Anyone who seeks to turn
Trauma and horrors’ emotional energy
Towards compassion and kindness
Embraces the deepest wisdom.
Our culture has a dearth of love.
I applaud all those who
Long to grow that seed.
The need is great.
Author: Carl Setzer
A blogger blogging from just north of Seattle.
Waiting
Sit, waiting for God,
Grasping tranquility’s joy.
Peacefulness transcends.
The WordPress Beta, Blogger and the Future of Blogging
I’m a bit behind on my reading, so just got done with Om Malik’s post from November 23rd:
I’m excited by what WordPress incorporated. Things like streamlined viewing, being able to view stats for multiple sites in one window, the stand-alone app, and the increased speed. All in all, WordPress takes blogging seriously and has an eye towards the future.
Over the years, WordPress earned my admiration and respect. I’ve come to actually love the platform. When first striking out with blogging, my ended up choosing Blogger. For many reasons I felt it was best…at the time. The one thing I didn’t anticipate on: Google’s acquisition. When that happened, though, I was rather excited. Google has an amazing array of resources and tons of the smartest people on earth. However, as Om noted earlier, Google doesn’t get social. Google+’s lack of vigor demonstrates this quite well. (I can also add the coexistence of Google+ and Blogger within their eco-system, but I digress.) But, looking at the Blogger platform, it’s stale interface, non-open mentality, lack of customizability (in terms of templates and plug-ins…the glorious capacity of plug-ins is brilliant in it’s own right), WordPress is in a different century than Blogger. And that disappoints me greatly. I expected so very much more from Google.
I fully expect Google to either combine Blogger with Google+ or just straight out kill Blogger. So, my hope lies with WordPress. I’ve shifted more of my writing over to my WordPress sites CarlSetzer.net. I need to be where the future is.
Rage
Rage needs a tight leash
If we have any hope for
Pointing out towards good
Brutality’s Dream
The world existing
Entrenched brutality deep
Sunlight clears the fog
Pro-tips to maximize social media marketing
I subscribed to Ragan’s PR Daily years ago. Ragan provides timely insight into the current state of PR and it’s related fields.
Lauren Friedman just posted “3 tips for creating a real-time marketing command center“. Her points are spot-on. Read the article! However, here’s the highlights:
- Social Media marketing/PR is about engagement (sorry for the buzzword, but it’s important to get this). Listen to the audience, read hashtag threads, know what the discussion is about and your relevance to it.
- Know your market! How is your audience going to respond your commentary. And, sometimes, silence is valuable. One doesn’t need to be involved in every high-profile discussion, and at times it’s critical to steer clear.
- Teamwork: having valued “ears” you can bounce ideas off “right now” is valuable. Diversity is key to those teams, ensuring you avoid the tone-deaf statements.
So, take a minute and give it a read.
The independent artist and social media
Earlier this evening I attended a performance by Aaron Strumpel at my church. Talking to the musicians afterwards, I was reminded of several ways that modern technology is changing the music business. Yeah, there’s tech impacting performance, but that’s not really what’s got me jazzed right now. No, it’s the way the music business is transforming due to social media.
Artists like Amanda Palmer and Zoe Keating have carved a living out of the modern music business. They’ve mastered an evolving toolbox that revolves around social networking. Interweaving websites & blogs with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, KickStarter, Patreon, along with such classics as email. With a blend of genuineness and talent, they’ve built a worldwide fan base who delight in any opportunity to assist these artists they love. Ultimately, the key is a genuine delight in their fans. By loving them, taking pleasure in the interaction, these fans are passionately in love.
In Amanda’s book she talks about selling 10,000 albums (which her label defined as failure) and 10,000 Kickstarter investors. In so many ways, 10k is not that dramatic. But she’s been able to leverage and engage that audience. If she was simply making a living, that, to me, would be glorious success. However, she’s been able to launch some very innovative and novel projects. A success beyond measure, in my eyes. And her audience is intimately involved, more than the fundraising. An additional layer of richness.
This plethora of tools speaks to opportunity. Opportunity which excites me; I see great things arising. And I both look forward to witnessing the glory of what’s coming, and taking part. For I always seek to be part of cool things.
Never Enough
Fear motivates,
Drives us mad,
Greed, envy, despair:
And we know not how to resist.
Winter Sun
Cold sunlight flowing
Burning deeply to my core
Freeing from despair
Twitter, Facebook and the next thing
I’ve thought a bit lately about social media platforms. For me, Twitter seems to becoming more dominated by brands and “community” profiles. Most of my recent new followers have not been individuals, but brands/services. But that’s really only a piece of the pie.
From a US/western cultural perspective, Facebook and Twitter have probably hit their highest volume. I expect there’ll be incremental growth, but the ability to really leverage these two mostly consists in engaging folks already there. And there’s the digging through the morass of content; EVERYONE is on Facebook, nearly everyone is on Twitter (at least as far as brands go).
There’s something to be said, though, for being part of a community as it launches. Early users of sites that become popular end up with richer connection opportunities. Now, the glorious question is “what’s going to be the next big thing?” Welp, god knows. The best way is to be dipping your proverbial toes in everything, which is what I try to do. Whether Instagram or Snapchat, I’ve made it a point to explore them. I also make it a point to keep “young folks” in my life, and ask them what sites/apps they’re using.
No, I’m not projecting the death of Twitter, or Facebook. I do see these platforms evolving, though, and somewhat stagnating. For me, I want to be aware of what’s coming, where the cool kids are. Living ahead of the curve has been a desire for ages. As much, tech-wise, as my budget allows. By establishing presence on newly minted app and web goodness, I seek readiness to pivot as the winds of social media life flow.