Jeremy C Kester

I listen to Sam Harris’ podcast “Waking Up.” I like the guy. He’s a fellow atheist, and one who values thought and reason over the rash, reactive environment we have in today’s atmosphere. But you think I am about to go political? Not a chance.
Listening over several episodes, Sam has been telling people to ensure that they are subscribed to his email newsletter choosing this over any of his social media accounts. Why not Facebook? Why not Twitter? Those would make sense in this media hungry world, would they not? Aren’t email newsletters old-fashioned at this point? One would think. I’ve often wondered myself how to get more people to see what I do.
Twitter is too in the moment, one tweet getting washed away seconds after it is posted. People have to specifically go to your profile in order to see what you post sometimes as otherwise your tweet will get washed away in the constant torrent of other tweets. It’s a fun platform, but one that I argue only shows up to 1% of your audience. Have 300 followers? Maybe 3 might see a tweet. It isn’t very efficient by any stretch. Thing is, it never has been, so I would argue it is less for marketing (although still a part) and more for having fun.
So you would then think that Facebook is the optimum platform. Nope. I have a page dedicated to my writing that has over 90 likes or followers. One would think that my page shows up in the newsfeeds of my followers? Maybe… if they selected it to. Meanwhile, I get inundated with ads encouraging me to pay for Facebook post boosting.
Sam has run into this problem with his own Facebook page. As he puts it, he often has to pay Facebook to reach his own followers. And guess what? I see his posts. I would think that because I am a follower of his page that it should be a given. Nope. Every post of his I see shows up as a “sponsored” post. Hmmmm…
I am seeing that in my own account. Very few people see an update (with exceptions) from me. And every time I do post, like I stated above, Facebook is constantly berating me with offers to reach more people. Why? How about just the people who liked my f-ing page to begin with?
It is looking more and more that services that we once thought were free marketing platforms are swiftly losing that status. Sure, chatting among your friends is still free, but because of the nature of things, I seldom see everything from every page or friend. Now that has gotten me thinking, is an email newsletter a better way to go? Possibly. No matter what, it is one element to my marketing platform that just isn’t there. I have a blog (this site if you are reading this), a Facebook, a Twitter, an Ello (which I never use), and even an Instagram. Outside of that, you know how much marketing I have? Nadda.
Time to change that. And maybe in changing that, I will see something in the way of success.