Love and Loss in the post-modern era
For a while, I rather enjoyed the mutable nature of various forms of social media feeds. The problem being, for me? I’ve seen too many giants come — and go — like fads, and I wonder if that’s all a particular “social media” is.
Love and loss amongst the social media apps. I’ve noted this before, but I refuse to have an amazon or facebook (or almost any other) “app” on my phone or tablet. Too invasive. Before Apple tightened the security, sharing, and tracking ability with — facebook comes to mind — the app had access to location, metrics, and whole ton of other information.
Last time I was at the rock shop in Austin, I asked about the app they promoted, “Get the Nature’s Treasures app” (for all your shopping needs!)
My buddy behind the counter, he mentioned a name, and then allowed as how that the app was a just a front-end and dumped the retail website’s data, so it was just as easy, less invasive to use a web browser.
As noted before, that’s what I do, (cf., Sagittarius here).
Currently, the only social media app active on my phone is “insta,” and only for a diversion, for times when I’m stuck in line someplace, and I need a temporary relief, funny pictures of cats, bad astrology memes, and the latest moral outrage from either the left or the right. Don’t use it much — ulcer’s been acting up — my tummy is sensitive to political crap.
What I’ve found, and my career path, disjointed, corrupted, aimless as it appears?
Simple guideline that’s works, so far? A simple domain name.
From that, build out a site that includes some kind of blog motor, either integral in the original or hanging off to one side. Either way works. But a single name.
The complex part starts when that domain has to feed the various media giants, currently LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, Insta, etc.
The New York Times ran a front page piece about the decline and possible fall of current media giants, with some posting as much as a recent 60% loss in value.
Perhaps giant AOL is as good an example as any. It started a market, captured that market, and then, succumbed to takeover wars, and went on life-support during the first dot-bust. At the time, I was in a trailer park in old Austin, I was rewarded handsomely for content.
Got caught in the corporate fray, and my cash cow with AOL was a casualty during the winnowing process. However, the website was already underway, carrying its own weight.
Poking at a link on some page, someplace, not following my own advice, I stumbled into page about website names, and found out, I’ve been at ASTROFISH.NET for 24 years.
The face of what’s there has changed, as the tools improve. The tools change, and on any given Sunday? The traffic might be more mobile phone rather than tablet or browser. I prefer the larger screen, but that might be me.
When I was first tapped for AOL, mid-90’s? The boss suggested I take down my own website, and just put everything on AOL’s channel. I demurred, and in the eventual contract, I didn’t sell rights, just use of, or something. I maintained my own site, what little traffic it got, for those several years. Money rolled in. AOL paid rather well.
Then the internet crashed.
The site, although, what it looks like now , and what it looked like then, all of that is very different, the pointers have been the same. As an adjunct to the two questions?
With its slippery slope, and ever-changing format demands, the way to handle the constant shift in “social media” is to have a central hub, someplace. Those feeds can reach whatever the popular sites are, the material can be evenly distributed, but the locations are ever-changing.
Remember Tumbler and even MySpace?
Love and Loss in the post-modern era
Couple of authors I enjoy? I’m always thrilled when I figure out that those guys run their own sites. There’s always a point of contact, and then, rather letting a leveraged, annotated, and impish “marketing department” run that point of contact? A simple author connection.
One was really fun, clearly running on pre-Y2K technologies. Worked well enough, delivered up-to-date content. Probably painful to manage, but that’s not my problem.
Getting married to one social media? That is problematic at best, as it’s too easy to get booted, or the company crumbles, as they seem to all experience love and loss these days.
I accidentally fell into this job, sort of backed into it, and even now? I don’t know the exact road to success, but what has worked? Starts with a simple URL, or content, and build out from there.
As Shakespseare said?
“Good artists copy; great artists steal.”
Rock Shop