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It’s been nearly two-weeks since I’ve had the chance to update my blog, and I have to tell you the issue was more about technical limitations that time crunch or just not having anything to say. And as you’ll see, this blog was going to be far different than it turned out-at the end of the day the company I use to host this blog (Network Solutions) kind of out of nowhere decided to practice really good customer service and I have to say thank you.
So, all of this goes back to the start of the month, when I realized I could not log into the tool that lets me update the blog, add pictures etcetera. Now, this has happened in the past and I kind of knew where to look for the issue and trouble shoot. So, last week I spent the better part of three hours doing just that. Guess what? It was an all new problem.
Anyone who knows me knows I am a true guy, and never call for help. But I had to. So into the queue for Network Solutions Customer service. That was about an hour on hold and another 40 minutes with a customer service rep (CSR). So now I am about five hours into trouble shooting and the CSR the night I called told me the host had applied a PHP security patch and there was something I could do on WordPress to update settings. Email would be arriving with the information.
No email.
I spent some time going back and forth with Network Solutions on Twitter while I was at work-and despite not really being able to directly help me with much, they were very responsive. When I got home that night, it was back on the phone with Network Solutions. This time I was very annoyed and asked for a supervisor. What I found out on this call was the information about the security patch was all wrong and the fix involved making a change to my hosted account and updating the PHP via FTP.
Since it was Tuesday night when I got this information, and I don’t actually write PHP code I figured this would all wait until today-and this blog post would be first out of the blocks but with a different tone.
Then came a surprise. This morning I got a call from John at Network Solutions and he fixed the problem-and he explained it as they applied a PHP patch and it reset to default settings a bunch of accounts (including mine) PHP memory.
Now, I dabble in these types of areas professionally, and for the first time I felt like I was actually getting a straight answer from Network Solutions.
The night I made my second call, and the CSR supervisor was telling me that the patch had nothing to do with the outage, I was outraged. I know in my job had I done something that caused entire sites to go down, I would be fired. The supervisor tried to up sell me a site monitoring package-which I don’t need except for when Network Solutions applies rogue patches without determining the result.
So, thank you to the Twitter team at Network Solutions and thank you to John to made a change this morning. My contract with Network Solutions runs until February and I can say this. While this does not mean I am not changing my host, I will certainly look around.
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So, a quick update-and despite the fact that I have run digital platforms for some of the biggest publishers in the country I still can’t fully explain this.
Apparently, the company that hosts this blog-Network Solutions-unilatteraly lowered the memory allotment to my site. And they did this without telling me about it, or warning me it was going to happen.
To get the site back up and running and to be able to post updates, I needed to change a PHP file. Very much a CF.
And I still don’t know why Network Solutions messed with the site’s memory. But it looks like things are back up and running properly-so we will resume regular programming.
This is cross-posted from my Dad-O-Matic blog:
One of the interesting things about being a 40+ tech nerd is that I have what I think is a unique and different view of devices and apps than the usual 20-something. So when I go to a Tweetup (a meeting of Twitter users), I am usually the oldest or among the oldest. When I am part of a FourSquare swarm (20+ FourSquare check ins at a single location) again I am usually among the oldest there. And frankly, I am pretty comfortable with it, I can hold my own.
Now, if you are reading this and do not know what FourSquare and Twitter are, it may be a little rough, but hang in and who knows maybe you can unleash your inner tech-nerd.
(If you are on Twitter and don’t yet, please do follow me @esd714)
For the last couple of weeks-at the urging of the CEO of a company called Yellow Brck I have been testing and using a location based social app geared to parent called Yellow Brick. Its a free app for iOS (iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad) available via iTunes.
Basically, the app allows you to mix location based checkins (FourSquare) with activity based checkins (Get Glue) and share them with your (limited right now) Facebook network. When you dig a little deeper into the app, there are some good couponing features that are location based.
Right now, while the user base for the app is small, it seems most of the couponing is NYC based. I would be interested in hearing from anyone not in the NYC area who tries this app if they have a different couponing experience.
To check in on the app, after opening it, select check in, and then drill down first through activities (and remember this is a parents and kids app). The list includes movies, birthday parties, parks and nap time. Once the activity is selected, you have the option of including a location.
Location services appear to be driven from the device’s LBS-so you have to agree to allow the app to know where you are and its a pretty extensive list. One thing I would like to see going forward is a way to read review on locations-either via Yelp or home grown within the app.
Right now the app draws friends and shares information only with Facebook. This is a calculated decision based on engagement on Facebook. Twitter networks tend to be broader, but less engaged. I would want to see this option (especially for friending) extended to Twitter. In many cases I have friends who are mobile on Twitter but not on Facebook-but that may be a fringe use-case.
The other nice part about the network sharing, is the ability to not share location information with your network. I have written about this extensively on my social media blog. Its a best practice, and one that I practice dillegently to only share location information with people I actually know.
The flip-side is being able to connect with others (on FourSquare I have had many productive andinpromtu business meetings) based on check ins and knowing where key people in my network are. The same with parenting (and Single Dadd’ing). Its always great to hook up with friends and kids friends and a few fewer calls and texts to make it happen is not so bad.
For now, Yellow Brick is only available for iOS. The CEO says an Android version is in the works.
Give it a shot, and friend me up.
My recent brush with semi-unemployment taught me an interesting lesson about social networks (which I admittedly belong to far more than any one per should). Each one has a unique place and when leveraged in a meaningful can drive results.
So among other places, you can find me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and right here on WordPress (which for the sake of this argument I will position as a social network).
Before I left my office at CBS News for the last time (this was late in October) I updated my Facebook status and put out a tweet. Both were intentionally misleading, as people who knew my situation at work knew what was up–and those who didn’t had questions–but I really did not want to deal with it.
By the time I made my way to Penn Station (admittedly I stopped at a couple of bars) I had job interviews lined up one via a friend (who to this day I have never met in person) through Twitter and one through a good friend (who I actually know) via Facebook.
As the days rolled on, I came to realize that I could make connections to people or reconnect to people across the expanse of my social networks.
I have always been a believer in karma when it comes to things professional–I help people (including employees) jobs. Former employees always have a reference from me. Part of me wants to believe the great support I got was Karma coming back to me–because I will keep on doing what I do.
Beyond the notion of karma though is the reality that we can all be connected–and be there to support one another. Knowing where to go and how to tap into that resource is part of the emerging field.
My quick takeaways–as I am not sure I have all of the answers on this–and the reality is the place I landed was born more from hard work than working the systems is something like this:
Let me know if you have any additions to my list–I am happy to add them on–and I always give credit.
I am willing to admit to being old enough to remember the promise of “the internet” as promoted by AOL
Or even before that Prodigy
Those early “web” services provided access to a vast array of information–some of it cataloged, most of it untapped. Along came independent browsers and broadband at that pretty much all but killed the relative beauty of the dial-up service provider:
For those who did it–who can forget that pleasure of surfing looking for dial-up ports that would work, the second number and more….
As what one of those companies promised “the information superhighway” evolved–along game our friends first at Yahoo then at Google who were able to bring order to the relative chaos. (Yes, I am leaving out the likes of AltaVista, Lycos etc)–you know the search engine.
Open up the page, type in some keywords and you have a menu of options to choose from.
But as technology improved, so did the capabilities of the information providers. No longer was having a lane on the great information superhighway enough–we needed attention. So came the skill of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing). In essence rigging the system–making my content the top of the search returns, after all we all know no one scrolls.
But alas, internet time waits for no one. The AOL commercial at the top of this post is from 1995. A mere 15 years later, and that front door to content has once again morphed.
Think about the way you discover things on-line (if you are even still using a computer or laptop). Yes, search engines still have their place. And yes you still have that Yahoo email, but how do you find things?
My bet is more than 70% of the time its through your social networks. An interesting link on your friends Facebook wall like this one? Maybe something from your Twitter stream that looks like this?
The reality is we are so connected to our networks, that search engines are a secondary source. Case in point, over the weekend when Fox Networks and Cablevision settled the two-week imbroglio (it’s the NY Post headline writer in me-sorry) about retransmission, it was on Facebook I found out. My confirmation was from Twitter, before I hit Google to find out the details.
{Couple of interesting asides here: 1-nornally I get this information first from Twitter, but on an early Saturday evening, my Facebook network was right on it. 2-the email from Cablevision came 5 hours later (a comment on email as a point of dissemination)}.
Our social networks are the touch point we use between information and our day-to-day–and its possible that the front door to the vast reaches of the information superhighway have changed again–from 256k dial-up–to 140 characters.
Where we get and share information is an evolving point of contact, and very individualistic–because it has to serve our needs. I know 90% of my Twitter is mobile, and less than 5% of my computer based Twitter is on twitter.com.
Think about where and how you get information–and see if perhaps its time for a tune up, or realignment.
I don’t consider myself to be old, however, my daughters (the older one especially) likes to remind me that I am creeping up there in years. So it’s with that backdrop perhaps that I got a little nostalgic as I was watching the live video of the miners being pulled safely from their underground home of more than two months.
I am old enough to remember the tag line “Film at 11.” Now I don’t remember it in my professional experience–but growing up I can remember Chuck Scarborough on WNBC (Channel 4 in NYC) or the late Bill Beutel on WABC (channel 7 in NYC) saying that line during what I later learned was the :57:30 cut-in. You know it as a tease for the late news that comes during primetime viewing.
For those without the reference–here is a one time ABC News colleague of mine Christina Lund with the familiar tagline (this one delivered on KABC-Los Angeles in 1976)
And that’s what happened. If you wanted to see the story you waited for the news to come on. In talking to some of the long-timers at places I work or have worked, by 1976 the conversion to videotape was well underway-but the myth of film at 11 lived on for years beyond that.
Fast forward to Tuesday night into Wednesday and the miners. Gone was the quaint notion of video. Obsolete the idea of waiting 10 minutes, much less until 11. This (like so many events) played out in real-time in bits and bites transferred in real-time around the world–with instant commentary from Twitter, blogs and news organizations like CBS (where I work) CNN, NBC etc.
And as all of this was going on — generally in that lull when the rescue capsule was being sent back down to the miners and being reloaded and resurfacing — I was able to think about the change I have seen in the news model both as a consumer and a professional.
I did wait for film (or video) at 11. I can remember when a reporter going live was a big deal. I’ve sprinted across snow-covered fields in New Hampshire to a feed point to make slot.
I’ve also pulled out an air-card or MiFi and upload a video file, used QIK to send breaking news video back and updated a story via Twitter using my smart phone camera.
I am not sure I know the “tipping” point in all of this-when the idea of waiting became quaint, but its a good thing. News is a commodity as is information.
While I truly do not think “back in the day” that information was being hoarded and doled out–there was a certain eloquence to it. I also would not have been subjected to Ali Velshi on CNN cramming himself into a model of the rescue capsule.
And that’s not to pick on Mr. Velshi (whom I do not know). It’s the rest of the story. Because we demand to see these things unfold in real-time and unedited, the ability to package and present may be a victim.
Flashback to January of 2010 and the Miracle on the Hudson. Gripping pictures, a story with a happy ending–and miles of instant analysis.
Even when the news is bleakest–9/11 is the moment that leaps to mind the need to “fill the void” was evident. I can even think back to the crash of TWA flight 800 off the coast of Long Island–and the long night I spent on a boat listening to coverage that did not equate with what I was seeing (my Nextel died so I was on my own until the boat came in)–but it’s not all bad, it really is not.
Because all of those sources, all of that information–gives us the power to be the packager. Yes, news organizations need to be the gatekeeper. But I can be my own editor and decide what makes sense.
So turn to Twitter, see what your social network is sharing via Facebook–check the blogs watch the video–its part of the human experience and its the job of my colleagues and me to make sure its there for you with context.
It was one of those days when through varied implied and implicit connections I managed to have conversations I had a seven in the morning ring true by four in the afternoon–without having any knowledge that one would lead to the other. It’s a true Maxwell Smart, “Would you believe?” moment.
In the morning I was talking to a commuting buddy of mine about how blogs and social network can drive the news cycle. The example we were discussing was the issue reported in the iPhone 4 device. Here’s a good write through on that if you need the background.
The upshot of the discussion though was how a few bloggers can grab hold of something–and drive via Twitter, Facebook and comments a story until the “main stream” media picks up on it.
So today–what would happen if the BP capping of the well spewing oil in the Gulf was staged.
Step away for a moment. How easy would it be for them to design a set similar to the one we’ve seen for more than 80 days from the bottom of the Gulf of oil spewing. But this time–with no oil and this cap in place? Switch the video source–and what do you know, it’s a capped well, right?
A few conspiracy theorists blog about this. Spread it via Twitter. A few Facebook shares–and you have a rumor ready to rumble along.
The final connection to all of this was an email today that CBS News was going to support the News Literacy Project. One of the goals of this project is to help primarily students differentiate fact and fiction in this connected world.
Play it out–in Dallas in November of 1963. Imagine a wired world, with instant mobile images and video. Twitter to share the news far and wide and the second gunman theory? What would that look like today?
Would you believe we have the power to make things happen–to make people listen. I guess it’s equally important to have something to say.
Something I spend time thinking about is how to gauge influence on social networks and how to gauge the impact social networks have in propagating ideas, content and ultimately in the commercial sense–clicks.
In full disclosure, I think about this from two perspectives-1) as a professional working at CBS News and charged with helping to grow audience in no small part by leveraging social networks and 2) as a straight up user of social media who would love for people to be active on this blog, view my You Tube channel (maybe not that so much) etc.
So, I can go into my Twitter and be pleasantly surprised that I have 1200+ followers. I can go onto Facebook and see that I have 700+ friends. I can go onto Plurk and realize I have 150+ fans and friends. I can hit up Friend Feed and see 350+ friends. But what does it all mean, outside of the fact that I am not the only one with too much free time? (As an aside, one day I would love to figure out how much overlap there is).
So, the question then is I am able to reach 2500+ people on any one of several social networks, but what do they think of my message? and how do I measure the value of my contributions? And then how does the way I influence my network mimic the way CBS News Twitter influences the 1.5 million followers it has, or the 73,000+ that Katie Couric has on her follower list (after all this is my bread and butter, right?)
For that answer, fortunately the smart folks at the Harvard Business Review have some thoughts, and its more than just a straight up numbers game. HBR did a follow-up on some great thoughts and research by Adi Avint from August 2009. His “Million Followers Fallacy” post opines that just the number of followers a user has is not a true indication of their reach. Yes, a million people may read your thoughts 140 characters at a time–but given the nature of Twitter, probably not.
Instead, HBR suggests looking more at @ mentions and re-tweets as a better gauge of influence. Meeyoung Cha opines that follower count as a stand-alone metric is a popularity contest, and not a true measure of influence.
follower count is not sufficient to capture the influence of a user (i.e., the ability of an user to sway the opinions of her followers). It only shows how popular the user is (i.e., the size of her audience). But, as we showed in our paper, retweets and mentions, which measure the audience responsiveness to a user’s tweets, do not correlate strongly with number of followers.
I have long argued that Twitter is more about conversation-and being responsive to what the people I follow post and more importantly be able to control the information flow that I consumer and tap into a stream of personal interest. That can be Mets updates from a variety of sources, or the latest on the Islanders–the value of Twitter to me is the connection to information I am searching for, in real-time and in a passive state (all I have to do is open up a Twitter client on my laptop or mobile device).
Now I work for a major mass media news organization–and there is little doubt of the influence that CBS News will have on today’s news and ongoing stories throughout the news cycle. But for me, Twitter (and the others listed) are more about niche topics and that is where the true value of Twitter comes from.
Cha says early research shows smaller publishers and smaller business-not just collecting followers have a competitive advantage:
But when it comes to non-popular or even niche topics, small businesses and opinion leaders were far more effective in engaging audience than mass media.
But the true measure of influence is still a work in progress. Twitter is an easy study because of the open nature of the platform–but is simply counting RT’s and @’s enough to say “A” is more influential than “C”? Because it’s a matter of what the interaction is.
The interesting Twitter data though comes from a different (June 2009) HBR study–the 10% most prolific Twitter users are responsible for 90% of the Tweets.
Which can lead to an easy conclusion that Twitter is a great content filter, able to sort through a cacophony of data. Yes, some of it is gossipy, and yes there are still those who want (or need) the validation of the million follower club…
But the goal has to be engagement–both personally and professionally. Imagine the folks at NASCAR if they read my Tweet taking a swipe at NASCAR:
Kind of a NASCAR in suburbia feel, no? http://mypict.me/6E8p73:11 PM May 2nd via UberTwitter
Knowing their social media strategy is to fan me up–and follow me?
It’s not the follower count, but the message. As Mel Karmazin once said (in my presence at a meeting), “Content is King,” it’s up to us to maximize its value–and engage our audience.
I very accidentally found out that just when I think things are going as bad as they can, from the outside it may not be so bad. Perhaps the grass can be greener.
Last weekend a bunch of stuff went on (family, friends, loved ones, holidays)-you know just a bunch of stuff. I was talking with a friend of mine who reminded me of FML–you know what you may say in a bad situation, “F*ck My Life.”
And as advertising has taught us–there’s an app for that as well. So, I added the FML app to my iPhone and started sharing the happenings of my weekend and why I feel FML.
And much to my surprise, the community-hundreds of people at a time, determined that things are not as bad as I think they are.
My FML’s have been rejected.
And I think that’s a good thing for me. After all, here I was thinking, “Wow, I am f’d.” And hundreds of people didn’t think so. Its kind of cathartic actually.
While I am not saying that every issue can be helped by simple crowd-sourcing, it is a powerful tool. Let the people speak and they will determine just how worthy the cause is.
My friends at BNet recently pointed out some of the intrinsic value of crowdsourcing and why it makes sense.
From a business perspective–increased creativity, new voices in the decision making process and a true look into what I like to call vox populi (Google it). It comes with some downside too, because business can’t control the conversation or the expectation. Its a bit of sharp edge to walk.
However, it also answers the question–now that I have Tweeted, shared, Digged and Wiki’d everything-what happens?
Well the answer is conversation–and perhaps as I learned, things are not as bleak as they appear, or at least that is what the vox populi is telling me.
For the last five years I’ve heard, read or been told that “this is the year of mobile.” Well, I don’t think it’s a matter of a year of mobile. Rather I think its a progression of the way data flows and the ubiquity of better devices.
And as data flow gets better (despite what my friends at ATT are saying) and devices get better 2010 may finally be the year of what was called LBS (Location Based Services) a long time ago. And by long I mean three years ago.
Now there are core mobile based products like Foursquare, Gowalla, Aloqua, Where that let a user find friends, locations, places, things to do all based on current location and a database.
Now this should be hugely appealing to sales folks and brands because when I am in the heart of Manhattan and looking for a burrito chances are the top item closest to me wins–and that has value. The problem right now is figuring out what that value is.
The other problem is conveying that value.
Yeah, any sales person will tell you its all bout location.
And any brand will tell you its all about proximity
But is this the year it all comes together?
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