Tag: Social Media

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.

Some Pearls of Wisdom

Carl Setzer1 Comment

Sometimes it’s hard to find perspective when things come to an end. Endings, especially ones that we aren’t in control of, come with a lot of painful emotions. I’m thinking of such things as layoffs, or deaths. I’ve found that changes/endings that are my choice are easier…somewhat. Choice provides some solace, I guess.

In those moments, I work hard to remind myself that there is a future. That things will get better. That I will heal and grow. Sometimes, though, that’s so damn hard. I need to remember to give those moments grace, too.

In this age a common behavior is to doom-scroll. The above is part of my Instagram feed which I’ve built to counteract the doom-scroll. I’m calling it “hope-scrolling”. I’m trying to remind myself daily that there is hope in the world, and that progress is still being made. I need to have those reminders. And I feel it’s too important to leave it to chance, so I’m choosing to seek out the positive, the hopeful.

Anyway, I hope you continue to feel hope, to feel driven to grow and make progress, and not descend into cynicism or despair. Are you taking any deliberate actions? How are you counteracting the doom-loop that’s modern media?

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.

Making the Internet Personal Again

Carl Setzer
wocintech (microsoft) - 58

I’ve been on the web for years. I started this blog back in 2005, though before that I messed around with hand-coded sites. Reading Justin Cox’s post from early 2025, “Let’s Make The Internet Personal Again” reminded me of those days. The internet was a quirky place, with sites ranging from the cerebral to the downright weird, ie: Dancing Hamster.

In his post, Mr. Cox writes about Lost and its impact on the blogosphere. Though I didn’t get into Lost, I did have my sets of interests and found my own focused sites.

On a 2023 post, “The End of Centralized Platforms is Over“, he states:

You put the distribution into the hands of a company without your interest in mind. 

I deeply agree with this point. Build your own site, build your own community. Even in the heyday of the platformed web, I promoted the notion of using social media sites to drive people towards YOUR site. Don’t let a third party control your community! I can point to Twitter and YouTube, amongst others, who seemingly capriciously de-platforming people, people who depended on that community for a living. They were left in professional limbo. A benefit of pointing people to your website, to your email list is that if you’re kicked off a platform, or that platform fails/goes out of business, your community can still find you, can still maintain that connection.

Personally, I’m going through a minor struggle. Should I hand-code my main site (like this page of mine), should I focus on THIS site (which is WordPress)? Or some other option (Joomla?)

What are your thoughts? Do you focus on a single platform? Do you maintain a website/blog? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Some video work today

Carl Setzer

I spent some time this morning trimming this video out of Trinity’s service last Sunday. A local choir, the Evergreen Ensemble, performed with us; their music was stunning. As I was watching (I was running media that service), I thought “I want to pull this out and post it on our socials”. So, I whipped open Premier Pro and made this little piece to share (posted on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok).

I am always pleased when I get to create fun projects, even small ones like this. Though I’m no master of Adobe stuff, I enjoy getting in with this stuff. For a bit of creative diversity I used Canva to create the thumbnail. I’ve come to deeply appreciate Canva’s simplicity. It makes creating something like this fast and clean.

I do love creating content and managing websites and social media. I find this work delightful and fulfilling. I guess I should find ways to get more of this in my life.

20 Years With LinkedIn

Carl Setzer6 Comments
smartphone with linkedin app

I got this email last night:

Well, that’s…amazing? I started my account in 2004, hmm? Ah, the great conflicting thoughts I have! It both feels brand new and like LinkedIn has always existed.

Anyway, it’s interesting to think about the evolution of the platform. Launched in 2003, I first heard about it in 2004 when I started at Starbucks, where I was part of a group that talked a lot about careers and their management. So the site made a lot of sense to me.

I use it fairly often but really am not a power user of the platform. I like it better than most social channels and it’s more professionally focused, but political bloviation has made its way there, too.

I enjoy the interactions I’ve had, and maintaining connections with former colleagues. I post fairly often. I mean, I don’t want to be one of the people who ONLY logs in when I’m job hunting. But I know I don’t maximize the platform. I’ve been reading several bloggers’ strategies about powerfully leveraging LinkedIn, and I’m slowly building out my plans to do “better”. I see it as a powerful career management tool, one that I can improve upon.

Are you on LinkedIn? Do you find value in it? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

Facebook Account Access Issues

Carl Setzer1 Comment
close up photography of smartphone icons

Over the years, I’ve helped a few people regain access to their Facebook accounts. Most all of those times were relatively easy since they were simply forgotten passwords. One was more complicated where a former social media consultant basically vanished and ghosted the business owners. The main challenge for me entailed getting copies of the business license and then a letter from the business owner. The hardest part (for me) was the waiting. It took me a fair bit of googling to track down a way to make the request, and then I had to wait for Facebook to respond. A few minutes of work that took weeks to complete due to slow communications.

So, now, I am working with someone whose account was compromised/taken over by someone else. Facebook’s knowledge base was a series of loops that accomplished nada. Frustrating. I then reached out to a friend who worked at Meta, who let me know that they’d risk termination if they tried to route me outside of the “normal channels”. So, as I value my friend, I opted to not push it. But, man, it’s frustrating. All of this to state that my experience with troubleshooting Meta issues has gone from clunky to infuriating.

So, when I read this article on Engadget, “How small claims court became Meta’s customer service hotline“, I groaned in recognition. I can see why people are using law suits to push Meta to act. I expect that they hope that this level of agrevation will deter people from seeking help and they just give up. However, I doubt that’s really going to be the case. Besides, I would expect that Customer Service Reps are much cheaper than attorneys. This seems to be the most expensive way to navigate this situation.

Since this article is posted on a major blog, I wonder if more people will seek Meta customer service via small claims court. Perhaps it will become painful enough for Meta to finally staff their customer service department adequately. Perhaps…

This strikes me as an element of Cory Doctrow’s “Enshittification”. In particular, the notion of “too big to care“. For so many folks, Facebook is an 800 pound gorilla. And they know it and are hard pressed to care.

Ah, spam, glorious spam!

Carl Setzer4 Comments
man wearing brown suit jacket mocking on white telephone

One of the things I do for a number of orgs is manage social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok). For the most part it’s pretty fun. However, there’s a group of folk I’m seeing more and more: spammers. This crew is bolder and more annoying. They’ll post their spam comment about being a YouTube expert, then keep replying (“did you read my note?”). Initially, I took them at face value and replied saying “thanks, no thanks”. Then I had the guy ping us how we could increase our YouTube engagement, for a client who has NO YouTube presence. I mean, come on, at least TRY with your time-wasting spam.

I have been taking modest delight in deleting these requests. Micro-empowerment, I guess. It is a Sisyphean process, so I take what wins I can.

A few thoughts on Twitter, and it’s latest kerfuffle

Carl Setzer2 Comments

This morning I read “Elon Musk Backs Off Legacy Checkmark Purge“. As a long time Twitter user, and someone who held Musk in high regard, I’ve been following the acquisition by Musk with a personal interest. This particular situation has been…fascinating.

Ultimately, Musk fails to understand the value of verification. Yes, it provides some value to the user, but far more value comes to Twitter. Knowing that this person posting REALLY is Steven King, Will Shatner, etc, brings value to Twitter since we KNOW who we’re interacting with. By building that direct connection between fans and creators, Twitter gains.

In his rush to monetize everything (anything?) on the platform, he has lost focus on what makes Twitter interesting and valuable. Which is sad. Over the years, I’ve met amazing and wonderful people. People who’s friendship I value as deeply as anyone I’ve met In Real Life. I’ve learned a huge amount from them.

Fortunately, it’s not been too hard to tune out Musk’s antics. But the increase in hate speech and right wing rage making its way into my feed has deeply detracted from my experience. I still post, but much less often. And I spend far less time on it (which certainly is a net positive).

Will Twitter survive Musk? Possibly. Will it return to what it was before? No. But the platform has evolved considerably since its launch and will continue to. What it looks like next year is extremely hard to predict. We’ll see, I guess.