Tag: Internet

An example of my advice to NOT depend on a single social media platform

Carl Setzer
facebook application icon

A webcomic I follow recently ran afoul of Instagram’s TOS. Their 100k+ followers evaporated instantly. They appealed, Meta denied the appeal. So, their option is to rebuild or quit. Now, one way to rebuild is to launch under a slightly different handle, but really, the damage is done. Regaining that many followers will be hard. They are now launching a website to rebuild their connections.

Now, for years I’ve advised folks who do business online to NOT depend on a single platform, not Meta, not YouTube, not Twitch…no, not any of them. The main thing is that you are dependent on whatever decisions they opt to make. We, as customers, have no real influence over the business. Perhaps, if we have enough followers, we can force an action (ie: Linus Tech Tips and YouTube). But keep in mind that Linus has other channels to engage and enrage his followers.

So, the main gist of my recommended social strategy is to drive people to your website. Have them subscribe to the site or an email list. Then you are decently insulated from any capricious decisions by those companies.

I can hear some of my good friends saying “the 90s called and they want their technology back”. Or, even better, “yo, web dev, not everything is solved with a website”. However, I stand by my strategy and, as time goes by, I recommend it even more boldly.

Check out more of what I have to say about Social Media here. And if you like what I have to say, please consider liking and subscribing.

An uptick in Facebook & Instagram Spam Messages

Carl Setzer1 Comment
scam alert letting text on black background

Last June I wrote about a scam running through my Facebook accounts. Well, I’ve now seen this a few times over the months. However, starting overnight last night, several of the pages I managed have been inundated with the message. I think I’m up to 7 or 8 on one page alone.

Here’s a screenshot of the message:

Meta Scam message: We have detected that a Facebook page associated with your Instagram account may be violating Meta policies.

Ultimately, it’s a phishing scam. If you click on the link, it’ll either ask you for your credentials or download malware…or both. Dear friends, DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK!!!!

Part of me takes delight in reporting these…people…for spam and getting their accounts blocked. However, in the end, it’s just a game of whack-a-mole. Clearly, they are able to create new accounts as fast as they get deleted. A part of me wants to kick these folks in the gonads.

Anyway, I wanted share this ASAP and I’m sure there are some people alarmed and, thus, more likely to click on the link. Please be safe out there in cyberspace!

Some Thoughts On TikTok

Carl Setzer
pexels-photo-1092671.jpeg

The Law of Unintended Consequences again applies as the US Government is preparing to ban TikTok for data privacy and security concerns. I expect the expectation was for all those TikTok folks to just bop over to Instagram, Facebook, Threads, or X, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. At least, it’s not as simple as that. It looks like many Tiktokers are migrating to “RedNote”, the Chinese answer to TikTok. So now we’re playing a game of whack-a-mole. Fun.

As wiser people than me have pointed out, a TikTok ban will not do much of anything in terms of security and data privacy (here’s a good piece on that). These sorts of things happen when legislation is crafted by people who don’t understand the technology they’re trying to regulate. Anyway, I understand there’s the possibility that the Supreme Court will weigh in on this, so I guess there is a slight possibility that this ban be halted, but I’m not holding my breath. So, it’ll be interesting to see how the policy implications shake out. I doubt anyone has a solid grasp on how this will ripple out.

With this, I know some folks whose businesses are highly dependent on TikTok who are scrambling to work their way through this. As I’ve written before, you should NOT set your business up highly dependent upon a single platform you can’t control, or have little to no influence with. I always recommend driving people to a website that you are in control of, and then having them sign up for a newsletter. Email lists are very portable, as are website signups. If you can email even 70% of your followers, something like a TikTok ban becomes less life-threatening to your business. Keeping the risks your business faces in mind is crucial for sustainability.

2025 is shaping up to be a very dynamic year for business in the digital realm.

Cory Doctrow: You should be using an RSS reader

Carl Setzer
man standing inside library while reading book

I just got to reading Cory’s post from yesterday, Pluralistic: You should be using an RSS reader (16 Oct 2024). I appreciate being reminded of the existence of these tools. I used several over the years, culminating with Google Reader (RIP). After Google killed this app, RSS readers just fell by the wayside.

This article prompted me to Google RSS readers. The first article was the Verge’s “Top 5 RSS Readers“. And the first on that list is Feedly. Well, I remember Feedly, as I set up an account ages ago…and then forgot about it. But I was able to log in and off I went. I have some curating to do, but it’s not really that bad. And I see several sites that I’d stopped tracking in all the mess of email updates. So, that’s a win.

I intend on unsubscribing to gobs of email blog updates, cleaning up my inbox quite a bit. Also, I need to use the “feeds” feature, where I can segment my different feeds.

Do you use an RSS reader? Have a favorite one? Let me know!

What is SEO?

Carl Setzer
SEO Graphic

This quarter I studied SEO techniques, mainly working off of Moz’s “Beginner’s Guide To SEO”. Let’s take a look at some of my main takeaways. Today, let’s start with the basics: What Is SEO?

  • SEO is otherwise known as Search Engine Optimization. Essentially, this is a technique to strategize your website’s content to place better in the search results of Google and Bing. This requires deeply understanding your target demographics, what they are interested in, what sorts of things they search for, how they search, and the way they structure their searches. Also, you need to understand how search engines work. They crawl the internet, creating indexes of the content they find. Ultimately, SEO is about creating better organic search results, as opposed to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns. SEO has 20 times more traffic opportunities than PPC (via both mobile and desktop). SEO also pays off over a longer time.

Edit: corrected the link to Moz’s “Beginner’s Guide To SEO”. 

An Ad For An Ad Blocker? Is That Meta Or What?

Carl Setzer

Just saw this on the bottom of an article I was reading:

Ad Remover Ad
An ad for an ad remover seems kinda meta

I found it quite amusing, for what it’s worth.

Some Thoughts On Followers: “Fake followers are hard to shake”

Carl Setzer

I just read “Fake followers are hard to shake” over at AdAge. Yeah, buying followers is tempting. Sure, it might look good on the surface, to have hundreds or thousands of followers. I’ve had many, many people ask me about buying followers. I think is a waste of money.

  • First, why? If your social media efforts are for a business, fake followers aren’t going to come to your store. They don’t engage. They don’t add any value.
  • Then there are all the recent efforts to purge fake accounts. If your follower count drops massively after one of the follower purges, you’re outed
  • Lastly, as this article points out, there are fairly straightforward ways to determine how many fake followers you have. If your goal is to become an influencer, or gain business leads, tools are coming that will out the buy followers tactic.

I expect that, in the not too far distant future, the various algorithms will easily detect copious numbers of fake followers. And I expect that will hurt you, whether via SEO hits from Google or Bing, or social media feeds devaluing your content. I firmly believe this is coming soon.

So, don’t opt for the lazy and fast. Build your brand slowly, carefully and organically. Engage other folks, post good content, and be your unique self.

Digital Pilgrimage 

Carl Setzer

Digital pilgrim

Across flowing electrons

Knowledge’s movement

Weird Things That Come Up In Searches

Carl Setzer

I was on one of my favorite tech websites looking for internal hard-drives. I never expected to come up with this result. 

Porn Bots Come And Go

Carl Setzer

Porn bots come and go
They follow you, then vanish
The internet’s tao

Ah, those followers that appear briefly then vanish abruptly….