Category: Social Media and the Web

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

Facebook Page Spoofing: A Newer Internet Annoyance

Carl Setzer
scam alert letting text on black background

I’ve received notices from time-to-time from “friends” who I’d already friended. Random and every so often. Today, it was my turn.

It started with a good friend texting me saying he’d just gotten a friend request from me. Well, as we’ve been friends on Facebook for years, it was a tad bit suspicious.

I jumped on to my page, and up pops a message saying it looks like someone is pretending to be me and what do I want to. Actually, the whole process was pretty quick and easy. Ironically, while I was messaging a few other friends who’d let me know, I had a friend request from someone I’ve known for years. And got to report that one.

I’m really not sure the value of this, except for the ability to directly message people and solicit cash. Probably setting up a “I need emergency funds” scam.

Anyway, be duly diligent with new friend requests; especially if you suspect you already are Facebook friends. And, if someone pings you saying they’re in a Mexican jail needing bail money (or some such thing), be suspicious.

Be safe out there!

My Social Media Management Philosophy

Carl Setzer

I managed social media for several companies. My desire had always been organic growth. Most of my efforts are via thoughtful content and local engagement. My strategies do include the use of such tools as Google and Facebook ads, that’s the limit of paid reach. I never advise the buying of followers.

I’ve known several folks who have paid for followers. Now, ostensibly, it looks great. Having thousands of followers looks like it grants you significant authority and makes you look like an influencer. More sophisticated eyes will see through it. When most of your followers are bots, for instance, the validity of your authority becomes suspect.

With that, paid followers don’t provide meaningful engagement. We need to remember the why. Why did you start social media? Probably to gain customers. The likelihood any of those paid followers is going to turn into a client is pretty near zero.

Don’t get wrapped up in the numbers. It’s better to have a few subscribers or followers who are fully engaged with you, than tens of thousands who don’t. Influencing is far more about engagement than about follower counts.

Vlog update: August 11, 2016 – Evolution of “The Media”

Carl Setzer

 

Side note: I know I need to have the camera sideways, but am still getting the hang of that layout. It is rather awkward.

Some thoughts on “Serious academics take the media seriously”

Carl Setzer

I found this post over at Small Pond Science fascinating. As a fan of science, if not a scientist, and deeply interested in social media’s presence in our society, Terry’s McGlynn’s post is very relevant. Terry calls out an anonymous article over at The Guardian basically dismissing efforts by scientists to engage with their work in the world of Facebook & Twitter.

I, for one, think there’s great value in the public debate. Not everything on social media is fluff. And, if it’s to be taken seriously, we need to encourage more, not less engagement by scholars online.

A vlog post: Pokemon Go

Carl Setzer

Pokemon Go is quite the thing right now. There’s stuff to learn with all this.

Bloody Small Screens

Carl Setzer

If you know anything about me, I LOVE the mobile revolution. However, I’m noticing that posting on the small screens increases the rate of small errors. Little autocorrect word substitutions, mainly. Ones small enough, and having enough of the right letters in a similar sequence as the desired word that they go live wrong.

Had such this morning. Posted an update to a Facebook page I manage with “create” in place of “great”. I read the post several times before hitting publish. Ugh!

I take my writing seriously, so even small grammatical errors bother me. So, with that, I have been trying to post more from a computer, something with a monitor. I notice that my erorr rate is much smaller that way. Plus, I feel more focused.

And I need to recognize I’m human and mistakes will happen. But I never intend to like it, and will be satisfied with any mistakes. Ever.

Friendship in the Digital Age

Carl Setzer

Lately I’ve pondered “connection”. With several hundred Facebook friends, LinkedIn connection, over a thousand Twitter followers….maintaining connection starts to feel easy. Too easy.

I’m noticing that I interact with a smallish group of the same people on those different channels. These are dear friends, but not  even close to the larger group of people I want to maintain relationship with. So many good folks that I keep thinking “why don’t we get together more often?” That bothers me.

I signed up for Plaxo ages ago, and I really haven’t done anything to maintain that list. But I get emails reminding me of birthdays and any other events (anniversaries) that I noted in my contact when I synced. These reminders are nice in that they trigger me to reach out. That’s a start.

So, I’m trying to “up my game”. Going to build a list of those contacts to, well, contact. I would like to start sending notecards out, too. That just seems nice.

Any of you feeling this lament? This disconnect from connection. What are you doing about it?

Life, Death and Social Media

Carl Setzer
Yesterday had one of the surrealer moments in my life. A friend from childhood has been ailing at Stevens hospital (properly, it’s now Swedish Edmonds), and was given a few days/weeks to live. So, last night he posted on Facebook that he had just hours to live and that this was his last post. With his deteriorating health, I fully believed the statement.
There’s much within this, but I’m focused on the newness of this. Since he has a phone, which can be worked pretty easily even when weak and exhausted, this contact was able to be pushed out.  Made me think of the last minute letters sent by rebels, resisters, those executed for political gain. Those letters were far more effort, and would only be readily sharable with a small group of people. Now, with a few strokes of your thumb, messages are sent to out to thousands, potentially millions. The ease of mass communication deeply changes our connection.
As shocking as such a message is, I expect this to become more commonplace. Perhaps we can eliminate the feeling of isolation. And, in the end, perhaps it’s good. Maintaining connection in the most challenging and intimate of times.

The Ever Changing World Of Social Media

Carl Setzer

Was just reading this piece over at Business Insider: Teens are ditching Instagram for Snapchat at a stunning rate. Well, this reinforces one of my underlying assumptions: that what we’ve currently labeled “social media” is a highly unstable sector.

So, we see that Twitter is falling in relevance; that’s been prognosticated about forever. And the same with the Facebook and it’s sidekick Instagram. But we’re seeing growth with Snapchat. Again, the focus of this article is teens, but I expect they’ll be the leading edge of social media trends.

They have two graphs that really capture things:

And this guy, which I think is more telling:

So, the world is shifting and shifting rapidly. It’ll be good to dive into Snapchat, if you’re not already there.

Pro-tips to maximize social media marketing

Carl Setzer

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.