sees when you’re pumping out the same content as “everyone else”, and you get banished to SEO hell.

It’s better if you can just do this yourself. Blogging shouldn’t be that deep or time consuming. Share your expertise, your value add, how you see things. Really, that’s it. A copywriter can figure out your voice, your unique take on things, and create relevant and distinctive content. As someone who loves to write, and loves to help people find their place/their audience on the internet, I love to do this for folks. What’s most important is putting forth that unique voice. That’s what distinguishes you from all the others who do the same sort of thing.