Week 16: Post 2: Course Review and Future Plans for Social Media Use

The single-most valuable part of this class was reading and discussing the textbook, Likeable Social Media. Although much of the book is becoming obsolete, Kerpen excels when he explains how the Internet, including wireless mobile internet, have transforms the paradigm of business public relations from broadcasting favorable messages to the public to focusing on developing multi-lateral relations with small sections of the public, and sometimes intentionally targeting individuals.

The aspect of the class that I anticipated most was the material on Instagram. I am been familiar with Instagram for many years; however, I still do not understand how "IG" can be used most effectively for promotion. At any rate, "IG" frustrates me because the interface still does not allow uploading content from a personal computer, especially since I have both good camera equipment and photo editing software. I only use the camera on my phone for "utility photographs," usually to help remember something, and not in any creative ways. There needs to be a platform that combines the PC-friendliness of Flickr with the social media features of Instagram. 

In future classes, I think the course (or new courses) should include the use of YouTube and other video platforms, as well as Patreon. YouTube, in particular, has developed an extensive range of methods for developing direct communications between video producers and their viewers. As a result, it is now possible for a video content creator to find an audience for very niche topics; one of my favorite producers, a English-speaking Austrian historian, has created a large series of video documentaries for history topics that are too specialized for even cable television, such as "Logistics of the German Army during the Invasion of Russia," or "How did the Roman Army fight battles?"

Not only does video present the opportunity to create content that is interesting in itself, it also allows businesses to directly show off their product to interested buyers. "Soundtraxx", for example, is a company that specializes in producing devices that allow model railroad locomotives to emit realistic sounds. A photograph does not do justice to their product: Video and sound allows Soundtraxx to show potential customers what their products can do, as well as how to install them, program them, and operate them. Here is just one example:

https://youtu.be/sUl4ZD8JYFo

The Soundtraxx website links to SoundCloud, which allows potential customers to listen to the actual sounds that their equipment produces. 

Print advertising, historically the most important advertising method for model railroading companies, cannot match the value of video distribution for a company that produces sound units. However, video also allows companies to display the visual aspects of their products as well. About the only senses that video cannot display well are touch, taste, and smell; however, we all know how appetizing the mere sight of food is, so video cannot be discounted here as well.

This summer, I intend to focus on producing video on a variety of topics, including California history and current events, to boost CALM-PAC and related organizations. I hope that this helps bring attention to my research and eventually advances my career; perhaps I will be offered a professorship someday. In Fall 2020, I will take only one class, and it will be on 2D Animation, because I want to be able to make maps to illustrate my videos, which I do not know how to do efficiently now.

Week 16: Post 1: Social Media strategy for CALM-PAC & Associates

As the business of CALM-PAC (California Liberation Movement PAC) is, fundamentally, disseminating information through social media, differentiating our "business" from our "social media strategy" is essentially impossible. The only real question is how many resources will CALM-PAC devote to promoting the content that it produces and distributes via its website.

Although Kerpen argues that Facebook posts are a superior method of disseminating messages than websites, that does not apply to CALM-PAC for two important reasons:

• CALM-PAC, through associated operations like YOUR CALIFORNIA TODAY, and FREE CALIFORNIA FOUNDATION, aims to attract views and achieve credibility as an information source in its own right. Our websites are our "bricks and mortar sites."
• Attracting viewers to these websites will eventually permit our organizations to produce significant revenue through advertising and cross-marketing opportunities, like CAL-PRIDE PRODUCTS, the merchandising wing.

In short, the primary way that CALM-PAC can use Facebook and other social media platforms is to draw traffic to its own sites, including YouTube pages. The main way to achieve that is through organic reach and conversions. Moreover, Facebook still hates me.

One of the first areas on which we will focus this summer is a campaign to revise the California History-Social Science standards to explain, for the first time, that since the United States INVADED California when she was already independent of Mexico in 1846, and the USA gave Californians no reasonable alternative to applying for statehood in 1849, the membership of California in the United States is VOIDABLE, and she is entitled to international recognition of her independence by all peaceful democratic states, including those of the European Union, Canada, and Japan.

This issue gained unprecedented significance when Professor Emmanuelle Perez Tisserant, at the University of Toulouse, published an article that reinforces the conclusions I reached last year: California was and is legally entitled to independence, whenever she declares it. 

https://www.cnrs-univ-arizona.net/menu-en/covid-am/is-california-a-nation-state/

Professor Tisserant was motivated to study this question of history and positive law because of the European eyebrows that have been raised by the penchant of Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) to repeatedly describe the State of California (our actual legal name) as a "nation-state."  Although "nation-state" is not a phrase often heard in the Americas, the term has a long and sometimes painful history in Europe over the last 200 years. Her conclusion is that, especially in the wake of the fissures opened as a consequence of the COVID-19 Pandemic, California independence is a possibility that will likely be reexamined in the foreseeable future.

Given the nature of CALM-PAC and its associated operations, and the bewilderingly fast-paced change of issues in our field, it is impossible to plan the publication of content over the next month or even this summer. All I can do is to treat the history of California independence like any other academic research topic, and propose to devote as much of the 30 weekly hours as I have available as a full-time volunteer (required to gain eligibility for student loan forgiveness) to engaging in research and writing on why California is entitled to declare her independence from the United States. 

Note, in addition, that all writing produced for the general public must be translated into Spanish (at least) and published in the second most-popular language in California, which will take additional time to do. Creating videos relating our research to the public will take additional time from engaging on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even the comment sections of news and commentary websites. I might even start turning my research into a book in 2020, and a screenplay for a feature film has been discussed; it is high time for men like Andrés Pico and José Castro to be recognized again.

Eventually, my work will have to generate revenue for me, but at this point, I can and must focus on gaining social media followers and concomitant influence. Perhaps my work will eventually lead to a career in journalism, a lucrative book deal, a professorship, or all three. That is all in the future, especially as long as my mother needs assistance all day long.

In conclusion, among CALM-PAC and associated operations, up to 90% of the time available must be devoted to generating English and Spanish-language content, optimized for social media sharing, during the foreseeable future. Approximately 10% of the available time must be devoted to administrative tasks, principally accounting, and website management. The principal activity that will cut into content-creation time will be designing, producing, and yes, marketing, "Cal-Pride Products" merchandise to support the California Liberation Movement politically and financially. 

The remaining seven months of 2020 stretch ahead like an uncharted sea, and it is impossible to say what lies upon the far shore. 

Week 15: Post 2: Reviewing Facebook analytical data

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Because Facebook still hates me, I will be reviewing data sent by Professor Faulk regarding a Facebook business page that she manages, over the last full week of available data. The last full day of data that she shared is for December 1, presumably in 2019. December 1, 2019 was a Sunday; therefore, the last full week of data begins on Monday, November 25.

The data includes the following:

• Total Page Followers
• Net Followers: Daily new followers, minus the number of unfollows.
• Total Page Likes
• Net Likes: Daily new likes, minus the number of unlikes.
• Daily Post Reach
• Daily Page Recommendations
• Daily Engagement: Reactions, comments, share, answers, claims, etc.
• Age, gender, geographic demographics for:
• Fans: People that saw any posts at least once.
• Reach: People who any content from or about the page enter their Facebook screen.
• Engagement: People who engaged with the page.

The demographic data is presumably over a particular period of time, and not over the entire lifetime of the page, although the exact period was not included in the data from Prof. Faulk.

Total and Net Page Followers: The data available, starting on November 5 and ending in the middle of December 2, shows that the total number of page followers rose slowly and steadily from about 11,450 to about 11,470, until it suddenly jumped to nearly 11,700 on December 1 and 11,896 on December 2. Strangely, the number of "Net Followers" on December 1 and 2 does not reflect the change in total page followers. One explanation is that the Facebook analytical data for "net followers" has not yet been updated. 

At any event, the page manager should seek to determine likely causes for this increased organic interest in the page. One possibility is that a particular article attracted an unusually large amount of interest, perhaps because it was shared or discussed by a more popular commentator. A paid advertising campaign is unlikely to be the reason for this surge in page follows, because all the new follows were "organic."

Total and Net Page Likes: The data available, starting on November 5 and ending during December 2, shows slow but steady growth in page likes from about 11,600 on November 5 to 11,623 on December 2. However, the statistics for "page follows," the data does not show any sizable increase during December 1 and 2. Over the seven day period being studied, the data shows a slight increase in net likes on Monday (+2) and Tuesday (+3), followed by four days of decline (-1 per day), before a spike of +5 net likes on Sunday, December 1. The reason for this increase in likes on Sunday, December 1 is likely to have been caused by the posting of popular content, since the growth in likes was all organic.

Post Reach: This data indicates that a paid "Promoted Post" campaign has been underway through most of the period studied. However, the data also indicates that the spike in page follows on December reflects an unusually-high success rate from post promotion, since other posts received much higher reach than posts on December 1 -- approximately 1,000 persons higher reach from November 14 to November 29 -- but that greater reach did not convert into more page follows. Once again, the page manager should review postings on December 1 to see what posts were most successful, especially among the promoted posts.

Recommendations: Nothing in the data indicates a particularly noticeable increase or decrease in recommendations on any day over the period studied.

Engagement: The most significant aspect of the engagement data is "Sharing," since that is the basis of organic growth. Here, the data indicates that a post published on or shortly before November 25 motivated a relatively large number of people, 18, to share that post. Even the successful sponsored post on or around December 1 motivated relatively little sharing.

Demographics: Overall, the page is most popular with San Diego residents. However, when the relative population of San Diego, Oceanside, Vista, and nearby communities is considered, the page is actually more popular with residents of those cities, along with surrounding communities from as far east as Escondido and as far south as Encinitias. In addition, the page is significantly more popular with men instead of women, by a different of approximately 20%. Finally, although people between age 25 and 44 see posts from the page more than any other age group, and a full 45% of all engagement with the page is among men and women between ages 25 and 44, the 45-54 age group has the highest rate of engagement, generating 25% of total engagements, despite receiving relatively few contacts from the page and its content. If that age group is a key market, the promoted post program should probably be adjusted to reach more people in the 45-54 years age bracket.

Week 15: Post 1: Using Google Analytics to develop California Liberation Movement PAC

As the COVID crisis continues to burn like a ruined building, the amount of curiosity about California becoming independent from the United States continually rises to greater levels. For example, Cenk Uygur, founder of the influential "The Young Turks" (TYT) Internet news network based in Los Angeles, recently mentioned that current events make him "daydream" about California becoming independent. Meanwhile, not only does Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) regularly describe California as a "nation-state," commentators both in and outside the United States are noticing this, and musing on his intentions. Suffice to say, events are moving faster than I am able to follow, and I look forward to being done with Spring semester so I can start writing regularly on behalf of the "California Liberation Movement PAC."

If I make a regular practice of examining Google Analytics metrics, my focus -- at this stage -- will be on total page views and page views by page. The first statistic is an index of the popularity of the site, and the second indicates which topics are most interesting to site visitors. Bounce Rate is also interesting, as it indicates how much the content of the site -- especially the landing page -- does not interest site visitors, or even offends them. 

Later on, indexes such as Average Session Duration and Pages per Session will be of greater concern, as they indicate how much users immerse themselves into the site. However, when there are few views, increasing total page views is the most important metric to track.

Week 14: Post 1: I told you Facebook locked my Ads Manager account

As the above image illustrates, I am not allowed to create or edit Facebook ads.

Fortunately, there are many alternatives for reaching Facebook users besides paid advertising, especially for a social movement organization like California Liberation Movement PAC. Organic reach is potentially much more cost-effective. It is also possible for CALM-PAC to "become news," in a way that a commercial business cannot. "Becoming news" leads to other people creating social media posts that are shared through social media without any money being paid to Facebook. The kind of Facebook users we want to reach are people interested in current affairs, and thus regular news and commentary channels are effective methods by which to reach them. 

Yesterday, for example, I devoted almost two hours to discussing a plan to get the California History-Social Science curriculum to be revised to better explain the history of California between 1834 and 1850, with special emphasis on the fact that the United States invaded "Las Californias" when she was in a state of de facto independence from Mexico, and that "Californios" fought bravely against U.S. troops, and even won some battles. Therefore, the general understanding that "Mexico gave California to the U.S." wrongly ignores the agency and determination of the Californios. This fact, besides its academic interest, buttresses the inalienable and perpetual right of the people of California to self-determination and to resume their state of independence from the United States, at any time. 

This campaign is an example of "becoming news," and any news stories this campaign generates will bring organic traffic to the California Liberation Movement PAC website, particularly because I will start creating web pages relating this history on the "Cal-Lib" site this summer.

The CALM-PAC website includes a timed pop-up that asks visitors to submit their e-mail address, and posts on the website are optimized for social media sharing. Therefore, CALM-PAC has  prepared the infrastructure necessary for achieving what a Facebook ad campaign could achieve, by alternative means.

Week 13: Post 3: Why Facebook Advertising hates ME and the feeling is Mutual.

First, it is very unlikely anything connected to me will ever be a Facebook ad, and the reason why illustrates how much Facebook is overdue for an anti-trust suit, and why the company should be broken up into so many companies that it can't abuse the public anymore. Facebook insists that I owe them money for an ad run almost a decade ago, and they insist that I tell the bank and/or credit card company -- they won't tell me which account was drawn upon, either -- that the charge made is o.k. and to pay Facebook the money. Facebook won't tell me how much they think I owe them, and they won't offer me another way to pay them. In other words, Facebook is literally holding a grudge against a potential customer, after at least eight years.

I all that wasn't bad enough, when I created a new email address, a new Facebook account, and then tried to buy ads, after a few days, Facebook detected my subterfuge and banned me from buying ads that way. I presume they connected my new account to me because I was using a credit card issued in my name. Of course, it is impossible to even get a pre-paid debit card for a trivial amount with a false name. So that option is impossible too.

Since Facebook owns Instagram, I cannot use that for paid advertising either.

Tell me that Facebook isn't a monopoly, and operates like an ordinary company that values ordinary customers. Screw Facebook!

I have concluded that the only way I will ever be able to speak to someone at Facebook and resolve this is to SUE the Company for anti-trust and unfair business practices, and either successfully break them up, or negotiate a settlement with their lawyer. Even though I am a lawyer, I am not in a hurry to file a lawsuit against a company as large as Facebook, or even spend time going to Court proceedings against them. I could also buy some Facebook shares and start annoying their top management until they settle with me. Basically, I can either make attacking Facebook into a business, or I can run businesses without Facebook. The latter choice seems much better to me.

Naturally, I would prefer not to think about Facebook ad options of any kind. However, according to my research, these options are currently the following:

Facebook Ad Objectives

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Conversions

Facebook Ad Formats

• Video
• Photo
• Slideshow
• Carousel
• Dynamic Product Ads
• Lead Form Ads

The most effective way I envision using my hypothetical Facebook ad is to promote sales of "Cal-Pride Products" merchandise. This would likely feature photos of merchandise for sale, and be targeted at people who like California. The budget would range up to whatever is necessary to saturate my market of the several million California Facebook users (I checked that before). My research suggests that 1% of earnings is an appropriate approximate spending level for advertising. The timing would be constant. Moreover, if I had thousands of dollars a month to invest in Facebook advertising, I would pay someone or some company to make the "buys" for me. However, other than using a paid social media influencer, I have many other alternatives to using paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Currently, earned media seems like the best choice, now and in the foreseeable future.

Week 13: Post 2: Traditional Advertising vs. Paid Promotional Social Media

Two major problems with Likeable Social Media are 1) that it is dated, and recommends Facebook advertising options that are largely not possible anymore, and 2) it implicitly presumes that all, or effectively all, the customers of a business are avid Facebook users. For example, although it used to be possible to buy ads that said, "Your Friend Susan Masten Likes:" almost no one on Facebook has enabled that setting anymore (since the default is "disable").

Of course, Kerpen allows that other social media platforms than Facebook are more popular than the "Old Reliable" with some audiences for some purposes. However, for some prospective audiences, search engine optimization and keyword-based advertising may be the most successful choice, and for others, non-Internet based advertising may be the best choice of all.

One example where Internet advertising -- at this time, at least -- is of little help is advertising a restaurant to travelers along a highway. Signage -- whether a billboard or the sign on the store -- is the clear best choice for getting hungry motorists and car passengers to pull off for a meal. Radio advertising probably comes in at a distant third, after cooperative advertising with local hotels and similar opportunities.

Although a growing number of seniors (including Gen X-ers reaching retirement age) are becoming avid Internet users, many do not use the Internet often enough for paid Internet advertising to be effective. Here again, search engine optimization and keyword-based advertising may be a good choice, since the prospective customer is already inclined to buy when the search for a seller of the goods and services they seek.

For certain businesses appealing to relatively small customer bases, advertising in specialty magazines may be the best choice. These tend to be kind of businesses whose sales are so low that the customers search for the seller as much as the other way around.

Finally, low-income groups, persons with vision problems, and low-income people with disabilities, are difficult to reach through paid Internet advertising. Direct mail, doorknob hangers, and advertising in free publications, may be the most cost-effective advertising methods. 

Ultimately, the audience determines the messaging medium; Facebook is not the most effective social media platform for paid advertising in many cases, and Internet-based advertising of any kind may not be a cost-effective choice in other cases.

Week 13: Post 1: Facebook ads that interest me, and those that do not.

Even though I am checking Facebook for hours on end, almost every day,  I cannot recall the last time I clicked on a Facebook ad. One reason is that they are off on the right side the screen where I don't look. However, the more important reason is that the ads rarely interest me. 

For example, tonight I checked the Facebook ads, and there is one from a lawyer looking for people with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and the other promises to "pivot" my "real estate business. Fortunately for me, I do not have any Lymphoma issues, and fortunately for home buyers, I am not selling real estate. 

I reloaded the page, and this time, an "Immune System Support" medication was one advertisement, and the other is for a training program to teach me how to make better presentations that will attract more clients. The first doesn't concern me because I reject medical quackery , and as for the second -- well, I am attending Mira Costa College for that.

I wonder if Facebook advertising has become so unpopular that these are the only kinds of companies using it? Surely, Facebook can feed me an advertisement that might interest me. I've found the advertisements shown on movie screens more interesting to me.

What draws my attention to a Facebook ad? A eye-catching image obviously helps, but the tag-line is also vital. I am not clicking on something that does not interest me.

Week 12: Post 2: Blogs on which I commented

Michelle Iglesias
Nicole Ross
Dominic Zamora

Week 12: Post 1: Online petition sites and other online marketing tools

Yesterday, in response to continuing threats from the Trump Administration that they will force states like California to "re-open" and allow regular economic activity to resume, California Liberation Movement PAC (CALM-PAC) launched its first online petition to rally SUPPORT for the ten Governors who have formed multi-state "pacts" to help guarantee that each state will only relieve "social distancing" regulations in response to health considerations, rather than greed and nihilism. 

   The petition is brief; here it is in English:

To the Governors of the states of: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington:

PLEASE CONTINUE TO PROTECT US FROM COVID-19 SPREAD!

We, the citizens signed below, urge you to take any action necessary to prevent the “re-opening” and resumption of economic activity in your states until and at whatever pace objective health experts agree this can be done without undue risk to human life. We furthermore pledge to support any action that you take to protect people from death and illness due to COVID-19 virus, including directly confronting federal officials acting at the direction of the President of the United States. Life is too valuable to permit compromise of our survival.

This petition is unusual, not only because it concerns COVID-19, but because it is a call for SUPPORT of elected officials. Nearly all Change.org and Causes.com online petitions criticize and even call for the defeat of elected officials.

Moreover, support for COVID-related restrictions of social and commercial activity cannot be expressed in normal means like public demonstrations because of the need to prevent the virus from spreading. Only the twisted COVID-terrorists who oppose restrictions are able to organize public demonstrations -- even blocking ambulances from entering hospitals. Therefore, online protest is the only feasible way for the public to express public support for vital public safety measures.

Some advantages of marketing with an online poll on Change.org include:

• Starting an online petition costs nothing.
• Starting an online petition includes free social media buttons to share the petition on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms.
• Easy paid promotion of online petitions: $20 for 250 impressions, $50 for 1,250 impressions. Promotion can be funded by the petition organizer and petition signers.
• Free system to email all petition signers, for free.
• Petition organizer can download all the signatures for use in other programs, like MailChimp.
• The target of an online petition -- in this case, the governors of 10 states -- learn quickly about your organization. We plan to use this petition to curry favor from the powerful men and women that work in these offices. When I lived in Hawai'i, being an active Democrat, I had special relationships with many people in state and Honolulu city-county government.

After launching the petition and sharing it with my email friends and various Facebook groups, I gave $50 to Change.org and in a few hours, I had 139 petition signers. I estimate that about 100 of those names are new people. This morning, the petition has an even 150 signers.

Today, I will begin sending out a daily email to the petition signers, updating them on the COVID Crisis, and asking them to donate to promote the petition some more. I am also going to seek some earned media attention by emailing the staffs of the governors the petition supports, along with Steve Lopez, the Los Angeles Times, who just endorsed California independence in his column today.

Therefore, this week I am going to use what I learned last week about Mailchimp. Moreover, in order to have content to share by email every day, I will have to write at least three blog posts on https://cal-lib.com every day. These posts do not have to be more than 100-200 words long, but a daily email is not excessive given the importance of COVID and the speed at which the situation is changing.

Of course, business that sell goods and services -- customary businesses -- should not use online petitions for marketing, and thereby betray the trust of the petition signers. However, there are times when an ordinary shop can legitimately rally the public to support or oppose some proposal or another. For example, it took Target years of battling with local merchants before it was able to open just two stores on O'ahu, especially the one in relatively undeveloped Kailua.

Bye-Yee!

Week 11: Post 2: Comments on blogs related to e-mail newsletters

I posted on the blogs of Christine Vanderpool, Miguel Velasco, and Matthew Jones.  Only Matthew is actually in my classmates group, "Group 3."

Week 11: Post 1: A Newsletter for a business

   Developing and maintaining a regular presence with supporters of California Liberation is an important part of the strategy of the organization. Collecting the most recent news and packaging it in a weekly newsletter is a good way to keep in touch with people who do not see the regular Facebook posts, Wordpress posts, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

   The most valuable content for a CALM-PAC newsletter is undoubtedly news updates. This week, for example, has been the most important week in the history of the California Liberation movement, especially with the announcement on Monday that the state of California has formed an agreement with the states of Oregon and Washington to set policies jointly as to when and how the respective states will "re-open" and end social distancing policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. That announcement has caused many commentators to ask whether the new Pacific "pact" and a similar agreement between seven states in the Northeastern United States, could lead to the breakup of the United States. Today, this question was even asked by the Reuters agency in Europe.

   As the business of the California Liberation Movement PAC is disseminating news, publishing a weekly newsletter about current events in politics is just another way to achieve that mission. Indeed, if I was not occupied by college coursework, I would have been writing and publishing all week, definitely. Although I would not call the "Independent California Institute" a "competitor, they publish a weekly newsletter with original content and links to recent articles by other publications. The odd thing about "ICI" is that it seems to be a one-person "organization" who does not like to interact with other California independence activists; none of my many colleagues knows who this person is. I may just have to visit the office listed on the ICI newsletter, as it is in Carlsbad, of all the cities and towns in California.

Week 10: Post 3: Using Facebook posts on Instagram.

  This week, I made two Facebook posts into Instgram posts. One relates my calculations about the combined populations and economies of the ten states that have publicly announced they will defy orders from Donald Trump related to the coronavirus that are not based on sound scientific and medical advice.

  In addition, I made an Instagram post from a Facebook post I made on Sunday, to promote a translation I did on an article in a Mexico City publication, La Jornada, about Gov. Newsom calling California a "nation-state" at a press conference last week. 

     As far as blogging categories go, I consider the series of posts on the Cal-Lib.com website as, a "corporate" blog, or a "news and commentary" blog, since I am not trying to promote myself, other than indirectly, as the author of some of these posts. However, those posts will eventually be migrated to a true news and commentary site, "Your California Today," starting this summer.

    These posts are already "helping the business grow." For example, I understand that my post in which I urged Bernie Sanders supporters to realize that California independence is their best chance to live life under democratic socialism was -- until the last two weeks -- one of the most popular pieces of social media advocating California independence, according to my colleague and de facto publicist Marcus Ruiz Evans. I am, frankly, focused on completing Spring semester so that I can focus all my efforts on California independence activities this summer.

Week 10: Post 2: Extra Credit for Installing a Google Analytics tag

As illustrated below, I just installed the same Google Analytics tag two different ways. I may be getting double responses; I'll have to check later. However, Google Analytics console is reporting that there is one active user (me) viewing the page, which indicates that the tag is being read correctly. That's all, folks!

Week 10: Post 1: Human Interest in Business-Oriented Blogging

  Unless you remember television in the 1990s, you probably don't know the character of J. (Jacobo) Peterman, one of the most outrageous characters ever to appear on Seinfeld, a show in which literally every character was outrageous, extreme, and often unbelievable. "

   "J. Peterman," in Seinfeld, was the owner of a company that sold items imported from the Third World, each highlighted in a a print catalog (this was before "e-commerce") that paired each item with a multi-paragraph memoir from Peterman himself, relating the events of some fantastic foreign travels he had been upon when he discovered a particular item that his company had begun importing to the United States. 


    To explain, here are some examples from the show:

Then in the distance I heard the bulls. I began running as fast as I could. Fortunately I was wearing my Italian cap-toe oxfords. Sophisticated yet different; nothing to make a huge fuss about. Rich dark brown calfskin leather. Matching leather vent. Men's whole and half sizes 7 through 13. Price $135.00.

And there, tucked into the river's bend was the object of my search. The Gwon-Jaya River market; fabrics and spices traded under a starlit sky. It was there that I discovered the Pamplona beret. Sizes seven-and-a-half through eight-and-three-quarters. Price? $35.00. 

   In other words, the appeal of the wares of "J. Peterman" was romantic fantasy; a whiff of exciting adventure you could possess as soon as the UPS shipment could reach you. 

   However, if the imaginary character of "J. Peterman" was not amazing enough, you might be even more surprised to know that there was a "J. Peterman" catalog before there was a "J. Peterman" character on Seinfeld. The writers had lifted the story of a real person living an unbelievable life to create an imaginary person living a life no more improbable. Thank goodness for the First Amendment right of parody!

  Moreover, even though the Seinfeld show -- the world's most successful "show about nothing" --  left the airwaves in 1998, the "J. Peterman Catalog" remains an institution. In a particularly Seinfeld-like touch, the actor who played "J. Peterman" for four years, John O'Hurley, serves on the board alongside of the real J. Peterman!

   In 2014, O'Hurley explained the not-so-secret secret of the J. Peterman brand as "the idea of searching for life as you wish it could be." However, the J. Peterman customer is probably not  actually living life like J. Peterman, but "living" (I guess) their life in a way that earns them enough money to easily afford items sold by J. Peterman, and thus attempt to live the life of J. Peterman vicariously. It is "alternative life" purchased on a Gold Card, or more truthfully, an ersatz life, a fake life, or so-called-life. It a life like the one lived by the successful Japanese businessman whose greatest joy is to put on replicas of a California Highway Patrol officer uniform and roll down the Tomei Expressway on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. 

   The cynical Elaine Benes in me sees personal blogging for marketing the way I see the J. Peterman catalog. Tying an experience to a product doesn't make the product more authentic; it changes the anecdote from genuine to crass. Moreover, when spend my money, I want it to spend it to have some of my own experiences -- like the experience of wearing a new dress and shoes at a party -- rather than vicariously sharing an experience with someone else. Moreover, mererly reading the J. Peterman catalog is all the vicarious experience I need.

    Setting aside my personal insightfs, no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the average American. I suppose that the price for having the freedom of someone like J. Peterman is slavery in the same cynical enterprise. Thus is my explanation for "how adding human interest to a post can appeal to peoples emotions because it describes personal experiences."

   Moreover, the J. Peterman story suggests that anything sold "B-to-C", i.e., business to the consumer, can be marketed with human interest stories. Clothing is an obvious choice for anecdotal-based marketing, because any article of clothing -- from a plaid flannel shirt to a white linen jacket -- carries historical, geographical, and cultural associations. Furniture is another such item, although one that is less disposable.

   However, even a product as prosaic as plain white flour -- the sort suitable for making cakes, pies, and bread -- has been marketed according to it cultural allusions for at least 100 years. For example, in the hardscrabble 1930s, one W. "Pappy" O'Daniel connected the "Hillbilly Flour" brand to rural home life by sponsoring a weekly country music radio program, featuring "The Light Crust Doughboys," that opened with a voice saying, "Pass the Biscuits, Pappy!" Meanwhile, up in Minneapolis, the Washburn-Crosby flour concern (later, "General Mills") invented a fictional "Betty Crocker" to first answer questions from homemakers about baking, and later to grace the boxes of the company's products.


In fact, the marketing of flour with associations to home, kitchen, and families, serves as a classic example of "selling to the need" of the customer, rather than selling the product itself. In the hands of "an ad man," a five-pound bag of flour is a sack filled with possibilities, and redolent of memories. A package of nylon stockings promises the love of a handsome man. And a pair of shoes symbolizes the hearty masculinity of a young man testing his courage against certain death.

Week 9: Post 2: Experimenting with Instagram to promote Hand-sanitizer

I posted on Instagram three times using the "CalPride Products" account.  https://www.instagram.com/calprideproducts/. Once on Sunday, and twice today. 

Each post used a photo of some part of our production process in the making of alcohol-based hand sanitizer, to demonstrate our professionalism and attention to safety. 

The hashtags were all popular ones: #handsanitizer, #covid #coronovirus #coronakindness and #California. I found them by using the ones that came up automatically on the Instagram phone app.

In total, my posts received two likes, both from CSIT 155 classmates. I don't think that any particular time during the day or evening would be more or less effective, given that most of the people of California are under a "stay-at-home" order.

The most important lesson I learned from this exercise is that COVID-oriented products are not a good thing to try to promote of Instagram, at least not without a substantial follower base. At any event, I have not finished setting up production, and I already have enough demand from friends to keep me busy for now. I think this product will be promoted best through friends telling their friends, and earned media looking for a local angle on #coronavirus countermeasures. 

Week 9: Post 1: Using Instagram to promote sales of COVID-fighting Hand Sanitizer.

     First, in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, I started a new business making alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Here is the sample label I created:

   That means, from here on out, I will probably be doing most of my assignments on the "CalPride Products" social media. I set up "CalPride Products almost three years ago, but now it is a working business, and an important one. The hand-sanitizer project is being set up to sell product at prices competitive with pre-emergency prices (i.e., no "price-gouging") and all proceeds will be used to set up another project proposed several months ago, a relief organization focused on responding to disasters in the three California states: California, Baja California, and Baja California Sur.

   Although "CalPride Products" was originally intended to be primarily a clothing and accessories brand, due to the COVID pandemic, it is now a "Health" supplies company.

   Here are how other Health Supplies company use Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/byramhealthcare/ - 141 posts, 1,356 followers. Last post: 8 hours ago, on "International Autism Day"

Liberator Medical Supply - No Instagram account

https://www.instagram.com/jnj/  - 33 posts, 19,200 followers ("Johnson & Johnson"). Last post: December 1, 2018, on HIV drug trials in Africa.

https://www.instagram.com/medlineinc/ - 48 posts, 1,771 followers. Last post: March 6, on the "Medline Infection Prevention Squad."

https://www.instagram.com/mckessoncorporation/ - 1157 posts, 5,476 followers. Last post: March 30, 2020, on their role in the national coronavirus effort, specifically complimenting Donald Trump.

   All four companies that use Instagram use it for purposes that are common for corporations: Corporate image and to highlight specific personnel. Even though McKesson has the most active account, they still only use it for relatively mundane purposes.

    I was particularly interested in Instagram use by Byram Healthcare and Liberator Medical Supply, because much of their sales are direct to consumers. Liberator Medical Supply, for example, is one of those companies that advertises on television, promising to send viewers something, and "we'll bill Medicare."

   That's the reason, right there, I think: Since Instagram is not seen as a popular social media platform for seniors, it isn't used much by health supplies companies. Our hand sanitizer may face the same issue: Younger people are much less concerned about COVID infection than even middle-aged people, and thus Instagram may not be a good platform for us.

   Only two of these feeds are truly active: Byram and McKesson, and the Byram account seems utterly disconnected from the greatest health crisis in 100 years.

      The McKesson post on COVID has received 32 replies, but all or most from McKesson employees praising the company and its CEO. The second most-recent post, showing a photo of their warehouse, has received 5 replies, again, nearly all from McKesson employees praising the company.
   The third most-recent posts, on March 10, was about a program McKesson sponsored on International Women's Day. This post has drawn 11 replies; most are from happy McKesson employees, but two are complaints about the company not delivering personal protective equipment needed by medical personnel dealing with COVID.
 
    In other words, the most interactive use of Instagram is similar to what is typical on Twitter, desperate complaints to the company.

   In selling CalPride Products hand sanitizer, a major problem is that "health protection" is hard to communicate visually. Instagram could be used to show photos of products ready for shipment. Another photo subject suggested to me -- although I have been reluctant to do so -- is the equipment being used to make our products. I am reluctant because I am making this non-sterile product on the kitchen counter at home. However, I have a new light-box type of "studio" to help me shoot professional looking photos of our equipment, so that might work out well.

   As for hashtags, the obvious ones are those being used by people looking for help avoiding COVID-19 infection: #COVID, #coronavirus, #coronavirustoday, and so on.

Week 7, Post 2: Scheduled Posts after the California Primary Elections

In the wake of the March 3, 2020 California presidential primary election, I scheduled four posts for the near future that relate these election results. The first is a share of a post by an allied group, Yes California that uses an info-graphic from the Washington Post. The other three are based on infographics and website posts that must be created by me before they can be published. This is why the current scheduled date is the end of the month.

   

Each of these posts is aimed at a particular audience, with the goal of not only increasing support for California independence, but making California independence seem like a more immediate contingency as early as 2021.

1. Washington Post info-graphic comparing exit polls in California to exit poll results across all states and territories that held primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday.

This graphic, which includes California in the "USA" total, -- i.e., with CA "double-counted" -- shows the stark difference in opinion between California voters and Democratic voters in the United States overall. In other words, the reason why Sanders won a majority of votes in nearly every California county, while Biden cleaned-up in most of the other Super Tuesday states is that Californians hold values that are much more progressive, overall, than citizens of most other USA states. This difference is sharp enough as to raise the question of whether California -- the most populous and economically-productive state of all the USA states -- should remain part of the USA when the opinions of Californians are given such little regard.

2. Support for Calexit among Californians under age 40 is as great as support for Bernie Sanders! (INFOGRAPHIC)

This info-graphic will show two pie charts: One that shows the percentage of Californians between ages 18 and 40 that voted for Sanders in the California primary, and compare it to the percentage of the same group that expressed either support or indecision for California independence in the most recent poll, which was 2017, before Trump was inaugurated. The two numbers are almost equal. Those voters are the primary audience for this info-graphic, and the overall goal will be to persuade California citizens that want the kind of policies that Sanders promises -- despite the power of corporations and the wealthy over the USA government, and the tendency of Trump-appointed federal judges to follow political biases and not legal precedent -- to at least start considering  California independence seriously, especially if Trump and McConnell are not removed from power in the 2020 elections.  

3. For Democratic Party Unity, promote California independence. (LINK TO WEBSITE POST)

Support for California independence among liberals, progressives, socialists, and moderates depends on what Donald Trump and his Republican allies do. For example, after the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate voted to not hear any witnesses in the Trump impeachment hearings on January 31, 2020, expressions of support California independence jumped sharply on Twitter and Facebook. Consequently, if Trump and the Republicans are not defeated decisively in November 2020, voters in California may react so strongly that independence is inevitable. This, at the least, could be used by USA Democratic Party leaders -- e.g., Donna Brazille, James Carville, and Tom Perez -- to help motivate voters to vote against Trump and the Republicans: Do it or ELSE the USA will end, with California taking the lead. This argument would certainly help make California independence appear more likely and feasible.  

4. CALM-PAC formed to organize 9 million California independence supporters. (LINK TO WEBSITE)

This is the introductory post that will explain what CALM-PAC is, why it was formed, who is in charge of it, etc. Normally this would be the first post, but so much is happening that it is Priority 4. Marcus my colleague at Yes California thinks that announcing the formation of this PAC will generate immediate attention, by demonstrating that this movement is a serious campaign with serious people working on it.  

In conclusion, these four posts are aimed at influencing the discourses of multiple disparate groups: California independence advocates, California citizens as a whole, Bernie Sanders supporters, USA Democratic Party leaders and liberal opinion leaders. Each post is written for one or more of these groups, and they help argue that supporting or at least mentioning the California independence movement will help them achieve their goals.

Week 7: Post 1: Pages of Groups that I Liked

1. Yes California #Calexit Campaign
https://www.facebook.com/YesCalifornia/

2. Yes California 19
https://www.facebook.com/YesCalifornia/

3. Independent California and Independent California Institute
https://www.facebook.com/independentcali/

4. California Freedom Coalition
https://www.facebook.com/CalFreeCo/

5. California Sun
https://www.facebook.com/thecaliforniasun/

6. Periódico El Latino / Largest Hispanic Newspaper in San Diego
https://www.facebook.com/ElLatinoSanDiego/

7. Salon
https://www.facebook.com/salon/

8. California Democratic Party
https://www.facebook.com/cadems/

9. Chicano/Latino Caucus, California Democratic Party
https://www.facebook.com/ChicanoLatinoCaucusCDP/

10. Southern California Immigrant Coalition
https://www.facebook.com/SCIC.Info/


As executive director of the California Liberation Movement PAC, my fundamental goal is to build connections and forge coalitions with as many groups with shared interests as possible. In addition, CALM-PAC must engage with news media of many languages to become known as a force in California.

The ten Facebook pages and groups listed above are a sample of the groups with which CALM-PAC will engage. The first four are important existing California independence groups with which I work closely with now. The next three are some of the important news publishers that I follow and re-post from regularly; I translate the Spanish-language sources that do not maintain an English-language website. The remainder are some of the organizations with whom CALM-PAC can build coalitions.

Yes California has already shared posts that CALM-PAC has published on its WordPress-powered website, https://www.cal-lib.com. That website will produce many stories in the future that relate news and analysis that will help build the coalition that will eventually achieve California independence. For example, in the next few days, I will produce and release an infographic showing that the support of voters under the age of 40 for Bernie Sanders in the 2020 California presidential primary was just a few percentage points higher than the percentage of people in that age group who either support or are undecided about California becoming independent from the United States. That's what I mean about using social media to engage people in other movements and building a coalition that will transform the history of California, and the United States.