I have done a lot of research through the years on how search engines and particularly social media channels track us, target us for advertising, and sell data about who we are and what we click on.
As a journalist and the owner of a publishing company that uses the Internet as a business tool, it’s important for me to know how this all works. I understand how click bait, tracking and propaganda marketing (which leads you to often untrue but sensational sounding posts and sites) works. But even I was shocked and appalled at the recent revelations about how Facebook and Instagram are harming children and our society by its systems designed to incite users to click on false, misleading and harmful posts to make more money.
So, I’ll share with you some tips I’ve learned through the years:
- No one is regulating social media. It’s the Wild West of information and disinformation out there. I’ll repeat it – NO ONE is regulating social media. They don’t want to be classified as a media company, either, for fear of being regulated.
- Traditional media like print is heavily regulated. We can’t lie to you by law. We can’t tell you something false by law. We can’t spread rumors or print false information without repercussions. The same is NOT true for social media channels.
- Those quizzes that are so popular on social media were created to steal your data. The same thing is true for ads on social media. If you see something that looks interesting, don’t click on it. Rather, open a web browser and search for that item from a trusted source. If you click on the ad or quiz, you’re potentially offering up your data to hackers and allowing them to track you.
- To the small businesses out there, likes on social media don’t equal sales. We all know that sensational content gets the most views, likes and shares on posts, but those clicks don’t equal sales. I invite local business owners to dig into their own data and track how social media posts and ads on those sites translate into visits to your website and purchases online or at your physical locations. Social media can be a useful tool, but we too often hear from our clients who were lured by the false promises of cheap digital advertising only to return to print media after wasting time and money with little to no returns on their investments.
Before you consider buying advertising on social media, ask yourself if you want them to use your data and your customer’s data? Do you agree with their business practices? Do you support their deceptive business model? Do you trust them?
Tahoe Weekly, on the other hand, is a local media source that can be trusted. As a small local business for nearly 40 years, we have never given you reason not to trust us. We have never attempted to sell you a false product. We have never published false information. We have never tracked our readers or sold their data. Our advertisers are also trusted local businesses.
On behalf of our staff, I want to thank you for reading Tahoe Weekly and to thank our clients for their support for nearly 40 years.
Wildfire Guide available
The Tahoe Weekly has released its inaugural Preparing for Wildfire Guide, available for free download at TheTahoeWeekly.com and issuu.com/TheTahoeWeekly. The guide is a compilation of our Preparing for Wildfire series and other critical fire information we have run throughout the summer. Our goal in creating this guide is to help our community be prepared in case of a wildfire with easy-to-use information.
We invite everyone to share our guide to their website, newsletters, homeowner’s associations, etc. And thank you to our sponsors for supporting our work to create our first Preparing for Wildfire Guide.
Wildfire info & resources
Visit TheTahoeWeekly.com
Click on Wildfire Safety under the Get Outside menu
