Reading Time: 2 min When it comes to marketing, there are two main directions you want to work to push — adding more fuel, or reducing friction. This works in many areas of life, as explained wonderfully in a recent episode of the Hidden Brain podcast, but it’s particularly interesting with marketing. Fuel When it comes to marketing, fuel […]
Social Media
News websites are starting to realize they should have worked to own the conversation
Reading Time: 2 min I’ve made no secret that I think individuals and organizations should work hard to own their content. This includes not only the primary content (like the actual story or post), but also the comments and interactions to the extent possible. The second part of that is difficult, as social media is the default for most […]
The Streisand Effect, slapping teachers, and critical race theory
Reading Time: 3 min Back in 2003, photographer Kenneth Adelman was taking photos of the California coastline from a helicopter to document coastal erosion. He had taken approximately 12,000 photos of the coast, including one that had Barbra Streisand’s home in it. She wasn’t happy about it and sued Adelman to remove the photo — and she lost. Prior […]
The difficulty of trying to moderate content is hard to comprehend
Reading Time: 2 min Moderating content on social media is incredibly difficult. People love to complain about it, and it’s indeed imperfect, but it’s a tough system. I shared the story of Chole before, but I recently came across a great article from Techdirt that gives some amazing statistics. In a recent a talk from Evelyn Douek, a Lecturer […]
Retweeting the click of the day
Reading Time: < 1 min I’ve posted many times on here why I believe most people should blog every day. Writing daily is forcing me to read more, it improves my thinking, and I feel that it takes the benefits of journaling and expands them. Much of my inspiration for daily blogging comes from Seth Godin, and he has another […]
Your attention is the product
Reading Time: < 1 min It’s long been said that “if you’re not paying for a service, then you’re the product” when it comes to things like Facebook or Twitter. While that’s essentially true, it’s not really you that is the product — it’s your attention. In an increasingly chaotic world, your attention is likely your post important resource. If […]
One email subscriber = 1,000 Facebook followers
Reading Time: < 1 min While I have my share of bad things to say about social media on here, I’m still fairly active on most networks and plan to be for the foreseeable future. I suspect some of you found this post via social media, and that’s great! In the long run, though, email is where your followers need […]
Politics as a hobby
Reading Time: < 1 min A few weeks back, I shared about a friend of mine that posts constantly about politics on Facebook, with the majority of his posts attacking others, and a good number of his posts being completely false information. While I don’t mind his point of view and can respect all viewpoints, I find his (and a […]
The good side of hate speech
Reading Time: 2 min Free speech is a wonderful thing. While there are frequent arguments about what constitutes “free speech”, almost everyone can agree that it’s great to have. Of course, free speech means people can say things you disagree with, even to an extreme degree. Sometimes, though, even that can be a good thing. An episode of the […]
Animosity drives engagement
Reading Time: 2 min It’s sad but it’s true, and most of you have seen it on social media. The more animosity behind a post, the more engagement it gets. Specifically, if you directly attack an opposing political group, your post is much more likely to be shared. From a recent tweet by Jay Van Bavel: “Slamming a political […]