Social Media Marketing by Liana Evans was a book that I might have read a little too late in the semester. In all fairness, I read this book toward the end of my first social media class at Quinnipiac (ICM 522).
Hence it felt like I already knew a lot of what she had written, but that was likely more a function of timing than anything else.
Sorry, Li.
Been There, Done That
So the Liana Evans book is interesting. However, I had just read a ton of other works about very similar work, strategies, and ideas. Therefore, it ended up being maybe one book too many. Plus it ended up an optional read, anyway.
Furthermore, other works seemed to have said it better. So these days, books just do not get published fast enough to take proper advantage of trends and new insights. Hence blogs, in general (although not always!) end up more current and relevant.
What Was the Best Thing I Learned from Liana Evans and Her Book?
Possibly the best takeaway I got from the book was when Evans talked about online communities, particularly in Chapter 33 – You Get What You Give. So on page 255, she writes – • You need to invest your resources, such as … † Time to research where the conversation is • Time and resources to develop a strategy † and Time and staff resources to engage community members • Time to listen to what they are saying, in the communities † Time and resources to measure successes and failures • Giving valuable content † It is similar to a bank account • Don’t bribe the community
And ~
† Rewards come in all fashions • Research who your audience is † Give your audience something valuable and/or exclusive • Don’t expect you’ll know everything † Listen to what your audience says • Admit when you are wrong † Thank your community
Finally, much like we have been telling people for years on Able2know – listen before you speak!
Rating
Review: 4/5 stars.
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What hath Facebook wrought? – It’s a Facebook versus forums smackdown!
It is Time to Pit Facebook Versus Forums
Facebook, as anyone not living on a desert island knows, is a juggernaut of massive proportions. According to Oberlo, Facebook has over three billion users, and about 61% of global social media users—and these numbers are only climbing.
When it comes to parent company Meta (they also own Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, …), there are nearly four billion monthly active users.
Almost 54% of Facebook users identify as female. And, surprise surprise for anyone who thought it was just a platform for the (ahem) older set: nearly 62% of Facebook users are under the age of 45.
In 2026, that means people born in 1981 and later, AKA Gen X and later generations.
In contrast, according to Worldometers, 1.477 billion people live in India, and 1.413 billion live in China. Vietnam has a bit over 102 million in population. Laos has about 8 million.
Hence, Facebook usage is the entire population of India + the entire population of China + the entire populations of Vietnam and Laos. If these numbers do not blow you away, then check your pulse.
It is the 800 pound gorilla of the internet. And it is rapidly changing our interpersonal interactions, both on and offline. So, one of those areas is in the area of internet forums.
Facebook Versus Forums Sites Like Able2know
Facebook hits all forum sites and not just A2K. For years, I have been seeing drop off on a lot of different sites. It does not seem to matter whether they are large, generalized places like Able2know, or small niche sites devoted to something like Star Trek.
In addition, I hear about this same kind of drop off in other areas. Facebook has its fingers in a lot of pies, and it is only trying to get into more and more of them.
The truth is, Facebook has taken over certain niches which forums or smaller sites have tried to claim.
Such as class reunions. Why go to a separate website and register (or even pay!) when your buddies are all or nearly all on FB anyway? Why not just make a group devoted to the reunion and divvy up the labor?
Using Facebook to market your crowdfunding (it could be to bring an invention to market or pay for your dog’s eye surgery or help out a friend who lost everything in a house fire) is a no-brainer.
Looking for a bone marrow donor? Sure, go through the proper channels and the registry. But why not boost the signal by posting it on Facebook?
Everybody get in the Pool
So there are two generalized kinds of interactions (there are more, of course, but hear me out, okay?). One concerns the shallow end of things. You trade information about weather and generalized health inquiries. It’s political sound bites and the zippy pop song.
And much of what I have outlined above, like looking for a bone marrow donor, is mostly going to be the quick, shallow end of things. You are a yes or a no. You send a care react and maybe you repost. But you are not elbows deep in it. You are only pinkies deep, if that.
The other side of things is deeper. Because here is the in-depth political discussion where you really get to the heart of the issues. It is the detailed information on a health condition or even how to make a soufflé or plant an herb garden. It is the symphony.
And online, just like offline, it is a far rarer bird.
For you need time to develop that kind of trust. Furthermore, truly, you have to devote some time in order to have such a conversation in the first place.
In our bone marrow example, you can often find communities of like-minded individuals on Facebook. A small, private group may be able to help with more than a signal boost and expressing their concern. But that is a small bit of the vast sea that is Facebook.
Swimming with Facebook
Facebook fulfills the shallow end of online interactions extremely well. It is very, very easy to catch up on a superficial level with high school classmates or the like. A Star Wars groups, for example, might ask basic questions like “Who was the best villain?”
George Takei has mastered these kinds of interactions (although, in all fairness, he also writes occasional longer notes). Because these constitute the quick hits that people can like and share, all in the space of less than a quarter of a minute.
It works very well for mass quantities of information. And, in a way, this is why Reels and TikTok are so massive. They are quick hits.
Facebook versus Forums – Where Facebook Wins
Topics about a favorite song go better on Facebook than on forums as they are a quick hit and posting YouTube videos is simple. It is colorful and, just as importantly, it is pretty easy to pick and choose when it comes to interactions there, despite changes in privacy settings.
Other basic interactions (remember a/s/l?) are seamless or do not need to happen at all. Partly this happens due to the Facebook real names policy. Also, more people tend to use their real photograph and their real (generalized) location and age than not.
But there are also always going to be people who are going to check. Or they are just plain being nosy. For some, it may even be a poorly-conceived cover for transphobia. E. g. are you really female?
Facebook versus Forums – Where Forums Can Still Win
But what Facebook does not do so well is the deeper end of interactions (the extensive political discussions, etc.). Also, it often does not do them well for a larger group of people or over a significant period of time or for a longer or wider discussion.
And apart from a small group of people fighting the same medical battle (on their own behalf, or a loved one’s), there are not a lot of occasions for the long-term, deeper talk.
As a result, just about all of the deep discussions go unsaid. Topics about elections outside the United States (particularly if Americans participate in said topics) are handled poorly, if at all.
When it comes to the deeper end of the interactions pool, Facebook is just not a good place for that at all. Another consideration: even now, a lot of people still find that Facebook moves too quickly for them.
Swimming with Forums
For the deep end, it makes sense to collect into forums. You need to get to the heart of the matter. And that takes time, a luxury that Facebook often does not afford, as it scrolls by in a blur.
Instead of mass quantities, forums can fulfill a very different niche by instead concentrating on quality interactions. Forums offer, even for people who use their real names and are fairly transparent about their interactions, a chance to use a persona.
This is because Facebook far too closely parallels to our real lives. There is just so much posturing you can do about being a famous rock star when your high school cronies are also there, and they remember holding your head when you had your first beer.
Again, the best way that Facebook even attempts to emulate this is in groups. But if you are using the same login, you will be found out. You get no chance to put on a persona hat, even for a moment. The jig is immediately and irrevocably up.
The Endless Online Christmas Brag Letter
And Facebook, while it can be a refuge for people to truly show they care for each other (in particular, in the groups, or using notes or chat), is more often a place where people instead get a chance to preen and show off.
Like something? Then hit like! Don’t like it? Then either scroll past it or click to hide it, or even report it as spam or as being threatening.
Hell, you can even @ a tag group to comment on it.
And apart from the latter two actions, the person posting the image, anecdote, status, etc. is none the wiser when it comes to your reaction, particularly if there are a lot of reactions.
If you have a million reactions on a post, and 150,000 of them are anger reactions, how do you know your old college roommate was one of those people? Unless you have the patience and the hyperfixation to check, you are never going to know.
But with the forums, even if you do not use your real name, your opinions are still out there, for all to see, whether it is about global warming or the Designated Hitter rule.
Facebook versus Forums: the Future
My crystal ball says Facebook is only going to get larger and more complicated. And advertising and other ways of keeping forums open is only going to get harder.
Unless Facebook finds a way to take a deep dive into topics – and make it easier for people to find their way back after a day or two – then I fear a form of interaction may eventually be lost forever.
That is, unless Zoom calls and the like can rise to such a challenge. In and among the fluff and Zoom bombing and other annoyances and weirdness, perhaps that is the way to go. Because I fear that traditional forums are going to bite the dust before 2030, if not sooner.
Although Substack will most likely continue to rise, and will probably replace most forums, even though it is a different type of interaction.
There is room for both types of interactions. Facebook versus forums does not have to pick a winner. The internet is a mighty big tent. But economics and sheer numbers might award a prize anyway.
Good luck!
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Ever feel like you’re on an online treadmill? Well, you just might be falling victim to social media’s relentless pace.
Social Media Continues its Relentless Pace to Try to Make You Stay Put
It’s a relentless pace out there. And much like the holidays accelerate the end of the year, and we suddenly look up on January 7th or so and wonder exactly what the hell just happened, social media is continuing to not so much reap the whirlwind as to be the whirlwind.
But at the same time, there is an effort afoot to slow down and control that very same whirlwind.
Twitter’s Relentless Pace
Case in point: Twitter (er, X) has implemented changes, over the course of its history, that are designed to keep people on as long as possible.
They do this by embedding media more directly and making it so that you do not have to leave Twitter’s embrace in order to enjoy a clip or a photograph. Often, this means shortening a URL.
So far, so good. But shortened URLs can allow for more malware exploits. It’s like one step forward, a step back and another one to the side.
Facebook’s Relentless Pace
Facebook tests its layout pretty much constantly. In fact, it changes it every single day. They are the biggest A/B testing site on the planet, bar none! So, what is changing? And what isn’t?
The profile is going to continually become richer and provide more information. This may or may not be useful to users but it will certainly keep them on longer. At least, that will happen at the start, when it is a fresh, novel concept.
As time has passed, we have all seen how Facebook has attempted to become more things to more people. Is that good? Well, it can be.
But it also means that people have to take it more seriously. Somewhat ridiculously rigid rules on verbiage force people into typing silly stuff like ‘unalive’.
LinkedIn’s Relentless Pace
Long ago, LinkedIn tried adding Signal to make it easier to track even more of the social media avalanche – and, of course, to try to keep people on LinkedIn as long as possible.
They are also using status types of communications. And do not get me started on the avalanche of AI-written garbage that infests status updates and articles. Sounds a lot like Facebook, eh?
LinkedIn also pushes articles, and tries to get you to follow thought leadership. By itself, this is not a bad idea over all. Except anyone can, conceivably, become a thought leader. Kinda. Just post enough, and get a big enough follow.
This is not a bad gig if you can get it, but it can also be a dandy way to spread misinformation, sports fans.
The Common Thread
What these changes have had in common, other than, perhaps, novelty for the sake of novelty, is the desire to keep people on site as long as possible. Put some tar down, and have us all stick, at least for a while.
So while the internet spins ever faster, and social media sites attempt to keep up, their overall strategies seem to try to slow us all down. Will it work? Is it a foolish dream to think you can keep people around with such tricks, such slick bells and whistles?
The Lack of Meaningful Content
What disturbs me is that there is not a lot of content happening. Or at least not a lot of good content. Good content would, could, should make me want to hang around.
But instead of hiring writers to improve things, or rewarding good current content providers, each of the big three sites is instead pursuing a software solution. Al, folks.
But what is the sense in hanging around a site if the content is not compelling? Or are we, instead, merely getting the sites that we, perhaps, deserve?
Hence here is what happens if my Facebook friends list is dominated by people I went to High School with over forty years ago. Their status updates and my wall have a lot of news of their birthdays, their children (and grandchildren these days), and their careers.
But why would we ever expect anything else?
And if I instead tip my list in a different direction, and it is suddenly dominated by the people I work with or diet with or do artwork with, the news is going to be different.
In particular, politically, you can see very different versions of each site, depending on your bubble. After all, a lot of us prefer to see people we like and agree with. … and that’s how we get ideological bubbles.
Comparison to Reality TV
One thing about Reality TV is that it is anything but real if it is at all successful. Because people just, generally, do not lead terribly interesting lives.
Yes, you too, gentle reader. We pick up the dry cleaning. Or we bicker over the remote. We forget to buy sausages and make do with hot dogs. And around and around and around we go.
And all three of these really big social media sites, when we are not following celebrities and businesses, are really just a big agglomeration of Post-It Notes whereby we tell each other to grab milk on the way home.
For “Reality” to be compelling at all, it has got to be unreal, and have a scripted. It must become this fight or that rose ceremony or this other weird pancake-making challenge.
The bigger, older three older social media sites, when you strip away the celebrities and the companies, can be a boatload of errands or a standard-form holiday letter. You know the kind, where you learn little Suzie has taken up the clarinet. Over and over ad infinitum.
No wonder we need software solutions to keep us there. The relentless pace continues.
Whither TikTok and the Rest?
TikTok shackles you to it by way of its algorithm (sound familiar)? Like one video and you get sucked into the next one, and the next, and then the next one after that. The videos are short, so it does not feel like a relentless pace.
Until you look up and realize that four hours have gone by.
It is a lot like eating a bag of potato chips. You stick your hand in, grab a few or a big handful, and go to town. It does not feel like a lot, until suddenly the bag is empty and you are thirsty from all the salt.
In the world of dieting, the conventional wisdom is to portion out your chips. Fill a smaller bag and put a clip on the bigger one, and stick it back in the cabinet. In short, have some discipline and a smidgen of self-control.
With TikTok or anything else, unless we put a timer on our sessions or have external pressures getting us off the virtual hamster wheel, our lives pass us by as we succumb to the relentless pace.
Dang, I am a ray of sunshine sometimes, eh?
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Going From a Collection of Users to a True Community
What is a True Community?
I’ve written at least seven obituaries.
That is, perhaps, an odd thing to confess. But when Jill, Kevin, Paul, Joanne, Olen, Joan, and Mary all passed on, it was up to me to write something, to not only commemorate their lives, but to try to help comfort a grieving community.
I am not saying you will write as many, or even if you will ever write even one. And I certainly hope you will never have to, as they can be gut-wrenching.
But it was with the first one – Mary’s – that it became manifest (if it was not already self-evident) that, to paraphrase the old Brady Bunch theme, this group had somehow formed a family.
How Can This Happen to Your True Community (Without the Tragic Part)?
But no one has to cross over to the other side in order for your collection of users to coalesce into a Community with a capital C. The secret is very simple, although many companies do not want to hear it: it is going off-topic.
Let us assume, for example, that your community is a corporate-run one. And the product is a soft drink. Corporate tells you to stay on topic, on message. However, your users are saying something very different.
For it is easy, as you are talking about the soft drink, to slide into discussing foods eaten with it. And frankly, for such a community you would almost have to go off-topic. Nobody but a truly dedicated corporate marketer can talk about a soft drink 24/7.
Food slides into a discussion of recipes. Recipes turn into a talk about entertaining. And then suddenly you are all off to the races and talking about family relationships.
Corporate tries to pull you back on topic. Yet your users pull the true community ever further away. And they pinball from family relationships to dating, raising children, and elder care, if you let them.
The Community Manager’s Role
Here is where you, as the Community Manager, can talk to Corporate and forge a compromise. Corporate needs for people to talk about the product, tout it, and virally promote it. And they need people to make well-ranked (on Google/cited by AI) topics about it.
Corporate should also realize that they need to hear the bad news about the product as well. The users need to talk.
So, make a compromise. One way is to create an off-topic area and move all off-message topics there. And be fairly loose with your definition of what is on topic.
In our soft drink example, the recipes topics, even if they do not use the product as an ingredient, are still close enough so you could consider them on topic.
Also, do not be surprised if the corollary is true. Hence topics that begin on message veer off it, even by the time of the first responsive post. That is okay.
Those topics should still be considered to be on message.
Because Google is far more concerned with a forum topic’s title and initial post than with its tenth response. And for AI, whether a question is answered well and clearly will matter more than some off-topic stuff. For the most part.
The Benefits of the Off-Topic Section
Do not be shocked if your off-topic section becomes a large one. And recognize that you and your Moderating staff (if you have one) may need to make on message topics in order to continue creating germane content.
But your true community will be talking and the site will be a lively one.
If it is a party that is going nonstop, your users will stick around and from this you can build a marketing database. And that is one of the standard corporate aims behind creating a community in the first place.
So, when your users start talking about life events, such as births, school, divorce, moving, jobs, marriage, children and, yes, deaths, it matters.
And when they start supporting each other through each of these phases, it marks a bright line distinction between a haphazard agglomeration of users and a true team of like-minded individuals.
Finally, that team, that family, that army, is what being in a true community is really all about.
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Community Management Tidbits
Here are some posts about my years in community management, and what I have learned.
Whether paid or volunteer, the life of a community manager tends to be fairly similar. Community management can be a piece of social media marketing and management, but it does not, strictly, have to be.
Most of a Community Manager’s time divides into three different modes:
1. Discussions 2. Nurturing and 3. Disciplining AKA Trust and Safety
Discussions
The discussion piece involves creating new discussions and shepherding them along. Users will not return, day after day, without new content. While the users are, ultimately, responsible for the content in a community, the Community Manager should create new content as well.
This is not always topics as it can also encompass informing users about changes in the site blog (if any) and even a Facebook fan page (if it exists).
This discussion piece will evolve as the community evolves. In a community of fewer than one thousand users, content from the Community Manager might be the only new content for weeks! Which…can sometimes be problematic.
As such, it can loom very, very large. But it can also have a much stronger calming effect if other content is snarky.
As the community grows, regular Community Manager contributions should diminish. But there should still be some involvement. Otherwise members may feel the Community Manager is hanging back a bit too much.
It is a community, and that means that the users want to know the Manager(s). An easy and somewhat safe way to do this is by creating discussions.
On Topic/Off Topic
And the discussions need not always stay on topic! Lively discussions can be almost spun from whole cloth if the Manager can get the people talking. An automotive community might thrill to talking about cooking.
A cooking community might engage in an animated discussion about the Olympics. And a sports community could very well bring its passion to a topic like politics.
In particular, if the community is single subject-based (e. g. about, say, Coca-Cola), going off-topic should probably at least peripherally relate to the overall subject.
Hence Coke could branch out into cooking and, from there, into family relationships. Or into health and fitness.
But a push to discussing politics may not work unless it stems from a major recent news item or if there is precedent. And, if you get started with politics, it is maddeningly hard to put that genie back in the bottle.
Finally, if a member is ill, or has passed on, getting married or having a child, an off-topic discussion can spring naturally and effortlessly. This happens regardless of the community’s main subject matter.
Corporate management may not love off-topic discussions. But they keep a community together, and they do help to keep it viable.
Nurturing
The nurturing piece relates to the discussion aspect. However, it tends to encompass responding to and supporting good discussions on the site.
This is especially helpful if the Community Manager identifies top users who are good at making topics who the community likes.
And then nurtures them to promote their discussions over more inferior ones.
Use nurturing to encourage newbies. And use it to encourage members who might become superstar users if they only had a little more self-confidence. Give them a track record of support and positive reinforcement.
But keep in mind that welcoming people can get old rather quickly. But there is nothing wrong with a form welcome, whether it is an email or a private message or even a popup. Why not explain where to go to contact a Moderator? Or where to look and even where to report if the site is down?
Another use for a welcoming message can be to link to the Terms of Service and any other rules the community must abide by.
The Life of a Community Manager and Relationships
Nurturing can also take the shape of developing relationships with members. The Community Manager does not have to be friends with everyone, even if the site is very small. However, they should get to know the users.
Private messages (if available), writing on a wall or the like can do this.
Furthermore, the Community Manager can use private messages, etc. to head off potential problems at the pass.
Headstrong members might be wonderful when they write on topics not related to their overarching passion. Or they might respond to a tactful request to tone things down a bit. Or a lot.
The Community Manager can encourage those members to take part in those other discussions. The manager can reach out to other community members. Friendship can help to minimize flaming.
After all, it is a lot easier to go ballistic on someone if they are just faceless to you. But with your friend Joe, it is a rather different story.
Disciplining AKA Trust and Safety
And this leads me to the disciplining part. It is often the first thing that people think of when they think of community management. That includes things like pulling spam.
It also includes giving users timeouts or even outright suspending them when their activities run against a site’s Terms of Service.
Trust and Safety can also mean checking content to be sure that it fits community standards. Those can be everything from avoiding porn to getting rid of health misinformation.
The Facebook Trust and Safety team, for example, once had the unenviable responsibility to weed through violent and disturbing imagery. Nowadays, that is a task done by AI.
And it also includes shunning and ignoring. These can be extremely powerful. The Community Manager can help to mobilize other users.
But the Community Manager Must Do It Right
An email or private message campaign is almost always a very poor idea. Rather, the Manager must lead by example. Do not take the bait when challenged, unless it is absolutely necessary. But that is rare.
It is the Community Manager’s call when to take it, particularly if personal insults fly.
Often the best tactics include: (a) get offline and cool off. And (b) ask another Community Manager or Moderator to determine if it warrants disciplinary action. And then enforce that if it does.
One thing a Manager should never forget: there is far more to the community than just the people posting. There is often a far larger audience of lurkers, both registered and unregistered.
They are watching events unfold but rarely comment. By leading by example, the Community Manager can influence not only active posters but also the community at large.
Customer Service is Key in the Life of a Community Manager, Even if the Forums are Free, with no Real Customers
During a typical day, new members register. Also, members lose their passwords, or start and respond to topics. Furthermore, they answer older topics. People engage in private communications (if permitted on the site).
Members may disagree on something and they may do so vehemently. The site may get spam. Or someone might add violent and disturbing imagery.
The Community Manager can become involved as a content creator if content creation lags or goes too far off subject. He or she should discipline difficult members if necessary.
However, generally, a Community Manager’s main task, both daily and over the life of the online community, should be to carefully nurture and shape relationships.
Want More About Community Management?
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Here are some posts about my years in community management, and what I have learned.
Offsite sharing is a bit like old-fashioned door to door marketing. But it has a modern twist and modern metrics. Both are ideal for the independent writer of today.
… And Facebook for All — Offsite Sharing
Offsite sharing is a fascinating concept. Perhaps the most compelling feature of Facebook consists of the availability of the Like button. And it is in so many places that there are likely many end users who can scarcely recall a time when it did not yet exist.
The Like Button and Offsite Sharing
Because the offsite Like Button dovetails beautifully with its presence on the site itself, i.e.,
“The Like button lets a user share your content with friends on Facebook. When the user clicks the Like button on your site, a story appears in the user’s friends’ News Feed with a link back to your website.”
Drag and Drop
Furthermore, the site tries to make it easy for even novice programmers (and people who can really only do drag and drop) to place a Like Button on their own sites for offsite sharing.
The premise is irresistible. You add the Like Button, people like your own site, and that information transmits back to Facebook and to the likers’ friend lists.
In addition, their friends, who may not have know about you at all, suddenly do, and the offsite sharing spreads even more. They, hopefully, check you out, like you, and the process repeats on and on, ad infinitum, or at least in theory.
And with enough intersecting friends with enough non-intersecting additional friendships, a few likes could translate into dozens, if not hundreds, or even thousands, of new people who know about you.
If those start to translate into sales, then you are golden.
Engagement and Reach
However, engagement and reach are both going down. And Facebook actually has the gall to try to get people to pay for what it does. Quelle horreur!
But, seriously folks, how do you think Facebook pays its bills? They do it with advertising. If users will not be charged (and Facebook would be mighty foolish to start charging all of those free sources of detailed consumer data), then advertisers will be.
And of course that already happens.
What gets a lot of people’s undershorts knotted is that the freebie advertising is harder and harder to implement. Facebook seems to push everyone with a page to start buying likes to get more offsite sharing.
Thumb on the Scale?
Whoa, Nelly! Because that would be kind of unethical, if the site was deliberately putting a thumb on an imaginary scale and making it harder for indie authors and others to reach their fans without paying for reach and engagement.
So, are they doing that?
While the jury is still out (after years!), I am still inclined to say no. After all, the site grows by leaps and bounds on a second by second basis. And so engagement and reach dilute without Facebook having to do a damned thing.
Finally, does the site benefit from making it harder for page and group administrators to connect for free? Absolutely. But do they have to work in order to create this condition?
Probably not (or at least, not much). Life does it for them.
Offsite Sharing: Takeaways for Indie Writers
Beyond issues with Russian interference and how the Facebook algorithm can sometimes tamp down third parties, offsite sharing can work pretty well there.
Political and other paid ads, though, are another story. They are a reminder that, every year, Facebook becomes more and more of a pay to play platform.
Hence if you want to share something from off the site, or you want to sell from your site by sharing to FB, then your shared content might be lost amidst the paid stuff.
You may simply have to attribute it to life in the big Facebook city, and start paying for some ads. So be it.
Want More About Facebook?
If my experiences with Facebook resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about the largest social network on the planet, by far.
The four important social media stats are for writers and non-writers alike!
Consider These Four Important Social Media Stats
These were four important social media stats for you! This post was, in part, a riff on Four Great Free Tools and Four Important Stats. And I like the important stats. As for the four free tools, I’ll reserve judgment for another day.
These are still somewhat important, but keep in mind that the numbers have undoubtedly changed.
STAT 1 for Writers
53% of people on Twitter recommend companies and/or products in their Tweets, with 48% of them delivering on their intention to buy the product. (ROI Research for Performance, June 2010)
However does this takes into account what essentially looks like spamming (e. g. buy this stuff!) versus what seems to be more sincere mentions of products, e. g. someone says I love this new Gatorade or I think my New Balance sneakers really make me faster?
I know it can be difficult for a large-scale survey of tweets to tell the difference between the two. However, if there is that much of a return, then I figure, the people either know or, perhaps, they just don’t care.
For authors, your best bet may very well be to make sure that your work is a part of the overall conversation. But not in the way of, “A story about the president? Well, here’s my story about a turtle and a Shetland sheepdog!” It’s…probably not related. So, don’t go there.
STAT 2 for Authors
The average consumer mentions specific brands over 90 times per week in conversations with friends, family, and co-workers. (Keller Fay, WOMMA, 2010) – Just what does this mean? I mention products all the time, but it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m touting them.
Ugh, I hate what they did to my conditioner! Why did John Frieda have to change it?
And that is a far cry from I want some more of that Amy’s Low-Salt Marinara Sauce with Basil – sooo good.
Since the stat doesn’t mention whether the mentions went positive or negative, I suppose it’s a corollary to the old saw, that any press is good press. Note: sentiment analysis is better than it used to be, but still has a ways to go.
For writers, the best move may be to get a conversation centered on your work going, and keep it going.
STAT 3 for Independent Authors
Consumer reviews are significantly more trusted – nearly 12 times more – than descriptions that come from manufacturers, according to a survey of US mom Internet users by online video review site EXPO. (eMarketer, February 2010)
This is how viral marketing works, kids. Because if a company can send out its minions to tout a product, even if not 100% positively (and it’s more believable that way, as it doesn’t look like mere puffery), then folks eat that up. Astroturfing Nation, here we come.
Here’s a counter-example.
When Untrustworthy first came out, people would privately message me and tell me that they liked it. Well, this is lovely and all, but at the time, I had none or nearly no public reviews.
And so, I nicely asked those folks to please review me, preferably on Amazon. I would provide the link, of course! And even when people said it wasn’t their cup of tea, I asked them to review the book, anyway.
Why?
Because a set of 100% five-star reviews for a brand-new author looks rather suspect. Warts and all, my reviews are the real deal.
STAT 4 for Indie Writers
In a study conducted by social networking site myYearbook, 81 percent of respondents said they’d received advice from friends and followers relating to a product purchase through a social site.
74 percent of those who received such advice found it to be influential in their decision. (Click Z, January 2010)
However, this may be more of a function of the pervasiveness of social sites versus their influence. E. g. I truly only hear from some of my cousins through Facebook.
Do I give their opinions more credence than I do passing acquaintances’? Sometimes. But do I get this Facebook-based advice from them because we don’t pick up the phone or send snail mail or meet in person (we’re too far away to do this, anyway).
But to my mind, this is almost like giving the phone company credit for marketing strategy if we chat on the phone. We don’t. Instead, we use Facebook. I think this is a potential confusion of medium versus message.
For authors, your best bet is likely to involve yourself in
Where Do We Go From Here With These Four Important Social Media Stats?
So, are social sites really that important? Is X (Twitter) really that targeted? Perhaps not as much as it was. Do consumers really trust their pals more than they do slick, conventional marketers? Probably maybe, not really and yes.
Even years later, it’s up to the writer (acting as their own Social Media Marketer) to separate the wheat from the chaff with these kinds of stories, and see what’s really going on.
What do you think?
Fifteen Years After This Post Was First, Er, Posted…
… (and over five since it was last posted) keep in mind that numbers shift and, these days, Twitter is called X, anyway.
But these metrics are still good, and they are still vital. For larger businesses, getting case studies published, and getting brand ambassadors on board, is still a terrific and inexpensive way to market. For writers, that translates into reviews.
These types of marketing build trustworthiness (the ‘T‘ in Google’s E-EAT). They also help to build and bolster word of mouth, which is still a vital piece of any marketer’s strategy.
And in the world of AI, trustworthy and clear reviews and answers are a lot more likely to pass muster and be recommended by the likes of, say, Google Gemini.
So, don’t discount these metrics, okay? But do be sure to take the numbers with a grain of salt.
Writers: Do You Want More About Social Media?
If my experiences with non-platform-specific social media resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about navigating our social media obsessed world.
This post is a riff on a rather old post, Do You Know What You Look Like Online. Essentially, the question is, if you were searching for someone (someone just like you, perhaps), what sorts of judgments would you make? What seems off?
What’s being suppressed, which aspects should you be promoting, and vice versa? Is the picture clear or fuzzy?
The gist of that article is, take control of your information, keep it as a uniform brand and check it every month or so. The corollary to this is one from Shama Hyder Khabani, which is, essentially, don’t spread yourself too thin. Concentrate in only a few places.
My Own Information—What I Look Like Online
Absolutely agreed. When I google my own last name, 40,900 hits come up. And, fortunately, my own website is on page 1 (Yay, SEO!). My Entrepreneur profile (writing I did for work) comes up on the first page of results. So do my Twitter/X and LinkedIn profiles.
Also on the first page are my Facebook profile, and my Amazon author page. Get to page 2 and there’s my profile on YouTube.
Another Angle
Putting my last name into quotation marks yields 6,480 hits. All of the same usual suspects come up on Page One of the results. And nothing is too weird or scandalous. Even MuckRack, which essentially just scrapes for your name, doesn’t have anything bad.
To my mind, checking and rechecking every single month might just be a bit excessive. Is there a need to keep your profile accurate? Sure. Flattering, or at least not damaging? Yes, particularly if you are looking for work.
But to keep it sterile and perfect, as you scramble to make it perfect every moment of every day? Eh, probably not so much.
My own profile is the product of just doing a lot, and it being published. It’s easy to find flattering info on me. What I look like online is competent more than anything else. There’s nothing radical.
As for less flattering stuff, well, let’s just say that I am glad the internet wasn’t around when I was in high school.
Yikes.
But…
I would like to think (am I naïve? Perhaps I am) that potential clients and employers will see the occasional typo and will, for the most part, let it slide unless the person is in copyediting.
I am not saying that resumes, for example, should not be as get-out perfect as possible. What I am saying, though, is that this kind of obsessive and constant vigilance seems a bit, I don’t know, much.
Will the world end if I accidentally type there instead of their on this blog? And, does it matter oh so much if I don’t catch the accident immediately? Even when you consider that I’m a writer. After all, I should know better, yes?
I mean, with all of this brushing behind ourselves to cover up and/or perfect our tracks, and all of the things we are leaving behind, where’s the time and energy to make fresh, new content and look in front of ourselves?
Clean Up Your Presence
To me, there is little joy in reading a blog post or website that looks like the person who put it together was barely literate. But there is also little joy in reading sterile, obsessively perfect websites and blog posts.
A little imperfection, I feel, is a bit of letting the ole personality creep in there. Genuineness – isn’t that what the whole Social Media experience is supposed to be about, anyway?
I refuse to believe – I hope and I pray – that a bit of individuality never cost me potential jobs or any company I’ve ever worked for potential clients.
And if it has, then that saddens me, to feel that, perhaps, people are paying a lot of lip service to the genuineness of Social Media but, when the chips are down, it’s just the same ole, same ole.
Genuineness is great. One you can fake that, you’ve got it made? Please, say it ain’t so.
1. A Ghost Town 2. Land of 1,000 Flowers 3. Drama Central 4. A Circling Storm 5. A Clique
Ghost Town
Here’s what they mean. A Ghost Town is, essentially, either a more or less empty community or one without deep engagement. People may come in after an initial push and then just abandon the place.
Now, the converse to this is people who hang around forever and never seem to convert to paying customers of any sort. In a commercial enterprise, that’s no good, either.
But definitely you need for people to hang around, at least a little bit.
Land of 1,000 Flowers
The Land of 1,000 Flowers is where there is perhaps a little bit of everything but there is little connectivity.
Some of the problem could potentially be alleviated with a very good search engine, e. g. if people see that the question about who wrote Peter Rabbit has already been answered, they might just go to that answer, rather than asking it again.
Of course the downside to this is converting potential participants right back into lurkers.
Drama Central Without Management
Drama Central, ah, yes, this bit of juvenalia in a community without management. This is a byproduct of having a smaller community/one that is not too active. If there are 100 members, and one acts out, that one will loom large.
But with 1,000 members, the impact of that one person diminishes.
And with 1,000,000 members, they barely register as a blip on the screen.
And, even in a smaller community, if there are 100 members but also a good 1,000 topics are created every month, the one Drama Queen’s attention-grabbing me me me topic can be more or less swept under the rug.
However, if your users create only five or so new topics every month, guess what is gonna be front and center?
A Circling Storm
In A Circling Storm, there are a lot of entrenched factions, hostile to one another, when your community goes without management. Even in a well-moderated community, this can still happen in a Politics section (and, to a lesser extent, in a Religion section).
Hence people form strong opinions and do not want to back down.
How to handle it? I say let them argue, for the most part, but intervene if newbies are being chased off or it becomes too personal.
A Clique Without Management
A Clique, of course is a niche or fringe group that grabs and hogs the spotlight. This can be whiny teenagers (you know who you are), organic gardeners, birthers, I dunno.
They can absolutely create a self-fulfilling prophecy, e. g. if the only people they welcome are from Omaha, then those will be the ones who stick around.
And then eventually people from Poughkeepsie or wherever will not stick around and suddenly your board is filled with Nebraskans.
What to do? Well, it may seem obvious, or it may not. Manage the site! Don’t just leave it to chance!
So find a balance, and do your best to follow it, all while respecting the community and its interests, but nudging it in the proper directions if it threatens to go off-course.
You do not just have to let the boat go wherever the currents take it but, at the same time, you also need to leave the dock.
Years Later…
I still agree with a lot of this. But at the same time, the experience I have been having with Facebook has taught me that there are a lot of places where someone will just plain step up.
There are, for sure, times when the inmates really can intelligently run the asylum. And do not get me started on Twitter. Excuse me—X. Gahhh.
Want More About Community Management?
If my experiences with community management resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about how online communities work.
Here are some posts about my years in community management, and what I have learned.
Hype? Hope? Now, this subject has probably been done to death but, here I will do it all over again. Perhaps (hopefully!) my perspective will be fresh and/or of some value.
First of all, this post is inspired by The ABA Journal’s take on Social Media. As in the online magazine for lawyers. And they went on about Social Media, much like I have and others have, as well.
Hype Feeds Itself
And I can’t help feeling that that, in and of itself, is feeding the ole hype machine. Is Social Media hyped? Well, let’s put out an article about just that, and we’ll rev up the hype machine and get the word out and and and …. Suddenly, there’s hype about the hype.
Ai chihuahua.
However, there is, perhaps less of a hype issue than there is one of unrealistic expectations. I suspect that most people, if they give Social Media more than a passing glance (and, in particular, if they need to touch on it for business), take one look at it and think: free. Ooh, goody!
This marvelous free thing will supplement (and perhaps eventually supplant) all of the things I have to actually pay good money for! My wealth will increase, in an incredible and exponential manner, because I can put my advertising and marketing dollars elsewhere, outside of traditional (read: expensive) channels, and instead shove it all into some investment that catches my eye. Llama ranching, perhaps.
Traditional vs. Social Media Marketing
Okay. Let’s back up. The real thing is, Social Media marketing isn’t really an apples to apples comparison with traditional marketing. It’s more like holding a town hall meeting and seeing what people have to say about your product. Or like doing community outreach (e. g. having your company send people to work at a soup kitchen or build a house).
It’s like a million networking events. In short, it’s that dreaded, over-used term: relationship building.
And creating relationships is hard. And messy. Plus it’s not necessarily terribly free, at all.
Hype and A Sense of Entitlement
Because I have seen, in many instances, when software on a website changes. And in particular with community forums, people tend to freak out. They have a mislaid proprietary interest in a whole lotta sameness. Or they want the site to be the same from day to day, because that’s familiar to them.
Hence moving the post button from the left to the right, or changing its color, is akin to moving their cheese. So it tears at them.
But, ultimately, they figure it out. And they give it a chance and come back, and pretty soon, so far as they’re concerned things have always been the new way, and were never the old way. Because for them, it’s not about the tools; it’s about the people.
And the same thing should be true for you – and that should knock the hype right out, and for good. It’s not about the tools. It’s not about Twitter, or Facebook, or TikTok, or Groupon, or Yelp, or AirBnB, or MySpace (back in the day), or LinkedIn or StumbleUpon or Snapchat or a billion others. Instead, it’s about the people.
Want More About Social Media?
If my experiences with non-platform-specific social media resonate with you, then check out my other articles about navigating our social media obsessed world.
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