Troy

You'll find this interesting: April 25 was a direct hit. When you gave me the date back in March, I would not have been able to confirm it, for i had nithing planned. But it will likely be a near miss.

That is too bad you feel that way. For we need people of high mindedness and action. Fortunately there are of emough of them to reign in the corruption we see from the likes of big tabacco, Facebook, Google, and 45. That was just one search term out of thousands of others I rank really well for. You missed to whole point. AALBC does not survive on a single low volume search term. You missed the whole point of the post... Again, if you only view Twitter from just your perspective and how it "benefits" just you, you'll never understand what I've been trying to communicate. But i understand why you feel that way. it is the same reason indie authors give Amazon exclusivity, why grocers sell cigarettes, why people traffic children in the sex industry, why europeans enslaved Africans, and so on...

Defintely. In fact Mel the ONLY reason I'm messing with Instagram is for the benefit of my student's. The reality is they are all skilked users of the Instagram. My role is to help them use it to benefit their websites; acquisition of traffic, promotion, ecommerce, etc and to help them determine what works best for them. All websites, people, and niches are different. I tell them in advance when I'm on a soap box, I think as a practitioner, as opposed to someone merely reaching subject, my perspective has value to the students. No, ya'll don't get it; in Islam denonoucing one as a "hypocrite" is about the worse thing you can say to a practicing Muslim. I saw a YouTube video of Ali saying this and only then did I understand why Malcolm knew he was a dead man. Malcolm was an amazingly brave man and the NOI, nor are their, leadership Nazis. Again @Delano corporate run social media is not about you or I. Think of it this way: I don't smoke cigarettes, but it would be shorted sigthed not to see how I'm we all are effected. Because of all the deaths that tobacco companies caused they should be in jail. You dont have to have a ton of empathy to feel that way -- you just have to know that they actively peddle cancer sticks and our governments are pussies for not stopping them and executing a few executive -- seriously. @Cynique if you wanna call some a nazi start with these folks. What companies like Facebook is doing, while not quite as horrific as big tobacco, is serious and needs to be stopped before even more damage is done. Because people consume news on social media, journalism is a dying profession, and our politicals a the hand maidens of corporate America our ability to know about corporate evil has been greatly diminished, so the problem gets worse much faster.

On that note I agree with you. But that is not why I brought up Ali. You justified calling Farrakhan a Nazi, in part, because he condoned Malcolm's killing. Ali called Malcolm hypocrite (a very serious thing). I was asking if you'd also considered Ali to be a Nazi on that basis too. Yeah last weeks episode was great. But fear not; I read somewhere there are about 4 GOT spin off shows in the works 🙂 My automated tweets which made up the vast majority of the tweets i've sent were created with my real aalbc account -- no fake account needed. You may not know that most tweets are automatically generated without humans involved or created by social media pros on behalf of another person. Go ahead gorge yourself on the koolaid. Do you believe everything that comes out of Marky Z's mouth too? All I know is I check the quality of my visitors based upon source and it dictates where I spend my time. After a decade of research an actual analysis of my data. I've found an optimal balance. 15 minutes a month works for me. My $2,000+ day was less than a year ago. Last year i generated thousands of dollars in revenue as a direct result of using Twitter with a few hours of effort. If I was only concerned with making money I would ditch AALBC and put more effort in gaming social media. One challenge to this is that Twitter does constantly change. Several of the 3rd party tools i used no longer work because of Twitter's changing their api. @Mel Hopkins I noticed you've generated over 15k tweets did you actually create those by hand? Much of the power in using Twitter comes from programmed interfaces. Using only the aps itself is really for amateurs. But you already know this. I did share info about my children's book post here. That is a page that just keeps on giving. I akso use social media to help determine what might resonate with more readers, but to see that you have to look beyond likes which often mean very little. Have you ever observed social media users? Many click like without even reading what they are liking. You'll also discover many people read content without ever engaging. You have to look deeper than what Twitter tells you, if not you are being lied to. BTW: Thanks for follow the reader effort. I was wondering where that ended uo but never pressed since it was done ourely out of the goodness in your heart. I was greatful for that. Thank you. Yes you've demonstrated that Del 🙂 Serious question now. Do you believe that I don't know how to use Twitter?

Google has done more to F'up the web than any single other entity and I have more respect for the Brother who created Archie than I do for the jokers running Google. Don't be so quick to dismiss high ideals. They culture can use more of this. You don't need a crystal ball Mel. The answer is plain today. Money is just one measure of success of a business and it may not be the most important one.

Surely you know you can't trust what Twitter reports indeed you need to know more about those visitors than Twitter has access to. Like how long those twitter visitors stay on the your site, how nany pages they view, etc. Knowing how to use Twitter's website is just one aspect of knowing how to use Twitter. Compared to what?! Less than 1% of users on Twitter have 1,000 followers and I have almost 7 times that many -- and I barely use the app. I posted tweets -- just links back to my site 18 times in the last 28 days. I don't comment and occassionally i like your tweets -- just because -- as i do with @CDBurns and others i know. But these have to have the top of my feed, because I never scroll. Mel you are ignorant of my engagement from Twitter and social media engagement in general. I've actually posted a trending tweet before. I've also generated over $2,000 in Google ad revenue in single day from another viral social media post. All of this with less than 15 minutes a month on social media. I think that qualifies knowing how to use twitter for my benefit. I glad twitter finally got around to actively dumping fakes accounts. I don't have any fake followers. Were you trying to imply that I did by bringing that up? Mel, you can't teach anyone who knows everything.

Oh please Mel repeating that I don t know how Twitter works does not make it true. I measure my success on Twitter based upon how much traffic I get from Twitter to my website -- not by how many "likes" I get on comments. There is a whole psychology of likes that you are aware of I'm sure, but are deliberately ignoring for it would force you to address how manipulative the platform is. It is one if several reasons I have contempt for the platform, and social media in general. Oh please a dumb grade schooler can use Twitter. Been there done that. @Mel Hopkins you have rejected my experience and success using Twitter solely on the basis that I think it sucks and is hurting our culture. Without checking do you know what percentage if tweets are generated by bots? Does it matter to you? I used to make money on Twitter though automated tweets. If you intetested I'll tell how. You dismiss my follower count as easy to accomplish, but do you know what percentage of people on Twitter have half as many followers as I have? Do you what it tskes to get a lot of followers? Your rejection of my knowledge of Twitter is intellectually dishonest Mel and preventing you from learning from me.

@Delano my kids are grown. I don't tell them what to do. Besides, I don't understand your response.

In a battle the goal is to inflict harm on your opponent. That is not what Mel and I are doing. Try using another word.

Actually it is not very complicated at all. Nothing designed to be used by the masses is designed to be complicated. Even 45 has mastered it to the point where he plays the media like a fiddle. Cynique, I'm not exactly loosing sleep over your statement. I'm just not gonna join the chorus of Zuck and other white folks and put Minister Farrakhan in the same class as a Hitler. Yes you are right about not having to be a killer to be called a Nazi today, but that is a problem because the term has lost it's meaning and confuses people. Some really do believe Farrakhan is as bad as Hitler. This is particularly troublesome when other Bkack people do it. You condemn Farrakhan for being "complicit in Malcolm's execution." Do you also condemn Muhammad Ali or do you worship him like the other white people? We can't keep allowing white people to tell us whuch Bkack people are acceptable. On lighter note: did you notice coffee cup on the last GOT episode? (That was a good episode)

You are confusing a lack of affinity with a lack of understanding. I've used Twitter since it was invented. You don't get as many followers as i have not knowing how to use it Mel. I use Twitter, but I don't allow it to use me. Again, this is something you can't see. Twitter can dissappear tomorrow and it will make no difference to me. Acutally, if it meant not hearing about anither tweet from 45 I wish it would go away tomorrow.

Thats all you got sis? Check the age of aalbc.com, a site I started after serveral years of building websites for other businesses. I've been online since 1981. Do you really wanna go there? Again you won't look beyond the individual. You believe Facebook and Twitter provide a societal good, largely, I suspect because you and Kylie (whoever she is) personally derive some benefit from it. That makes no sense. Does she know HTML and CSS? Is money your only goal or measure of success? Maybe you'd be better off taking a class with Kylie if that is the case. Time will tell whether the platform responsible for disseminating 45's lies and propaganda provides a benefit to society. Obviously I don't think it does, but you'll come around.

Yes, but you see them. In fact you've seen enough of them to make a judgment call about whether he should he be on the Twitter and are even talking about his tweets here. Who decides how his tweets are seen and makes it into the trending topics? You are not ready to see it now... it is a red/blue pill thing.

Yes @Pioneer1 I'm still following the thread. I follow all of them (at least right now). You dont need to rely on memory just search for her statement.

Word. My God, who cares about this birth... really? I'm not even sure most Brits give a crap -- none that I know do.

Whoa... hold on there lets not get carried away. Black Nazi is a bit much don't yi3u think? How many Jews has Farrakhan killed? I'll tell you: none. Have you listened to Farrakhan in context or are you just parroting what Facebook says? I just now read @Pioneer1's response and see I'm being repetitive. @Mel Hopkins why are you surprised Tariq has not been booted from Twitter? Are you surprised 45 hasn't been booted too? Do you see tweets from Tariq? I quess that means you must agree with him, using your reasoning from our other conversation.

No. If you only rely on our subjective and anecdotal experiences you will aways be misled. But Mel you don't normally do this why now? How long have you been teaching Mel? Why tell ne how to teach? Nevermind... I know the answer really does not matter to you. Del grow up. This is not a battle. Mel's challenges to my position helps me think though my beliefs and exposes me to opposing points of views. Look, I have a lot more experience with the web than Mel and it is my livelihood, but that does not mean I know everything. She has strong opinions hopefully she us getting something from the exchange too. In fact, she would be engaging if she was not. So @Delano based upon your response are you saying that marketers don't know how to create demand where none exusted before, or are you just gonna sit on the sidelines instigating?

This is simply untrue. Are you seriously trying to tell me the abusive pimps and sex traffickers are reacting to demand that was preexisting? Sure women sell sex, but the abusive pimp is pure exploitation. @Delano took marketing in B-School I'll let him explain how demand is created. Are you also saying that introducing crack into our communities was meeting a preexisting behavior; to get strung out, steal from you mamma, and give 50 cent blow jobs for your next fix? Come on now Mel? Stop defending the bad behavior of these companies. "I." I," "I." You two can't seem to reason beyond your own noses. Again, keep using Instagram, but don't try to convince me (yourselves really) that your boy Zuck is providing a societal good. He is not. Do you defend Wall Street, Big Pharma, and Big Tobacco with the same vigor? There is no difference. Are you really putting the impact of a billboard on par with that of social media?! Social media is a billboard on steroids. Mel. You know this... Again Mel you have a habit of making this issues about us. OK, so you and I were not influenced by billboards to smoke cigarette -- big deal. You do know that cancer caused from cigarette smoking is one of the nations biggest killers right? Just because you and I don't smoke does that mean that others, indeed many others, will be killed by the heavy influence from marketers to smoke.

@Mel Hopkins your statement was: My deleting Instagram will certainly solve the problem of their attempting to influence my behavior. Mel I'm a healthy, heterosexual Black man; it would not be too much of a leap to assume I might be titillated by that photo. I can tell you that is a hot photo. Mel you keep comparing your feed to mine to justify differences in why I see big booty girls and you don't that is flawed reasoning. Now you and Del wanna joke around and make me out to be some big time consumer of porn. Have fun. I don't have a problem with porn, but I don't want it pushed to me. One of many reasons I don't use these social media properties. I want to exercise more control over what I consume online. Now you can try to justify the reasoning for what they put I'm our feeds, and why it works for you, but I have contempt for their business practices. Unfortunately I can't put my head in the sand and make believe they don't exist or have influence any more than i can ignore Amazon's.

That is a bold and unsubstantiated assumption Mel. What would be the inputs to Instagram's algorithm since I have used Instragram sparingly over the last decade, have shut down my facebook account, and don't consume internet porn? Again, this is the reasoning some crack dealers used to justify the pernicious behavior -- they wre only meeting a demand in the market. Sure if you show me a big booty gal, I'm gonna look. But I did NOT install Instragram on my cell phone for this. Suppose I was giving a demonstration in class? When I used to read Twitter. I would see hardcore porn occasionally. Stuff ckearly involation of the own standards... so much for algorithms. That we can agree on. I'll be removing the app as soon as I demonstrate their shopping feature.

See, this is the problem. These social media companies tell us it their algorithms are based upon our behavior -- this is no different than the purveyors of smut, gangsta rap, drugs, celebrity gossip, oxycodone, social media, and anything that does not serve us. The reality is the these businesses drive demand for this stuff and have slickly laid the blame of our addictions at our feet. I believe the photo of the big booty girl is shown more frequently for the reasons I stated -- perhaps at the exclusion of content I might find more valuable. @Delano I can't escape it if Instagram shows it to me each time someone I follow posts it.

OK @Pioneer1 where was Babylon located?

Actually that is how is how works Mel social media decides what appears in you feed (even it is just amongst your friends). According to your research I'm following 1,200 people and judging from that snapshot I actually know a small percentage of those people. Kia Storm is author, as you pointed out; that may explain why we are following each other. Again I had no idea how many people was following or how many were following me until just now. I never set up the abilty to shop on my instagran feed (got side tracked). At any rate, of the 1,200 people I'm following the Instagram algorithm determined which post was most likely to keep me engaged. Again, judging by the photo they put in my feed they did a damn good job -- I forgot all about selling books 😉

@Mel Hopkins I don't know enough about the subject to shed much more light. However Christianity is derivative from Judaism. Jesus was a Jewish dude preaching to other Jews right? Judaism itself is derived from much older systems and beliefs based in Africa. Obviously, since modern day "middle east" is in Africa.

@Mel Hopkins I'm real careful what is on my phone (though I downed this image so that I may share it here), because I'm always giving it to people to look at images on it and you know how nosy people can get. Still I would not expect Instagram to send you an image like this. But for a single, sexually active, man like myself -- Facebook/Instagram knows what will pique my interest As you know you do not have to have accounts on these systems in order for them to monitor and manipulate you.