Up until last week, Iāve heldĀ a weekly āFacebook Fan Fridayā, during which I made a post to the Ask Leo! Facebook page, and responded to every comment made on that post for an hour or so.
It was kind of an AMA, orĀ āAsk MeĀ Anythingā, session.
My last session with Facebook Fan Friday was frustrating, at best, and Iāve elected to cancel it ā or at least suspend it until further notice.
The question is, what to do instead?
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Facebook Fail
The problem is a simple one: the Ask Leo! fan page has about 7,500 āLikesā. In other words, 7,500 people have said that they like Ask Leo!, and are interested in seeing what I share on Facebook. (Thank you!)
Sounds great, in theory.
The problem is that Facebook simply doesnāt guarantee youāll see all the posts from pages you ālikeā. Conversely, as a Facebook page owner, I have no way to actually reach all the folks whoāve ālikedā the page ā at least not without spending money.
Sadly, that means itās not worth my time. It was a fine experiment, but itās time to try something different.
Alternatives
What appealed to me about it was that when it worked, it was a fine opportunity to ask and answer questions in almostĀ real time. Sort of, but not quite, āAsk Leo! Liveā.
Alternatives that come to mind include:
- Doing the same thing directly on Ask Leo!: create a post, put notifications outĀ on social media (Facebook, Twitter and Google+), and simply try to respond to every comment, for a certain length of time.
- Answering questions in real timeĀ via the Ask Leo! Twitter account (@askleo). Great for short questions, but definitely not good for lengthy answers.
- Something on the Ask Leo! Google+ page. I havenāt spent a lot of time here, so Iām not exactly sure whatās possible.
- A Google Hangout āon airā. This would be a live video stream (well, sorta live ā my initial experiment is that what you would see runs about 30 seconds behind actual āliveā) during whichĀ I would take questions via an accompanying text chat. This intrigues me, but also means that Iād need to be present and talking the entire time. I think. With something less āliveā I could research questions and answers āofflineā, as well as fill my coffee cup as needed. On the other hand, webinars that I held some years ago were poorly attended, and this is very similar to that.
- Something else I havenāt thought of.
- Quit monkeying aroundĀ and stick to writing posts, articles,Ā and books alone.
Your thoughts?
WhatĀ sounds useful?Ā Are there other approaches to live, nearly-live, or sort-of live solutions ā from text to audio to video ā that I havenāt thought of that would be of interest to you?
Would you participate?
And while weāre changing things up, if youāre interested, what times wouldĀ be best? Iāve hesitated to do a fixed day and time for a variety of reasons, but perhaps a regularly scheduled time, or a rotation of specific days and times, would work better?
As usual, leave a comment below; let me know what you think. Iām open to doing many different things, as long as whatever I choose turns out to actually be useful.
And ideally, something more closely under my control.
Unlike Facebook.
Do this
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I'll see you there!
How about a Webinar ? Send out invites then take questions via email or prerecord your answers so they can be played back later. Another method is to have people post questions during a specific time on a given date then post a You Tube video of those question that your Ask Leo! website doesnāt answer.
Is it uneconomical for you to pay for additional āreachā?
Yes.
I like the idea of Google+ Hangouts On Air. You could schedule them the same time each week or as is convenient. I expect you would want someone to help, like a producer, or comment wrangler. HOAs can be watched either on Google+ or YouTube, and are automatically recorded. They could be edited and repurposed.
Thanks for all you do.
suggestion, how about creating a temp, skype account, ware you except text chats, for that hour only. u make it clear. any messages sent before that time, will be ignored;/not red.
You also could make it easier for your self by putting up donation buttens so that those who donates a little something, gets more garentee that there questions may be answered, (like mine?) smile
seems like the trend of late are podcastsā¦not familiar with what it takes to create, but maybe a monthly topic with phone in q & aās. Then create a library of show links on your website for those who couldnāt attend live..
Iām also not familiar with the logistics with a youtube/podcast but a foodie blog I follow does this once or twice a week. She asks, on her blog and FB page, if you have questions youād like answered then to email her and sheāll try to answer on her youtube video. Seems to work well for her and you get to hear and see the face behind the ābusinessā but I suppose it would depend on how many questions you end up getting. You might be swamped!! :)
Google hangouts would be a no-no for me, they seem to require you to install software, and I really am not convinced google arenāt the antichrist
Alerts through social media to something happening live on your own site would seem the best way
What if you made an article on your website soliciting questions for a later Q&A article? Taking, say, a week in between each one? Or a day, if you wanted to mimic the faster feedback you were getting on Facebook.
So the comments of the āQā article would then be answered in a later āAā article, which would answer, in short form, the questions that to you seemed the most common, or interesting, orā¦ you could try to answer all of them!
I personally would prefer this solution because itās entirely on your site, and it would be much easier for me to read it and get information even if I didnāt happen to participate that day.
I like that idea. :)
I am fully aware of your practice of answering emails submitted by your loyal fans (you have answered several of mine) but I agree with this suggestion. A list of Q&A supplies a bunch of stuff that might not be all encompassing enough to get into your weekly newsletter but be good enough to be worth sharing on a list like this. Anything that requires attendance at a certain time/place, always ends up being the day someone else lays claim to my time. By being part of your site it allows connection whenever.
A little known fact about Ask Leo! is that Leo actually answers most of the answerable questions submitted. Questions submitted by newsletter subscribers and book purchasers are nearly all answered providing Leo knows the answer. So in reality the main advantage is that the answers on Fan Friday were more or less instantaneous.
My suggestion to Leo is keep on doing what youāre doing and let people know that their chance of getting an answer is actually quite good.
And a hint: If you want to improve your odds at an answer, sign up for the newsletter, explain your problem clearly and with as much detail as possible. If Leo can answer it, he probably will.
Mark, this sounds good to me! Dumb questionāI am a newsletter subscriber, but where are the questions answered that are submitted?
I actually had a question all lined up to ask on the day the last FB Friday session was cancelled. My problem with āreal timeāāand may be so for many othersāis that the rest of my life/work has to come first, and I canāt always get away at the time the FB sessions were going on. I also donāt always remember and donāt necessarily see the notices in time (even though I already have notifications sent directly to me so I donāt miss any).
At the end of every newsletter, in the Administration section, there is a link to ask a question and have it prioritized.
Thanks. What I actually asked, though, is where do we see the answers. :)
If your question gets answered, you receive an email with the answer.
Many turn into articles here on Ask Leo!, so youāll see them on the site and in newsletters ā and as Mark pointed out, if you submit a question and it gets answered youāll get an emailed response.
I agree with Mark, the present format allows me to read Ask Leo at my leisure. If I have to set a time for a live telecast I would probably miss the program.
I enjoy reading your articles. So for me I would prefer reading your answers on your page. If you received questions on a specific day and answered as many as you could on a another day would seem like a fair approach for me anyway.
Thanks for the good work.
Like and agree with this suggestion.
And also want to say thanks for all your efforts.
I too like and agree with this suggestion. I am a member, have bought your books and enjoy the bonuses and videos. Good stuff!
I have been a subscriber to your newsletters since 2010 and I agree with Mark Jacobs ā keep doing what youāre doing.
Things (for me, anyway) keep getting better and I donāt have enough superlatives to describe your latest videos! Many of my friends, like me, have benefitted greatly from your newsletters and videos. I am now a member of Ask Leo! and even ordered your books ā theyāre worth every penny. Whichever way you go, keep up the good work.
I agree with Tom Campbell. Keep doing things the way you have been doing it. Thanks for all the great help you extend to us all.
I agree with Campbell and Russell. You do enough with Ask Leo. No reason to kill yourself trying to be everywhere, answering everything, 24/7.
i agree with Tom. just keep doing it. ask people to share it word will get around and more people will see it. i know ask leo is best internet advice news letter i`ve ever found. in FB i get notifications whenever its posted. so i see them all.
I tend to not participate in things that require me to be present or do something at a specific time or place. I already have one job and one boss. I prefer the post/comment format because although itās not āreal timeā it is the most convenient.
Perhaps you could have a section with this format but automatically close off commenting after ānā days so it doesnāt take on a life of its own.
Couldnāt agree more with Tim. My chances of seeing the FB Fan Friday, especially here in the UK, are remote and reading your newsletter is by far the most convenient.
Leo, please keep up the good and helpful work. Thank you!
I am with the last 4 commenters. Keep doing what you are doing with the newsletter and your own website. Facebook is a terrible venue for communication with your followers. I removed it from my phone a long time ago and I only go there when I am bored and have time on my hands.
Some thoughts off the top ā¦ while I havenāt attended it sounds like lots of folks would like to.
1. Stay with the Friday thing but reduce the frequency.
2. Use twitter to get questions and reply thru facebook.
3. Cycle days and times every week so more folks get a chance at you.
4. Whatever you do, get the Q&A out to the readers somehow.
5. Use live chat, would be one on one ā¦ then see 4 above.
6. Take a hiatus, if the issue has been waning attendance let folks stockpile questions.
Keep up the good work!
āQuit monkeying around and stick to writing posts, articles, and books alone.ā
Leo, thereās nobody out there like you. Just keep doing what youāre doing. Besides, I prefer to see your answers in print so that I can copy them for future reference if needed.
Same here!
Me too!
Ditto.
I keep away from Facebook as much as possible
Keep what has worked and save your time for your loved ones.
I really like the newsletters. I donāt read them all, but when I have time. I am not likely to use Google+ or FB with regard to the posts. Keep up the good work. I have used your info!
I agree Karl ā¦ I love the newsletters and keep a lot of them for future reference. I donāt use FB nor Google+
Youāre doing a great job.
Agreed Ellen and Karl. I keep all the newsletters ā you never know when something obscure might come up and 9 times out of 10, Leo has an answer.
Keep doing what youāre doing Leo, we appreciate it far more than any Facebook offerings.
You didnāt say what was frustrating about the experience. Since you said that not all of your likers could be notified without financial cost to you, I am guessing that not enough people knew about it and/or responded. Is that the reason you were frustrated, and is your search for an alternative geared towards getting more questions and/or more observers?
Frustration: of my 7,500 followers on Facebook, only 200 got notified by the time it was over. I got one question. A good one, but ā¦ only one.
Leo, I have a suggestion for a solution that you have not considered. Stay on Facebook. BUT, contact your followers in an email telling them to go to your Facebook page, and under the Liked drop down tab, click āget notificationsā. This will ensure that your Facebook post goes into their newsfeed. Of the pages I have done this with, I get all the posts they put up. The only other issue I have found with the Facebook Friday, is it appears to happen at different times of the day on Fridays. You are two hours earlier than I am, and when I have a pending question I want to ask you, I have to check my newsfeed frequently because I do not know what time you are going to post Facebook Friday. Incidentally, I usually receive the post within 15 minutes of you posting it as I have āget notificationsā checked on your page. If someone were saving a question for you, had notifications checked, and knew what time you were posting, they would have same access to you on Facebook as any other forum you can go to. Just my two cents.
I concur with this suggestion. Since I missed the āmemoā about FB Fridays, I wasnāt aware and didnāt participate. That said, I would definitely enjoy this option if itās feasible. Thanks for all you do for us, Leo. Enjoy the day!
That is so funny! The first thing I did when I read this article was to go to his FB page and click āGet Notificationsā, and then I suggested below for him to create a FB group. I subconsciously did the āget notificationsā, but consciously thought about creating the group. LOL! Anyway, both asking your followers to āGet Notificationsā, and asking the rest to join the group would work, and setting up Hootsuite tweet/post the AMA occasion to all of Leoās social media accounts, and then monitor and answer all posts/questions/tweets on Hootsuite ā in one spot. Yes, I love and use Hootsuite. LOL!
I like what youāre doing NOW, with the newsletter.
I stand to be corrected but I think there is some feature on facebook where you set someone to be a āvery good friendā. I assume that this means your posts get to show up more than would otherwise be the case. Again I am far from being a facebook guru but maybe this bears exploring. Anyhow I have liked your page so whatever you post should hopefully pop up from time to time.
Meanwhile I would like to take the opportunity to let you know that I have been following your blog /site for years now and really like your advice, as well as the coherent, clean and always respectful way you give it, which is a contrast with so many other sites today.
Thanks.
John (from Malta, EU)
There are descriptions to describe the friends on your lists, but I think that is just for the convenience of the person. The āget notificationsā button, is where you are able to see all of the information that a particular person is posting. Then, of those people whom you are receiving notifications for, the description of their ranking in your friends list, is what order their posts are posted in. Am I making sense??
I agree with Lyncamille. I have not checked the āask to be notifiedā on your fan page. Iāve been a bad boy. Since Iām at work, I canāt check facebook right now. But I wonder if you should alternate times so that one week it is during normal working times and one week during normal āoffā time. Sorry Iāve never attended.
Having a very knowledgeable tech support person available would be excellent. I suggest that you only answer the questions that canāt be answered with Google, forums, etc. This would minimize your time spent on this endeavor. Whichever way you decide is fine with me.
Some people, willingly miss out b/c FB sucks and they refuse to be the ādumb f**ksā Zuckerburg calls anyone who trusts him with their info.
Your newsletters are great, but Iām surprised you even use FB ā considering FB users are ācommoditiesā and it continues tracking even after logging out.
Say āgood-byeā (or otherwise) to FB and find another way which respects privacy.
Leo, you do a fabulous job and provide a valuable service. Keep doing the newsletter and books, forget the FB approach. I much prefer Q & A in print. I do not use Facebook (long story about privacy and copyright) and not so sure about Google+ so please stay with printed formats to provide your help to all we computer users. Thanks!
A friend I have Matt Barton does the live thing and also does not get many followers. Not on Facebook but twitch or googlelive. I forget which because I am usually working late on Fridays. The FB idea is fine. Itās just that you just started it, I gather. Isnāt your advice a lot of times is to give it time? What time do you try it? Remember Friday people are either working or going out or something. Maybe Sunday about 4 or 5 would be better,ā¦ if you could do it then?
Actually Iāve been doing it for several months. Activity and response has varied, but last week/s 200/7500 was by far the lowest.
LOL, it would be nice also if you could edit these answersā¦
The serious readers of your newsletters are also the most appreciative as indicated by the many ākeep doing what youāre doingā votes.
I like the ability to read the valuable insights I want, when I can at my schedule. But I absolutely could not follow you on a regularly scheduled format be it a webinar or FB. Iād say your test of that forum gave you results and a message that you shouldnāt ignore.
āQuit monkeying around and stick to writing posts, articles, and books alone.ā
All that Facebook bells and whistles, live seminars, hangouts and if you donāt act now stuff is the domain of the āinternet guru million dollar programā guys.
I donāt know how many seminars I have signed up for, and then due to who-knows-what, I missed it. Your blog is perfect because I can always visit it when my schedule allows. So granted your advice is indeed worth a million dollars, but I canāt always āact now.ā
Keep up the great work!
P.S. I got a copy of Snagit and I love it.
First I want to say thank you for all you do to help people with their computing issues. Iāve learned so much over the years and yours is the first resource I check and send other people to.
I do like and enjoy Facebook Fan Friday but it does have its limitations (not having a set time, FB deciding who sees the posts, and me being in another time zone for example). I long ago changed my settings to get notifications of your posts, which does help as long as I see it on time for the session. (As a page admin myself, it is frustrating to see only a small percentage reached without people having to opt-in twice.) I have enough accounts to keep up with personally so would not be likely to use Google hang outs or anything else that would require me to be on a service that Iām not already using for other reasons. Fan Friday is great for instant, personal interactions but if itās not worth your time itās understandable for you to cease doing it. Of all the options mentioned so far, for me the best one would be a pre-scheduled webinar. Other than that, Iāll have to get by with āonlyā your phenomenal newsletters, podcasts, videos and e-books!
1) Whenever you post a written answer to a tech question, create a parallel video answer and post it an Ask Leo YouTube channel.
2) Do you remember Car Talk on National Public Radio. Is there sufficient need to create a live Ask Leo radio show on National Public Radio.
Thanks so much for all you great information.
YouTube! Of course! Leo, I agree with Gary that a Leo YouTube channel would be great! Instead of showing just screen shots, you could take the viewer through all the steps. I love this idea!
Use BlogTalkRadio.com, people can call in and you can talk just like a talk show.
You provide an incredibly valuable service to thousands of computer users. My problem, over the past year, is that since Iāve gone from Windows 64 7 Pro to Windows 8 pro, my questions are very specific. As a result, I end up searching your prior answers, and almost always end up with an answer that fits my need. I have to assume that many of the questions that might be brought to your attention on a live type of program, youāve already answered. Your previous questions and answers which you make available to all are quite well organized, but might be even better organized for specificity. A small, reasonable fee for a detailed search might serve your followers, and provide money for someone to handle the categorizing and upload effort.
My two cents only. I find your answers both accurate and helpful.
Are you sure you even want to do live Q and A? Your answers in āAsk Leoā are so well thought-out and careful and meticulous. I canāt imagine on-the-fly answers to be as good. Sort of like the pop-psychology done on some radio talk shows. This gets a lot of callers and listeners both agreeing and disagreeing but itās not really for good information. OTOH for example, a radio show about gardening or home improvements might answer only 2 or 3 questions thoroughly during the whole show.
Agree. āInstantā answers not as good as well-thought-out responses.
i think you have been doing just a great job helping with your e-mails..having a real time Q&A is going to take away from some of the real problems you have been dealing withā¦
I say stick with website, newsletter, articles, and books. Donāt make people (= donāt make me) get some new piece of technology we donāt want, e.g. Twitter, Google+, Google Hangout, Skypeā¦
Just to add my coin to the fountainā¦ keep doing what you are doing. With the onslaught of technology, fixed time āliveā events arenāt the best way to communicate. Thatās why people use all of the various ways to manage their communications in a non real-time manner. Leo, I think your responses to questions will be higher quality if they are done on Leo-time.
Keep up the great work!!
Agree!
I second that!
Iāve been a long time follower and user of your website. I believe your website is the best computer advice website there is period! Thank you so much for your invaluable advice. It has bailed me out so many times! Keep doing what you are doing on Ask Leo and your books. You are the only advice website I truly trust, that is not selling something. Please keep up your great work on Ask Leo!!!
JW
Sorry but I did not know about Friday Facebook. I have a Facebook account but I do not use it. I enjoy the way you are doing it now with the newsletters. Many thanks for those very informative newsletters
After a momentary excitement about a Q & A chat/FB/live situation, it dawned on me that I already have the best. Your newsletters come in, and, regardless of what is going on, they get read from cover to cover (if youāll pardon the hard-copy lingo). Maybe not at that very moment ā but they do get read. I save EVERY issue and refer back to them, pass them on to friends and use them to find interesting topics for an Internet & More special interest group I lead for my local computer club. I think many like the āideaā of the immediate nature of chat/text, but the realities have all been stated by your readers (we work, we live in different time zones, you canāt possibly drink that volume of coffee!) (hey ā I just tried to underline āideaā using Cntl+U and this page of Original Source something ā is this html I keep hearing about?). I vote to keep doing what youāve been doing, and if I canāt find an answer, Iāll submit a question. Thanks Leo!
Let me just say that I have been a fan for a long time, and I have never failed to see a response to a question I have posed. Doing a great job Leo.
From a āselfishā point of view I can contribute nothoing to the question of āliveā communication, because I live in a time zone up to 12 hours ahead of the rest of the world (New Zealand), and even in USA the time zone thing must complicate things ?
I have subscribed to Ask Leo since early 2011 and have not missed a single newsletter.
Just sticking with the newsletter format will ensure all subscribers see the latest edition
of Ask Leo.
Leo,
Stick to what you do best. You run an excellent web site, use that. Let readers leave a question, and then check back in a day or so, to see if they got answered. I would suggest that you might abandon social media altogether, as it limits your exposure to your readers. There are some of us āoldiesā out here, who do not trust social media, and donāt use it. After youāve seen as many messed up computers, from what people have picked up from Facebook as I have, you will see where Iām coming from. Mate, donāt mess with what youāre doing well.
My vote goes to continuing what you are doing the way you always have. I look forward to your emails.
As a UK based newsletter subscriber I am firmly in the āQuit monkeying around and stick to writing posts, articles, and books aloneā camp. I read the newsletter every week, if I have a problem I search Ask Leo and if that doesnāt yield an answer I ā¦.er, Ask Leo! Your capacity to answer questions that donāt necessarily get published is impressive and truly appreciated.
Another contributor way up this thread associated all things Google with the Antichrist (a bit rough on the Antichrist in my view!) but I feel the same way about social media, so no Twitter, Facebook etc for me, I simply have no use for it. Perhaps it is no coincidence that despite having the same email addresses for 10 years I get very little spam.
I have learnt a lot from the newsletter, long may it continue.
Iāve read on other forums where Facebook is only in it for the money it can make on āreaching peopleā. I also think that any real time or near real time event is problematic for people in different time zones. It is also difficult for you to answer every question (I have asked a few that didnāt get answered) but concentrate on those that are most common. I think that your regular emails are most effective and the one thing that you totally control. Keep up the good work.
Hi Leo.
I am well into the 80ās and have been following you since you started.
For a large following,live shows wonāt be much use overseas.
Like politics, you run the risk of some ( s a) arguing with you , so they can attend a live show.
What most readers donāt appreciate , is the shear volume , you have to cope with.
Please never change you present style.
Without you , my knowledge would be even less. ..
Cheers , from down under.
John.
I ,as a senior citizen, knowing what I know, and have seen what is happening to this āsocial media has becomingā I just will not do Face book,twitter or any other of these things that are out of control, sorry.
Iāve seen a lot of AMAs on Reddit, for what itās worth. Drop the link on facebook and in your regular newsletters with a time and day so folks can show up :)
I tend to agree with most of the comments here. My personal thoughts: 1) keep current newsletter 2) no need to start any āliveā videos (perhaps special ones, on occasion) 3) love the website 4) I recommend you to one & all on my G+. 5) time zones are horrid for many to pop on to live videos.
Thank you for all the sound advice.
I am a admirer of Leo and enjoy his posts but I am wary of social media and do not want closer involvement so please keep doing your newsletters- how do you find the time?
You once had a section on Ask Leo! called the Ask Leo! Mailbag where you published the answers to some of the questions you answered personally. If you have an Ask Leo! mailbag everyone would get the benefit of all that work we do daily. They would be indexed by Google so people searching for answers could find them. It wouldnāt be necessary to publish all the answers, but many are of general interest. You might put up a disclaimer that those answers are specific to that question, but may be of some benefit. Or you might just add an Ask Leo! Mailbag section to the Newsletter so that all newsletter subscribers see what youāve answered that week. That would also permanently remain in the NL archives and be indexed by Google.
Hi Leo
Thanks for youāre continuing information
I do not use Facebook (my wife does)..I simply work on the email that you constantly send and use that information to great effect
Receiving youāre information via email twice a week is all I need to keep my infoāup to date
Thanks Leo
How about a āhangoutā on YouTube? Several of the channels I follow have weekly sessions.
I didnāt read all the comments, but here is a thought that came to my mind (I am totally in the same boat, by the way. I am sad that FB makes posts ā EVEN MY OWN FRIENDSā POSTS!! ā so that you cannot see them in real time, if at all. We can have a total b*tch session just over that, but I wonāt. ) FACEBOOK GROUP. I think a good solution would be to create a Facebook Group (or event, but an event would be a PITA), encourage your Likers to join the group, that way we will see posts and comments in real time. The group can be called a ādiscussionā or just āFacebook Fan Fridayā. I donāt think you will be going against any FB ālawsā for that. You can always use Hootsuite to send one (or scheduled) posts out to most of your social media sites.
Ok. I have read everyoneās posts. Some of us are Social Media junkies, getting all of our information from Facebook or Twitter. I am in the Facebook camp, and prefer to get my information on some elseās server ā in one spot which is Facebook. When I get email Newsletters, I have a tendency to not read them, and store them thinking āI will get to those laterā, which I never do, and if I do, I canāt find what I need since email is a sucky file and storage system that only takes up huge amounts of space on my machine. So, I now have the freedom (but at the same time ā bondage!) to Social Media.
Then you have the Newsletter/Book camp. Old school. No brainer.
You can appease both by 1.) Keep doing what you are doing, AND 2.) Create a FB Group. If you use a Social Media management tool, then managing the FB, FB Group, Twitter, Google+ā¦etc, can be used as a one stop shop.
One good way to keep up with Ask Leo! is with an RSS feed from his site. He also has it set up so you can get notifications of new articles. I like getting it that way as I see the articles one at a time and can quickly decide if itās something I need to read or not. https://askleo.com/new-article-notification-by-email/
Iām not really sure what a Facebook group really gets me over the Facebook Fan page I already have. Iām a member of several groups and Facebook still doesnāt show me every post or all activity in that group. (I do use bufferapp.com to manage my social media notifications at least).
āQuit monkeying around and stick to writing posts, articles, and books aloneā
Hi Leo,
Yes, I read your post,
Hi Leo,
I agree with Karl, Ellen and Lord Rayne above. I dutifully store all your newsletters (Ask Leo) and refer to them as and when necessary. Keep doing what youāre doing ā it is of great service to many people. I certainly spread the word about you and your info to my friends. Who needs FB?
I like the system you have been using as I have to be able to read etc. in my own time. I do not do social media
I belong to a group on Facebook, and every time someone posts to the group page, I am notified. I think that this could possibly work for Facebook Friday. I am not sure if there are settings to control when group members post to the group page, but I know you can remove members if they get unruly. I often missed out on your previous Q&A sessions on Facebook because I didnāt receive an audible and/or visible notification. I think something similar could be done on Google+, too. My personal preference is to read (instead of watching video) because it is easier for me to scan and disregard information that doesnāt interest me. Iām sure you will come up with a good solution. Good luck, Leo!
Iām in the ākeep doing what you are doingā camp. After what Randy wrote about FB this week, I think you (and everyone else with a good product) should stick as much as possible to your own servers or something else you control. Use everything else to direct traffic to your own site.
Canāt express enough how grateful I am for your newsletters & now wonderful videos, but is it perhaps not better to keep to what you do now rather than overextend yourself. So many of us now benefit from what you currently offer but you still need a life. Your videos are great they allow us to āseeā you, watch them at a time that suits us & in my case re watch so I am able to let the info sink in. The videos still allow you the freedom to do at a time that suits you. Iām with some of the comments above stick to what you are doing & Thank You so much for all you do.
Stick to writing posts, articles, and books alone. Can it get any better than this?
Thanks for all the info and help!
Youāre a Gift from the Gods, Leo!
I first studied computers on the University of Torontoās mainframe (thatās all there was) in my final year of Mechanical Engineering. WOW! I bought my first mini a day after they appeared in the stores.
Languages? Fortran. and Assembler I quite like them.
I give myself about 3 years to live, so donāt be mean! :)
I like the idea of a webinar or āarticleā that 2 people earlier on posted!
some of us (ok; maybe just me?) are not on facebook, twitter, dontā blog, etc. so we lose out on all that other stuff.
Videos are fine as long as there are transcripts which can be scanned (with my eyes, not a machine) and read or skipped with total time invested (again, by me) greatly reduced vs. watching a video and wondering if I will be interested in the next item. If you have taken the time to answer a question, posting it here on AskLeo would be helpful to anyone else with a similar issue.
Add one component ā a newsletter-like email blast with a link to your facebook post. Once someone sees or opens the facebook post, I believe it will stay visible. Thatās a no-cost & low-effort addition.
Then, the benefits of being on facebook (many more are on facebook at any particular time than are on askleo and their servers are probably more responsive than yours ā not that your site does not seem responsive when I post!).
I can rarely āattendā live, but Iāve looked at the give-and-goās from the Q&As and find the dialogues useful and informative. Iād recommend adding a link on your page (and perhaps on each newsletter) back to the most recent FFF.
Best,
Robert
Please, please. please consider making more of those videos! They were very easy to understand, available when desired, and very pertinent. Thanks you for them!
I am happy with Ask Leo and have been for years.
You do an excellent job simplifying and clarifying
computer concepts.
I enjoy reading your articles what can be easier? Keep up the good work !
I wouldnāt touch Facebook with a bargepole.
Re earning for your contribution what about a donation button on all your pages, Leo? Link to a Givealittle page or Patreon perhaps? Iād like to see you giving us an opportunity to pay you for your service which is awesome. I agree FB is not a company I want to pay money to ā Twitter may be going the same way too.
Google will no doubt in the future.
I belong to some FB groups and there is no guarantee that any of us will get to see all the notifications posted even within a group on FB as their algorithms function there too, judging by the groups I belong to anyhow.
There used to be ways you could host your own email group and have live discussions that way but Yahoo destroyed all that IMO.
Perhaps a new and up-coming social media platform offers what you seek? Thereās a lot of em.
regards and thanks Christine
http://buyleoalatte.com has been around for quite a while, though I donāt promote it much. Personally if you want to give me money Iād much rather you get something tangible out of the transaction ā which you can do by buying a book at https://store.askleo.com. Iāve thought things like patreon ā I know others who use the model. Right now Iām more comfortable producing products (books, videos, etc.) and measuring my success by peopleās willingness to buy.
Since I never use facebook, any of the alternatives would be better. But I do agree with this sentiment expressed by Wilson
āI enjoy reading your articles. So for me I would prefer reading your answers on your page. If you received questions on a specific day and answered as many as you could on a another day would seem like a fair approach for me anyway.ā
The last suggestion above āā¢Quit monkeying around and stick to writing posts, articles, and books alone.ā suits me fine. Keep up the great work, Leo.
Something else you havenāt thought of to replace the FB Fan Friday: open an Ask Leo! Fan Friday (or any day) article to comments for an hour a week on askleo.com. You can still do it like you did with the Ask Leo Facebook Fan Friday session. People can ask in the comments and you can answer in the Comments via the Dashboard or directly on the page. You could announce it on the Ask Leo! social media pages. You can close the comments at the end of the session and the results would be a permanent archive of the Q&As.