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| The Social Networking Media Mouse Maze | The Social Network Website Media Mouse Maze
Written by Phil Staudt
February 17, 2010
Social media marketing and social networking are phrases that keep popping up everywhere. Of course, I am sure that these phrases are totally cliche and out of date by now, because I am not in the know. There are as many social networking websites as there are people living in China, or so it seems. You try to pick which new ones, or even old ones, that will matter later on. But the truth, unless you are an insider in geek circles, when it comes to social networking, you are just like a blind-folded mouse trying to find some cheese in a maze, and the cheese keeps moving.
After I heard the word "blog" on the news many years ago, and people started being titled as "bloggers" on the major news networks, I figured it was time to check it out. So I started some blog accounts and figured out how to get some blog articles online, and even get them listed on google's blog search. But everybody who knew how to write a program started flooding the blogosphere with so much nonsense and garbage and re-directs, that blogging turns into a tsunami of stupidity. And my blog articles got lost in the hurricane. I learned how to do pinging to get my blog articles listed. But if you ping too much, you get banned from the blog search, but if you don't don't blog enough and kiss up to the right blogging websites, nobody will see anything you blog about.
Then I hear that Myspace was this wildly popular people magnet. I remember all the time I spent learning how to get friends on Myspace and put together the CSS and html so that my Myspace page would look presentable, because that was the future train and I was told I better be on it. I figured out how to get a whole bunch of people on my Myspace page, just about the time that I was told that I should be on Facebook instead, because that was where the good people are, and Myspace was just for kids and bands. I still have a Myspace account, but if I log onto Myspace computer that has Vista (don't even mention Windows 7) nobody can see my profile picture on Myspace, and half of the profile pictures of my so-called friends on Myspace don't come up either. I probably would have fixed my Myspace account a long time ago, but every time I go to a page on Myspace, I have to wait for 50 ads and videos and audio to get loaded.
Less than a year ago, I started my Facebook account, just because my sisters, who live in a city far far away from me where it rains all the time, are on Facebook. So I found some long lost relatives (actually, I am the long lost one), and figured out how to use it. Since then, Facebook has turned everything upside down and changed the feeds a few times. But I found out many months ago that having a Facebook Fan Page was the way to go, because it is a public page. So, I started one, for a blog I have. The day I started it, I went to settings and I was glad to see that I could select a URL. My blog was about driving taxi in Las Vegas, so I wanted my URL for my Facebook Fan Page to be vegastaxidriver. Facebook asked me if I wanted it for sure, and that a change would make it permanent, I figured why not, besides it was just my first fan page on Facebook and I wanted to see how it worked. Now, because I figured it out too late, my personal Facebook url is now permanently set to facebook.com/vegastaxidriver, with no recourse, because the Facebook gods decided that on the 2nd day of Facebook creation, or whenever it was, that just because you are on your Facebook Fan Page, does not mean that the "settings" link from there is for your Facebook Fan Page. Of course, I should have known that, but my magic wand and crystal ball were misplaced that day, and my blindfold was on and I couldn't smell the cheese. Now I finally have a Facebook Fan Page for Phil Staudt.
After building up hundreds of thousands of followers on several Twitter accounts, just by manually following and tweeting and retweeting (not even using automation), a couple of my Twitter accounts got suspended by Twitter for no good reason. I kept the ones I had, and started using some automation for posting and such. About the time i figured out to get some good responses from real people on Twitter, came up with their lists. I have used them some, but I don't really care enough about trying to keep up with the Twitter changes to invest very much in list making on Twitter.
Last week it was Google Buzz. Woo hoo! But I don't use my gmail account. The email that goes to my 100+ email accounts is all forwarded to an email account that belongs to a website I have hosted on godaddy. I know how to sort and filter and organize my email there. I don't use email much any more, for the same reason that I do not drink dirty water that is down-stream from a polluted factory. But guess what - to use Google Buzz I have to use my gmail account - even though I have Google profile and reader and blogger all set up with my personal email that is not gmail. (Didn't Microsoft have to pay a bunch of money for something like that?) I suppose I should just can all the email accounts and bow down to google for everything, but my email is good enough for what I do, and I don't need another email service. That is why I stopped using AOL.
Today I found out that Technorati had this very blog unlisted, even though I wasted a bunch of time to get my blog claimed by Technorati a year ago, and the articles on this blog were listed before on Technorati. But Technorati has made changes in the past two months on how blogs get claimed, and I was thrown under the truck with many others who were posting complaints.
Look, I understand that social networking and technology and spamming and iphones and hacking and blogging are all moving at supersonic speed, and I understand that keeping up with trends and data bases and security is way beyond my comprehension, but aren't these people, for the most part, the people who are against the impersonal robotic capitalistic people who are "ruining" the Interenet. But in order to police the Internet, so that it will be good for everyone, they have decided to pick whom they like, push everyone else aside, censor some and spotlight others, with no accessibilty or transparency or explanations or regard. And these are the people who are going to make the Internet "good"??? Yikes!!!
Here is an idea, folks. Maybe it would be nice if politicians and corporations and organizations and entities and people in power, AND the people setting up and running these popular social networks, would act like human beings with blood flowing through their veins, instead of ruthless heartless uncaring czars, the world and this country would be a better place. Hopefully, my observations are just a bi-product of my ignorance and lack of understanding, and everyone is really good-hearted and has good intentions.
Just saying. (Not like anyone will see this article any way.) Disclaimer: If you cannot tell by my sarcasm, there is no intention to put anyone down in particular. My criticism is directed at society as a whole. File this one under "Murphy's Law".
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