Tag Archives: Instagram

On Communities

My written content usually targets a PRIMARY channel:

This content has a new target: my Substack “subscriber chat” https://open.substack.com/pub/johnebredehoft/chat

Because unlike the others, Substack subscriber chat is DESIGNED as a community.

A community that I’m not currently utilizing, but one that I should in the future.

By the way, if you want to read my Substack, visit https://substack.com/@johnebredehoft

Bredemarket Needs an Influencer…So I Created My Own

Remember last month when I created the Meta AI character N. P. E. Bredemarket? “He” identifies as “wisdom in technology, at your service.” Although I need to train him more, he is fairly good at illuminating technology topics.

N. P. E. Bredemarket.

But he doesn’t make me money.

To make money, I need an influencer to promote Bredemarket.

  • But not a macro-influencer like a Kardashian or Jenner.
  • And not a micro-influencer.

I created a second Meta AI non-person entity. This one, named JaneCPAInfluencer.

JaneCPAInfluencer, created by Instagram.

“She” is still in anti-hallucination training; at one point she said that I was the past president of the International Biometric Association (whatever that is). But she’s getting better.

Will she drum up business for Bredemarket? Probably not, since my Instagram influence pales in comparison to my Facebook and LinkedIn influence. But I’m curious to try it.

Yet Another Video Reel-ease on Monday

[UPDATE: The video is reel-eased.]

I created a new reel for my identity/biometric prospects, but haven’t released it yet.

I’ll release it on Monday, June 23, at 8 am (Pacific Daylight Time).

Where?

I even scheduled a Facebook event. Because Meta wants me to turn every Facebook post into an event, I set one up for Monday at 8 am (Pacific Daylight Time).

Nothing special at the event; I’m not even planning to go live. Just a time to check to see if the video is posted, and to spend 32 seconds watching it.

Enjoy.

Don’t Sound Like a Robot

Georgia Williams of Ray of Social fame dispensed some wisdom in a recent Instagram reel.

In her unemotional, understated way.

If you know Williams, you know that last sentence was a lie.

Her reel was entitled “How to Sound More Like You.”

From https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLJ3fYutGm3/?igsh=MWUwNGc3bHhnYWI1NA==.

At one point, Williams emphasized what you would NEVER say.

“I mean, would you say ‘streamline your strategy’ actually out loud to anyone? Nope!”

That sounded like a dare to me, so I commented that I was tempted to say just that…and more besides.

So I did.

Let Bredemarket help you sound like…you.

To make a point.

Because while Ray of Social is expert in creating the graphics that businesses use to market themselves…

…Bredemarket is expert in working with identity/biometrics and technology firms to create the words that businesses use to market themselves.

Imagen 4.

Without sounding like a robot.

Talk to me about your content-proposal-analysis needs.

CPA
Bredemarket’s “CPA.”

Your Friends Aren’t Your Hungry People

I’m moving in a different direction on social media. Well, personal social media anyway.

There are multiple schools of thought about whether small companies with well-known leaders should share content on their company platforms or their personal social media platforms.

  • On one extreme, companies only share content on company channels, to better establish the brand of WidgetCorp or whatever.
  • On the other extreme, company heads only share content on their personal channels because their personal connections are so important to the company’s success. In fact, these company heads may not even bother to create separate company pages.

Obviously, most companies and company heads adopt a “do both” tactic. Maybe the company head reshares company posts. Or maybe the company reshares company head posts.

Or they do something that John Bredehoft and Bredemarket have done in the past: share the same content on both the company and the personal channels.

I might not do that any more.

The experiment

The rationale behind sharing company posts on your personal channels is that your personal friends like you and will engage with your company posts.

But this rationale ignores one very pertinent fact: most of my friends have NO interest in identity, biometrics, cybersecurity, or related technologies.

Why would they engage with such content if it doesn’t interest them?

  • I’d share Bredemarket Facebook content to my personal Facebook feed…and with very few exceptions I’d end up with crickets.
African field cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus. By Arpingstone – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=620363.
  • Or I’d share some Bredemarket LinkedIn content to my personal LinkedIn account. Often…crickets.
  • But most painful of all was when I would share Bredemarket Instagram posts to my Instagram stories. Higher impressions then the same stories on the Bredemarket account…but absolutely no engagement. Crickets again.

So on Monday afternoon I intentionally conducted an experiment on my personal Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts, where together I have a combined 3,396 connections. My Monday afternoon identity/biometric and product marketing-related content received a total of 9 engagements…and that’s counting the Instagram user who requested “Can u share it @canadian.icon”).

Even acccounting for the three algorithms involved…that’s low.

And it…um, prompted me to ask myself a “why” question.

Why share corporate content on personal feeds?

Good question.

So for now I’m “moving in a different direction” (a few of you know where THAT phrase originated) and not bothering to share Bredemarket content on my personal feeds. At least for now.

  • Those who are dying to see Bredemarket content will subscribe to the appropriate Bredemarket Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn feeds.
  • But frankly, my friends have no need or desire to see Bredemarket content, so they won’t.

In my case, my high school friends, church friends, and even some of my former coworkers (who left the identity/biometric industry years ago) are NOT Bredemarket’s hungry people. So I’ll spare them the parade of wildebeests, wombats, and iguanas.

It’s all for you.

What’s Your Opinion of My Performance?

A lot of U.S. identity, biometric, and technology marketers like baseball. But some of you don’t know about the time that Paul Olden asked losing Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda a now-infamous question, “What’s your opinion of [Dave] Kingman’s performance?” (Lasorda’s response—edited—can be heard here.)

(Incidentally, while the picture of Lasorda looks realistic, it is not. Imagen 4 generated it.)

But any of us who write online worry about our own performance, whether we publicly admit it or not.

Why do the wrong things enjoy stellar performance?

Take Becca Chambers, who like the rest of us wants to perform well, but observed:

“There’s a direct inverse relationship between how much time I spend on a post and how well it performs.”

It’s happened to Becca, it’s happened to me, and it’s probably happened to you. Chances are that this post and its social reshares will NOT reach tens of thousands of views, but my trivial observations about silly stuff will. 

For me, these random posts delivered big numbers.

The performance that matters

But in the end, do impressions matter? I constantly remind myself not to chase impressions, and to that end offered this comment on Chambers’ post:

“Depends upon how you measure “performance.”

“If you measure performance based solely on impressions, then you can realize great performance by random succinct thoughts on ghosting or the em dash or whatever.

“But if you measure performance by your paying consulting client saying that they liked your post on an obscure topic that only you and the client care about…then say what you need to say to your hungry people (target audience) and don’t worry about getting 20,000 impressions or 500 likes.”

And if we need any confirmation about the temporary nature of impressions, let’s look at Dave Kingman’s performance for the Chicago Cubs on May 14, 1978. “Three homers, 8 RBI,  3 runs, 4 hits, 1 walk, 13 Total bases.” Plus an uncountable number of expletives from manager Lasorda.

By 1981 Kingman was a New York Met.

What about your performance?

So how do you create content that truly matters to people who will buy from you? By asking yourself some important questions and then developing the content.

And if you’re an identity, biometric, or technology firm that needs help to get content out now (rather than never), talk to Bredemarket. Not about bridges, but about your prospects. Book a free meeting: https://bredemarket.com/cpa/

Forgot About Faulds

Nowadays, everybody wanna say that they got big TED talks

But nothin’ comes out when they press their fingers

Just a bunch of gibberish 

And CSIs act like they forgot about Faulds

And my N. P. E. Bredemarket Instagram metabot forgot too.

But at least he didn’t cite Gabe Guo.

And I don’t have a rap career.

Forgot About Faulds.

N. P. E. Bredemarket is Live on Instagram

Now that it’s showing up in search, I will announce what I’ve done. Although I shouldn’t have done it.

I created my own Meta AI character on Instagram.

I was nosing around in my Instagram settings and discovered I could create an AI bot. So I did. You may or may not be able to create your own: see https://help.instagram.com/1675196359893731 for instructions.

“His” name is N. P. E. Bredemarket. Regular Bredemarket blog readers know that NPE stands for non-person entity.

You can find N. P. E. here: https://aistudio.instagram.com/ai/1252267426260667/

Or you can search for it.

Instagram AI search.

Warning: like all AI, he can hallucinate.

#fakefakefake

But Don’t Talk to Me

The 3 marks of a “qualtiy” solicitation:

  • An unsolicited Instagram message offering paid placement in NY Weekly Magazine, from an Instagram account with no visible connection to the magazine, and only 1 follower.
  • Oh, and don’t respond to Sophi for the offer. Respond to a DIFFERENT Instagram account.
  • And the pitch? For me to appear in “Top 30 Female Leaders to Look Out For in 2025.” Doesn’t Sophi know that President Musk doesn’t allow that stuff any more?

I also get Instagram pitches to promote myself to Canadian users.

Meta is a worse cesspool than Microsoft (LinkedIn).