Post ASY0naZ4dV19Z2fmCW by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #ASXx9YbgCGEE2u6ydE by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T18:59:07Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
625 of of the top 1,000 Twitter advertisers have pulled their ad dollars.This is a huge drop!Ad revenue went from around $127 million to just over $48 million, according to the data.Elon Musk is trying to make up for the falling ad revenue with Twitter Blue, but not enough people are willing to fork over their cash. Can this get any more embarrassing?https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/10/tech/twitter-top-advertiser-decline/index.html
(DIR) Post #ASXx9ZFjnKGs38qy4O by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T19:05:40Z
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Even Fortune 500 companies need to re-visit the notion of an ENTIRE social media platform being owned by one entity. What’s happened with Twitter is a failure of how our modern communications systems are built. If it can happen to Twitter, it can happen to every Big Social platform.
(DIR) Post #ASXx9ZjA1vo5WOcSvo by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T19:11:36Z
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What do I think should happen next?First, let’s get rid of the whole notion of advertising driven by surveillance. Most people don’t like it. Until now, they’ve tolerated it because they were getting free stuff. But now, the cost of “free” is becoming more obvious by the day. It’s time to upset the modern online advertising industry, and move to a different model.
(DIR) Post #ASXx9aHtwlb1G8sD56 by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T19:15:55Z
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It’s also time to acknowledge something that becomes truer each day:People don’t want to buy “product”. They care about causes. This is because:1. If everything is now “good enough” that you’re competing on price, you’ll probably not win that battle.2. They care about how whatever you do makes the world a better placeUltimately, I don’t think a better world can be achieved through surveillance capitalism.
(DIR) Post #ASXx9anS3SpipzdPG4 by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T19:24:24Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
The original promise of social media—why I wanted to work in this industry—was better human-to-human connections. At some point Twitter inserted their algorithms as middlemen, and soon Twitter became about human-to-algorithm-to-human connections. This became so due to a pathological need for Twitter to control the social graph. But also, advertisers.Now that advertisers are fleeing, maybe we can return to human-to-human connections on social media!
(DIR) Post #ASXx9cGYaji1OYGAGO by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T19:39:21Z
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The big conundrum of social media is that the *intent* is for human-to-human connections.But at some point, organizations have to join. And why?Because organizations are a critical aspect of human-to-human connections.The problem, though, is that most organizations are based on the notion of a "fictional person" (e.g., a corporation). That now complicates the pure human-to-human intent.
(DIR) Post #ASXx9dmqw98Y70NTF2 by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T19:45:59Z
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This is a bigger discussion than social media itself, but permit this aside.It's not so much that corporations, in and of themselves, are evil.The real evil is *why* they exist.Hear me out.Corporations mostly exist so people can say something like, "Oh, this isn't mine. This is the property of a fictional person. I merely work for that fictional person -- so don't sue me!"
(DIR) Post #ASXy5TtvqlXQFPGl8a by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T19:54:37Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
The reason social media becomes awful when organizations join is because the people who work for them (for often legitimate reasons) want to hide the fiction of a corporation. So they create accounts for brands.Guess what? People don't want to talk to brands. They want to talk to people.Therefore, brands have to do the impossible: they must convince others that they're *real people* -- even though the real people running the brands are hiding behind the facade of a corporate identity.
(DIR) Post #ASXy5VPsDUgMwlDmYy by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T19:56:27Z
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But the growth of brands on social media creates a further problem:1. People are so used to brands now, that they talk to real people as though they are brands2. Brands are aspirational, so people seek to *become* brandsHence the rise of the social media influencer as well as the "personality brand".
(DIR) Post #ASXzLEKVbykyXcm2kK by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T20:03:28Z
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Is the Fediverse free from the problem of "brands"?Nope!Take myself. I've had to massively change what I share on this account.When you gain any kind of following, people hold you to a higher standard of accountability. So you have to watch everything you say in case it's perceived beyond your core intent.You also have to be careful about your personal life because not everyone is kind.The effect? Social media influencers and personal brands.
(DIR) Post #ASXzLEsBalhAE4WwEq by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T20:06:07Z
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Why do brands exist? Why do influencers? Why do people create personal brands on social media?For that matter, why do ads exist?Partially, I believe this is due to the fact social media technology does *not* align with Dunbar's number:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number
(DIR) Post #ASXzLFShP0u03Jc69Q by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T20:10:31Z
1 likes, 2 repeats
Social media is intended for human-to-human connections.Problem is that, while social media scales, Dunbar's number does not. The more people you talk to on social media, the harder it is to perceive everyone as a unique person with a complex and nuanced life.Add corporations, brands, algorithms, bots, etc. into the mix?Social media becomes less effective at the task of human-to-human connections.
(DIR) Post #ASY0nZXyQ6XkPL9Nqa by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T20:16:49Z
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How to alleviate the problem of Dunbar's number, and the need to perceive humans as humans on social media? Funny enough, this is where I think organizations (work, community, leisure) becomes critical.Organizations need to create their own Fediverse instances.That's right. Start with a base where you already know people. You talk and interact with them every day. You see your neighbour Susan on the Fediverse. She sees you. You're talking to each other as humans.
(DIR) Post #ASY0na3AY7Ury5kITI by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T20:22:49Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
On the Fediverse, I don't think there should be a Wendy's account that pretends to be a person.I don't want to see an official Wendy's account.(Although @Wendys is quite funny.)I do think there should be a wendys.social, and that people who speak on behalf of Wendy's should have an account there. I know! Wendy's probably won't buy into that notion!
(DIR) Post #ASY0naZ4dV19Z2fmCW by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T20:30:04Z
1 likes, 2 repeats
I may sound like an idealist, but I hope that we can all pressure organizations into creating their own instances.This is a dramatic change from how social media was previously done. But ultimately, it's better for the future of social media.
(DIR) Post #ASY0rZxOpyEsq0xBuS by zleap@qoto.org
2023-02-10T20:31:26Z
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@atomicpoet Agreed, how can we kick this off, should someone join an instance first so they can be here and ask for help or adviice
(DIR) Post #ASY1AS28WNDnlWAUjI by atomicpoet@mastodon.social
2023-02-10T20:34:49Z
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@zleap We need to be advocates for the Fediverse in our places of work, in our neighbourhoods, and in our leisure groups.It should be a matter of, "Hey, our organization doesn't have a Fediverse instance. Let's change that."
(DIR) Post #ASY3QVVnYXEd5xpHxw by ProgGrrl@bbq.snoot.com
2023-02-10T20:44:42Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@atomicpoet @zleap i’m hoping that eventually some businesses will start that will offer organizations plug and play instance set up, admin, and moderation.
(DIR) Post #ASY3Xp2PMDU5gHZEBc by zleap@qoto.org
2023-02-10T21:01:29Z
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@ProgGrrl @atomicpoet well mastohost et al do offer managed hostimg surely a business could employ someone who can use fedi and knows culture and lore (as in how things work here) to run the instance, connect, follow, answer questions etc.