​The work I do involves personal attention. This is a hindrance to me, but a valuable and increasingly rare offering for my clients.

It hinders me because personal attention does not scale easily or infinitely. What scales well are impersonal algorithms and automated interactions… and they have caused some massive embarrassments.

For example:
> Facebook enabling advertisers to target people based on their interest in topics like "Jew hater"
> Amazon's algorithm suggesting to shoppers bomb-making ingredients that were often bought together
> Google allowing ads focused on racist keywords and automatically suggesting other bigoted words they might want to try

On a lighter note, a guitarist I know set up his Twitter account to automatically retweet messages about his lead singer. This led to him retweeting a series of posts from people who said that lead singer sucked.

These kinds of things will happen again. There is very little human oversight of these platforms. Facebook has only about one employee for every 100,000 users.

I am slower and more methodical than algorithms and automation. My work does not scale as well as they do. But there are definite advantages to that.

​According to Facebook, "A study we did found that people’s attention is 82% higher when they consumed content on smartphones compared to TVs. Similarly, distraction was 79% lower on smartphones compared to TV."

​The best content I develop comes out of conversations I have with my clients. I think in part that is because some of the best social media content has a conversational feel to it.

And my clients' best lines are often not the first things they say to me. Or even the second, third, or fourth statements.

The best material often appears further into the discussion, after a little verbal meandering. That's when you get the great insights, fascinating ideas, or wonderfully sincere comments.

You can tell with a lot of social media that people just spit something out and then move on. But to get to the good stuff you usually have to invest some time and thought and venture a little further down the road. - Cris

Serious about becoming a better drummer and / or having a career as a drummer? This event is for you. More info.

​I am experimenting with LinkedIn's Sponsored Content feature. You use it to put money behind a post from your business page. It is not an option for personal profiles.

The interface is a little clunky compared to Facebook's Ad Manager. However, it is still easier than the average software interface, which has driven more than a few people to alcoholism.

And unlike Facebook, you cannot experiment by just putting a couple of dollars behind a boost. So far the smallest daily budget it has allowed me is $15. The workaround is to fire off the campaign, monitor it, and then pause or stop it after its has spent just a few bucks.

Targeting people by job title is better than on Facebook. On LinkedIn people tend to put real job titles. On Facebook even corporate executives tend to put job titles like "Lord of the Dance".

​It seems like the Facebook algorithm will really limit the reach of your post if it features an external link. Exceptions are when you share an article from a well-known news source.

It is not as obvious as the limits it puts on posts featuring YouTube videos versus videos uploaded directly to Facebook. Still, it seems to be an issue. 

In part, this is a result of Facebook trying to crack down on the fake news mess of the last year. Also, Facebook does not want you to direct people away from Facebook.

So if you have to feature an external link in your post, ideally you should put some money behind the post, targeting followers of your page or one of your custom audiences. - Cris

In case you haven't heard, Taylor Swift and Ticketmaster have created a new ticket buying plan. Supposedly they did this to defeat bots and scalpers. 

In brief:
People sign up for this program and earn points. The more points you have, the closer you will be to the front of the virtual line when the tickets go on sale. 

You accumulate points by repeatedly buying her new album (yes, they suggest you buy it more than once) and her merchandise.

Summary:
People are really angry. In my opinion, instead of having scalpers fleece her fans, she has decided to fleece them herself. Ironically, given how young her average fan is, I think scalpers are the only people who can afford to participate in this program. - Cris

An article about it:
http://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-reputation-tour-tickets-fans-upset-2017-8

​Music videos usually show the people performing the song and / or some sort of interpretation of the song. Maybe it is a literal representation of the lyrics or maybe it is more esoteric, creative imagery that captures the feeling of the tune. 

They don't make music videos that just show the words "buy this", "order now", and "on sale" throughout the song. Primarily because that would suck.

Many of these same musicians have social media channels where they do not really talk about their music, their lyrics, or their songwriting. Instead their feeds are basically a stream of messages saying "buy this", "order now" and "on sale". 

I think they have a lot more to offer their followers. I wish they would. - Cris

​The story goes that the writer George S. Kaufman was at a dinner party where one lady monopolized the conversation by talking incessantly. Eventually Kaufman said to her, "Madam, do you have any unexpressed thoughts?"

Many people, businesses, and bands market themselves like the lady at the party. They try to drown out everyone else by posting constantly, even though they don't have anything to say. 

But that is not communicating. That's just noise.

Better are the people who post less frequently, but post things that are interesting, entertaining, or thought-provoking. - Cris