Blog
Not quite entirely random thoughts and ephemera from a graphic designer and technophile living in Los Angeles.
All I want for Christmas…
I wish these new social media apps popping up trying to pull eyeballs from Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook would embrace one thing: you must have an API that’s supported by the social media management platforms like HootSuite, Buffer, and Sendible. I’d be posting on VERO True Social and others if Sendible and Heropost – Social Media Management Tool supported them. Supporting Google Business Profile was a deciding factor because so few of these apps supported posting to GMB. Vero has been around for YEARS with no API or third-party support? Massive fail.
Twitter struggles with profitability?
Twitter has 396,500,000 users worldwide.
https://thesocialshepherd.com/blog/twitter-statistics
In the second quarter of 2022, Twitter generated total advertising revenues of approximately one billion U.S. dollars, down from 1.1 billion U.S. dollars in the previous quarter.
https://www.statista.com/…/twitter-revenue-quarter…/
Twitter’s Global Revenue was Nearly $3.72 Billion in 2020
https://thesocialshepherd.com/blog/twitter-statistics
Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) does not pay a dividend to shareholders.
https://www.wallstreetzen.com/stocks/us/nyse/twtr/dividends
Twitter cash on hand for the quarter ending June 30, 2022 was $6.121B, a 28.89% decline year-over-year.
https://www.macrotrends.net/…/TWTR/twitter/cash-on-hand
What percent of users are paying $4.99 per month for Blue? I’m having trouble finding that number.
Where’s the money going?
What am I missing?
Social Media is destroying our liberal democracy.
In the early days of social media, one of the promises was the democratization of the media. The problem is, the democratization of the media assumes everyone is acting in good faith and doing the work of vetting sources.
What we got was the democratization of the media, yes. But we also got trolls and bad actors propagating lies and misinformation, both intentionally and from being duped by people they trust. Lies mixed with truth in your news feed result in nothing being reliable, so people trust their instincts.
Confirmation bias and the Dunning-Kruger effect kick in. So what we have now is low-information hot takes, not thoughtful discourse. But it is thoroughly democratized. Everyone’s hot take is equal to everyone else’s hot take. Facts have become irrelevant and everyone is experiencing information overload.
Yesterday, Musk re-tweeted a conspiracy theory post about Pelosi’s husband hiring a male prostitute.
So much for Musk’s purchase of Twitter raising the level of discourse in social media. (I know that isn’t something he promised.)
Musk is the perfect example of the problem. And now he’s running Twitter.
As a social media manager, I wish the tools like HootSuite and Sendible supported more social media platforms. Vero and Mastodon come to mind, but there are several others I might like to leverage for myself and my clients.
Facebook needs to be broken up. There is no reason one company should be able to control Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. (Don’t get me started on their “metaverse”…)
The only social media platform I’ve seen that has any kind of reasonable level of discourse is Reddit. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Parler, and so many others are just dumpster fires.
Until we can put more limits on our First Amendment right to free speech and enforce penalties for spreading lies and misinformation, things are only going to get worse.
I know, I know. Social media isn’t destroying our liberal democracy. The problem is the people, not the platforms. Disinformation and propaganda have always been with us. Social media platforms are just facilitating it faster than ever before.
Brave politicians must take a stand, work across the aisle, and get this dumpster fire of a situation under control. And citizens need to learn a little bit of discipline. And schools must teach critical thinking skills and problem-solving instead of teaching to the test.
Leaving Los Angeles
As of April 11, I’ll be located in Phoenix, AZ! After living in LA for about 15 years, it is time to try something new.
Several factors contributed to the decision to relocate, but the main reason is the high cost of living here.
I’ll miss the friends I have made and being close to the beach. But I won’t miss LA’s traffic congestion, California’s ridiculous proposition system, or the state income tax.
California, so long. And thanks for all the fish.
I know today is April 1, but this isn’t a joke. The high cost of living in LA is beyond all reason.
Domain Name Registration Scam Alert
If you get this bill in the mail from “United States Domain Authority”, tear it up and throw it away. It may look official, but I guarantee you it is not. They are attempting to dupe people into renewing a domain name registration through them instead of your actual registrar. They are not your registrar! It is a scam and should be illegal for deceptive practices. If in doubt, contact your web hosting or web design people to verify. But NEVER NEVER NEVER pay a bill just because it looks official and scary. Caveat emptor!
Facebook Memories
This bit of silliness popped up on Facebook Memories this morning.
For more about this Hilton Garden Inn photoshoot, go here.
MailChimp WTF
Mailchimp has been driving me crazy.
First, a scheduled campaign would send fine for months. Then it stopped even though we hadn’t made any changes. I finally figured out we could force MailChimp to send if we put the campaign on pause, created a new blog post, then unpaused — hardly the automated solution they advertise.
Now, MailChimp randomly sent a weeks old blog post on its own.
I mean, we’re using the free version, but this behavior is just awful and doesn’t make me want to pay for the service just so tech support can say they’re working on it.
2/10 not recommended for this feature.
VOIP phone spam
I get a large number of calls to my cell phone from numbers I don’t recognize. Without fail, answering those numbers means I get the privilege of hearing unsolicited sales. My Samsung phone recently pushed an update/app called Call Screener. Using that app, I see these calls all come from VOIP numbers. If you have legitimate business with me and are using VOIP, you better leave a message or call from a different number. I am routinely putting all VOIP numbers on block now. Thank you, Samsung!
Maybe wait a bit before upgrading to WordPress 5.5
If your website runs on WordPress, you might want to hold off on updating to 5.5. Review your theme and plugins to be sure they are current and checked to be 100% compatible. Running old/outdated themes and plugins is the main cause of problems when upgrading to WordPress 5.5.
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpress-5-5-issues/377851/
The Expanse is the best sci-fi series I’ve seen in a long time.
Season 4 of The Expanse is available on Amazon Prime Video. I just re-watched seasons 1 through 3. This is the best sci-fi series I’ve seen since I don’t know when, maybe Firefly. Check it out!
