Category: Social Media and the Web

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

The value of Facebook

Carl Setzer

Lately, I’ve been considering all the changes Facebook has blasted out over the years. Particularly, I’ve been wondering about the Facebook pages I manage. In particular, the many changes to the way business pages interact with the general user concern me. I first noticed this with my personal page feed. Business page content gets filtered out, rarely appearing in feeds, even MY pages in MY feed. I’m also noticing a drop in engagement: comments, questions, dialog, et al. This video takes that concern and provides some flesh to its bones.


Now I wonder about Facebook’s value to small businesses in any capacity. If content and connection gets buried, lost, or goes out to irrelevant audiences, there is no value. Well, little. Ok, well, lesser. The value of Facebook is still immense. Facebook is still a key piece to a social media strategy. It’s THE place, with diverse demographics and a truly global reach. Or, as I like to say, it’s the place with the eye-balls. So, there’s still value in the gorilla that is Facebook, but it’s role and impact have just changed.

Expect that, within this perpetually changing landscape, it’s place and value will change yet again. And again…

Celebrity and Personal Branding

Carl Setzer

Just read Tony Hawk’s Media Empire Grows With Help From Complex over at Adage. They talk quite a bit about the brands that celebrities are building. This leaves me wondering when saturation happens, when we have so many celebrity brands that we can’t see find anyone. We already have so much content, so much internet-based activity. Will we ever get to the point of “not being able to see the forest through the trees”?

My first thought is “no, we won’t”. We have tools for sifting through the massive forest of data. I guess the real challenge is how to differentiate yourself, fully connecting to an audience. The world of general is where the blizzard is. Specialization is where one can still be differentiated and engage deeply.

Kaki King: Some Social Media Thoughts From A Fan

Carl Setzer

I discovered Ms. King several years ago. Today, for no obvious reason, I was in the mood for her percussive style. While listening on Reverbnation (her account’s pretty neglected there, fyi) I found this embed code. So I, being me, needed to plug that in and see how it looks.

Just some thoughts, though, on her online presence (that is a key part of “what I do”, after all).

  • Facebook seems to be her main touch-point with her fans.  The page looks great and current.
  • Twitter is pretty solid, much the same. No major points to bring up.
  • Instagram is not too shabby. It’s not that powerful a media player yet, but solid enough to be a great touch-point with fans. A good blend of personal and work. 
  • Now, her website; that’s an area I would invest some time. Very sparse, and not much touch for fans. Other than a few tour dates, and links to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Soundcloud, it’s pretty vacant.
  • And, lastly, the aforementioned Soundcloud. Shows album covers, and has links to iTunes and Google Play, and back to her main site. And that’s it. No music on the site at all. I think it would be wise to have something there, perhaps one song from each album. Some kind of sampler. Also, perhaps some more recent experiments. Just to keep engaged. The empty account, that is linked to by her main page, is pretty awkward.

Just some thoughts from someone who spends a lot of time working in this space, loves Kaki King’s music, and would really love to see her grow as a professional artist. 

More of my websites

Carl Setzer

I started a WordPress site some time ago in order to explore the platform. Recently, I relaunched it as my poetry site. I’ve heard so very much about focusing your sites. So, I’m trying to do something with that. Besides that one, I also have NotJustSeattle.com, where I focus on the local. Soon, I’m going to port my tech writing to its own site. This will also, then, be my professional/business presence. I’ll move my portfolio there, too. Trying to find another name besides “Setzer Consulting”. Feels too bidding. I’ll try to have the URL for in to that.

So, please check out my other sites and stay tuned to see how things change.

TikTok, LunaTik & Social Business

Carl Setzer

This company has interested me, the Apple guy and iPhone user. One of their devices is, in my opinion, the most effective case ever created. Not cheap, but wickedly awesome.

I’ve really not noticed their backstory, though. Watching this video really impressed me with the ways they utilized social media and tools like Kickstarter to get this product created. It really spoke to me about the way business is evolving, and how the world could shake out.
Anyway, it’s worth a few minutes of your time. Business is changing. Behold!

The Story of TikTok+LunaTik from LUNATIK on Vimeo.

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