DumbCMO

Social media, dumbed down

What’s in here

The big ideas in this part of the notebook, one line each.

Social media
Posting where your people already hang out.
Email and WhatsApp
Messaging people who said yes to hearing from you.

Go deeper

Smaller corners of Social, each with its own page.

  • Instagram

    Instagram is where people find you by scrolling. Post for the people who’d actually buy, and count messages and orders, not followers.

    1 note

  • WhatsApp

    WhatsApp is where your regulars already are. Use the free Business app, message only people who said yes, and send things they’d actually want.

    1 note

Notes on Social

  • Building an audience

    Instagram’s October 2026 update: Features, Series, Live, and TV

    Instagram is testing horizontal Features up to about 90 minutes, Clips as Reels, episodic Series, and more discoverable Lives — plus Apple TV in the US. Most of it is invite-only, with no YouTube-style ad share yet. Steal the clip-to-long habit; don’t rebuild your week around a beta.

    · 9 min read

  • Building an audience

    What is social media marketing?

    Social media marketing is showing up where your customers already scroll, often enough that they remember you when they need you. Pick one platform, post for the people who’d actually buy, and count messages and orders, not followers.

    · 4 min read

  • Building an audience

    WhatsApp Business: catalog, quick replies and broadcasts

    The free WhatsApp Business app gives you a shop profile, a product catalog, saved replies and broadcast lists. Broadcasts only reach people who saved your number, so ask customers to save it. Message people who said yes, and don’t spam.

    · 4 min read

Words you’ll hear

Fancy terms. Simple ideas.

Algorithm
The app’s rules for who sees what. Nobody outside the company knows all of them.
Broadcast list
A WhatsApp message sent to many people at once, arriving as a private chat for each. Only reaches people who saved your number.
Engagement
Likes, comments, shares and saves. People doing something with your post.
Open rate
How many people opened your email, out of everyone you sent it to.
Opt-in
Someone saying yes to hearing from you. Without it, it’s spam.
Reach
How many different people saw your post.
Sends per reach
How often people share your post in DMs, out of everyone who saw it. Instagram weighs it heavily.
UGC
Photos, videos and reviews made by customers, not by you.

Every term in the Dumb Dictionary

Scams to watch for

If someone pitches you one of these, walk away.

  • Buy 10k followersBought followers are bots or click farms. They never buy, and they drag down how many real people see your posts.
  • Engagement pods and like-for-likeYou get comments from other business owners who will never buy from you. Your numbers look busy, and your sales stay the same.
  • “We’ll make you go viral”Nobody can promise viral. And a million views from the wrong country or the wrong crowd sells nothing.
  • Buy a list of 100,000 emailsThose people never said yes to you. Most of it lands in spam, and in many places it breaks data protection law.