Category: Social Media and the Web

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

The Limits Of Web Solutions

Carl Setzer

Today, one of the main sites I work out of is struggling with a DDOS attack. Well, it’s actually been the past few days. This site tracks my workflow, and houses my to-do list. Being locked out has moved from annoyance to inconvenience to problem to serious issue.

This has me wonder, though: is technology really ready for “prime time”? For those of us who have shifted our calendars, tracking systems, CRM to the web, what is at risk? A relatively simply action can create significant paralysis.

To be clear, I’m not ready to abandon all my tech solutions and grab paper and binders yet. But I am considering what I can do, analog or otherwise, to be better able to react to these nuisances. There is no guarantee that any website will remain in business tomorrow. There are technological snafus. How do I minimize the risks inherent with going all-in with tech/web solutions? I’ll be meditating on that for the next few days. 

Social Media: Work vs Magic

Carl Setzer

Magic. I’ve seen this idea many times, item X will “save us”, ” make us rich “, “make critics vanish”, what have you. Looking to some tool as a savior, the proverbial ” magic bullet”; all our problems will vanish. Nearly daily I see emails promising “Pinterist will make you rich”, along with myriad, similar titles. Magic sells, but never returns on that investment.

Social media won’t make you rich, make critics vanish, nor any issue disappear. No blog post, tweet nor Google+ share will, either. It’s way these efforts are called campaigns. Regular posts, with thoughtful content, over several channels, and with engagement, interacting; that’s how an audience is built. Gaining fans, then nurturing those relationships, that’s the gift of social media.

MaydayPAC and Hope for Democracy

Carl Setzer

I am excited by this project: Mayday, creating a crowdsourced SuperPac to end all SuperPacs (SuperDuperPac?). I’ve long admired Larry’s work, and also have been concerned by cash’s influence in politics. For me, this has the potential to be a profound pivotal moment of the internet age and social media driven democracy. This coming Monday (June 16) at 8:00 pm EASTERN time, Mr. Lessig and Amanda Palmer will be hosting a video conversation that I expect will be very much worth your time. If I can at all make this work with my calendar, I will be online for this.

Update: Here’s some recommended “pre-reading”:  1) http://thebea.st/UhhBVV  2) http://bit.ly/MD-TNR  3) http://bit.ly/MD-Medium 

Why I love Twitter

Carl Setzer

Been thinking about the mighty Twitter. Why do I like it so much, yet others I know hate the platform? One key thought: chaos. For me, the beauty of Twitter is it’s chaos. This manic, crazily shifting feed of information delights me. Yet I understand how this could be a hard style for others.

I specifically, deliberately follow smart and creative people without millions of followers. The people I follow will grab anything a celebrity would say (that’s interesting) early enough for me to still be in the front of the thought curve. I value unique thinking over most anything else.

Twitter is more global. Maybe it’s my follower curation, but my list does a great job of giving me a global view, more so than I’d ever see reading a US based news org.

If I need order, I have Google or Bing. And Facebook gives me a good look into the macro interests of our culture. Twitter trend to be where I see the cutting edge thinking, the leading stories. And I love that.

Google+ and Social Media Movement

Carl Setzer

I’ve been spending more time on Google+ lately (here’s the link to my Google+ page). Twitter has been my biggest site of late, with Facebook being a solid second. However, I’m beginning to see some solid value in the Google+ platform.

The main thing I like: larger posting sizes than Twitter. Twitter was designed around SMS limiting factors. The character limits don’t, as a general rule, bother me. However, there are times I like the larger posts and Google+ seems to fit the bill better.

Also, especially when compared to Facebook, filtering content and controlling what you see, and who sees your posts, Google+ is clearly better. The interface is cleaner and more straightforward.

It also helps that Google has stated on multiple occasions that it is prioritizing Google+ posts and content. One does need to consider SEO value as well.

Lastly, and most important to me, Google+ is still pretty new. The feeds I see are still quite free of trollish behavior. It’s a much more pleasant experience. Will that change if/when the platform takes off? That’s my concern. But, for now, it’s a fun world with interesting discussions delightfully free of troll-bait. 

Twitter Follower Culls and Other Delights

Carl Setzer

I keep hitting Twitter’s 2k follower limit. Perhaps I need to garner a massive number of followers and achieve uber-Twitter status. At this point, though, I need to sort through my lists and drop a few. Some choices will be easy. No tweets in an extended period of time? Gone! A topic I lost my interest in? Likewise. Just a few of my criteria.

So, I hope nobody takes being unfollowed personally. I find myself trapped by my technology’s limits, just like most folks.

Webrings and the History of the Web

Carl Setzer

My random web thought of the day: remembering the webring. For it’s time, a very powerful tool for finding related content. I spent many an hour perusing sites under a variety of topics: fantasy literature, science, science fiction, politics….the possibilities were extensive. Seems they still exist, but connecting to them a lot less critical. Seems few people drift through webrings now. Rather, they move through Google search results. I wonder, though, if webrings provide any SEO benefit? That would be my expectation, at least.

So, the point? Tastes change, behaviors follow, culture modulates and we both find ourselves reacting, as well as leading.

Annoying Video Ads

Carl Setzer
The first thing I do when one of those obnoxious, over-loud video ads launches on a website I just opened starts playing is to close the whole page. I have to be pretty committed to reading the article for me to stick around through that, or to try and locate the “off” or “mute” button for the bloody thing. 
So, for those of you promoting advertising on your website, you now have something to consider. Of course, I should look at running Ad-Blocker or something like that and move this nuisance into historical reference. 

The Joys Of Spotify

Carl Setzer

I’ve been streaming via Spotify pretty exclusively for some time. Haven’t ponied up for the premium plan yet, but look to do so. I really love having the whole world of recorded music at the tip of my ear.

Another piece I love: the ability to share music.

Here’s one of my favorite tunes, by one of my favorite artists, Peter Gabriel.

Enjoy!