#this post is my personal venting and gathering feedback from my audience

[phoenixyfriend]

A friend is suggesting I set up a sideblog just for politics, which people could then set push notifications for and not have the posts get lost in the muck of a busy dash, or not see it because they've blacklist filtered #seIf reblog and so they don't see the repeat of the Important-ish Political Posts.

Which would probably help with the smaller issue of people not seeing the posts, but less so with the issue of people not sharing them...

At the least, would you guys like a sideblog for this stuff?

A lot has been happening today that rep calls could affect. UN vetoes, KOSA, Julian Assange, UNRWA's funding crisis and Israel's demands that it be completely dismantled, the large number of bills we just learned are on the docket for the coming week, and even the good news that is recent successes by the BDS movement.

And like... I care about this stuff. I want to talk about it. But it takes an emotional and mental toll to do it, and it takes time, and... there are two reasons to write up reference, update, information posts:

Compensation. I'm not a journalist, but if I were, I would in theory be getting paid for the information I collect and share to my audience. However, I am not, and am doing this for free. I have gotten maybe $5 in donations since I started this project, and while I recognize that this is probably because people are (quite rightly) donating instead to Palestinian charities or local campaigns or something, it's a basic fact that I am not actually being compensated for this work.

Promoting change and activism. This is in fact my main goal: to have a positive impact on current events by giving people a guide on the news and politics because there's so much happening that's hard to keep track of, and if I'm already doom-listening to half a dozen political podcasts, I might as well save other people the trouble, right?

The thing is, like... most of the reblogs on my guidelines and helpful posts are from me, to me. I am the one reblogging. I am desperately trying to get these things to circulate so I can make a difference, but... no dice. Some of the posts are admittedly pretty long (my 'how to call your reps, here's some verbiage' post is 3.4k words), and I can imagine some people are saving it for later, and then maybe forget, or they don't want to share something controversial, and like... I do get that. I do.

But it does mean the posts aren't circulating, and thus they're having less of an impact, and I can't help but feel like there are other things I could be doing to help that would be more effective. More bang for my buck, except it's my time and effort instead of my money. Like, maybe it would have more an effect if I hunted down a wider variety of elected officials I could bother instead of instructing other people on how to bother theirs? Maybe going to protests (which would be a huge commitment due to distance) would be more effective than trying to help ensure that the effectiveness of "I actually have a vote and you are losing it" of calls has the weight of numbers behind it.

Especially since I did try to blaze it, and tumblr mods rejected the post. I don't know why. It's not against ToS, since none of it was disinformation or election interference, which is the only reason given on the FAQ for why things might not be approved for blazing, but who knows.

Maybe tumblr just decided the possible blowback on them for blazing a pro-ceasefire post would be too much.

I don't know. I just... it's just really disheartening to try to help and it gets stymied because, as much effort as it might be, it doesn't reach more than a (comparatively) tiny audience, especially when my relatively low-effort polls and shitposts get easily ten times as many notes with way less energy put in.

[academla]

Hey guys! I'm taking a break from tumblr etc until everything dies down, but I just wanted to say a few things. ("Few things" guarantees an essay complete with references to sociological concepts, by the way.)

First of all, I fell prey to the online game of telephone. Rather than firmly tell my friend that I didn't want to hear about it in the first place, because it wasn't really that necessary for me to know, I got angry because it was my understanding that there was legit hate going on, and not just "oh I don't like this story." Every time I was like okay okay it's fine, I heard something new that this person had apparently said about me. So it did rile me up.

To be fair I did ask my friend to not tell me, and I kind of literally told them to shut the fuck up about it bc it was making things worse, and I told them I didn't want to know or hear about it, but they admit that they felt like they had to and it was hard for them not to talk about it. Which was beyond my control. On top of that, I tend to emphasize dealing with difficult situations, because people like to see me navigate those. Because I like to navigate those. So every time I have received literal hate in the past, I've talked a lot about it and come back at the haters. Who were all anonymous. Therefore, without knowing all of the facts, I was 1. Pissed off bc I kept being told that this person was hating on me, and 2. Took that situation and magnified it almost purposefully, so that I could discuss dealing with it. It wasn't about the specific person but more about "haters" in general too. The specific person was just like, the exemplification of all haters in the world, and I wanted to combat that. My way of dealing with hate is to make sarcastic asides about it, to joke about it, and it gets over exaggerated in the process. To me that detaches it from the original source, making it less hurtful, but I realize that to others it just makes them think that person is 10 times more horrible. I kept getting feedback about this person from my friend, and I just wasn't mature enough to brush it off. Now, people seem to think that I was like "one piece of criticism and I'm OUTTA here." That's the image I projected, so that's totally my bad. It wasn't just that. I have been stressed (as a lot of people can attest) about AO3 for awhile. It stressed me out because I felt like I was writing for others, for numbers - kudos, hits, bookmarks, comments - rather than for myself. And by "others" I mean digital numbers that stand in for people. By gathering a smaller, more intimate audience, I feel less like I'm writing for some unknown... god of internet fanfiction, and more for actual people. It humanizes my audience. When I heard that this person was trash talking (apparently) my work, THAT was the last straw, and it just sort of finalized that decision. Had I not heard this "news" I probably would've inevitably taken a break anyway. I had talked to my therapist for weeks about how stressful online writing has been for me. But I did focus more than I should have on the "hate". I would definitely like to acknowledge that however I actually felt and whatever my motivations, I absolutely seem to have overreacted. I do believe that while I love the internet for many things, it has made me become more radical, because I think the unfortunate thing - and what I fall prey to a lot as well as the telephone game - is that when people are endorsing your anger in any way, you're more encouraged to turn up the dial. I was upset in the moment, and I just wanted to vent (also, I didn't publicly mention this person by name. Some concerned readers asked and I told them. One of them got especially mad. And nobody had the facts anymore.) And then in my mind the situation was detached from the one person, and expanded to include all the theoretical people in life who might hate. But I didn't present it as such. So I'll readily admit I was in the wrong in that regard. I talked to my friend and she wants to take full responsibility for having started this in the first place. It's true I do think there was miscommunication where I didn't actually check the facts or verify what exactly was being said. I was under the impression that this group of people spent time in the chat just talking shit about me and my work. This probably was over exaggerated. The internet is the devil's playground, honestly. It can make us all act like kids. And it brings out the worst. It causes total mayhem that wouldn't happen irl. (And it doesn't help when people (me) are up until 4:30 am and think they can make coherent, well advised emotional life decisions.) So, I'm still doing email lists, because I like the more personal, club type vibe. I genuinely enjoy it more, haters or no. Am I proud of how I handled the situation? No. While initially I just wanted to vent, I blew it out of proportion and I misled people and I was over dramatic without intending to be. I think I just got caught up in it. The internet is intoxicating to me and I think can be to other users: it just feels like... I don't know, but it feels gross. When you can post whatever you want and say whatever you want, it's never really a good thing. The problem is, I forget that I even have an audience. I legitimately forget that I'm not talking into the void. That people are literally reading the things that I post. I always think (god knows why) that the number of notes a post gets = how many people saw it. I don't know why. I guess I'm just not used to people "listening" to me, so I lull myself into a false sense of security where like "nobody's listening anyway." I lost my direction and I got ungrounded and that's nobody's fault but my own for not mustering up the wherewithal to be like alright homie this is getting not healthy for anyone. Please abort everything. I should have been the bigger person and simply not let it get to me. And perhaps everyone out there is now calling me a baby. But "babies" victimize themselves and try to get a cop out of taking any responsibility by doing so. I'm hoping that I'm showing my more "grown up" side by doing this and being, hopefully, the bigger person as I ought to have been all along. You know the Thomas theorem? Basically it says that "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences. In other words, the interpretation of a situation causes the action. This interpretation is not objective." (I say "basically", and then I quote something bc I'm too unoriginal.) That's what happens on the internet. That's what happens with gossip. I thought that I was legitimately being hated on by a group of people, so I reacted as such. Perhaps I wasn't actually receiving the level of hate I thought. Perhaps it was mostly wrong for my friend to tell me all this stuff. Honestly, this feels like middle school. I found out from a friend that some person I didn't know was talking behind my back. I overreacted. The friend shouldn't have said anything. The person still said the things they said, and still made me feel bad, so the question is whether they should apologize as well? Even if their intent was to not be found out, if they got caught, should they apologize for their part in it the way anyone would apologize if they said something rude to someone's face? That's such a classic middle school girl situation. I'm not holding my breath for an apology or acknowledgement of responsibility, though. Did I learn something? Absolutely. And I think I'll keep learning it until I stop taking everything people tell me so damn seriously (and assume it's 100% accurate), and until I just get my head back on straight.   Important to understand is that I didn't stop posting bc of one person, they were just the catalyst. I also didn't delete anything. I was in the wrong for jumping to conclusions. I was in the wrong for getting angry and not giving myself a moment to breathe. It would've been fine if everything wasn't projected on the internet. But it was. I take responsibility for that, and my friend takes responsibility for instigating this entire situation in the first place and continuing to fuel the fire. The question, as always, is where to go from here. If I could, I would call up this person and chat with them. I have a sneaking suspicion that isn't going to happen. So all I can do from my end is try to be the bigger person, clarify some things, and take responsibility for my actions. People who have called me out are 100% right! I did seem to overreact and in some ways I did. But there were also other motives (like I had been thinking about it for awhile). For the record, i don't think any of this justifies anybody hating on anybody else's work, especially when it's just amateur fanfiction for people to enjoy or toss aside. I just don't think that's cool. But I don't really know if this person "hated" on my work or not. I don't think anybody is blameless. This is not me saying "hey this is all my fault everyone come hate on me!" But I understand this was probably upsetting to the other person, so I would rather take the heat than them, because contrary to popular belief I am stable, or at least stabler than they may be at the moment. I don't wish that on anyone. No matter how angry or vengeful I get, at the end of the day I don't. But at a certain point, blame doesn't matter. What matters is keeping everything else calm. Accusations should not be thrown in any direction. This will die down. Absolutely it will. No matter how shitty, it will. I hope things get better for everyone. I hope we can find common ground once again and peacefully coexist. Someday it will happen. For now I truly feel I have done everything I could possibly do to try to rectify this situation. Thank you for all the supporters. I love you all dearly, as I always do. And thank you for the people who have been harsh and given me a slap in the face (ironically that's a very Sophia thing to do, Sophia being an apparently controversial OC of mine). Love, Edye

[martechadvisor-blog]

15 Ways to Stop Failing at Social Media Marketing and Customer Support

Corporate social media channels have the potential to greatly extend brand reach and drive customer traffic to the website — and to create PR nightmares on a scale that was unimaginable even a decade ago.   

Social is definitely a double-edged sword. On the one side, social channels are great for pushing content out to an opted-in audience; for promoting products and services; for sharing company milestones, news, and awards.

On the other side, social media hands a megaphone to disgruntled customers, activists, and Internet trolls — and you have no control over what they say about your brand and when.

It’s essential to manage both sides of the social media game, lest you become a cautionary tale (like the infamous “United Breaks Guitars” debacle, where poor customer service from United Airlines inspired a viral music video that has reached well over 16 million views).

As I’ve researched some of the most egregious social media fails from major brands over the last few years, I identified five common categories. Avoid these, and you’ll largely stay out of the path of the circling sharks.

Considering that you probably have loftier goals than simply staying out of trouble in the social media world, I’ve followed up the fails with five tips for improving your social-media marketing efforts and five tips for improving social-based customer support.

Five Types of Social Media Fails

Posting to the Wrong Account. When something outrageous appears on a corporate Twitter account, it’s usually the result of an employee accidentally posting a personal Tweet to the company account. (This has happened to KitchenAid, the Red Cross, and the U.S. Justice Department.) Do you have any checks and balances in place to avoid this kind of innocent but costly mistake?

Copying-and-Pasting the Wrong Link. Both US Airways and an ESPN analyst humiliated themselves by inadvertently embedding unrelated (and wildly inappropriate) links into otherwise benign posts. Even though the ESPN example was deleted within seconds, somebody was poised to screen-capture the offending Tweet. Somebody always is.

Being Tone Deaf. Attempts to capitalize on international tragedies or troubling current events never play well on social. Recent offenders include the Seattle Seahawks comparing the Civil Rights struggle to a football game, American Apparel somehow mistaking a photo of the Challenger explosion for festive fireworks, and Kenneth Cole using the 2011 Cairo uprising to promote his spring collection. Learn from these mistakes.

Asking for It. Your goal may be to appear open and conversational, but attempts to actively invite social feedback can majorly backfire. Just ask SeaWorld how their #AskSeaWorld hashtag panned out, or JPMorgan Chase about #AskJPM, or McDonald’s about #McDStories. If your brand is already suffering from negative public perception, a hashtag campaign will only compound your problems.

Hasty Hashtagging. Before you blindly toss a hashtag into a social post, research why it’s trending and what it means. DiGiornio enraged the Internet when it inserted the #WhyIStayed domestic violence hashtag into a pizza Tweet.  Entenmann’s donuts made the same mistake by applying #notguilty to donuts, when the rest of the Internet was using it to vent about an outrageous verdict in a murder trial.

Five Tips for Better Social Marketing

1. Pay Attention to All Relevant Social Media Channels

If you've convinced yourself that Facebook and Twitter are the only channels you need to pay attention to, you could be missing out on great opportunities. Think LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest. Not every channel will be applicable to every industry, however, so don’t spread your team too thin trying to have a presence everywhere. Relevancy is key.

2. Measure the Right Social Media Metric

There’s really one metric that tops all others: referrals to the website. Having a lot of followers and fans means nothing — unless they are authentically interested in your products or services and likely to click through at some point. Gathering cheap, irrelevant likes through contests and other means won’t do anything meaningful for your brand.

3. Make Social Media Somebody’s Top Priority

If social media is nothing more than a side job for someone on your marketing team, you’re not going to get much value out of it. It takes dedicated effort over time to establish a strong presence, connect with relevant influencers, build a following, and learn what does and doesn’t work in your industry. That means putting social media at the top of somebody’s list.

4. Embrace the Unpredictability

Social media is unlike many other marketing efforts in that you don’t get to control it. Your social efforts will take on a life of their own, if you’re lucky. If you create something that goes viral, people are going to add to it and riff on it, and you just have to go with the flow. The goal is to create an environment where your customers can create messages about you, which means you don’t get to manage every aspect of the narrative.

5. Leverage the Rest of Your Employees

You have one person in charge of social media, and a couple of hundred other employees who could be contributing to the cause. If you really want to get a multiplier effect, make it easy for the rest of the company to be socially engaged and helping to promote your business. It never hurts to send out an email that contains links to your most recent online content, encouraging everyone to pick one or two items to share with their own social circles. Better yet, check out some of the social share apps like Smarp. Not everything will resonate with every employee, so the more options, the better.

Five Tips for Improving Social Media Customer Service

1. Have a Plan.

Customers who want to provide feedback or complain publicly about you are going to do it, whether you’re savvy at social media or not, whether you’re engaged and listening or not. It’s coming, so you better figure out what you’re going to do with it. My previous article for MarTech Advisor, “6 Reasons Marketers Should Be More Involved in Customer Experience” offers useful tips for navigating this side of social media.

2. Don’t Be Defensive.

If you messed up, own it immediately and empower your people to resolve the problem quickly. “We’re looking into it” simply doesn’t fly in this era of instant gratification. Customers want answers and solutions, and they want them now. As Forbes reports, “The Ritz-Carlton has for many years given staff  $2,000 of discretion (yes, this is per employee per guest) to be used to solve any customer complaint in the manner the employee feels is appropriate.” I don’t know what the right number is for your business, but give your customer support team some room to be creative so that small mistakes don’t escalate into big PR nightmares.

3. Always Be Listening.

People are talking about you online, and you don’t get to choose whether or not to engage. You must be listening and responding. Neglecting comments, concerns and complaints, even for a day or two, is the second worst thing you can do. What’s worse? Deleting them. The backlash will be swift and severe. Just ask Smucker’s.

4. Watch Trends in Complaints

Don’t think of social media customer service issues as isolated problems to be solved one by one. Somebody has to be watching trends. Is this the first time we’ve heard this complaint this month — or the twentieth time? Are we seeing the same problems coming through social that are hitting our other customer service channels? Make sure someone is aggregating the feedback, looking at the root causes, and forwarding the information on to someone who can correct the core issues.

5. Unite Customer Support and Marketing

I’ve said it before, but the two halves of corporate social media efforts (marketing and customer support) are intimately intertwined, and they depend upon each other for their ultimate success. Yet they are completely disconnected from one another in far too many companies. If you want to ensure that core brand values, voice, and visual identity are carried through every customer touch point, then the customer success team and marketing need to be joined at the hip.

This article was first appeared on MarTech Advisor