Carl Franke's Blog

TikTok creator @daadisnacks offers a valuable public service to marketers. He documents and critiques influencer behavior, especially when creators forget that real people and communities exist outside their camera lens.

Some of the scenarios he covers feel unbelievable, yet they say a lot about the state of influencer culture today, and how their prior content needs to be vetted before hiring. Of course, many influencers are beaming with positivity and are reasonable to work with.

Examples @daadisnacks has spotlighted:

Tone deaf moments: While millions in the Philippines were fleeing their homes ahead of a major typhoon, an influencer worried that her vacation beach might not be cleaned up in time.

Bullying for clout: Creators asking restaurants to comp meals for multiple people simply because they’re filming a video.

Boycotting gone wrong: Publicly blasting a restaurant for being asked to leave after occupying a table for five hours.

Buffet chaos: Filming confrontations with staff over taking excessive amounts of lobster from a buffet on a single plate.

Disaster-driven content: Using a category 5 hurricane in Jamaica as a backdrop for content opportunities.

These moments are reminders that when influencers behave poorly, it’s often everyday workers, small businesses and entire communities who feel the impact.

@daadisnacks doesn’t only call out bad behavior. He also spotlights struggling restaurants, visiting them, supporting them and giving them visibility they wouldn’t otherwise get.

His videos demonstrate how influence can be used responsibly and positively. They’re a reminder that reach is not the same as responsibility. And that vetting a creator means looking at more than the follower count and engagement rate.

The post Oh My God, You Guys… Come With Me! appeared first on Carl Franke.

Why Brands Must Vet More Than Just Follower Counts

Working with influencers can bring tremendous visibility and excitement to your brand. But it also means you are stepping into their world, their tone, their values, and their entire posting history. When you hire an influencer, you aren’t just hiring a single post. You’re sitting beside everything they have ever said, done, filmed, captioned, or reacted to. Your brand becomes part of their online legacy, for better or worse.

Influencers often live in a bubble of their own curated importance. Sometimes that bubble floats into awkward territory. Sometimes it pops in a very public, very embarrassing way.

Here are the biggest pitfalls to watch out for, along with scenarios that highlight why due diligence is essential.

The Tone Deaf Traveler

Many influencers chase “epic content” without pausing to check the reality on the ground. Picture a pair of travel influencers cheerfully filming airport selfies on their way to a tropical island that is hours away from being hit by a major storm. Their captions celebrate sunshine and “island vibes.” Meanwhile, residents are bracing for impact.

A brand sponsoring that trip suddenly looks like it co-signed the insensitivity. Consumers don’t see nuance. They see your logo sitting beside a post that aged like milk.

The Restaurant Rule Breaker

There will always be influencers who turn everyday inconveniences into dramatic exposés. Imagine someone at a buffet filming themselves loudly challenging staff because they want to take more food than the restaurant allows. Instead of being polite, they frame it as a “scandal” for content. The worker becomes an unwilling character in a viral confrontation video.

A brand that partners with this person risks being associated with entitlement, bullying, or unnecessary conflict. Not a great look when what you wanted was a happy review of your product.

The “Customer Service Crusader”

Some influencers love turning minor customer service moments into multi-part sagas. A delayed latte, a misprinted receipt, or a minor misunderstanding suddenly becomes a ten-video series about “standing up for what’s right.” The influencer ramps up the drama because drama gets views.

If your brand hires them without vetting, you might discover later that their online persona thrives on negativity. Suddenly you’re linked to someone known for putting minimum-wage workers on blast.

The Misleading Expert

There’s a breed of influencer who presents strong personal opinions as undisputed fact. One day they’re a nutrition expert. The next they’re a financial advisor. The day after that they’re an amateur psychologist diagnosing strangers.

Your brand could accidentally be partnering with someone who dispenses bad advice or makes claims that aren’t accurate or safe. The risk isn’t just embarrassment. It could become a trust issue for your customers.

The Manufactured Drama Influencer

Some creators thrive on stirring up conflict. They pick fights with other influencers, exaggerate insults, or stage breakups for attention. The engagement is high, but so is the chaos.

Brands that step into that ecosystem often find their sponsored content sandwiched between rants, rumors, and heated comment wars. Not ideal for your carefully crafted messaging.

The “Shock Value” Prankster

Prank influencers often push boundaries for views. Some “pranks” cross into unethical territory, involving unsuspecting people in uncomfortable or frightening situations. Even if the influencer apologizes later, the internet rarely forgets.

A brand sponsoring them looks like it endorses the behavior, even if that was never the intention.

The Problem With Viral Apologies

A final caution. Many influencers who cause problems eventually release tearful apology videos. These can go one of two ways. Either they are sincerely remorseful or they are performing regret to maintain their follower count. Brands get dragged into that spotlight whether they want to or not.

Once your logo is linked to an influencer’s meltdown, you are part of the narrative.

The Takeaway

Influencers aren’t just content creators. They are public figures whose posts, reactions, and judgments instantly reach thousands or millions of people. Brands should remember that partnering with an influencer is like agreeing to stand beside them on stage while the spotlight moves around unpredictably.

Not all influencers are problematic. Many are thoughtful, creative, and professional. But the ones who aren’t can cause real damage to your reputation.

The safest approach is to vet carefully. Look at their history. Look at how they treat people. Look at how they behave when they think the camera gives them power.

Great influence can build your brand. The wrong influence can bury it.

The post The Hidden Pitfalls of Hiring Social Media Influencers appeared first on Carl Franke.

You need to be a careerist.

Not in a negative way, but in a survivalist way.

That was the unspoken theme at the recent Digital Summit Series Philly conference.

Traditionally, a careerist is defined as “someone who thinks their career is more important than anything else, and who will do anything to be successful in it.”

That used to sound selfish. Now, it sounds like someone simply trying to stay relevant, and to keep up with the constant evolution of MarTech, AI and platforms.

The importance of maintaining your career edge today comes from the sheer volume of technology we’re expected to understand and use. It’s not just learning, it’s endurance.

The conference offered great takeaways, inspiring stories, and plenty of memorable Instagrammable quotes. But underneath it all, there was a noticeable pressure, a fog of “how do we keep up?”

It’s not entirely new. When I started as a web designer, I spent hours at the University of Barnes & Noble, studying CSS3, HTML5, and Flash ActionScript 2.0.

The tools have changed, but the grind to stay current has intensified.

If you work 50 hours a week, how much time is left to truly research and test new AI tools and marketing technologies? Even a focused hour on a Friday afternoon feels like a drop in the ocean.

And so, you spend less time with family, friends, hobbies. Your identity morphs.

So, what’s the most effective way to nurture your growth? Following thought leaders who share their experiments and results seems the obvious best option.

But it also raises a question: are marketing degrees or certifications keeping pace? I’m in the middle of one right now, and much of what I’m learning I’ve already read casually in blogs.

Being a “careerist” today isn’t about ambition at all. It’s about survival: staying curious, adaptable, and resilient enough to keep learning, no matter how fast the landscape forms mountains.

The post Careerism appeared first on Carl Franke.

The Overlooked Skill

In every company I’ve worked with, I’ve noticed a surprising gap. There is almost never a procedure or training on how to properly use email. Outlook or Gmail accounts are issued, and it is simply assumed that employees will figure it out. Before long, email becomes the default communication method and, without guidelines, the foundation of most people’s workdays. (I’ve seen more instructions on bathroom etiquette than with email.)

Despite its importance, email is often treated as a dull, administrative tool. Yet the way we manage it directly shapes how productive and successful we are.

The Distraction Cycle

I often schedule my day carefully, only to be derailed by the familiar chime or pop-up of an incoming message. Those small interruptions add up. Even a quick glance at the bottom-right preview can pull focus away from deep work.

Here are three approaches I’ve experimented with:

Turning off both sound and visual alerts entirely. (You might as well not exist.)Working for 20 solid minutes before checking the inbox again. (Probably the best method.)Restricting email checks to set times, like 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. (Confuses people with sudden response barrages.)

Truth is, there are endless strategies. The key is to adopt one that aligns with your work style and protects your ability to focus.

The Blur of Projects

A moment that stood out for me was when someone asked what I was working on that day. I couldn’t give a clear answer. I had touched so many projects in such quick succession that they blurred together. The only way I could retrace my steps was by reviewing my sent messages. It’s like they were receipts of two-minute activities.

Email encourages micro-moments of task switching. Add in Slack, Teams, or project management platforms, and the distractions only multiply. Even technical issues like messages disappearing into Junk or filtering systems create more noise to manage.

Building Time Buffers

To cope, I’ve started padding my calendar. If a project will take 30 minutes, I block 45 to allow for the inevitable email interruptions. I also dedicate two hours daily to focused email response, delegation, and scheduling.

When managing responses, I try to remember that not every email is urgent. If six out of seven people have replied to a scheduling question, the last one can wait. Time is better spent keeping priorities clear than reacting immediately to every ping.

Practical Tactics

Most professionals develop small tricks to tame the inbox:

Flagging emails with categories or colors.Filing messages away for later response.Scanning for only the most pressing items.Scribbling frantically on a Post-it note and decorating their LCD screens.

Recently I discovered a helpful Outlook feature: the “adjacent email” trick. Instead of marking a message as read when you select it, you can choose to open it without losing the bold unread marker. It’s a small improvement, but one that makes inbox management less chaotic.

Leveraging AI Tools in Outlook

AI is being integrated into email platforms like Outlook to reduce the burden and improve productivity. Some helpful tools include:

Microsoft Copilot for Outlook: Drafts replies, summarizes long email threads, and suggests next steps directly in your inbox.MyAnalytics / Viva Insights: Provides data on your email habits and suggests focus time, response patterns, and ways to reduce overload.Cortana Scheduler: Assists in scheduling meetings automatically, cutting down on back-and-forth.Third-Party Add-Ins such as Boomerang or Grammarly: Help with scheduling sends, setting reminders, and writing polished, clear messages.

Will the future of email management will be less about human willpower and more about using intelligent tools to filter, prioritize, and automate? By blending intentional habits with AI assistance, we can reclaim email as a tool for productivity rather than a source of distraction.

The post Email Management and Its Impact on Projects appeared first on Carl Franke.

Do Apartment Communities Really Need Social Media? Here’s Why the Answer Is Yes

This blog post from Digible, written by Maddie Taylor, makes the case for why apartment communities require social media for effective marketing. The argument is clear: social is no longer optional. (Hasn’t been for years.) It’s essential for building reputation, visibility, and driving leases:

Lifestyle-driven visuals help prospects imagine what it would be like to live there. Even before a community opens, establishing a social presence creates early awareness and differentiation in a crowded market. Residents become powerful advocates with their tagged user-generated posts, adding authenticity that no polished brochure can match.

Where the buy-in gets complicated is attribution. A highly engaging post might generate 100,000 views, 100s of likes, comments, and shares, yet show zero tracked leads in a CRM. Even with UTM tracking “link in bio” and call tracking phone numbers, social lurkers rarely immediately convert to leads.

With prospects ogling up to 15 sources before scheduling a tour, the website will typically always appear to be the sole dominate source. Prospects may save a post or research a community later, as they prefer to stay in-app within the social platform and continue scrolling.

Social channels encourage in-app behavior. Clicks out to a website are limited compared to the attention spent on content inside the feed. Often, browsers don’t pass the referral source to Google Analytics, and GA then tosses the user visit into “Direct”. Have you noticed Direct traffic numbers continuing to be larger? The “dark social” aspect also has links shared via DMs, email and Messaging tools sending the user visit to Direct.

What social truly excels at is building familiarity and aspiration. Those are the emotional drivers that turn an impression into interest, and interest into a signed lease. It also transcends at humanizing the brand and providing humor and infotainment via trends.

Most analytics platforms are built around last-click attribution, which heavily favors channels like paid search or direct visits. Social tends to be a discovery and inspiration channel. People scroll, they see something intriguing, they remember it, and when the time comes, they search or go directly to the website. The credit gets assigned elsewhere, even though the first impression happened on social.

Social is often the start of the journey, but it rarely gets the credit as the closer. Vanity metrics aren’t the end goal, but they’re not meaningless either. They’re the visible evidence of attention and awareness. The real problem is measurement, not impact.

The post Absolute Need For Social Media Marketing For Apartment Communities appeared first on Carl Franke.

I took my kids to Wissahickon Valley Park and left the algorithm at home. A few quick photos, then the phone went away. Same trails and bridges I walked years ago, same ducks hustling for crumbs, same creek soundtrack. The footprint hasn’t changed much aside from some new signage to prove time passed. The awe stayed exactly where I left it.

The magic? No feeds, just trees. The Valley does what tech can’t: it clears headspace. Movement, water, and wind handle the UX, and attention resets on its own. Watching my kids skim rocks where I used to felt like syncing two versions of myself.

It was good to remember that the strongest connection sometimes happens in airplane mode.

The post No Bars… Full Signal appeared first on Carl Franke.

A Barnes & Noble is coming back to Jenkintown. Years ago, we had one that closed and the space became a CVS. It made me wonder: do “big box” comebacks shift consumer behavior in small towns? Will local bookstores feel an impact?

Nearby Capricorn Books, Open Book Bookstore, and Booked are wonderful little shops, and their foot traffic could potentially be disrupted. Possibly… But the truly devoted customers will probably keep supporting them.

Will I skip local brewery restaurants with a Honeygrow nearby? Doubtful. People form strong allegiances, not just to brands, but to experiences.

The local coffee shop loyalist doesn’t suddenly switch to Wawa because it’s convenient. The indie bookstore browser may see Barnes & Noble as a different experience, not a replacement.

Personally, B&N was formative for me. I used to camp out in their web development section for hours, treating it like a free university library. And that’s something that a local book store doesn’t have: niche sections that are heavy with technology.

For fiction, I will always go to a local shop. And if they don’t have the book, I can order it through them and stop by again.

Many in Philly used the Rittenhouse Square B&N as an urban rest stop. It later doubled as a family-friendly community hub that sold educational toys with sections devoted to Star Wars and Harry Potter. It got bizarre. I’d sip a Starbucks coffee from the in-house shop and then watch my kids as toddlers play with a wooden Thomas The Train set with others.

Big box returns bring the competition, but they also shape local culture. Are big-box revivals more of a threat or opportunity for small towns?

The post Barnes & Noble Resurgence? appeared first on Carl Franke.

There’s a weird thing that happens sometimes when you post on social media: you throw something up for fun with no big production, no months-long content calendar, and it works better than anything you’ve carefully planned.

That’s what happened with my Sopranos-style Instagram Reel. Instead of Tony driving through New Jersey, it was me driving around Glenside, Pennsylvania, hitting the landmarks that matter to me: the shops, the restaurants, the old bridges with murals, even a donut from Daryl’s Pastries. The whole thing had similar grit, improper lighting, and jerky camera work as the original intro. But, opposed to driving a top tier modern SUV, I was driving a 2007 clunker. And instead of coming home to a McMansion for the finale, I end up at jaded at GIANT (once again) to buy mundane staples.

I figured the Reel might get 20 likes.

Instead, it arrived at:

178k+ views6,155 likes7,309 shares300 comments

Throughout, it kept a steady rate of producing 115 to 125% more shares than likes. In the social media world, that’s like a solar eclipse. It’s rare. In most posts, shares are a fraction of likes. In fact, it’s so unusual that marketers tend to study it the way birdwatchers get excited over a rare warbler sighting.

So why did it take off? A few working theories.1. A recognizable format with a twist

The Sopranos intro is instantly familiar. You don’t need to explain it. You just recreate it and people get it in the first two seconds. Add a local twist, and suddenly you’re talking to two audiences at once: fans of the show and people with a connection to Glenside.

2. Local details that hit the nostalgia button

This wasn’t just a list of businesses. It had telephone poles with decades of character, cracked concrete bridges painted over with murals, and storefronts that haven’t changed in years. That’s the stuff that sends former residents, even the ones who live in Florida now, into the comments to say it made them homesick.

3. Cross-generational appeal

Here’s the thing: The Sopranos is old enough now that it has two lives. Older viewers remember watching it when it aired. Younger viewers are discovering it on streaming and treating it like retro-cool. That’s possibly why this Reel connected with people in their 20s… and people in their 80s.

4. Perfect timing without trying

I posted it on Saturday morning, July 5th, the day after the Fourth of July. Almost everyone was off work. People were scrolling, possibly hungover and still smelling like fireworks. And I happened to be wearing a Phillies hat with the American flag inside the “P.” Was that planned? No. Did it make it feel seasonally relevant? Absolutely.

5. The “you forgot my spot” phenomenon

Some people pointed out I didn’t include their favorite local attraction. In a 60-second video, you can’t get to everything. But that reaction is actually a win. It means people care enough to want their spot in the spotlight. It also means Part 2 is practically writing itself.

Why more shares than likes matters

Shares are the ultimate “you have to see this” metric. A like is a polite nod; a share is someone walking across the room and saying, “Stop what you’re doing, watch this.” When shares outpace likes, it’s a strong signal you’ve hit something culturally resonant.

For this Reel, shares beat likes by 20%. I rarely see that, and I work in digital marketing for a living. When it does happen, it’s usually because the content triggers identity (“this is so us”), inside jokes, or hometown pride. This one seemed to have all three.

The marketing takeawaysLeverage formats people already know. If they recognize it instantly, they’ll stick around.Get hyper-specific with details. The texture of a telephone pole can mean more than a skyline shot.Post in low-noise windows. Holiday weekends, early mornings — times when people have time to scroll.Don’t fear omissions. The comments section can become your idea bank for sequels.Measure shares as a top metric. They tell you how far your content travels beyond your own audience.

The next Reel in this series is already underway. I’ll probably get a mix of nostalgia, mild outrage, and “you forgot my place” comments again. But I don’t think it will produce even an eighth of this engagement. But if I can get people to argue about which coffee shop belongs in a Sopranos parody, we’ll see.

Update: One last thing to point out is that platform culture and audience context matter just as much as content. This same Instagram video was posted just minutes apart from TikTok where it hardly performed at all, earning just 30 likes, 1 comment, and 581 views.

The same content that goes viral on one platform can clearly fizzle on another, not because it’s bad, but because the platform’s culture, algorithm, and audience context are completely different. TikTok didn’t have the hyper-local seed audience to get my Sopranos parody going, and the algorithm didn’t know who to show it to. On Instagram, my core community made it fly.

The post When Shares Outrun Likes: The Anatomy of a One-Minute Viral Reel appeared first on Carl Franke.

“Memowraith” is a  portmanteau for the words Memory and Wraith, and is the title of my new collection of instrumentals, now available on Spotify, YouTube Music, Pandora and all streaming channels.

Memowraith drifts like a half-remembered dream, an instrumental transmission from somewhere between the past and the afterlife. Warm, warbling analog synths coil around haunting, detuned piano phrases, each note ringing out like a photograph left too long in the sun. The pulse comes from vintage drum machine sounds, tape-saturated, loose, and human, layered with soft hand percussion and glitching accents that feel as if they’ve been lifted from worn cassette recordings.

[ ghost.log ]> rebooting childhood.exe> ** MEMOWRAITH **> arcade whispers // altar boys on ferris wheel> dial tone... *69... sneaking out back door> static_hum + petty vandalism + mixtape_hiss> !!! blow into the nintendo cartridge> trying for the first time :: scared & alive> analog ghosts detected...> END OF TRACE

Every track sways with rhythmic nostalgia: loops that shimmer like old Super 8 film reels, melodies that fade in and out like someone walking through fog. Memory here is not static. It glitches, repeats, and decays, each cycle leaving behind a ghostly trace. Memowraith is a landscape where time folds in on itself, where the familiar becomes strange, and where the ghosts of our own recollections hum quietly in the background, waiting to be heard again.

The post New Music: Memowraith appeared first on Carl Franke.

Hot Take: Instagram Highlights are kind of… useless. At least in their current form. Let me explain

Instagram Highlights still play from oldest Story to newest.

Imagine you’re a prospect clicking on an apartment community’s “Events” highlight. What’s the first thing you see?
Ribbon-cutting ceremonies
Empty amenity spaces under construction
People in hard hats
Signage unveilings

Meanwhile, the actual selling-point events (such as pool parties, pet parades, and yoga brunches) are buried at the end. This assumes that anyone even makes it that far.

Why does Instagram still force us to scroll through digital cobwebs to find relevant content in Highlights?

The latest stories should play first, especially in industries where timeliness matters. In apartment leasing, for example, prospects may want to revisit a Story they saw 26 hours ago with a temporary link or event details. They’re not here for a nostalgia tour.

Is there any industry where it makes sense to show the oldest Highlights first?

The post Instagram Highlights Are Failing Marketers — Here’s Why appeared first on Carl Franke.