Talked quite a bit last week to mentors and those generally older than me. I was searching for next steps. What to do. My savings are running out, and I need to make some cash soon. In all of this, what repeatedly came up was that “I already have a product, maybe it is time to put some focus on marketing it?” When I released Everything I Know, and Everything I’m Ever Gonna Know, I was a bit too close to the story. It was a bit too personal, in ways not obvious. Now, however, it was a past version of me that released the story, and I can look at the story more objectively, as though it were released by someone else. And with this new perspective, I can more easily declare the product as sick. It is an excellent product, and it must be pushed to more people. And generally, I need to improve my chops in marketing. There are many ways to market, but I can’t help but recognize the value of social media in finding a niche, though I’ve realized a problem: “Meta Ads”, which are used for Facebook and Instagram, has an absolutely brutal interface. Aesthetically bankrupt and filled with poor UX design. This doesn’t matter, of course, if I were to hop on there and use it for a day, but if I am going to spend hours of every week on one of these sites… Well, then it matters a lot. Fortunately, I found TikTok’s interface to be better in terms of UX, and its aesthetic to more cleanly match my sensibilities. Plus, TABLEAUX THEORY products, specifically Everything I Know, and Everything I’m Ever Gonna Know, are pretty clearly “Gen Z and Gen Alpha coded”, so TikTok is the right place to be. All well and good, all well and good. Finally I’ve decided to intensely market, not only by purely posting on social media, but also utilizing “boosting” and such to get it out there. All of my previous tests have seen no results, as I have no desire to use the sites on a recreational level and most of the initial boosting on other sites requires interaction with other creators. Heavens! I’d rather pay. That is to say, I don’t want these apps to be my life. Though, I’d be lying if I ignored their value as a way of getting the word out about a good product. I don’t watch TV, but of course I find commercials to be a good marketing tool as well, at least in eras past. This is the same as that. NOW! What we need to be careful of: I fear conforming my products into something for an algorithm. I have no issue yielding some rope to please humans, but please humans in the long term rather than short term. TABLEAUX THEORY is a brand that wishes to enhance the lives of its users, rather than consume them. Many social media companies are designed to consume lives… So, clearly, our goals are at odds? Well, in a way I suppose. Again, we can use the same analogy as before: I am not a fan of television — don’t believe that it is generally good for an individual — and yet I have no ethical issue with advertising via a commercial. So long as I can avoid conforming my product to the whims of TikTok, I have no issue conforming my advertisements to it. HOWEVER, what would be bad is if I were to conform to the Steam algorithm. To start developing my product in a way that conforms to the expectations of Steam. This would cross my ethical line, despite being the cleanest way of selling the most product. Is the ethical delineation clear here? I may yield my advert design, but mustn’t yield my product design. Yielding the design of the product would deny the purpose of the company: to make video games literature.