Social Media 12

Social media is vapor

February 10, 2021 by greenmellen Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

If you’re reading this post in 2021, there is a good chance you found this post via social media. If you’re reading this at some point later, you probably didn’t — at least not from a social post of mine. My posts about it have come and gone, just like millions of other posts every day.

I wrote my first post on this blog nearly 17 years ago, and moved to WordPress on May 24, 2004. There’s no reason to think it won’t exist for at least 20 years more. There are no guarantees, of course, but it seems feasible.

Social media posts, as you know, have a very short life span. That’s not a bad thing, necessarily, but something you always need to consider. When I first started this blog, Friendster, XING and Myspace were the top social channels. Any content I had published on any of them is long gone by now.

What will the landscape look like 20 years from now? It’s hard to know. Even so, while sites like Facebook and Twitter keep most of your posts forever, finding old posts can be very difficult. Even if they still exist, your older content will be difficult to find.

Still, be social

Social media can be great. While this blog has comments, interactions are fairly rare, and are served much better on a social media platform. If you want to share ideas or news with your friends, social media is excellent.

The problem, as I’ve expressed before, is that social media posts come and go. If you have something worthwhile to say, publish it on your own blog and share that post with the world. This is likely one reason why Seth Godin doesn’t tweet — rather than share quick insights that come and go, he turns his quick thoughts into deeper insights that can stand the test of time.

Beyond that, it’s fairly difficult to back up your social media posts in a way that can be republished. With a blog, you can create a quick, full backup of everything, and move it elsewhere. This blog has been on a number of hosts over the years, but moved without a change in address or even a tiny hiccup. That alone is powerful.

The river

Enjoy social media, but don’t let your insights drift away. Social media is often compared to a river; take a dip when you can, but the content will keep sailing away whether you’re there or not. Those dips are fun, and I’ll continue to pop in frequently, but take the time to set up your own platform that will exist far longer than your social media platform of choice will.

Who is “the media”?

February 2, 2021 by greenmellen Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

We hear quite a lot about “the media” leaning to one side, or the “the media” not promoting a particular event, but who exactly is “the media”? Increasingly, it’s us.

This is media. This post can be found in Google, or perhaps you found it via a social media channel. It’s media as much as anything else is media, though with a smaller audience than most big names.

Muzzled?

A story written by Josh Hawley a few days ago pointed in this direction. His article was titled “The muzzling of America”, about how he’s losing his voice — and it was the cover of the New York Post! That hardly seems like being muzzled. Techdirt did a great job of breaking it down if you want to check out their thoughts on it.

Another example is a post from a friend of mine on Facebook, sharing a story from the Washington Post about people who cleaned trash off the streets after the events at the Capitol building.

A comment on her post simply said “Where is the media?” (to cover the clean-up), which was confusing to me.

This was an article from the Washington Post, shared by countless people on Facebook. The “media” covered it, but just maybe not the particular outlet she was hoping for. It’s not where is the media, but perhaps who is the media?

We’re the media

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We’re not fully there yet, but content power is quickly moving into the our hands, and slowly away from the bigger companies.

CNN averages around 1.7M viewers, a pretty solid number. However, “MrBeast” has over 51M subscribers on YouTube, and Charli D’Amelio has over 105M followers on TikTok. They have potentially far more influence than CNN does, and it’s likely you’ve never heard of either of them.

There is only so much attention that a single person can give, so we’ll never hit a point where everyone has a million fans, but content distribution seems to be getting wider and wider.

Own your content. Share your views. You are the media.

Why Seth Godin doesn’t tweet

January 23, 2021 by greenmellen Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Seth Godin doesn’t use Twitter. He has a Twitter account for his blog, but it’s just for his team to share his latest posts.

He’s made it clear before that he doesn’t have a problem with Twitter, and thinks some people make great use of it. In terms of his time and his focus, it’s just not where he wants to. As I’ve said before, it’s not that he’s necessarily “too busy”, but just that it likely is not a priority for him.

I’ve long been kinda bummed about that, simply because I think he’d have some great things to share on Twitter. It hit me today that he indeed does have great things to share on Twitter, but instead of quickly tweeting them he takes the time to develop those thoughts into more robust ideas and publish them on his blog.

Three kinds of Twitter users

In taking this further, I think Twitter users can be loosely grouped into three categories.

First, you have the Twitter-heavy folks. These are people that tweet fairly often, and tend to have great things to say. They’re good to follow on Twitter for their insights, as that’s their primary place to go.

Next, you have the Twitter-assisted people. These are folks that share ideas on Twitter for the use of crowd-sourcing responses and fully fleshing out their idea. Once they’ve gotten feedback and shaped their view a bit more, it becomes a full blog post.

Lastly, you have the Twitter-lite users, and I’d put myself in this group. I share my blog-produced thoughts on Twitter, follow and interact with other folks from time to time, but don’t produce a ton of unique content on there.

I’ve felt that I “should” be publishing more frequently on sites like Twitter, and maybe that’s accurate, but I’m finding the the work to publish full blog posts every day consumes much of the time that I would otherwise spend on there.

The Mona Lisa

Cal Newport wrote a post about why the Mona Lisa is famous despite not tweeting, and I think summarizes my thoughts pretty well with this quote:

…you’re almost certainly better off taking the 135 minutes per day the average social media user spends on these services and instead dedicate them to deliberately improving your ability to do valuable things.

Tweet if you want. I’ll likely follow you, enjoy your insights, and think more highly of you. However, also consider easing off on traditional social media a bit and put your time into content that will last.

What is a Facebook “like farm”?

June 6, 2020 by greenmellen Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 5 minutes

You see it all the time on Facebook: “Our previous winner of this car/boat/RV didn’t claim their prize, so now is your chance to win!“. As you may have guessed, there is no “previous winner” or even a prize — it’s all just a hoax. But why?

“Like” Farming

The scammers are building what’s known as a “like farm”. They’re trying to get as many people as possible to like their page and spread the message so it becomes popular on Facebook, and then switch it out for a scammy ad of some kind. In the grand scheme of hacks and scams, this one isn’t too bad, but it’s certainly not something you should support.

How can you tell if it’s a scam or not?

There are certainly some legit viral pieces on Facebook that feel similar to these scams, so how can you tell them apart?

The easiest way is to just click through and look at their page. Most of these scam pages were set up very recently, and have perhaps one or two posts. If it was really a big name company giving something away, they wouldn’t have a suspicious-looking page to promote it.

Other types of like farms

While the “fake giveaway” is a prevalent scam lately, there are more subtle ones as well.

I’ll bet that this child can’t get a million likes!
90% of people fail this test (yet the test is remarkably simple)
Combine your street name with your middle name to find out your name in the old west.
“I bet you won’t re-post!”
“Reposting… this has already been deleted 3 times”
“Share if you will…” do something popular

These people will do anything they can to get people to share and like their content, as they can make pretty good money from you (a few dollars per 1,000 likes, typically).

What should you do about it?

First, report the page to Facebook so they can remove it. The more people that report it, the more quickly it will get taken care of.

Click through to the page (visiting the page by itself isn’t a concern), then choose “find support or report page” and let Facebook know it’s a scam.

Also, send your friend a link to this post so they can understand what it’s all about.

Examples of this scam

Here are some examples:

We are sad to announce that the winner of the big anniversary competition (Charlotte M. – Toronto) was from Canada and not a United States citizen as was stated necessary. Therefore, we will be giving out the stunning 2020 Newmar King Aire to someone who shares and comments by 8pm on Sunday.
Like our page for updates. Good luck!

With a lot of people out of work and Covid-19 keeping them out of work we know money is tighter more now than ever! So by 10:00pm Saturday someone who shares and also comments will be the new owner of this 2020 Jayco Seneca 37L Bunkhouse Super C Motorhome RV, paid off and ready to drive away, keys in hand! – After visit xxx to validate your entry.

We have got 150(Major RV ) that can’t be sold because they have been unsealed.Therefore we are giving them away for free. Want one of them ? Just Share this photo& Like Ourpage and we will choose 150 people completely at random on July 30! as you Luck day Comment Done

With so many people out work due to Covid-19 and it’s still keeping them out of work we know that money is much tighter than ever! So by 11:59pm Tonight someone who shares than leaves a comment will be the official brand new owner of this Ford, Paid Off and ready to be driven away, Keys in hand! Ford.

We are sad to announce that the winner of this amazing Tiny House [ Ashley Jamette Arthur ] was under the age of 17 as was stated necessary.Therefore, We will be giving out this Beautiful Modern Luxury Outdoors Tiny House to someone who shares and comments by 8 PM Today – After visit xxx to validate your entry.

We are currently operating all our flights 24/7 and we know due to Covid-19 money is tighter more than ever! So we have decided to show our continued appreciation support to our loyal customers by awarding 500 people who shares and comments by 4 PM Tuesday with a free round trip flight of their desired destination. Good Luck everyone

To celebrate our grand opening we are doing something very special for one of you! We will be rewarding someone who has Shared and Commented by July 24th with a 14 night vacation for 2 people in this 5 star over water suite. No need to worry about flights & other travel its all included!

We’re going to celebrate our grand opening by doing something special for you. We will be rewarding someone who has shared then commented by August 1st with a 7 night stay for 2 people in this 5 star suite with private pool. Don’t worry about flights and transfers, it’s all included.

We thought we needed to show our support during these difficult times – So we decided that someone who shares and also comments before 10 PM Monday will get this beautiful Toyota Tundra 2020

We’re sorry to inform everyone that Jenny Blatnik Lefever from Greeneville Tennessee was not eligible due to being under the age of 15. So to show our continued support during these rough times we decided to give it to someone else who shares and also comments by 4 PM Tuesday – Participants Must Like Our Page – Best Of Luck Everyone

Hello everyone, my name is Travis Porter and I am the Regional Manager of Chick-fil-A! I have an announcement to make – To celebrate our 61st Anniversary, We are giving EVERYONE who shaᴦes & then comments by 4pm SUNDAY one of these gift-baskets containing a $35 Chick-fil-A gift-card plus surprises that will make your heart flutter – After visit xxx to validate your entry.

Hello everyone I’m Todd Burrowes Gorham. I am very happy to announce I’m the new CEO of longhorn steakhouse. I’d like to start my new job off with a good deed for everyone as I know recent times have been tough which is why I’m going to be rewarding everyone who shares&comments in the next 72 hours with a voucher to get meal for two at any longhorn steakhouse for lunch or dinner.

Hello everyone I’m Chris Geng, the new manager of Grand Wailea resort in Maui. I want to start my job off with a good deed so as I know recent times have been tough so to celebrate our first summer back with no restrictions after nearly 3 years of closures I’ll be sending someone who shares&likes then types ‘Done’ by July 25th a 10 night holiday for 8 at a Grand Wailea of their choice
⭕Like our page Grand Wailea Maui Resort for winners updates!

Who’s listening – Facebook or Baader-Meinhof?

January 22, 2019 by greenmellen Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Facebook isn’t listening to your phone, but creepy things can still happen. I had a few things come up today that were assuredly random, but felt like someone might be listening.

At lunch today, we talked about the Fyre Festival. It was the first I’d heard of it, but now I’m watching documentaries to learn more. 🙂 This afternoon, a story about it crossed a feed I was reading. Coincidence, or AI listening? It had to be coincidence, since this was an old-school RSS feed (where I see all stories from various sites), so nothing algorithmic was at play there.

Also at lunch today, we talked about “laughing salads”, the phenomenon where stock image of people eating salads also tend to have people laughing while they eat them. It’s weird. This evening, Kel showed me a funny pic on her phone — a laughing salad montage.

What’s more likely?

So did some app listen to me talking about Fyre Festival, email writers for a site they know I subscribe to, then convince them to write an article and publish it real quick? Probably not.

Did Facebook hear us talking about laughing salads, then tell Kelly to show me a picture that one friend of hers had posted? Seems unlikely.

While Facebook and Google can do some really creepy things, it’s good to know what’s possible and what’s not.

They know where you are, usually. If you go to Longhorn for dinner tonight and see ads for it tomorrow, that’s real (thanks GPS!)
They don’t secretly listen and serve ads based on that. Too many people are watching too closely for them to get away with that.
Your Alexa and Google Home aren’t listening either. Same deal; people packet-sniff those constantly, and if either was sending back everything, we’d know. They could, for sure, but they’re not.

Even if they all decided to listen and serve ads, how good could it be? I’m really impressed with how well Google Home understands me, but I still have to call it to attention and even then it’s not perfect. If it was recording a room full of people all day and then tried to show ads based on that, the results wouldn’t be great.

I blame my events today squarely on the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (also known more simply as the “frequency illusion”), which all of us have experienced.

In my case with the Fyre Festival, it’s probably come across my feeds a few times before and I just didn’t notice it, but today I saw it and was like “Oh, that’s the thing Ali was talking about!“.

All of that said, Facebook (and to a somewhat lesser extent, Google) really do some crazy scary things to help serve you ads. This podcast episode from Reply All in late 2017 does a great job of digging into it all. Give it a listen:

Fight to avoid the filter bubble

August 3, 2018 by greenmellen Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutesThe “filter bubble” is a phrase coined by Eli Parser after he noticed that a search for “BP” came up with very different results for different people. You’ve likely seem similar things on Facebook and Google.

Last year Bill Gates said: “(Technologies such as social media) lets you go off with like-minded people, so you’re not mixing and sharing and understanding other points of view … It’s super important. It’s turned out to be more of a problem than I, or many others, would have expected.”

The challenge is trying to break out of the filter bubble to see different points of view. Social media algorithms are increasingly focused on keeping your bubble intact, and you need to focus on breaking out of it. Jeff Bezos said it best back in 2012 when he said that “people who are right a lot often change their minds

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“. That’s not to suggest that you should be wishy-washy, but that you should be open to new points of view and consider why people hold those views.

Closed bubble

I noticed this a few weeks ago on Facebook with a comment that I left. Someone had posted a politically-charged post that was demonstrably false. They already had others inside of their bubble cheering on the false statement. I pointed out that while the sentiment they shared was valid, the quote was wildly inaccurate — no one seemed to care. I see this quite often, from both sides of the political spectrum.

Open bubbles

On the flip side, I think of two friends of mine — Joe and Karen.

Joe is a conservative, and I suspect he voted for Trump. Karen is liberal, and I suspect she voted for Hillary. Both often post political statements on Facebook, but it’s their handling of them that impresses me. While I tend to lean more toward one of them politically, I enjoy talking politics with both of them. Both have comments on every post from both sides of the aisle and both do a good job of engaging with them. Unlike the millions of Facebook users that scream “you’re wrong!” if you disagree with them, Joe and Karen both explain their points of view and listen to what others have to say. I’ve learned from both of them, and they’ve both helped to shape my viewpoint on many issues.

Open the filter

With all of the complex filter-enabling algorithms on social media, breaking out of your filter bubble can be tough. I have two pieces of encouragement for you:

Engage with people of varying viewpoints. You’ll quickly learn who will shut you down for being “wrong” and who will be willing to engage with you.
Follow other sources of news. This is part of the reason I still subscribe to hundreds of RSS feeds — I get a copy of every post from those blogs, not just the ones that some algorithm thinks I should get.

How do you try to break out of the filter?

Still, be social

The river

Muzzled?

We’re the media

Three kinds of Twitter users

The Mona Lisa

The latest bullhorn

CamelCase?

“Like” Farming

How can you tell if it’s a scam or not?

Other types of like farms

What should you do about it?

Examples of this scam

What’s more likely?