Doug's Rant #7: Facebook "@Highlights", Being Social, and Threads, Bluesky or "X"?
So I’ve only published one piece here on the M10 Blog since rant #6 and it was the painful lesson learned at Michigan State over a certain evil historical fascist dictator that they showed on their scoreboard before a rivalry football game with Michigan at their stadium. It was a great piece if I do say so myself (pats himself on the back) that you should read if you didn’t.
There haven’t been any “major” topics that have come to mind in the digital marketing world in the almost two months since that have compelled me to write another blog post, but give it enough time and I’ll eventually have a few juicy tidbits that I think are worthy of a rant.
Facebook “@Highlights”
As is often the case with Facebook this feature slipped by me initially - it was just kind of there with no announcement or instruction for what it was (which is typical with Facebook). I noticed a couple of notifications of posts by friends that had a comment of “@highlight” by the profile. I thought “oooh now this is interesting…”
I had been frustrated lately with the massive disparity in the algorithm for personal posts between one of a photo of my family with a fun caption for example and one of a link to an article here on M10 Social. And listen I get it - I’ve written at length about the algo and about not complaining about it. And to be clear the point of this piece is not to complain about the algo (even if there is a little complaining going on hehe). But here’s an example of why I was a little annoyed in two posts that illustrate it.
Post 1: My daughter Lacey and I storming the field after Michigan’s third straight win over Ohio State - 289 likes and 35 shares. The post went nuts.
Post 2: I shared a post from the M10 social page on my profile about the aforementioned Michigan State scoreboard fiasco. I know it’s a good post, and there is plenty of local interest around the topic. Granted it’s not the fun photo of an awesome moment that Post 1 is, but I mean…. are the posts 289 to 2 in difference of quality content? Two likes. And one of the two was my wife….
Now I didn’t expect this post to go crazy like the other one and I’m fully aware that “shares” or links to other sites don’t get as much reach. But it’s like they didn’t show it to ANYONE. Besides Ally only my buddy Marc gave it a like (thanks Marc). And while I have plenty to say about the flaw in this strategy by Facebook to try to gatekeep people on their platform by not showing the posts with links that will send them elsewhere, I know why they think they need to do it and so my expectations are realistic.
But getting back to the point here, there’s a new tool to combat this! And here’s what’s kinda funny about the trail I took to search for more info on the @highlight feature…
Apparently there was a big hoax going around about the @highlight feature because that was the first thing I saw. It seems that the oldest social media urban legend in the book resurfaced yet again in a viral rumor saying that if you typed the “@” symbol in a comment on your post and selected “highlight” you would be able to see all the people who view your profile the most! Whoa! All the creeps stalking your Facebook page are going to be BUSTED including YOU if YOU’RE one of those creeps stalking others! Cats and dogs co-mingling, sodom and gomorrah, the apocalypse is finally here - after 15 years we’re ACTUALLY going to be able to see who stalks our profile!
Yeah…..no.
Here’s the Snopes article about this rumor that they just published last month. And they do mention the actual function of the tool at the end, linking to the more useful article about @highlight from Distractify. The tool actually highlights the post for other users and increases your reach just as one got into my feed that I took notice of! I can confirm that this works! I went back to my post Moses Jacob Ezekiel, Confederate Jews & The Reckoning Of The Lost Cause which I have as my pinned post on my Facebook profile - it’s one I’m really proud of and it was well past the initial window of engagement it had been getting. So I went back in and posted a comment of "@highlight” and it immediately got 3 new comments and 20 views on the blog after not having any for weeks!
I love this new feature. I don’t feel the need to @highlight everything of course, and I’m sure people will abuse it, but I say make it count when you use it for the simple reason you don’t want to be the “boy who cried wolf” and I have to believe Facebook will punish anyone who uses it for every post by decreasing the reach. That’s how Facebook rolls.
Being Social (I Can’t Believe I’m Still Ranting About This)
This is pathetic. Another topic I’ve written about over and over and over and over again is the importance as a brand of being social on SOCIAL media. I’m always conscious of this. I go on Facebook for example as one of my brands (or as one of my clients) and I like, comment and share. I do it because A) I enjoy it B) It’s the right thing to do to support people who have supported me and C) It’s just good business. For all of those reasons I’ll keep doing it. I don’t do it as a quid pro quo. As Rocky said to Pauly “Friends don’t owe!!! They do cuz they wanna do!”
But….
I have to admit when I like someone’s content about 100 times straight and it never gets reciprocated I do indeed start to notice. Yes, it pisses me off. I’m human - what can I say? Don’t be one of those. Now, okay… in all fairness I know some of these people probably don’t check or haven’t thought about it - they aren’t aware and aren’t intentionally snubbing me (I don’t think lol). But I’m aware. DON’T be the brand that is unaware, and believe me there are enough that are that simple awareness equals opportunity on social media.
Threads, Bluesky or “X”?
It’s X.
Yep I said it. At least for now. I know I know… X is a train wreck and it even let Alex Jones back on the platform. Elon Musk has ruined it etc. I am not here to disagree with or debate any of that. Fine. But Threads and Bluesky both SUCK. They are useless in my humble opinion. Look at this post from Rose of the Bluesky team… (who I’m sure is a lovely person).
Really?
And, NO. I can’t find people or topics to follow. You’re right Rose. And no - I’m not following some set of instructions that involves going to my settings to do it. You know where I’m going to find people or topics to follow? X. Because that’s where they are. Yes, right next to the neo nazis and other extremist a—holes. Do I want to go there to find them? Nope. But that’s where they still are. Not on Bluesky. Not on Threads (and if they are there’s no way to find them there either). I tried to leave X. All I left was the information and engagement I was looking for. And guess what - there’s just as much hate and garbage on Threads as there is on X. I’ll leave X as soon as I have something I can leave for. Now, I’m not marketing on X anymore at all - no. But I do consume information there, and that’s where the……….wait for it………hashtags are to consume information with. There are no hashtags on Bluesky or Threads. Still. There are no hashtags on Facebook either for example (technically there are but they are useless) but you don’t use hashtags to consume content on Facebook.
You just don’t.
But Threads and Bluesky are supposed to be direct apples to apples alternatives to X. And you do use hashtags on X.
You just do.
So for better or worse and perhaps still temporarily, it’s X for now.
Okay… deep exhale. Rant over. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments…. 🙂
M10 Social is owned by Doug Cohen in West Bloomfield, MI and provides social media training and digital marketing services from the Frameable Faces Photography studio Doug owns with his wife Ally. He can be reached there at tel:248-790-7317, by mobile at tel:248-346-4121 or via email at mailto:doug@frameablefaces.com.
******************************************************************************************
Tune in to the 📷Doug&Ally📷Morning Show T-F between 10AM & 11AM EST UTC-4 by following them on Happs.TV or Twitter at @frameablefaces!
Don’t forget to check out the Doug & Ally Morning Show PODCAST available on most platforms where you get podcasts including Anchor.fm, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts & I Heart Radio!