Despite it being called social media, a lot of businesses and even bands create content that is really impersonal. It has all the warmth and connection of a software's terms and service agreement.
"How have you been, Steve?" "Some jurisdictions provide for certain warranties, like the implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. to the extent permitted by law." "Great. And the kids?" People fast forward through commercials… but then wonder why no one responds to the constant stream of sales pitches they post on social media.
With their reformatting of the "Photos" section for public pages, Facebook has somewhat hidden the collection of photos from other people that were either posted on the page or that tagged the page. I glossed over that line of text and just dove into the "Albums" several times before seeing it.
This is a good thing though. You still have access to photos by fans and can see if there is something cool to share to the page. However, it is also nice that this is hidden, because in the past people would take advantage of its more prominent placement and spam that section with ads for products or promotion of their own profiles. You are not going to be good at every aspect of social media. Accepting that will actually make you much more productive. - Cris
People are obsessed with automating everything. If you are making widgets, that's fine. If you are trying to communicate and connect with people, the results are going to be sad. - Cris
The goal is to get to the point where people search for you, your business, your band. When Google was making its initial ascendancy, people set the goal of being at the top of a category. They wanted to be the number one result when people searched for sales software or shoes. But particularly with the rise of social media, you really need people to search for you. You want people typing your name into Facebook, Twitter, or Google. It may not be the same volume of people who search for a generic category, but they will be a dedicated audience, an audience others will have trouble stealing from you. They will be people who want what you bring to the table. They may not be able to describe it, but they know that you, your band, your company embody it. - Cris
Everyone is trying to figure out the magic formula for social media. If all you care about are the number of followers, then that formula is (click bait headline) + (trending hashtag) + (cat video or fail video). However, if you want genuine fans, customers, people who will spend money on you, then this formula will not work. If you want followers of substance, you need to create content of substance. To acquire genuine fans, I think the formula is (quality content) + (patience) + (persistence). - Cris Somewhat ironically people need more focus in social media. I say “ironically” because social media is made for distraction, for Attention Deficit Disorder. But you can tell when someone took the time to do a post well, thought about their words, tried to get the picture right, spent a few extra minutes editing the video. And I find that those are the posts you are more likely to spend some time with, comment on, and share with others. You can tell when someone just spit out a post without any thought. As a reader, I give those the same amount of time and thought... almost none. And maybe that is one of the great contradictions to social media: It invites and encourages short attention spans, but it you really want to connect with people, you are going to need to focus. - Cris I find it interesting when people get big numbers by posting someone else's content and then claim success for themselves. - Cris
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AuthorCris Cohen Archives
March 2021
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