Oh boy there's so much I don't say on the blog. I'm dedicated to limiting my ranty stuff.

Today is not the day to keep quiet.

I'm the bunny who got the Social Media job for the band and I've had my head in the web for a while.

A few years back we kind of opted to say 'no' to ME ME ME LOOK AT ME SUBSCRRRRRIIIIBBBEEEEEEE.

Not us.

After Myspace (oops) and then 3 Facebook approaches,4-5 different people working on social media, with effort, 10 years and $ - and

it.has.not.worked.

For us. 

LIKE ME LIKE ME. 

Why? Surely we're doing something wrong? Just add more money, more effort, MORE LIKE ME LIKE ME SUBSCRIBE!!!

Spend my time and energy to be popular rather than doing, um, what is it we do again? 

Send out so many emails that people block us? DEMAND attention!

It's the attention wars (yeah you heard that phrase here a few years back).

Produce a weekly show about nothing so that Youtube will get more viewers and sell ads?

Tweet my breakfast. Send selfies all the time. 

LIKE ME

Or...maybe our contrarian viewpoint was simply because we've been online so long. I don't mean since 2007. I mean cos we're all Tech Veterans since Web 0.1.

FB and SM worked for those who already had a profile coming out of the late C20. For new stuff? well..

It takes time to assess. I have.

Here's something that really rang my bell.

This is a pic from @r0zetta doing some analysis. 

These are network charts based on analysis of fake accounts. See how they don't connect.

Social Media has created a universe of micro universes.

People separated in experience, with no connections between system. And these are the bots. You don't even know they're bots.

You're not connected to one another, you're in a pocket universe. Ouch. What an illusion.

I love the web. Social media is great. The existing players have made mistakes that were hard to understand until time had passed.

Betrayed By Facebook

The news that Facebook is shocked, shocked to find that corporate, political and State Actors have 'fraudulently' used facebook to sell users out to Bots, Trolls, Propaganda Farms and Evil Doers is commendable.

Thank you facebook. I always knew you were on our side.

Until you started limited 'organic' (non paid) reach to our community.

Until you started scripting our lives to 'monetise' things.

Until you fostered Corporatisation of our Humanity.

Until you attempted to commoditise Life.

There are many things that people will forgive, and who am I to offer pebbles of wisdom to a collossus, but Game Theory does suggest that Pay Back is a bitch.

People don't like Betrayal.

Trying to get the Punters back in after you've betrayed them is hard. especially when their user behaviour was changing anyway.

Youtube. Google. Twitter. 

Youth depression. Manipulated Elections.

Lions, Tigers, bears, oh my.

Attention Wars have entered a new front.

Reputation Warfare.

All this stuff is fascinating to observe and to write about. I'll still keep playing with Social Media. Maybe not the same one's we've invested time and effort in, because maybe it's a dead end.

We like making albums, we like that you dear reader, help us to do that by contributing financially by buying/streaming whatever. That's a necesary part. That means we will always be interested in ways of engaging.

At the same time, we have pulled away from investment in time and effort in social media for the last 3 years.

Yep that's right.

By concentrating on what we're good at, we may not have achieved OMG 1,000,000 LIKES. We may not be able to tell ourselves that we're OMG SO MANY PEOPLE LOVE US.

Instead, we have made some good albums, spent time with people we love, played shows, heard other musicians who kick ass, worked with people we look up to, are inspired by, and even a few of our idols.

We've travelled. Written. Listened. Grown as humans and as a collective enterprise.

The CD is DEAD. Long Live Music.

Social Media May be dead/dying or transforming.

I'll keep an eye on it, play with, interact with it, and never make it the focus of our work.

FB may get throuhg its current scandal but I am wondering if it's too late and that people have changed behaviour.

Fascinating.