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...

Rather funny that this little graphic I zipped out has become my most popular Instagram post: Just whenever, you know.... A post shared by Carl Setzer (@carlsetzer) on Oct 18, 2017 at 9:10pm PDT Not a lot of thought or effort went into this. It was just a thought that tickled my sensibilities. 

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.

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.

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 seem...

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 comm...

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.

Lately, I've been thinking about how heavily I use social media. As it's part of my function for the C&K Team, I easily can spend hours each day wrapper up in it. Lately, I've noticed I'm slipping on things I value, the most obvious one writing. The quality of my writing has slipped, as my focus has been on getting content out, not on writing the best stuff I can, on magnifying my quality. Om Malik posted this recently: Non-Social . He's backing away from high-level engagement upon all the social media platforms. Going so far as deleting the apps from his devices, so I assume that means he's only using Twitter/Facebook writ-large from laptops/desktops. I don't know if I'm ready to go that far (yes, he's only going dark for a week, but still...) but I feel that backing off from social stuff will give me more time to focus. I've had several folks requesting me finish some of the books I've had on the back-burner. With NaNoWriMo  (Nation...

Inc. has a great piece looking at Taylor Swift and her uber-successful social media dialog with Apple. I've been very impressed with Ms. Swift. Her savvy social media execution has helped build her into a powerful brand. This is a woman who will have a powerful impact for years to come. The article sums up the tools she used for success in this case nicely. She maintained a respectful tone in her dialog with Apple (I'm reluctant to use any other term as she made a statement and Apple, extremely wisely, took the advice). They also look at the way she's managed her relationship with her fans, with which I think she's done an exceptional job. And I adore the way she's poked fun, in a very positive way, at the media speculation and harassment that follows her. Ms. Swift is a bright, talented and engaging woman, who I think has done an exceptional job to date managing her brand, life and business interests. There's a lot to learn from her savvy, no matter the se...

So many articles about how to make zillions on social media. I've long ago grown weary of that discussion. Don't get caught up in the "magic money" mindset: "Set up Facebook/Twitter and watch the money roll in".  Social media provides great opportunities to engage communities. Connecting with a wider audience without much monetary cost is fantastic. However, there is the time cost to consider. Also, everyone is on these channels, as the cost is so low. Developing a distinct voice can be challenging, yet is critical. A key part of that is focus: you can't be everything to everyone. Trying such dilutes that focus, and you lose sight of what's critical. It's better to have 300 engaged fans than 10k unengaged ones. Follower and Like counting are not always the best metrics. Be thoughtful how you measure success. Your social media meditation for Sunday. Go forth and do great things!

Something that struck me this morning: the internet grows bigger, driving us to go closer. We have tools that let us broadcast to unimaginable numbers. Yet it's the personal that works. Even with thousands of Twitter followers (or more), the relationship is based on a one-to-one feeling of connection. Even large brands are trying to push into that space. It makes sense: none of us want to be just a number. Our marketing and PR tools need to be built focussed on creating that sense of connection.

One common element to successful social media campaigns: fun. Seems quite simple, yet it's everything. Simply trying to make money, or gaining popularity, shows. That's trite and pathetic behavior offline, too. But delighting in human interaction, in these discussions and conversations; connections get made. All those "success metrics" build out from there. Genuineness: social media's gold standard.

Social media is a powerful marketing tool, but it's about engagement & connection. It is only as effective as the effort, as the amount and qualify of work you put in.

Just got an email that promised to "put your blog on autopilot". Of all the things to automate, pawn off, whatever, with social media, this NOT a solution. EVER! The closest thing I will ever do is suggest a copywriter. However, this is YOUR voice. It's better to spend a few minutes a day on this than rehash commodity content. Oh, and there are SEO considerations as well. Personally, I've seen blogs that are publishing the same content as others. Occasionally the EXACT same posts. Those sites lose all credibility with me. One person I know experimented with one of these services. Their blog's rankings grew rapidly, for a brief time. Then, abruptly, their rankings and page views plummeted. I believe Google sees when you're pumping out the same content as "everyone else", and you get banished to SEO hell. It's better if you can just do this yourself. Blogging shouldn't be that deep or time consuming. Share your expertise, your value add, ...

Celebrity had been, and it's really now, about many loving the beloved from afar. The new online economy, this new world, is about making the connection more intimate, more personal. Even with large audiences, the connections are one to one, or feel so.

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-bal...

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.

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. Learn how to get your music noticed at ReverbNation.com 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 v...

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 .

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.