It seems like every decade or so, new media gets a buzzword that immediately goes toxic.
A word becomes popularized, it becomes beaten to death, and a large number of people cringe every time they hear it.
Right now, that word is influencer, and I really, really hate being called one.
For those who read This Week in Blogging regularly, it should be somewhat obvious that I do not like being constantly on, constantly working, and, perhaps worst of all, spending a lot of that time on social media in particular.
So in 2026, I set a goal to detox from my phone. Although this was primarily with social media in mind, it really is for all the things- playing on Instagram, reading Reddit, searching the web, etc. I was simply on my phone far too much!
Since most social networks have made their services worse purely to keep you on their pages longer, I just threw my hands up and decided to do the opposite. So in this one, I thought I'd share three things I'm doing to help minimize my screen time.
AI has become the bane of content creators around the world for many reasons. From LLMs ripping off our content to AI accounts, pages, and tools being propped up by networks left and right, there really is a lot of bad uses of AI in the world these days.
I generally do not use AI for any of my blogs, except for perhaps doing some mundane tasks like brainstorming or figuring out a calculation when doing analytics. But I also recognize that AI is seemingly not going anywhere, and so if networks are propping up accounts on the engagement-at-all-costs model, I thought I'd create a project that was purely dedicated to using AI tools from the start- AI images, AI copy, AI generated ads, and even an AI generated logo.
My goal? To see what all I could learn about launching a new brand in the age of AI, if being a solely AI page helps or hurts, and, long-term, if I could get the page to become part of any social bonus programs to earn revenue.
While I'm still waiting on the last bit, I've had some lessons learned in the first few months of launching the site.
Do you absolutely hate how much garbage is in your Facebook feed these days? Join the club.
The primary feeds on the popular social network have leaned heavily into discovery-style recommendations lately, making it almost impossible to see content from friends, family, and the groups or pages you've explicitly opted into receiving updates from.
One day after getting infuriated that everything that I was being suggested was, well, garbage, I tried to see if I could get my Facebook feeds to be better curated to show me what I want.
I knew there was a friends tab, a groups tab, and more, but on their own, they all felt lacking. But what I didn't know is that there's an overall Feeds tab that shows all of these in one, exactly like Facebook used to be when it was actually good.
So in this one, I want to talk about this feed and how you can access it more easily on both desktop and mobile.
Note: I use a Pixel 9 for my phone. I cannot guarantee that these steps work on all models. If you notice any differences in your phone, please get in touch and let us know and we'll update accordingly.
For the longest time, I was reluctant to start a Broadcast Channel on Facebook and Instagram. My notifications were already blowing up from too many accounts starting broadcast channels, and I, quite honestly, just found it all very annoying that I ignored it completely.
It wasn't until seeing a post from a blogger in a private Facebook group I'm in hailing the success of broadcast channels (on Facebook, specifically) that my interest was piqued, and I decided to give it a go.
So in this one, we thought we'd share a few misconceptions about what Broadcast Channels are, and why you may want to consider starting one.
Note: I primarily use Broadcast Channels on my Facebook page; however, they also exist on Instagram. This article primarily focuses on my Facebook experience even if the ideas are similar on both.
When it comes to promoting our blogs on Facebook, there are a number of features you may want to consider within Pages and Groups. There are so many features, in fact, that it may be hard to keep them all straight.
In this one, we thought we'd highlight a few unique features that we use on Facebook Pages and Groups that when combined together create a rather interesting funnel for brand building- starting with getting people to like your page, moving to join a group, and ultimately subscribing to your newsletter.
So let's take a look at some interesting features you may not be aware of!
Note: As with most things, those with larger accounts may see bigger benefits than others with a multi-step funnel. For reference, at the time of writing my Facebook page had 132k followers, Facebook group had 123k members, and my Threads account has approximately 7k followers.
Do you ever scroll through Instagram's main feed and get incredibly furious at the amount of irrelevant content you see pop up as Suggested? Particularly Suggested Reels on your home tab?
You're not alone.
I've personally become quite frustrated seeing recommended-to-me content in my Instagram home feed as opposed to simply seeing content from accounts I opted-in to follow.
Thankfully, there is a way to mute some Suggested posts in your Instagram feed, and you can do it in just a few quick clicks!
Note: This process typically only removes Suggested For You Reels in the Home tab on Instagram. Recommended content in other tabs, like Search, are seemingly unaffected.
We're going to ask you to put your conspiracy theory hat on for a moment because we wanted to dive into a controversial theory that may be a sign of the future of the internet.
Enter the Dead Internet Theory, an interesting conspiracy theory that may actually be on to something.
So grab your tin foil hat, and let's go down the rabbit hole.
If you are looking to grow your Instagram or TikTok, it can feel like spinning your wheels at times. The algorithms are seemingly all over the place. Some accounts can blow up and thrive, while others may not see much movement at all.
For the longest time, I discounted short-form video primarily because I was in the latter category. It wasn't until friends of mine gave me a private lashing over what I was doing wrong that I started to take a strategic approach to how I create my short-form content.
So in this one, I thought I'd break out what I've been doing to grow my presence on these short-form video apps, and inspire some ideas to try in your own content creation.
In May 2024, I had a set of images go viral on Facebook. Not just my normal level of “viral” which I would define as 10x average performance.
This one went viral, hitting 100% audience reach in just a few hours (132k) and blasting off to just under 1.4 million reach by the time it started to slow down- or about 60% the size of our city's metro area.
So in this one, I thought I'd share this particular post as a case study and dive into what the post was about, share theories as to why and how it went viral, and the aftermath of what came next.