Let’s all stop with the likes, hearts and emojis

May 18, 2024 by

Likes, Hearts and Emoji Responses Waste Time

We all live in a social media world. We all review our notifications from various platforms – which can take time. My main ones are Facebook, Alignable, and Nextdoor. Want to save everyone (including yourself) time? Stop liking, thumbs-upping, or adding an emoji to all posts. This goes double for group texts or really any texts. For anyone who creates any kind of content the time it takes to scroll through to get through to useful engagement (actual text, voice response, or what have you) is significant and could be saved. But we all have to play along to make this work!

If you’d like to participate in a meaningful way on something I post – please say something or just move along!  This will save you time, too. Because once you respond with an emoji, you’re likely to get notified yourself anytime anything happens on that post.  You don’t want that!  So, skip the liking for everyone’s sake – especially your own. Our time is precious, let’s not waste it because developers have created a “feature”. Thank you for considering. If you have thoughts on this, please comment below!

Over the years I’ve written extensively about using various social media. If you search on the one you’re curious about on my site you can find articles on how to use Facebook, Nextdoor, and Alignable in ways you probably haven’t thought of yet!  Try that search bar (also on social media, btw – the search functions are phenomenal).

Have a great day! Enjoy your time!

Albert (art in this piece by my friend, Zen Achilles)

PS – here are useful reasons for liking a piece of online comment.
1. Indicating you’ve seen a response, but nothing more.

 

 

Filed Under: Facebook

Facebook Friend Culling

October 22, 2020 by
https://www.andysinger.com/

Cartoon by the wonderful Andy Singer!

Tending Your Lists

After watching The Social Dilemma I became overwhelmed with a desire to both spend less time on FB and also to lessen the # of friends I have on there. I explained this in my 10.11.2020 The Eleven newsletter thusly:

“Years ago I followed the advice of a fellow marketer regarding social media and accepted the friendships of thousands of people I didn’t know. The idea was that everyone would become an audience for my marketing business (part of which was teaching classes on how to use social media). Over the years my work has shifted away from social media, and after watching the new documentary The Social Dilemma, it occurred to me that it is a great time to reconsider the # of “friends” I have = 4,470.
I recommend doing this next step
A couple of days ago on FB I clicked on “friends”. From that viewpoint, one can see all of the people one is connected to. Then, I started culling. I’m at 2,330. It’s interesting. Beyond saying goodbye to a lot of people I barely know (if at all), I’m also coming across people who I haven’t thought of in a while and am reaching out to say hi and reconnect. I’ve always found FB useful as a networking/staying-in-touch tool.
I thought I’d share this since I’m finding the process interesting. If I’ve culled you and you want back in just send me a friend request :)”
—-

10.22.2020: 741 FB friends.  Some observations and upsides

  1. My FB newsfeed is entirely different now. It’s filled with postings from people I know. It’s also moving a lot more slowly. I still use FB Purity which allows one to customize your FB experience – for instance, I see things in the order they’re posted. Install this app and you will be a happier FB user = no advertising.
  2. Having so many FB friends played into some of my weaknesses. I kept a lot of people on there thinking – ah, potential date when that was really not the case 🙂  Or, staying friends with certain celebrities – what actual good was that doing me?  I detached from a number of people who have close to 5K friends (actually, Michael Lerner who had 5,000 🙂  It’s not that I don’t love these people anymore, I just won’t see them in my newsfeed 🙂  This is true for both the people who I never met and those who I did years and years ago – old HS connections who I have no reason to stay in touch with; people who I burned with or shared a night with on the playa in 2003… All great memories and I still get to keep those, and I know that I can always find people if I want to 🙂
  3. There is definitely an addictive quality to FB like they talk about in the Social Dilemma, and as I unfriended people I could feel the pressure to not do this. FB actually makes it difficult to unfriend people. There’s a way they make the actual move to unfriend someone when you’re looking at your friends from the “friends” page difficult. The pull-down menu jiggles and is hard to actually click on!  They are so clever.  They also stopped me two times when I hit the “700 unfriendings in one day” limit. I got a message that my account had been blocked and I’d have to run through a series of steps to reconnect. It was super eerie, but I suppose not a bad thing, either.
  4. I also partly went through this effort to get to the other side and see what life is like for most people. I often hear from someone – you probably saw my recent important update on FB.  I never did. Never. So, perhaps now I’ll be a little more in touch with the people I’m closer with. We’ll see 🙂  I partly want to really keep moving away from FB and towards more IRL experiences – even with Covid keeping us apart.
  5. FB is very useful for introducing people to one another. With a smaller group of friends, I’ll probably be able to see people I’m closer to stand out more and be able to help them more. I just noticed when I posted this blog post to FB that the people who popped up to respond were a closer set of friends than usual – and I was able to see the power of the people I’ve kept around.
  6. Oooh, this means that I’ll see a lot fewer people whose birthday is today 🙂  I love wishing people happy birthday and having an email that goes to those on my list on their birthday which people love. Now, way fewer people to wade through. Love this.
  7. Yeah, I think having my group of friends on FB be the ones I’m closer with is going to be a good thing. Whew, a little relief there that this wasn’t a huge mistake 🙂
  8. 10.23.2020: I’m noticing a few things I hadn’t noticed before—way fewer notifications. Way fewer friends online to chat to. That part has gone from 3-500 people to 77 right now 11:30 am.
  9. 10.27.2020 – I still post to FB, but I notice that the responses are from people I’m closer to – this has changed the quality of my responses.  Also, I notice my newsfeed has so much less on it, it’s a lot more attractive to check 🙂
  10. 1.30.2021 – I’m segmenting my lists – I’ve written about making FB Friends lists in the past – it’s still a useful thing. Having a smaller list to look through brings me face-to-face with a lot richer collection (to me) of faces.  Reminding me who to reach out to and causing more connection through that. 
  11. 1.2.23 – I’m finding I’m also taking time to send happy New Year’s greetings to those with whom I feel drawn to do that with. That’s a sweet side effect – bringing me closer to those who I do want to stay connected with – and perhaps deepening our connection. 
  12. 1.2.23 – I’m probably repeating myself – but this year I’m noticing quite a few of my friends have passed away. People I really loved a lot. This gives me a moment to send them a lovely NYE note and well wishes. I like doing that. It’s been quite a day.
  13. 10.19.23 – I’ve heard from close friends and relatives over the years “Well, you must have seen my important post about X?” For years, no, there was no way for me to see their important posts. So, recently, I’ve unfollowed just about every one of my FB friends. This took me a while to do, but has led to a feed that is now full of the people’s posts who I’m closest to. It’s probably more of what Facebook intends for people to experience. Since I also use Facebook Purity (highly recommended), I don’t see advertising, and also see the most recent posts first (one of the FB Purity settings that you can set). So, I’m having a much better Facebook experience after all of this cutting and pruning! Feel free to add any thoughts in the comments section below.

I’m sure I’ll add more insights to this article as I have them. I feel like I’ve just landed in a new place and I’m excited to see how it’s different. So far it feels calmer.

Downsides to doing this:

  1. A thought I’ve had over the years is that when I’m older (70+) I’ll probably want to spend more time reconnecting with people who titillated me once upon a time. I just said goodbye to lots of people, so I won’t have the easily accessible group that I had 2 weeks ago to choose from.
  2. My FB live concerts will not reach as many people and have the chance to spread. I’ve noticed as I’ve played some recent FB live shows that I haven’t had the bigger audience I’ve become accustomed to. Oh well 🙂
  3. My business offerings might not have as wide a reach via the newsfeed as they once did. Oh well 🙂  Luckily, I’ve been building my email list like gangbusters over the years 🙂

Thanks for listening. I’d love to know your thoughts. Please leave them in the comments area below.

Happy Facebooking. Happy living. Albert

PS – Next up, same thing for LinkedIn 🙂 – 1.30.2021 – I’ve decided not to do this on LinkedIn, especially now that they’ve put together Lunchclub.

PPS – 10.23.2020 – Ooooh, under settings look what I found! More places to limit the FB monster’s reach into my life 🙂 

12.16.2020 – I was in a video discussion related to this topic with Gary Ware and Apryl Schlueter.

1.2.23 – Happy New Year – I find myself doing another culling today. It really feels very freeing. There are tons of people who aren’t using FB very much. Removing them from my friend’s list feels like a little shedding that is clearing. I recommend doing this once a  year at least. 

Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

5 Facebook Surprises

October 15, 2015 by 1 Comment

5 Facebook Surprises

You may know that I’m a peculiar fan of Facebook. I use it more than most people – but some of the ways I am on there are probably different than most. I do not think it’s a very good marketing tool, for instance. I find the more I poke around in the corners, the more interesting things I learn. Here are 5 ways that I experience Facecrack that might illuminate what’s going on on there and help guide you to a more improved experience. I also have a webinar that goes step by step through some of this – it’s a bit long, but I promise you’ll learn some things 🙂

  1. Facebook is an incredible networking tool. If you want to find someone – I’d use LinkedIn (and that’s another article in the works), but if you want to connect friends who need to meet (you matchmaker, you!) – or coordinate something, Facebook works great. I use the chat area all the time – sometimes just looking at a friend who’s on-line will prompt me to remember that I needed to talk to them about X, Y, or Z. In a way, it mirrors email’s ability to connect people – but that visual of someone’s face I think elevates the interest we all have in connecting and makes it practicable and immediately possible. Try this sometime – start a chat with a few people on the sidebar at the same time. Who do you know that needs to meet someone else that you know and for what purpose? Introduce them. Go! Report back if you have any great results 🙂
  2. Create lists. I talk about how to do this here, but I now want to add that the lists that you create can also be used for selectively sharing your posts. Once you’ve created a sub-list of your friends – this makes viewing your newsfeed a completely different experience. For one thing – you can now see everything that person(s) has posted rather than accept what Facebook’s algorithm feeds you. And, you can also use that list in the pull-down of (public, friends, etc.) who can see your post.  Example: you want to keep friends and family members separate? Create a list of just family – post things you want them to see and choose that list – and vice versa – want to share with just your friends – post to your Friends list (the one you create, not the “automatic” one that FB creates for you.
  3. Play around with Facebook. When you start experimenting, you find things that are possible, and possibly useful that you would never find otherwise. For instance, regarding fan/business pages – which I think are about as useful as a yellow pages ad these days – you can make a post that reaches a certain demographic only, without paying anything extra. Just want to reach 45-year old women? Here’s how. (it turns out this is not available on all pages!)

    Step one: create post and use the pull-down arrow

    Step one: create post and use the pull-down arrow

    Step 2: choose your demograhic

    Step 2: choose your demograhic
  4. Take a Facebook purification tool for a test sometime. I’m using something called Facebook Purity. The interface looks like this and it allows me to kill all advertising and do some other customization of my experience. There are a few tools out there – try one and see what you think. I love that I can set my newsfeed to most recent news, automatically.  I guess what I’m saying is – if you’re going to spend a bunch of time on FB, learn more of the ins and outs of it 🙂

    FB Purity, free tool super helpful! https://www.fbpurity.com/

    FB Purity, free tool super helpful! https://www.fbpurity.com/

  5. Get some training on how to use Facebook well. It will make such a difference. I teach free classes on email marketing and social media on a fairly regular basis – and there are tons of resources out there, too – search Youtube – spend a little time – once you figure out how to get past some of the more frustrating aspects you’ll see a bit more of how useful FB can be.Some things to learn next: how to unfollow someone without unfriending them. Decide what you’re on FB for – just close-knit friends and family or everyone under the sun (I’ve gone for the latter). This makes a big difference in your experience.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Facebook fan/business pages are dead unless you pay to advertise

September 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Zero people saw this Facebook post!

Facebook Business Pages are Dead

or this one, 3.8.16

Screenshot 2016-03-08 20.57.57

That’s it. I’m calling it.  I’ve been saying this ever since Facebook changed it’s algorithm after going public. And now the results of posting on a fan page have dropped to a point I didn’t think was possible. Here’s more proof. If you have the time and money to advertise on your fan page you may get more engagement/sales/attention/etc. But for the time being, organic reach has disappeared. These pages are great as yellow pages ads, though.

If you’ve got a great following – you’re getting tons of natural engagement because you have a fun following – for example, Keep Portland Weird has a page that regularly gets their posts shared like crazy. They are probably a perfect fit for Facebook. But for small businesses, I think it’s now a waste of time to post on your page.

This is why I’m continuing to place more and more of my time and effort into email marketing. I wrote about this decision a little while ago, here.

Though I’m down on business pages, I still think Facebook is good for a few things. It’s an excellent networking tool. Here are 5 Facebook Surprises.

Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: , , , , ,

All You Wanted to Know about Facebook But Were Afraid To Ask

February 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment

The Eleven

Hi there,

Yes, it’s The Eleven, a little early, but I have something exciting that I want you to know about. Besides my new effort to Do Something Today to Right the World!

Facebook. Huh. What is it good for? Absolutely … many things 🙂  Do you wonder what to do while you’re there, perhaps? You might have questions about how to use your fan/business page to your best advantage. You might be wondering what the best ways are to stay connected to those to who you are closest. In general, it would be great to know how to navigate Facebook so that you waste less time and get more out of the time you do spend there. Right?

Enter Albert Kaufman, also known as the Facebook Guru. Yes, I’ve spent more time than your average human both teaching about and using Facebook. And I have tips and tricks to share that will make your experience more streamlined and interesting. I’m offering a low-cost webinar on Monday 2.9.15 at 11 am PST. Come join me online and learn a few of my moves.  I also have a free in-person class on 2.12 – featuring my friend, Tshombe Brown. We’re both huge fans of the Portland Fruit Tree Project and I’m sure this class will be scintillating! Forward this to a friend you know who could use a hand with their online marketing, please.

Red

In other news – I’ve been having fun learning about terrariums from a new friend down the street, Gregg Harris of Roosevelt’s Terrariums. I’ve started making my own.

I’ve been noticing the new public art along Division Street and elsewhere around Portland. It seems like there’s been a slew of new sculptures and murals in my neighborhood, recently. I’m also working to remove billboards.
And then there’s the ongoing – ecstatic dancing – oh, I got to sing and play guitar outside around a campfire during the full moon the other night, that was incredible! And, I’m continuing my love affair with NextDoor.com – a great way to get connected to your neighbors :)Pictured on the right is Marcia Wiley – the maker of Wileyware on a recent visit to Stumptownlandia!

That’s all for today. I hope life is treating you well and that it’s full of love, hope, visions, friends, dreams, good health, great food, and happiness!

All you need is love,

Albert

join my ml

Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Happy Hour Class 11/26 in Portlandia – Come learn how to tune up your FB Biz Page

November 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment

facebook-fan-pageHello, if you’ve been waiting for an evening Facebook Business Page class – this ones for you!

https://www.facebook.com/events/193941420730924/

Bring your laptop or watch on the big screen!

I’ve been presenting classes on Facebook strategies lately. Come to this class if you’d like a refresher on some of the basics given new Facebook changes. We’ll talk about how to tune up your page, advertising, sponsored stories, promoting posts, and what can be done with your fan/business page to help build your business.

We’ll gather in my living room, I’ll present, and you can watch it unfold on the big screen. You can use a notepad or feel free to bring your laptop. There is free Wi-Fi.

Snacks and drinks for others are always a welcome contribution. I’ll provide tea and perhaps we’ll create a cocktail to go with the class!

Cost: $30
Cash, Check, or Paypal

6 pm-8:30 pm (possibly longer if needed)
Happy Clam: 1823 NE 13th Ave.
Easy access via the 8, 77, Max, and the I-5 Rose Quarter exit

If you have any questions post them here or email albertkaufman@gmail.com

Referrals are always greatly appreciated! Feel free to invite people who you think would benefit from this class!

Albert Kaufman

PS – please sign up for my monthly newsletter if you’re not already subscribed!

https://tinyurl.com/signupforthe-eleven

——————————————–

My recent slideshow presentation

https://albertideation.com/slideshow/

Here’s an outline of what I’ve done in the past. We’ll definitely cover some of these areas and there will be plenty of time for Q&A

https://albertideation.com/facebook-classes/

Here’s an article I’m finding fascinating and gives you the basics of distinguishing your personal and business profiles…

https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/integrating-your-facebook-page-with-your-facebook-profile/

Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: , , , ,
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