Today, I free rein. My community manager, seeing me grumble about our posts for a while now, gave me free rein, a “pass” of sorts (like military leave). She had explained to me what the SEO, a sort of GPS for the internet. I didn’t understand everything at the time; it wasn’t until the editorial schedule was up and running that I began to grasp the concept. I said to her, “So, basically, we’re writing for robots, with a robot, to get good rankings?”
But where are the humans? They're keeping score by liking posts.
The content—my content—had to meet the “holy algorithm.” So, the high priestess of the hashtag checked every comma and carefully assigned every @.
I can't say anything; I'm the one who made this request.
I analyzed the parts of the text where my community manager criticized : it was when I strayed from the beaten path, when I stepped outside the box and showed some originality. The algorithm has hates anything that doesn’t conform to its standard! It, on the other hand, masters the art of saying the same thing in 50 different ways. It’s “neither for nor against—quite the opposite…” I have to repeat myself, rephrase, but above all, never be too original. I produce content, and it optimizes it with catchy titles and tailored descriptions. Is my brain still useful? I’m not ready for this keyword race that sneak into my sentences, even when they’re uninvited. Apparently, if you repeat the same thing often enough, readers will eventually believe it. All this just to promote my books… Am I ready for what seems to be shaping up as a compromise ?
The first steps have been taken. I look at the statistics and let his enthusiasm win me over: we’ve had 125 likes! Yeahhh! What a victory. I feel like she reads the stats like a fortune teller reads coffee grounds—she’s got a knack for it.
I have an epistemological thought: how does knowledge spread? As a trainer, I’ve discovered a passion for epistemology!
Am I going to become an optimized text generator? My profession has trained me in human relations and unrestrained interaction. I don’t want to become a human robot, a thinking machine at the service of algorithms.
Reality is catching up with me: website traffic is on the rise, and I’m getting a steady stream of requests for training sessions and book orders.
I'm stuck—this system really works!
