pinterest Archives - Adam Yamada

10 Reasons Deleting a Facebook Account is Good for You

Recently I deleted my Facebook account, which sounds hard to do but it wasn't as hard as you might imagine. With my support and help you can Deleting a Facebook account can be easy. While a seemingly impossible task for some, it is not that hard. We can do it together and here are 10 reasons to help you make deleting a Facebook account more clear cut and easier.

1. It's a HUGE Waste of Time

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that has every used Facebook. Essentially it is a blackhole of time with a gigantic mass of stupid internet memes, people's problems, complaints, hatred, and anything else you don't want to hear about.

While I think social media can be used for great things, Facebook has a serious crisis in the way it organizes all the data that is shared on it's platform everyday.

2. Privacy

It's been pretty clear from day one that Facebook doesn't give a shit about your privacy and your personal data and information. (It should be called FaceCrook.) Also it's a complete illusion that anything you share on Facebook can be kept completely private. You hear stories all the day about people sharing things they shouldn't on Facebook, and then subsequently getting fired or kicked out of school.

If you delete your Facebook account you won't have to worry about someone seeing a post they were not supposed to see, since you won't be on it anymore. If you are stupid enough to share every detail of your life on Facebook, then I guess it's for you.

If you want to share anonymously go join a forum with a crazy username or go over and sign-up for Reddit. That's where people vent about all sorts of stuff publicly, but anonymously.

3. Facebook EdgeRank

For those that don't know Facebook EdgeRank is an algorithm that decides what to show you and what not to show in your newsfeed. Just out of curiosity, why does Facebook need to decide this for me? If am following a page or person, I am interested in what they have to share. If I don't like it, I don't follow them. I don't need Facebook making the decisions for me.

Also Facebook EdgeRank means brands have a huge hurdle to overcome when they are sharing content. Facebook seems to be tweaking Edgerank making it increasingly hard to get people off of their “walled garden” in hopes of generating more ad revenue. (Remember they went public so they gotta please shareholders.) I've seen firsthand Facebook pages with a large following but a laughable low Click-Through-Rate (CTR) to articles or content they share. You need a lot of followers to make the Return on Investment in Facebook make sense because of Facebook EdgeRank.

I even talked with many companies who have complained extensively about EdgeRank. It's usually the same story, “We've spent $1000's in Facebook advertising and now Facebook is limiting what we can do with fans we paid for via advertising.” Not sure how this makes sense, and they get away with it, but I guess Facebook really likes to screw people over. Hey, they've been doing it since day one.

Fuck Facebook, Fuck Edgerank!

4. There are OTHER Social Networks

Yes, there are other social networks you can used besides Facebook. Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Youtube, etc. all which can be a BETTER use of your time. Additionally if you are a business some of these social media sites can better target certain customers and drive traffic to your website.

For instance, recently I discovered the power of Pinterest for photo sharing. What's nice about Pinterest compared to Facebook is that images can have click-through links to your articles. This means each time I share something I get maximum value out of that share. If other people Pin your images they sometimes do so to come back and reference it. You don't get that benefit on Facebook. Also Pinterset makes it super easy to organize and share images, while Facebook does not.

Tumblr is another great photo sharing platform for the same reason as Pinterest. Images can have links directly to your articles, but links are DoFollow on Tumblr. The platform Tumblr is built on makes sharing content fast and easy. It's also a lot easier to schedule posts since you can just select “Add to Queue.” You don't get the benefit of people coming back to the images though, but it's still a better platform for photo sharing than Facebook.

Twitter in my opinion is another better social network, especially for managing multiple accounts. I use TweetDeck to help manage different Twitter accounts and Tweets. (Honestly it wouldn't be enjoyable to use Twitter otherwise. ) A 3rd party developer or Facebook has yet to come out with an equivalent tool, that is as good as TweetDeck, for managing multiple Facebook pages. Additionally Twitter is easy to get in, and get out of quickly. I don't like it though that Twitter stopped supporting TweetDeck's mobile Apps.

I could go on but if you find that Facebook isn't working for you personally or for your brands, drop it. Deleting a Facebook account in this case shouldn't be that hard. Figure out another social network or social media platform that will work for you.

I am still going to keep up the Singing Dog Facebook page but will be posting on there sporadically. It's not worth my time.

5. Mark Zuckerberg

There is the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, who's always stricken me as an odd person. It's been widely speculated that he has Asperger's syndrome, which I am inclined to think is true. He is a very private person, ironically, and doesn't seem to like that people.

Also for some reason people think he is the shiznit but I don't really see it that way. Anytime I've heard him talk he says the same friggin thing, “I'm really just trying to connect the world.” or variations of this. If you ever listen to Jack Dorsey, the creative mind behind Twitter, talk you feel like there is a lot going on in there. With ASSperger's man… not so much.

The reality is that Mark Zuckerberg isn't all that smart. The truth is he stole the idea for Facebook. Just ask the Winklevoss twins and Divya Narendry, since they know from experience! 🙂 He'll fuck you over especially on privacy, which is #2 on my list. He even fucked over his friend who helped him start Facecrook, Eduardo Saverin.

The best way to refer to Mark Zuckerberg is,”Fuckerberg!” FYI this is probably the best Twitter search you can do! 🙂

6. Moderation

Facebook hasn't done a good enough job of moderating page content. I've complained about certain pages before and many times a few seconds later I got a reply saying that “It's ok” according to Facebook's terms. WTF? A real human obviously didn't look and analyze the page. Mark Fuckerberg can't pay someone to monitor that stuff?

7. Facebook's User Interface Blows

Facebook is seriously failing behind with keeping updated on an intuitive and easy-to-use user interface. Checkout Pinterest for instance, which is hella simple and doesn't take much to pick-up.

Facebook can't seem to figure out whether to appeal to old people or young people. Since old people don't like a user interface change, they have a real problem on their hands. Change it so young people will flock back, and their user base will be confused.

8. Its' Slow

Do Facebook engineers not know how to load balance a server? Do they know what a content delivery network (CDN) is? I guess not since uploading a photo takes longer than an old lady crossing the street. Hey guess what Facebook engineers, stop playing beer pong and go do your fucking job! You get paid plenty of money and you've seriously go ZERO excuse for any slowness at anytime during the day. ZERO!

Deleting a Facebook account will save you a lot of time! 🙂 Once I launch my new web hosting site, HostTribe, you Facebook engineers could probably learn something.

9. Facebook is not Cool

There is a good reason Facebook shelled out $1 billion for Instagram. Their user base is getting older since parents have started to use it. (Damn!) As this happens more and more… well it's going to be seen more and more as a Not Cool. Quite honestly a lot of young people already think it is Uncool.

Facebook's current crisis is that it's started to become the next MySpace. This won't happen this year, but it will happen faster than you think unless they start truly making some innovative changes. I doubt that will happen as long as Fuckerberg is running the company.

10. Focus on Your own Web Projects

Do you want to start a blog? Do you have a cool smartphone app or web service you want to get develop? Have some innovative tool that will change the world?

Stop kidding yourself spending time on Facebook is really helping you accomplish these goals, because it isn't. If you want to create something for the world to use, share, or appreciate you should be spending less time on Facebook and social media altogether and focusing as much time and effort as you can on your own web projects.

Conclusion, Facebook sucks

For a young person in this hyper-connected digital age some would tell you it is a social death sentence to delete your personal Facebook account. Will I be sad to miss baby pictures, vacation pictures, and important updates from my friends? Sure, but I feel there are plenty of other ways for me to keep in touch with my friends in this day and age.

I am never going back to the blue and white social media wasteland and hope others will join me. I understand if you stay on there though and don't hold it against anyone. I know not using social media is hard and for some to not use Facebook… well that's just plain impossible! 🙂

If you do plan on Deleting a Facebook account, please remember to backup and archive your information before doing so. This will enable you to keep all your pictures and other vital information.

Are you considering deleting a Facebook account and moving on in your life? Let me know why and if you feel my 10 reasons are justified. Did you already delete you Facebook account? Why did you do it?

Catch me on Twitter @AdamYamada… if you can.

Not Using Social Media is Hard

The other day I decided that I needed to try to put some of my social media use on hold for awhile. The reason is I have several web projects I need to work on and it is quite time consuming to have to monitor social networks across many different platforms. Not using social media at all though… well it's quite hard to do.

First I started with LinkedIn and wanted to see if I could deactivate my account for awhile. Technically you can't deactivate an account but you can set your account so that nobody can see it. This is basically the same thing as deactivating your account I guess since what good is a social media profile nobody can see? Anyway after I did that I moved onto Twitter.

Weighing the options of temporarily deactivating my Twitter account I realized it probably wasn't possible for me to actually stop using Twitter. I have auto posting setup for @AdamYamada and some other accounts which is kinda nice. Besides like LinkedIn it seems the only way to deactivate an account is to just set your profile to private. Of course the big difference here is that anyone that is following you can still see your Tweets and profile information. Sooo for now my Twitter accounts are intact but at least I uninstalled TweetDeck from Google Chrome. While TweetDeck is a great social media tool it can be hard to manage the Twitterverse.

Then I moved onto Facebook the biggest and baddest social networks around. Facebook at least has the option to keep your information intact but deactivate your account temporarily. It's nice keeping up with all your friends but let's be honest… Facebook is a blackhole. It sucks away all your productive time and you can never really get that time back.

I thought deactivating my Facebook account would be easy… ahhh I was wrong. I have several apps connected to my personal account and no other contributors. You can't deactivate the account and keep the Apps active without switching having an Administrator for the Apps that has a verified account. That means to deactivate the account I might need to get a prepaid phone to use with a dummy account or just ask someone to transfer use the apps.

Then came all the social bookmarking sites I have used. Damn, I've used a lot and a lot of them I never really understood or generated much traffic for me. This includes Reddit, Delicious, Tumblr, and more. Is it even worth time to delete those accounts?

So my goal of not using social media was a bit harder than I imagined it would be. It is all to easy to sign-up for these services but all too hard to truly leave. It is not in the best interest of the Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. if you stop using their services.

Even though all these social networks can be quite useful used in the right way a lot of people try to contact me through it instead of just sending me an email. I am just not really a fan of that as it takes a whole lot of time for me to direct message rather than just use my email. I guess that's old school but hey, I still get emails from Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Bottom line not using social media at all nowadays is damn hard these days. I wish it was possible to click a few buttons to just take a break but that ain't possible my friends.

Have a similar story of trying to disconnect temporarily or permanently from social networking? Please share your story in the comments below. I'd be curios to hear stories and I know others would as well.

Are Forums better than Social Media?

All the hype and rage you hear from marketers nowadays is all about social media this and social media that. However, could it be that social media doesn't provide much useful information?

I ran across an interesting article on Social Media Explorer the other day which should make some marketers and companies rethink their social media strategies. The report examined where the conversations about banks and the banking industry takes place online. The winner? Forums.

In the report they found that 90% of information about banks being discussed online is found on online forums. Social networks accounted for 1% of the real conversations about banking. While Jason Falls, the writer, would obviously like you to purchase his report on the banking industry, keep in mind that he runs a site about social media. If they were smart they would have thrown out the report and declared social media is the best place to market for banks! 🙂

The article really got me thinking about where I go to find useful information online. If I wanted to know more about web hosting, I go to a hosting discussion forum. I would not turn to my followers on Twitter or Facebook since they probably don't know the answer and couldn't help me out. Most of the time when I need technical help or I am trying to learn something new with software I do the same thing.

Posting cat memes and pictures while fun… come one, that's not useful to anyone. Of course we all know that Singing Dogs are quite useful for the internet. (These are my dogs by the way.) To a certain extent social media is really more ideal for being entertained and engaged. Something marketers are keen to capitalize on.

For a second I would think about where you get useful information when doing a Google search. Do you always find what you need on blogs? Probably not. Does Facebook's search engine (Bing) even work well? No. Can you find technical help on Twitter? Some places sure, but for the most part I doubt you can get technical questions answered in 140 characters or less all the time.

The current bank I have my money with I did research before opening an account with them. Googling I found a bunch of threads, from genuine people (I hope), recommending their services and after reading these positive reviews on forums I decided to bank with them. I have been using this bank's services for almost 2 years and couldn't be happier. Their service and products are better than the local credit union's I was using and they have excellent customer support.

However, in all my research I didn't see anyone from the bank post on these forums or see bank reps taking part in any conversations. Jason Falls hits the nail on the head when explaining why most marketers don't incorporate a forum into their overall marketing strategy.

marketers are petrified of them [forums]. Why? Because marketers typically aren’t welcome there. Most forum administrators are quick to thwart link droppers and promotional banner wavers. You can’t blame them. The users come there for … wait for it … conversations.

This is an excellent point! I will get a lot of angry emails for saying this, but the reality is that marketers can't have real and meaningful conversations. Participating in a forum means you need to really respond to what people say and not feed them what you want them to hear.

A common complaint I've heard about forum marketing is that it can be a lot of work with minimal results. While it all depends on the niche, and what forums are available in the niche, again you need to provide real value and not just be trying to sell your products or get backlinks for you site. Let's be fair, marketing on social media networks isn't easy and takes time, work, and a lot of money.

Having recently attended BlogPaws, a pet blogging conference, there was no discussion about forums, forum strategies, or how to get a community started. The majority of the discussions regarding social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

Before going to the conference though I turned to the BlogPaws Newbie discussion group to get useful information regarding the conference for new attendees. I got a lot out of the discussion group where I learned great tips and advice about attending BlogPaws I wouldn't have gotten unless I was part of the Newbie group. If I had gone to the Twitter or Facebook pages I really wouldn't have gotten many answers to my questions or gained as much insight into BlogPaws before attending.

Since forums have been around since the dawn of the web I guess they really don't have the coolness and ‘new kid on the block' appeal of social networks. I also rarely hear anyone say they want to start a forum since blogging or building a website product or service is what most people want to get into.

If Social Media Explorer's report is accurate, a lot of marketers should consider what having a good forum presence can offer them and their brand. Forums are not going anywhere and will be around until the internet dies I bet. So if the conversations for your audience is on forums, you either should get a forum strategy or start one.

Catch me on Twitter @AdamYamada … if you can!

[Image Source – Social Media Explorer]

9 Tips for Running a SUCCESSFUL Kickstarter Campaign

Everyone it seems is trying to raise money on Kickstarter nowadays. It doesn't matter how wacky or crazy your idea is or well-connected you are, everyone is doing Kickstarter.

You probably have dreamed about running a successful Kickstarter campaign and getting tons of money to fund your next venture or project. While it is quite easy to setup a Kickstarter campaign, it is very difficult to actually run a successful Kickstarter campaign. These tips should help new or experienced entrepreneurs crowdfund their next project.

1. Start marketing BEFORE you launch

This is a simple, easy, and a key tactic to running a successful Kickstarter campaign and a lot of people do not do it. If you can give your campaign momentum before it even starts, the chances of you getting funded are much higher. Send your friends and family an email and just say, “Hey, I am launching this Kickstarter project and it would be really cool if you contributed when it launched.” Obviously add some heartfelt messages and say what the project is and be genuine about it. This way you already have a good idea of how well you are going to be funded before you put up the Kickstarter page. You need momentum since most people won't donate to Kickstarter projects if there doesn't seem to be any chance of the project reaching the funding goal.

2. Use SOCIAL MEDIA as much as possible

If you are active on social networks use tip #1 and market the Kickstarter project before, during, and after the Kickstarter project goes live. Social Media can be a great way to find people within your niche or field that might be interested in funding your project. If you are not active on social networks, find someone who is and can help you. If you know someone with a lot of (legit) followers, ask them to promote your Kickstarter project. Don't waste time on a social networks you don't like or don't want to use though. If you like Facebook, use Facbook. If you have better results with Pinterest, use Pinterest.

3. Find People to WRITE about your Kickstarter project

Again I would use tip #1 and try to see if you can find a blogger in your niche that would be interested in the Kickstarter campaign before it launches. (Good places to check are Examiner.com and Dmoz.org if you don't know of any bloggers.) Getting articles written about your campaign makes it seem serious and give you more exposure. Chances are if a few people write about you, other writers and bloggers will pick-up the story as well. Additionally this helps get traffic to your Kickstarter page which can be difficult when you consider how many projects and campaigns are on the site and go up everyday.

4. Make it CLEAR why you need money, and what you will use it for

People need to understand what you are doing and why they should give you their hard earned money. Successful Kickstarter campaigns describe what they need money for in detail and clearly. If you just put up a paragraph and think that's enough, it isn't! If you are not the best with words, that's fine. Find someone who can help you truly describe why you need money and awesome things you are going to do with it. The most important thing when writing the description is to sound genuine and real.

5. Use keywords for SEO impact

Since Kickstarter has high authority and Pagerank (7), using the proper keywords can really help give your page a boost in visitors. Having a well-written description that is SEO friendly will make Google love it, which is important. You can use the Google Keyword Tool to find what words you should and should not include in your description. (When using the Google Keyword Tool remember to select “Exact” since it defaults to “Broad” searches which won't be as helpful.) Also remember to put a link to your website (if you have one) in the description. That will help your website's traffic and link juice. Also chances are people are going to check your website before contributing.

UPDATE: Google has shutdown the Google Keyword Tool and moved to a new more comprehensive tool, the Google Keyword Planner.

6. Use beautiful PICTURES, a lot

Using beautiful and eye-catching pictures will help keep people on your Kickstarter page. If they are on the page longer, they are more likely to contribute money. Remember that the cover image for the Kickstarter project is important to draw people to the page as well. It should be distinctive and stand out from the crowd. If you don't take good pictures find someone who is good with cameras help you.

7. VIDEOS sell, so use Vimeo

Videos are a great way to tell the world your story of why you need money. For instance, a lot of indie film projects put-up trailers so you can get an idea of what the movie will be like. If you are going to put up a video, make sure to use Vimeo and not Youtbe. It makes me crazy when I am watching a Youtube video and it freezes! (This happens even on fast internet connections since Youtube's bandwidth and servers seems to get overloaded during certain times of the day.) That should definitely not happen on your Kickstarter page since people are impatient. Vimeo has better video quality and rarely freezes. That's why lots of startups use Vimeo nowadays instead of Youtube. Remember you are not focusing on Youtube views, you need to focus on quality and getting people to give you money. Vimeo even has a nice Video School so you can learn about good techniques for making videos. By the way, don't feel like you need expensive cameras or equipment. My Sony HD Handycam, which cost $500, shoots in full 1080 high definition and is great for making short internet videos.

8. GIVEAWAY stuff or something

Successful Kickstarter campaigns giveaway stuff or something. For instance if you are a band and need money to rent a studio, then mailing the album once it is completed to someone who contributed $50 is a logical thing to do. If you don't have stuff to giveaway, you could just post the person's name on a Donor List or something like that. You don't need to offer the world but offering something is important. People are much more likely to contribute to a Kickstarter project if they feel they got their money's worth.

9. DON'T use Kickstarter!

What? How does that make sense? While Kickstarter is quite popular and has a ton of traffic, that is double-edged sword. Your Kickstarter campaign could get a lot of traffic but more likely it will get drowned out by the all the other campaigns vying for people's attention. It is estimated that only 32% of Kickstarter projects get funded. You might want to try IndieGoGo which is another popular crowdfunding platform and came before Kickstarter. The nice thing about IndieGoGo is it has flexible funding option, which means if you don't reach your funding goal, you still get some money. IndieGoGo is also catered more toward non-profits. Crowdrise, GiveForward, etc are good options if you are a non-profit. There are also other crowdfunding alternatives which cater to specific needs or groups. These might be a better fit depending on your project and fundraising goals.

Successful Kickstarter Campaign

I hope these tips help make a successful Kickstarter campaign or IndieGoGo, Crowdrise, etc for whatever you want to raise funds for. If you have any tips that you would like to add, please let me know and leave a comment below.

Know someone who wants to crowdfund their next project or big idea? Please share this article with them before they start it so they have a successfully funded project.

Catch me on Twitter @AdamYamada … if you can!