The Business Blog at Intuitive.com

Musical discovery in the digital age: Owl City -> The Postal Service

Fascinating experience that just turned me on to a new band and a great demonstration of the unintended consequences of allowing user comments and ratings of products...

Listening to a song from Owl City (Adam Young)'s latest CD, I was wondering if there's a newer one on the way. What better way to find out than ask on Twitter (I'm @DaveTaylor)? So I sent out:

The response was, no surprise, "Who is Owl City? What kind of music is that?"

I figured the best thing to do was link to an MP3 so I did a quick Google search and saw amazon.com listed. I clicked thru to the Amazon.com downloadable MP3 of "Fireflies", Adam's biggest hit so far. A link to that page in a responding tweet and I'd shared the meme:

While I was on that page, however, I scrolled down to the user reviews, always interested in what other people think about music I like, just to find this:

It was only a click or two to preview some of their tracks and ascertain that, yes, The Postal Service is pretty similar to Owl City.

The result? I just bought a new CD in a very 21st Century version of musical discovery. Cool.

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Win a signed copy of Jim Kukral's book "Attention"

I seem to have a lot of friends who write books, the latest of whom is Jim Kukral. His book even includes a two-page profile of me, focused on how I branded my Ask Dave Taylor business, so it's got to be good, right? :-)

Actually, Jim sent me a copy a week or two ago, and it is pretty darn fascinating reading. His subtitle sort of says it all: This Book Will Make You Money: How to Use Attention-Getting Online Marketing to Increase Your Revenue.

What's cool is that Jim's offering up two signed copies of the book for free to you, my readers and online community!

If you'd like to be in the running, leave a comment by Aug 31st. Instead of just saying "me! me!", however, I encourage you to share an anecdote or story about you buying a service or product based purely on your learning about it through social networks or the online world.

For me, it's a daily occurrence. I'm a film reviewer (see Dave On Film for my reviews) and need to take notes in the dark theater, so I am constantly searching for low-illumination light-up pens. Inevitably, my search starts not with Amazon.com but with Google, and if I read testimonials from people I'm sold. How do some companies get this level of customer attention while others don't? That's exactly what Jim addresses in his book.

As Jim Kukral explains in the marketing material for the book: "In three parts, you'll discover everything you need to know to get off the ground and thrive in the social media sphere, including: The tools, techniques and tricks to get attention online and turn that attention into profit; The theory behind the importance of making your mark on the Internet; and How other businesses and individuals made money from online marketing."

It's a good read. And you can have a copy for free. Just leave a comment...

HP and Apple demonstrate execs need to own up to their mistakes too

This has been an interesting fortnight with first Mark Papermaster being fired from Apple, then Mark Hurd being ejected from Hewlett-Packard after a strange sexual harassment investigation that uncovered violations of the HP rules of employee conduct.

Mark Papermaster was the head of the iPhone and iPod division at Apple and therefore the man responsible for a lot of shenanigans that transpired in the last few months (think "stolen iPhone prototype", for example, or "missing white iPhone 4") culminating in the PR disaster of so-called "antennagate", the media frenzy over antenna problems in the popular device.

As an aside, I have an iPhone 4 and don't have any particular problems with my antenna, but it does drop calls left and right, as all my previous iPhones have also done. The iPhone 4 is a great portable computer but a mediocre phone. At best.

Meanwhile, over at my former alma-mater Hewlett-Packard (I worked there for five years, then did consulting work with Walter Hewlett afterwards), the long-slow burn of executives continues. First it was Carly Fiorina, who I've written about more than once on this blog, and now it's Hurd, the guy who was brought in to "rescue" HP from the post-Fiorina doldrums. To be fair, Hurd has done a good job and HP's prospects are good, but he also continued the evolutionary change that Fiorina started, the dismantling of the mythic HP Way that Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard had always made a core value of the company.

I don't want to rehash it all this many years later, but will just say that it's a long time since HP had a consumer hit and that discarding the "Next Bench" philosophy (e.g., "build things you'd want to buy") might have not been such a bright move after all. Still, the company has good financials and is a significant player in the corporate space (though I'll cynically suggest that's due to the long, slow death of Sun Microsystems).

Hurd forgot that being CEO doesn't make you immune to the requirement for ethical behavior and when he realized the Board of Directors was going to find out about his dalliance with HP contractor Jodie Fisher (the NYT coyly says "Mr. Hurd, who is married, has settled the matter with Ms. Fisher for an undisclosed sum."), he knew he was in trouble. Instead of resigning, though, the HP Board of Directors had to give him the boot, which at this level translates into them telling him to resign.

When your boss has to apologize for your division's design flaws, it's never good.

I'm not alone in this interpretation of Hurd's mistakes. Alex Dobuzinskis at Reuters says almost the same thing about Fiorina and Hurd nailing closed the coffin of the HP Way in his piece "Fiorina, Hurd: No practitioners of the HP Way", and Ben Worthen at the Journal also writes about how "Hurd Neglected to Follow HP Way".

Curious about Mark Papermaster's story? The SF Chronicle reports that it was a cultural difference with Apple vs. Papermaster's previous employer, IBM: "At the end of the day, it might have been that he didn't have enough t-shirts and blue jeans in his closet", an angle echoed by MacRumors, but that's bogus. Almost always, "cultural differences" is a cover for unacceptable performance and I can't think of a worse example of corporate embarrassment than fabled Apple's iPhone 4 release.

What interests me about both of these situations is that in both cases the executives felt that they were immune to the consequences of their actions. Papermaster presumably watched the flame-out of the popular but flawed iPhone 4 as the media lambasted Apple for its shortcomings, secure that it wasn't his fault, really. Hurd was dating Fisher -- and putting their rendezvous on the corporate expense account -- without even a second thought too. Mark, you make millions of dollars, you couldn't spring for dinner at Il Fornaio or similar out of your own wallet?

I am glad both of these guys were fired, actually. Not for their careers, but because it reaffirms that all of us, whether a lowly assembly line worker or a senior executive, are responsible for our actions and need to make the smartest and most ethical decisions we can make, and that we have to live with the consequences of these actions. It's also not a surprise that both guys were fired rather than realizing their error and resigning.

Life gives us challenges. The test is how you deal with them.

Sony prohibits Internet sales for its ES line

Ah, Sony. I don't know of any other company I have loved for so long and yet had to endure their constant poor judgment and lame, backfiring strategy. When I was young, we didn't have a TV, we had a "Trinitron", but now Sony has long since been eclipsed by companies as varied as LG and Apple in the consumer electronics market.

And here's what's weird: it's sure not from lack of trying. Sony has some of the very best designers and researchers in the world and every year they wow people at the Consumer Electronics Show and elsewhere. But somehow their brand has long since stopped being synonymous with cool, hip, state-of-the-art.

The latest experiment from Sony is with its new high-end "ES" ("Elevated Standard") (no, really, that's what it stands for) series of audio/visual receivers and Blu-ray players. Based on a report in TWICE, Sony is going to limit sales of these product lines to custom installers and A/V specialty retailers while prohibiting sales over the Internet, including through Sony's own SonyStyle.com online store.

Now these aren't $10,000 ultra-high-end home theater components for the richest of the very rich, they're multizone receivers in the $1000-$2000 price range. The Blu-ray players sound even more interesting, with a $399 suggested retail price entry device, the ES Blu-ray players will all have built-in wi-fi, iphone/ipod app and Quick Start startup, along with IR input and 3D compatibility and built-in Netflix, Pandora, YouTube and Crackle software for streaming directly onto your TV.

Given that online retail outlets like Amazon.com have Blu-ray players that range from ridiculously cheap up to thousands of dollars, include the $1400 Sony Blu-ray "mega changer" and $1500 Sony (BDP-S5000ES) Blu-ray Disc Player. To explain the latter's appearance on Amazon, I believe it's because it's a 2009 model year ES player: it's the 2010 ES lineup that will be unavailable online.

Still, I find this baffling. A Blu-ray player is a plug-and-play commodity component, why wouldn't Sony want to maximize its sales by making it as widely available as possible?

TWICE explains:

"The ES distribution change "will help reinvigorate" the specialty and custom channels, reward those installers and specialists "who have been loyal to Sony for many years," and provide an opportunity for ES to expand its custom/specialty dealer base, said Brian Siegel, VP of Sony's home A/V group.

"ES has been for the past few years essentially widely distributed" and available through "many national accounts" and Internet sellers, Siegel said. A/V specialists and installers, he continued, have said ES offers great products and programs but that the previous distribution strategy "made it easier to do business with other manufacturers."

"Sony ES "should be the No. 1 AVR brand in the specialty channel, and this [distribution strategy] is a way to do that," Siegel asserted."

Really? So they're willing to basically hide their new flagship ES line from the majority of consumers who do research and shop online in the interest of "reinvigorating" the specialty channels?

I haven't stepped foot in a specialty or custom channel store in years. I have done my research online and purchased my TV, Blu-ray player, iPod docks, computers, and just about every other piece of consumer electronics from online vendors. How about you?

Btw, I am definitely interested in learning more about the new ES Blu-ray player line, so I'll keep my eye out for more information. I'm just afraid that without subscribing to a high end audio/video magazine I'll never see anything now...

Recommended Facebook Privacy Settings: Everyone?

Okay, can I just rant here for a second about the never-ending drumbeat of Facebook and its goose-stepping march towards the Island of Absolutely No Privacy? I mean, after weeks of being beaten up by the industry and users alike about it pushing people towards having more and more information publicly accessible on a site that started out incredibly private and closed (heck, if you weren't in one of the selected colleges, you couldn't even join!).

Now they've introduced their new privacy settings and have a "Recommended" option. But check it out...

First, here's my default privacy setting with the new fancy grid display:

I'm pretty public, but you can see that on Facebook I really like to limit my information to friends or friends-of-friends, rather than everyone. The only info I share with the world at large -- the 500 million Facebook users -- is my bio and favorite quotations.

Click on "Recommended", however, and check out what it suggests:

Yup, Facebook believes that "privacy" = "share most everything with everyone on the service", including all your status updates, photos, and even notes that you leave (which for many people means their blog posts, with the RSS feed tracked by Facebook). Really?

if you want recommended settings, choose Friends of Friends instead, at least:

That's a bit better, though with the multiplication of the social graph your 500 friends could mean that 25,000 people are seeing your status updates, etc., which might not be what you want either.

Oh, and while you're at it, find and check this area out too:

And Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of teh Facebook team, can you please just encourage people towards more privacy rather than less? That's kinda what we're upset about, after all...

Sign up now for my week-long Web Marketing and Social Media workshop

I'm really enthused to share that I've been working with Boulder Digital Arts on a certification program in Web marketing and social media and the first week-long workshop is coming up in about a month. It's June 28-July 2, and it'll be here in Boulder at the terrific BDA facility.

Here's what I'll be covering:

"In this one-of-a-kind program you will be immersed into the world of web marketing from one of the smartest and most experienced expert in the industry! In one week you'll be introduced to proven strategies for growing your online audience with qualified traffic. You'll learn the fundamental principals and insider tips for search engine optimization, pay-for-placement advertising, social media marketing and other more. This program will give you the knowledge and skills necessary to provide these immensely valuable and in-demand services for all organizations who need to grow their online audiences - all in one week and one place."

In a nutshell, my plan is to have a very hands-on intensive week of teaching you how to really work the modern Web to promote your business and services, all within the context of best practices and completely ethical techniques.

What we won't work on is "how to get a ton of followers" or "how to game search engines" but instead to focus on how to build your brand, gain trust and authority, and create an online community of fans that are ready and eager to purchase what you're selling.

I've taught a ton of workshops, seminars and even offered keynote talks to a wide variety of groups, but this is the first time in a very long time that I'm offering a week-long hands-on event. If you've wanted to work with me in the past, this is a splendid opportunity to come out and enjoy beautiful Boulder, Colorado and gain a ton of practical, actionable ideas and techniques to help grow your business.

More details, signup, etc: Web Marketing and Social Media Certificate Program.

I hope to see you there. Oh, and no, we won't be videotaping it or streaming it live on the Internet. This is a hands-on workshop where you'll want to be working with me for the week to ensure you gain the maximum benefit possible.

Interview with the ultra-connected Vincent Wright

I've been involved with groups managed by social media evangelist Vincent Wright for years now, and have become curious about who he is and why he's on a mission to connect us all. And when I use "evangelist" it's not in the sense of someone who is focused on self-aggrandizement, as too many "gurus" seem to be, but in the sense of someone spreading the gospel of connectedness.

Turns out his background is as fascinating as he is. Here's an interview we did so you can learn more about Vincent too. I'm honored to consider him a friend.

Q: Let's start by you sharing some of your early background. You were in the US Army band, right? Didja get sick of playing Hail to the Chief? Do you still play?

A. Never got sick of Hail to the Chief but, there were one or two dirges I could do without listening to for the remainder of my life! :-) By the way: I still play but not for outside performances... just for the pure love of the saxophone. Loved it my whole life...always will. (Adolph Sax did a wonderful job in inventing it for us.)

Q: You left the Army and became an IT recruiter for Fortune 500 companies. Tell us about that transition? What do you think you brought from your military experience and musical experience to the task?

A. Actually, I became a Computer Programmer before becoming an IT Recruiter. (I like to tease that after someone saw some of my COBOL source code, they suggested that I'd be a much better Recruiter of IT professionals than to actually be one myself! (I was always an enthusiastic lover of computers but, never was that good at programming them! :-) )

A bit more seriously: As computers were being explained to us at the Aetna Institute for Corporate Education back in the early 1980's, I think that the concepts of discipline from the Army as well as being comfortable with abstract thinking from music helped Aetna choose to give me a chance to be a Computer Programmer.

Q: Finding a job and/or finding an ideal candidate has definitely changed over the last decade with the rise of LinkedIn, Facebook, Monster.com, and many other online tools. How did you see that affect your own efforts in the IT and executive recruitment space?

A. Though corporations have the same access to them as we do, the advent of Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, and other such social media tools is a great benefit to those Recruiters who use them the right way. The right way is not using tricks but, rather, interacting with professionals who see you as a human being and not as a trickster... Professionals get to KNOW their doctors, barbers, hairdressers, etc. so, I like for professionals to get to KNOW ME...Both on the candidate AND client side, those who are comfortable with me as a person, quite often will turn to me as a professional to help them with them employment needs... I encourage other recruiters to consider this approach, as well.

Q: Do you still help companies with their recruitment activities? Can you sketch for us how you approach finding a great candidate for a position nowadays?

A. I still help companies with their recruitment activities and enjoy it tremendously. Based on a concept I call "C.I.A. or Confluence, Influence, Affluence, the process of finding a great candidate is fairly straightforward for me. Confluence essentially means bringing together LOTS of great people. Influence means getting involved with them. Affluence, in this particular instance, is comparable to "human capital" Have you influenced enough of the right people to help position you to more quickly find and get to know the professionals you need for your client companies...

Q: Why did you create My LinkedIn Power Forum?

A. Back in 2005, I created My Linkedin Power Forum to help answer questions for the people whom I began inviting to Linkedin. Many weren't clear on what Linkedin could do for them so, I found myself answering the same questions over and over and over. Figuring that I could more effectively answer more if I proactively answered them for hundreds of professionals CONCURRENTLY, I set up My Linkedin Power Forum. (By the way: the forum now has 8,500 members and is located at www.SocialMediaConsortium.com )

Q: In your official bio, you state that you've "founded hundreds of professional discussion groups serving tens of thousands of professionals from around the world". How do you keep it all straight?

A. Well, Dave, founding those hundred of professionals discussion groups serving tens of thousands of professionals from around the world was SUPPOSED to be TEMPORARY! But, five years later, I'm just now getting a handle on reducing them to a sane number which I ultimately hope to be no more than a dozen groups in the next few months..

Q: Given your extensive experience creating and managing online professional discussion groups, what do you see is still lacking in the toolset we have from sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Ning that you wish was available?

A. THE thing still lacking in the toolset for sites like Facebook, Linkedin, Ning, and Twitter which I wish were available is this: data portability. If data portability were around as I see it in my mind, I believe I would have been a far richer man! :-)

More seriously: Creating profile after profile after profile is such an archaic means. It's almost like having to get a new drivers license every time we went from one state to another in the United States of America. It also reminds me of the nightmare which Object Oriented Technology solved with the Y2K mess... (I wish someone would help develop www.ProfileOrientedTechnology.com :-) ) (And, too, NONE of the sites you mentioned are set up quite right...they're okay...they're workable...but, there's a LOT more that a site could do to add a LOT more power to the billions of people who need better control of the information via the Internet....)

Q: If we may, can you share how you generate revenue from these many discussion groups you've created, Vincent? You're clearly performing an awesome community service, but that doesn't pay the mortgage. :-)

A. The revenue I generate via my discussion groups is minimal. They actually weren't set up for revenue but, rather, for genuinely serving the members of my network... After donating between 7,5000 and 10,000 hours to help people get better acclimated to social media, I've overcome my apparent allergy to money and, thus, am looking at various ways of monetizing what I love doing: creating and managing professional discussion groups.

Q: That's great. On behalf of the many people who have been positively influenced by your efforts, let me say Thanks! So tell us, what's next? What are the cool things on your horizon?

A. Next, I'm working on www.BrandSeed.com, which is designed to help individuals and companies design, develop, and deliver a stronger brand for their products and services. The coolest thing I'm working on AFTER that is a meta-methodology I created using the hand as a metaphor. Candidly, I've spent a LARGE portion of my life loving this concept which I facetiously call: HANDSONOMY or HANDONTOLOGY

Q: Finally, give us a few URLs. Tell us about the things you've done online that you're most proud of. Oh, and perhaps a link to somewhere we can hear your sax playing too?

A. Dave, First: I'd like to thank you for honoring me with an opportunity to be interviewed by one of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE authors.

Second: Here are a few of my favorite URL's via which I'm happy to have spent time helping thousands of professionals:
1. http://MyLinkingPowerForum.ning.com
2. http://MyFacebookPowerForum.com
3. http://SocialMediaConsortium.com
4. http://LinkingVentureCapital.com
5. http://MyJobTIGER.com

Thanks again for this terrific interview, Vincent. Readers, I encourage you to check out some of what he's doing to really push the envelope on social networking with his passion and enthusiasm!

How to Create Great Presentation Slides

A few days ago I attended a lecture on international business presented by a charming and charismatic speaker. I was interested in the topic, in a comfortable and friendly environment, yet the experience was mediocre at best. Why? Because the slides that the speaker shared with us were abysmal, incomprehensible and seriously detracted from the presentation.

If you've been to any seminars, workshops or professional conferences, you know just what I'm talking about. Speakers like to use Powerpoint or equivalent tools -- I certainly do! -- but incredibly few have even half a clue about what works when it's projected on a screen in front of an audience and it's a problem.

I'm not going to publish a screed saying that no speakers should use Powerpoint because that's an extreme position that I don't support. In fact, being able to have your key point, illustration or demonstration on screen while talking is a gift to your audience. But making it comprehensible? That's what I want to talk about instead.

Rule One: Use High-Contrast Colors and Simple Designs

Presentation tools have tons of cool themes that look really good on your screen when you're building your presentation. Yup, those flaming letters and that complicated background photo look wicked when you preview it, but when it's projected onto a large screen it's confusing, detracts from the information on the slide, and can render an entire presentation unreadable.

Simple solution: pick simple, high-contrast color schemes. This means, for example, that black text on a strong red background (as the speaker used a few days ago) are terrible and should be avoided. Black on a very faint pink background? Maybe. If you experiment with a projector, however, you'll find that light text on a dark background is typically easier to read than vice-versa, depending on room conditions.

Here's an example before and after. On the left, the purple on black looked really cool on screen, but will be completely unreadable when projected. On the right, same slide, with a far more contrasty, far more readable:

Ugh!	Ahhh.... better.

Just as importantly, pick a design that's simple and free of clutter. Sure, there are fun templates that make your slides look like a scrapbook or a cool computer display from a futuristic sci-fi film, but they're a distraction for the audience. If you really, really can't resist, use them for your opening or closing title slides, but the main slides should be free of distractions. Your audience will appreciate it, trust me.

Rule Two: Less Stuff, Bigger

There's no rule that is more annoying to see violated than the minimum density requirement for information shown to an audience. This proves to be true in just about every medium, not just public speaking, but seems to be most commonly violated in this setting.

Here's an easy rule of thumb: don't put lots of stuff on your slide.

Yow, that's just complicated!

When you're viewing it on your computer screen, it's also easy to sneak in an extra bullet point, one more pithy quote, or a few more lines from the example output you want to explain. Problem is, it's completely different when you're in the 17th row in an auditorium and it's projected on a screen.

Here's an easy way to remember this: if you have text that's smaller than about 24 point, it's probably too small. I endeavor to never get below 36 point on my slides, personally, but sometimes I let smaller text creep in (and typically regret it later).

Rule Three: More Slides, Less Stuff Per Slide

Another rule that the speaker violated in the talk was that they thought they'd be efficient by having supporting material for multiple concepts on a single slide. You know what I'm talking about, it's the slide with the financial results presented as three separate graphs, it's the montage of products or users, it's busy, busy, busy and ultimately confusing.

The best presentations have a single concept per slide and no more.

Heck, Tom Peters, the guy I studied to learn how to become a better public speaker, typically has one-word slides. Nothing else, just a single word. Awesome.

A typical Tom Peters slide

If you want to make more than one point, have more than one slide. It's okay. There are no rules that say thou shalt not have more than 10 slides!

This also means that if you are finding that you have so much information that you need to choose a smaller typeface (remember rule two?) then what you need to do instead is spread it across multiple slides. It's okay. In fact, your audience will appreciate it!

Trust me, background graphics can be distracting...

Rule Four: Don't Read Your Slides

This isn't really a rule for creating presentations but more of a public speaking tip, but you'll cut me some slack, right? With precious few exceptions, you should never have full sentences on your slides and you should certainly never face the screen and read them. Heck, everyone in the audience is looking at the slides anyway, so unless you're auditioning for a new voiceover job, you'll do better to give them a few seconds to absorb the content if you must have full sentences or paragraphs of material, then proceed with your presentation.

It's also boring to see/hear a speaker read their slide to me. I can read, thanks, and I read way faster than you are going to read it to me. Instead, I want to know why: why did you use this material, what's profound about it, why should I care about what you're showing me?

Rule Five: Sexy Transitions are a Distraction

Yeah, the latest generation of presentation tools (notably Apple's Keynote) have some super-cool transitions that make for really great demos on your computer screen, but when you're in front of a crowd, the reality is that the more attractive the transition, the more that's what they'll remember. Do you want to be "that guy who had the cool slides" or "the guy who made some superb points and knows his stuff"?

Powerpoint 2010 transition options, ready to derail you

Resist the siren song of shiny - SQUIRREL! - and stick with the basic transitions for your presentations. I suggest this rule for the same reason I encourage you to skip complex slide designs: you want people to focus on you and what you're saying, not your slides and their appearance.

Better Slides = Simplify

Let me summarize all of these points up for you, dear reader: simplify, simplify, simplify.

That's really what makes great slides and a dynamic, compelling public presentation. It's about the ideas, it's about your charisma and ability to engage your audience, it's not about your slides. Ever.

I hope this is helpful. Want to learn more? Turns out there are some pretty darn good books on the market about how to create compelling presentations, and it's time well spent learning from the pros. Just search Amazon.com for "powerpoint presentations" or similar.

Job Interview: What ARE your strengths and weaknesses?

I got an interesting question on my busy Ask Dave Taylor blog:

"I had been to ur site, its very useful information u have provided on this site, i want to know if in the interview if they ask u "tell me about you, & your strengths & weakness, how to answer them. pls suggest some tips or examples."

Now I'm actively resisting being cranky about someone who can't spend the time to spell out all the words in the interest of clear and accurate communication, but I will say that any email you send to a prospective employer should not be in "text message" format and should be grammatically correct. 'nuf about that.

The question itself is an interesting one because it points to a dilemma that people have when they're on a job interview: if someone asks you about your strengths and weaknesses, do you be straightforward and honest, risking sounding like a high risk as a potential employee, or do you tweak your response to come across as honest but still aware that you're on an interview?

I'm reminded of when a casual friend asks "How ya doing?" because it's the same dilemma. if you're not doing well, do you start sharing your troubles with them, or are they really just saying "hi" but aren't actually interested in what's going on, just being polite?

Obviously, saying "weakness? I have no weaknesses!" isn't going to go over well, even if you're interviewing to join a band of superheroes. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and masking it just makes you see a bit dim. Oh, and a weakness like "I work too much" or "I have no life outside of work and love what I do" can come across a bit sycophantic.

To get more input, I asked a group of colleagues on LinkedIn how they'd address the situation, and here are their answers:

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A broad job-interview question like "Tell me about yourself" is an opportunity for a sharp-eared job seeker to learn more about the business pain the job opportunity has been created to remedy. Here's how that conversation could go:

INTERVIEWER: So, Dave, tell me about yourself.
YOU: I'd love to. Only thing, I don't want to keep you here until midnight. Okay if I ask you a couple of questions, to tailor my remarks?
INTERVIEWER: Shoot.
YOU: I see that you guys got $5M in funding - congratulations on that, by the way -- and so I'd imagine that your life is all about getting your first product to market fast, these days. Is that in the ballpark?
INTERVIEWER: Definitely.
YOU: So, I'm thinking that what's critical for the Office Manager you hire is for that person to be able to support the product developers, meanwhile managing your execs' schedules, setting up some business processes that won't slow the business down, and generally serving as the air traffic controller to keep you guys humming. Is that what you're thinking also?
INTERVIEWER: I'd have to say dead bullseye.
YOU: In that case, it's probably most relevant for me to tell you about my experience at Acme Dynamite. When I started there, there were six of us, and Acme had just launched the first rocket-propelled dynamite sled that's effective against roadrunners. It was absolute chaos, in a good way of course, and so I.....

---

I say answer honestly without putting yourself down. e.g. My strength is my tenacity and follow through, (give a couple examples). When I overextend this strength, I have in the past created a challenge for myself because ..... (give an example). Then finish off with what I have done about the weakness to minimize it or keep it in the strength range.

---

Truthfully, I'd almost want to walk out of the interview. It is such a formulaic question I'd be asking myself "do I really want to work for this company/person?" and... well... depending on the amount of chutzpah I'm feeling that day, would probably pointedly say so. If they want a trained circus animal who performs on cue (I mean, you can rehearse the answer to that question ad nauseum), that's fine; they won't get me.

---

Two approaches :

1] Be prepared on what you are going to tell about this question i.e. be real, be original, irrespective of job type and just go for it. For this you need to understand yourself, study yourself.

2] Study what is the requirement / job u are getting interviewed on. If you are very much sure about soft skills related to that position cover them in your answer, along with your original skills. No need to be honest always and everywhere, provided you are able to justify it.

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The best thing is to put it in a positive light. For example, "Organization has never been my strong suit, but by recognizing that, I've been able to put systems in place so that it's not a problem." Don't try to just rephrase good things: "People say I work too hard, am too thorough and make everyone around me look bad." Not so good.

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Now, dear reader, how would you answer a question like that on an interview?

Experiences with Keynote and the iPad VGA connector: not so good

Last night I had a chance to test out a feature of my new Apple iPad that I'd been eager to try: the VGA connector. On a laptop you plug in a second screen or projector and it generally mirrors what's on your existing screen, giving you the ability to share what you're doing with others. Flip a setting in the Displays preferences and it becomes a second screen, and what's shown on it is different to what's on your computer screen. That's super helpful with a spare monitor, but it's particularly useful for people running presentations.

I use Apple's Keynote for presentations and it's terrific at working with a projector, where the slide is shown on the screen, but on the computer you see a thumbnail of the slide, a smaller thumbnail of the next slide and a timer.

I copied my presentation onto the iPad and made sure I had Keynote ready to go. Some glitches with typefaces and layout, but nothing I couldn't fix in a few minutes of fiddling on the iPad itself. Ready to go!

And then I found out that while the device did a splendid job of driving a projector using the VGA connector ($29 from Apple), what it didn't do was offer anything at all useful on the iPad display itself:

Very disappointing. Even if it didn't show the slides, at least a timer would be useful. It's startling lame actually, and I expect it'll be one of the first things that will change in the first rev of Keynote for iPad.

Another thing I quickly learned is that if you have app notifications turned on, every time you get a notification alert it kills the presentation, drops you back into Keynote edit mode, and makes the projected screen go blank. You confirm receipt of the alert and restart the preso so it's not a nightmare, but, really, can't Keynote pop up "I notice you have Alerts enabled. I recommend you disable them for a presentation. Disable now? Yes / No" or similar?

Since I had the iPad hooked up to a second display, I took advantage of the opportunity to try running different apps and seeing what was second-display aware. Turns out almost nothing is. Netflix? Nope. ABC shows? Nope. Safari? Nope. What did work with the second monitor was iTunes video. Sweet!

I plugged in external speakers and we were enjoying Buckaroo Banzai -- which I had previous ripped from my DVD and copied onto the iPad via iTunes -- on a big, crisp screen. Very nice. The iPad screen was blank during this time, however, which was a bit weird. Why not have it show pause/play controls, volume, etc?

Then I tried to play a bit of Inglorious Basterds, a film I'd bought on the iTunes store, just to bump into this:

Ah, so there are DRM limitations here too.

Anyway, that's a summary of my experience. Not that great, and certainly Keynote worked, but it was surprisingly crude and simplistic compared to the great experience of a two-monitor setup for Keynote on the Mac itself.

What are other people's experiences with the iPad VGA out connector? Any other apps you've found that can utilize it? Is it part of the API and accessible to iPad developers?

Kudos to Levi Strauss for its Goodwill campaign

Most PR campaigns we hear about are big ones that involve lots of money and great hopes for visibility. Problem is, a lot of them are basically PR for PR's sake and don't really make much difference in the grand picture, at least, certainly not for us normal folk that aren't in the business.

That's why I was so impressed when I heard about the latest campaign from Levi Strauss & Co. (ya know, the jeans folk), the "care tag for our planet". Next time you buy a pair of Levi's jeans (well, depending on how quickly it spreads through their channels), your tag might well look like this:

Can you see the bottom lines? It's "DONATE TO GOODWILL WHEN NO LONGER NEEDED AND CARE FOR OUR PLANET".

The campaign is managed by Denver-based PR agency Johnston-Wells and they told me that "the goal of the tag program is not only to divert billions of pounds of unwanted clothing from landfills each year by giving them new use through donations, but also to help those who need affordable, gently used clothing or the services Goodwill provides from the revenue raised at its retail stores."

Next time your jeans are worn out or have mysteriously shrunk to the point where they don't comfortably fit, have a look at the tag, it might just encourage you to drop 'em off at the local Goodwill box.

Are guest blog entries "works for hire"?

I've been working on writer's guidelines for my Ask Dave Taylor blog and wanted to include some wording about my requirement that the rights to an article transfer to me when submitted. Why? Because I wanted to ensure that there'd never be any issues of our relationship going sour and them then insisting I pull the article and any references. Quite unlikely, but it's always good to cover your proverbial bases.

Here's the wording I was going to use:

Anything I get from you is considered a legal work for hire submission under prevailing US copyright law, which means that you give up ownership of the article, you don't retain copyright, and if we have a falling out down the road (which I, of course, hope doesn't happen) that the article remains my property and I can choose to leave it on the site. If you want to retain copyright, be able to publish it elsewhere, whatever, no worries, glad we hit this now: you won't be able to write for my site and I wish you terrific luck wherever you do end up publishing online. No hard feelings at all.

I twittered about it and got a comment back from Ben Oelsner, an intellectual property attorney with Kendall, Koenig & Oelsner PC telling me to be careful because work for hire is primarily intended only for employees, not contractors.

I asked him for more details, and here's what he generously explained:

---

If you are hiring non-employee contractors to create copyrightable content for you, or you are accepting content contributions from individuals who are not employed by you, and you want to own such content, it is a good idea to require that the content creator assign all of his or her rights in such content to you, in addition to or instead of relying on "work for hire" concepts. Under copyright law, the author of the work owns that work and has rights to which an author is entitled. If a work is considered a work made for hire, there will be an effect on the term of the copyright and the ability of the owner to terminate copyright rights.

Although the general rule is that the person who creates a work is the author of that work, there is an exception to this principle for works called "works made for hire." If a work is "made for hire," the employer, and not the employee, is considered the author.
Section 101(1) of the Copyright Act expressly defines a "work made for hire" as a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment, so, if an individual is considered employee under copyright law, the employer will be the "author" of the work and therefore, the employer will own all of the copyright rights in the work and be entitled to the rights of authors under copyright law.

If an individual who is not considered an employee under copyright law creates a copyrightable work, that individual will be considered the author of the work and, therefore, the owner of that work. However, if that individual is hired to create the work or content contributions created by that individual are accepted online, under Section 101(2) of the Copyright Act, there is an exception this author principle that can make a copyrightable work created by a non-employee a "work made for hire." A non-employee created work can only be a work made for hire if both of the following two conditions are met. First, there needs to be a written agreement signed by both parties that states that the parties expressly agree that the work shall be considered a work made for hire. Second, the work must specially commissioned for use within specified categories. These categories are described in Section 101(2) as follows: "a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas. For the purpose of the foregoing sentence, a "supplementary work" is a work prepared for a publication as a secondary adjunct to a work by another author for the purpose of introducing, concluding, illustrating, explaining, revising, commenting upon, or assisting in the use of the other work, such as forewords, afterwords, pictorial illustrations, maps, charts, tables, editorial notes, musical arrangements, answer material for tests, bibliographies, appendixes, and indexes; and an "instructional text" is a literary, pictorial, or graphic work prepared for publication and with the purpose of use in systematic instructional activities."

If you can't make a strong argument that the created content falls within the categories described above, that content should not be considered a work made for hire under copyright law. If it's not a work made for hire by law, you, the person that hired the individual to create the work, won't be the "author" of the work, and therefore, you won't own the work.

What should you do to make sure you own the work? For any non-employee created work, you should have the author agree to assign all of his or her rights in the work created to you. You won't be the "author" for copyright purposes, but you will own all of the copyright rights in the work. A typical assignment provision may look like this:
You agree that all content that you provide to me will be my sole and exclusive property. You hereby irrevocably and unconditionally assigns to me all right, title, and interest worldwide in and to such content and all intellectual property rights to such content.
There are other terms that should be included in any copyright assignment, so you should contact your attorney for assistance in drafting any such agreement.

You will often see a "work made for hire" provision included in agreements with non-employee contractors. It should not be used in place of an assignment provision, but it can be used in addition to an assignment provision as a "belt and suspenders" option. However, if the contractor is an individual, it is possible that characterizing content as a work made for hire could have adverse consequences for you because it is possible that the contractor may be characterized as an employee for purposes of unemployment insurance and workers' compensation obligations (as a result of the relationship being treated as an employer-employee relationship). You and your attorney should analyze and determine the risk of including work made for hire language in any contract that you have with an individual.

See Circular 9 [PDF] on the Copyright Office web site for more information.

---

The key thing that jumped out at me when I got this explanation from Ben was this line: the contractor may be characterized as an employee for purposes of unemployment insurance and workers' compensation obligations. That would be a very bad unintended consequence!

So instead I've been working on creating a content submission agreement that's focused on granting a license that offers the protections I seek. When I've nailed down the wording, I'll add it to this blog posting, but in the meantime, if you're considering hiring people to write for your blog or other site and have been categorizing them as works for hire, this should give you pause.

And thanks again to Ben Oelsner of Kendall, Koenig & Oelsner PC for his invaluable insight into this nuanced situation.

How does a blogging business work?

I received a query from a grad student who, as part of an assignment, is analyzing my Ask Dave Taylor blog as a business. Interesting timing as I just went and talked at The University of Colorado, Boulder's School of Journalism about the business of blogging (see A Class of Future Journalists and Only One Blogs? and especially the scathing debate in the comments).

I thought that my response might be of interest to others, so I'm publishing it here too...

Hi Dave. I am currently taking Blogging 2.0 at [[major university]] and need to research Business Blogs. I am doing my "analysis of a Blog" on your blog and wanted to ask you two questions and have them answered by tomorrow midday if possible. (My assignment is due tomorrow evening.)

Great. I look forward to reading your assignment when you're done. Hopefully you'll have some insight and suggestions on ways I can improve things!

First, It seems like you do quite a bit of advertising for different companies. Is it free or are you compensated?

All advertising involves a financial relationship, whether it's free products for ads or money changing hands. Most all of my ads are through an advertising network run by Google called AdSense. You can learn more about it at http://www.google.com/adsense if you'd like.

Other ads are typically performance based: I don't get paid to run the ad, but if someone clicks on it and buys the merchant's product, I receive a small commission on the sale.

My blog Ask Dave Taylor is a business venture: I have put thousands of hours of my time into creating and maintaining the site and it's supported by advertising and adjunct revenue sources. It pays my mortgage and lets me feed my kids, so that's all good.

Secondly, If I were to consider advertising on my blog what would be the best and easiest way to start. (The blog was also created for school but I'd like to continue after the class ends.

The first thing to realize is that it's really darn hard to earn more than a few dollars/month on a blog. You have to work at it for years, produce good content, and write about something interesting to an audience that is also likely to buy related products or services. In other words, if your blog is "money saving tips" it's not going to make as much off ad revenue as "best high-end fashion purses". Make sense?

Having said that, I am a big fan of AdSense, as mentioned earlier. If you have good content and put the ads front and center, hopefully you can make a bit of money and get enthused to push further.

Good luck!

A class of CU journalism seniors, and only one was blogging?

I had an opportunity this morning to speak to a class of graduating seniors at the University of Colorado, Boulder, specifically the rather dryly named "JOUR 4321: Media Institutions & Economics".

My topics: Are bloggers a meaningful part of the journalism landscape and how do bloggers make money blogging? I came prepared to discuss both topics, based on advance input and what I think are topics that should be important to students about to be pushed out into the bleak, unforgiving world of modern journalism.

I didn't expect a particularly warm welcome from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, though, because as I have learned from a number of students and community members, many people in the department are convinced that they're the last bastion of true journalism and that the entire online world is worthless and that we're going to hell in a handbasket as democracy dies in lockstep with journalism dying.

The first question I had for the class, about 25 students, mixed male/female, was "how many of you have a blog?" One gal bravely raised her hand. "Okay, how many of you have a blog or write "Notes" on Facebook or otherwise write with some frequency?" Two hands went up. That's it. I was pretty darn surprised, needless to say. Journalism and mass communications students who aren't writers? And they're worried that us forward-thinking geeks are poisoning the well?

Then their instructor, Professor Dean Colby, jumped into the fray, positing that traditional, mainstream media is the heart of all journalism and that online bloggers "just aggregate but ultimately point back to traditional journalists". His position, as far as I could tell, is that since bloggers and online commentators don't have traditional journalistic training they have to piggyback on those that do, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and so on.

"Did you read the article in yesterday's New York Times about mom bloggers?" I asked. He hadn't, but two students had (extra points for them!) "That's the opposite of what you're talking about: that's a mainstream media piece written by a blogger likely without any journalistic training."

"Ah, okay, but all bloggers are commentators, not reporters." I got in response.

Okay, I can go down this rabbit hole, with some glee, truth be told, it's a favorite topic of mine and I've explored it from stage more than once...

"So can I debunk a popular myth of journalism? There is no such thing as objectivity. All journalists, all publications, all media is biased. Don't believe me? Compare the headlines in different papers for the exact same story. You can instantly see their bias. Or compare how two writers can "objectively" report on an event differently. Word choice, phrasing, how quotes are assembled, it all contributes."

And so it went. We talked about how CNN is a bastion of journalism, except it now also relies on iReport reporters who don't have any formal training, just a camera and access, and we did talk about how bloggers make money through advertising, sponsorships, and affiliate programs, using Dr. Colby's fave site Denver Stiffs (a sports site) as an example.

Ultimately, it was an interesting conversation, but it's been a while since I felt like I was in the position of defending what I see as the natural evolution of media and journalism. As I feared, my impression of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication remains that it's a dinosaur howling at the impending climate change, it's King Canute standing on the beach, commanding "Ocean, be thou still! I bid thee come not nearer to my feet!" even as the waves implacably roll in.

The world of information dissemination is evolving before our eyes, going from four channels of television to hundreds to thousands, from one or two major newspapers per community to dozens, and from mainstream outlets to everything being an outlet. Journalism is surely just as much about speed of dissemination as it is digging up the muck (a relatively modern invention in the journalistic world, btw), so Twitter users breaking the news of the Chilean earthquake way before any news outlets do is a harbinger of the future, not a change to be feared.

My thoughts to the students in the class are twofold. First, things change. Deal with it or be obsolete. The market determines what's important, not your professors. Second, writers write. You should be writing every single day, even if it's restaurant reviews or letters to your favorite pals. It's a muscle, exercise it and you'll thrive in a changing world of information.

And finally, to the department, this sea change in the world of news, journalism and information dissemination is way too big to deny and fear. Embrace it. Jump into the pool and see what happens. Otherwise you're failing at the core mission of the School of Journalism: to produce journalists ready for the modern world and what will come tomorrow.

Pre-Ordering an Apple iPad: The Visual Tour

I don't know what it is about Apple products that makes me just whip out my credit card, but damned if I don't have one of each, even to the laptops. I think the only product that I've resisted is the Apple TV and that's only because it doesn't play Hulu content. When I started reading - and hearing - about the new Apple iPad, well, heck, yeah, I wanted one. I think it's a revolutionary device (as I've talked about on the Boulder Open Podcast that I co-host) and, of course, I want to write about how to do things with the iPad on my Ask Dave Taylor.com site too.

But that's just an excuse. I just want one. :-)

So when I learned that pre-orders for the new iPad were going to happen at 5.30am PST on March 12, 2010, I dutifully set the alarm on my Apple iPhone to wake up at 6.25am MST and try to get to the head of the line. After all, it wouldn't be cool if my friends had one and I was still on the $#@$&# waiting list, would it?

I fired up Twitter, so I could watch the iPad chatter, and went to the Apple Store, where I got to see this:

Then, at precisely 6.30am, I saw a tweet that "Pre-orders have begun!! Whoohoo!" and refreshed one more time:

Well, heck, it's so early I'm a bit groggy, but I think I know what I want! Click on the "pre-order" button and:

Lots of options. Since I have a Verizon mifi unit, I have always just been interested in the Wi-fi version: I don't want to pay yet another cell bill to get data access through yet another device anyway. Size? Well, the smallest is inevitably going to be too small once I drop some films and my music and photo library on it (not to mention a ton of games!), and my iPhone is 16GB so... coin flip... a 32GB unit sounds nice. That's what I order.

A surprising number of accessories are included, notably a dock and a cable that lets you get VGA out of the iPad (what, no HDMI? No DVI? Interesting), but after a moments thought, I decide that the accessories will be easy to acquire later and skip 'em all on my pre-order.

$599 for the privilege of being an early adopter? Suuurrreeee....

Add $45.89 in Colorado sales tax and $12.00 shipping to get it a wee bit early and I click on the "Place Order Now" button.

Fingers crossed, hoping the Apple Store doesn't glitch, and ...

YES! SCORE!!!

Now the almost impossible wait for the product to actually ship and arrive.

Man, I am such a fanboy. But I admit it, and that's part of the solution, right? :-)

Subscribe to the Wall Street Journal online?

I still have a graphical advert on my site for the Wall Street Journal online, and this very article is rather an advertorial about why you should subscribe to a publication that has two million readers -- a million of them online -- but I can't help but ponder whether or not traditional media is still relevant in the Internet age. I mean, why pay to subscribe to a newspaper when you can just check Google News or subscribe to twenty or thirty of the top business and media blogs?

The answer is obvious if you spend a few minutes reading the WSJ and comparing it to other news sources: for breaking news, social media totally rocks. Twitter lets me know about things sometimes hours before mainstream media picks up on the story, but once it has broken, once there is important and often complicated news to report, in my experience it's up to professional journalists to dig up all the facts, gain access to interview the key players, and create a context and backstory that helps me understand the full issue, not just the knee-jerk punditry of the social media world.

In fact, if I may make a sweeping generalization, most online news seems to be focused almost exclusively on the "what" of the story, without ever digging into "why" or "who". Makes for a soundbite world that is entertaining, but ultimately leaves us in the dark.

So if you are interested in solid, professional, Pulitzer-prize winning journalism, I suggest you give the Wall Street Journal a shot. An online subscription is $1.99/week. That's, what, 33% of a tall latte?

Here's a link to sign up for your trial subscription: Sign up for the WSJ at a discount.

Braindead Affiliate Tax Lands, Amazon Cuts Me Off

Here in Colorado we've been battling a greedy bill from the state legislation that sought to tax all affiliate transactions by establishing a "nexus" for tax with any company that had any affiliate that sold more than $100 from that state. Effectively it would mean that all but the most unsuccessful of affiliate programs would then require those merchants to not only pay Colorado state tax on all transactions, but figure out that tax on a per city/county basis. From what I've heard, that's over 400 tax zones in the state.

We fought it, I wrote letters to my representatives, and many of my friends camped out and testified in hearings, but it was obvious from their reports back to me that the zeal to raise money through closing a perceived tax "loophole" was greater than their interest in hearing how affilate merchants would leave the state, effectively meaning that there'd be no revenue and we affiliates would be screwed in the process.

The bill passed in a modified form, but Amazon.com's Affiliate team still thinks it's too onerous and as of today my account is shut down with them for the foreseeable future. Here's the email I -- and may other Coloradans -- received:

In a nutshell, Amazon believes that the sales tax isn't that onerous (indeed, the rise of Internet commerce has drastically affected tax revenue on transactions, as I have written about before) but that having to worry about hundreds of different taxation zones, and being potentially audited by any and all of these zones, is ridiculous.

Really, it's something that we need to address on a Federal level. We need a Federal online sales tax that is then distributed through some sort of formula so that it's easy to compute, easy to distribute, and helps alleviate the tax burden that brick and mortar stores face in an increasingly digital age.

Until then, well, Governor Ritter, I sure don't appreciate losing a revenue stream because of short-sighted greed in the legislature. I encourage you and the rest of the Colorado legislatures to reconsider the issue of implementing HB-1193 and tweak it before more and more affiliates drop us hard-working small businesses or we are forced to change our corporate headquarters to be in another state that is more Internet business friendly.

Hey SkyMall: pay attention to customer feedback!

I was alerted on Twitter by a reader about their interesting blog entry Something New To Think About at 30,000 Feet (Flying and Spying). In the article, the writer highlights this product:

It's the Stealth iBot PC Monitor and, in essence, it's a simple device that enables you to install spyware on any PC computer in under ten seconds.

As the vendor describes in the Skymall catalog:

Easy To Use & Undetectable Total Computer Spying Tool Covertly Monitors Passwords, Chatting, Photos, Websites & More: Insert In USB, And In 5 Seconds Data Nano iBots Monitor All Computer Activity On ALL USER ACCOUNTS w/o Tell-Tale Hardware Left Behind

• Covertly Record Everything A Person Does On A Computer
• Remove Stealth iBot After 5 Seconds: No Hardware Left Behind
• Undetectable By Most Anti-Spyware Applications
• Store Up to 10,000 Screenshots & Virtually Unlimited Text
• Total Surveillance - Record All Computer Activity - Even On Other User Accounts
• Works With Any PC Computer Including Laptops

Are you shocked that they're selling this? I mean, really, doe everyone who reads Skymall while bored on an airplane flight need to be confronted with something that's the digital equivalent of a lock picking kit, only easier?

I think not! To complain, I went to the Skymall site and clicked on the convenient "Customer Service" link, filled in their form, and submitted this message:

I just noticed this product in your catalog:

    http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=203188705

As a computer security professional, I am shocked that you would promote this and would like to suggest that it has no good, legitimate or valid uses in any situation and that you should pull it from the catalog immediately.

Customer service responded within an hour, which is quite impressive, until I read the message:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us at SkyMall. We do appreciate your time and comments. However I am sadden about your dissatisfaction about one of items. Here at SkyMall we feel that all of our items are properly working items. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and thank you for bringing this to our attention. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at 1-800-759-6255.
Thank you,
Dianna
SkyMall Customer Service

Really? That's it? "we feel that all of our items are properly working" and no response at all to a customer complaint about what they're listing in the catalog?

I will be optimistic and hope that my complaint is sent up the ladder from the first level customer service - obviously someone will minimal training - to someone in corporate who can actually respond in a meaningful manner.

Still, do you think I'll ever see another response from Skymall?

It's time for Foursquare (and Web 2.0) to grow up?

A month or so ago I was approached by the U.S. Navy, invited to join their Distinguished Guest program and spend the night on the U.S.S. Stennis aircraft carrier. Surprised, I said "yes" and planned a trip to San Diego, California, the embarkation point for the Stennis visit. My parents live about an hour's drive from the base, so I added a few days so I could see them, and had a nice week planned out.

A bad storm threw a monkey wrench into our plans, however, and the Navy informed me that they had to postpone the Stennis visit. Did I cancel my entire trip and wait for the Navy to reschedule? I decided not to, and instead contacted some of my social media pals and changed the San Diego leg of my trip to include a meetup, some meetings and some consulting work. Perfect!

My friends at Bailey * Gardiner helped me get a room at the trés chic Sé San Diego hotel to save me from the hell of a cheap motel in the burbs.

I dutifully checked in with the popular geolocation game Foursquare when I arrived, and you can imagine my surprise when I got this:

To put it mildly, I was offended.

I would like to think that I have a good sense of humor (though my kids might disagree!), but I was not happy to be insulted because I had an opportunity to stay at a trendy place. Worse, from the perspective of someone who works with marketing and PR teams, I realized that this was a potential liability for the hotel as it tries to appeal to a younger audience: is being labeled a "douchebag" for staying at the hotel a good thing? I think not.

As a result, I posted a complaint on the Foursquare support boards, saying this:

Predictably, I got responses like this one: "The fact that you are so upset about the deuche[sic] bag award kind of shows you deserve it..." but they missed the point, as I highlighted in a follow-on message:

The problem here is a fundamental one: Web 2.0 companies need to grow up if they want to play in the bigger marketplace of business and corporate America. Does Foursquare? As far as I can tell, businesses are their only revenue stream, sponsorships and special promotions offered to Foursquare users, so that's an unequivocal yes in my book.

This is really no different from any previous era when companies had to decide whether they were going to stay within their target demographic or dilute the edginess of their brand and thereby appeal to a wider audience. Think 60s hippie demo, for example: did you stay a small company and highlight how you were "sticking it to the man" or did you become a bit less anti-establishment and get those advertising and sponsorship dollars from Fortune 500 companies that would let you grow? I'm thinking Ben & Jerry's here...

Subsequent to me bringing up the issue of the insulting "Douchebag Badge" on the Foursquare support forum, the issue was raised on TechCrunch with the subsequent comments being predictably vitrolic, since their audience is primarily the 20-somethings who think that a "douchebag" is a funny label and not insulting.

As one TechCrunch reader said, "Grow up, chill out, or get out!" and another, a better example of how there's a demographic that finds the word amusing and not crude or insulting: "the problem is not calling a badge 'douchebag' it's that as [Foursquare's] userbase grows, more actual douches will start using foursquare, rendering it too mainstream for early adopters to appreciate anymore."

Chrysanthe Tenentes of Foursquare did pipe in on the support forum and share that "the team is taking the sensitive nature of the db badge very seriously. The way that tagging works is also under review. Hearing user feedback is integral to improving foursquare features. Thanks everyone for piping in!"

What I find interesting in that remark? She didn't want to use the phrase "douchebag", so she abbreviated it "db". Indeed.

Ultimately, Foursquare faces the same dilemma that just about every self-consciously über-hip young Web 2.0 company is going to face: stick to your edgy personality and accept that you're going to be offensive to some of your potential audience and thereby limit your growth potential, or compromise, dilute some of the hipster vibe and be more appealing as a mainstream product or service?

In the case of Foursquare, geolocation check-in games are already a very competitive market segment (with Gowalla and Yelp doing well and, rumor has it, Facebook entering the space very soon) and if they hope to grow beyond their small market segment -- as is clearly the case given that they just signed TV network Bravo as a sponsor -- it's time for them to either make the douchebag badge optional or just scrub it entirely.

And as for the rest of these hip Web 2.0 companies, take a deep breath, it's time to grow up.

Going to CES next week? I'm co-hosting...

Last year at the massive Consumer Electronics Show, I was privileged to speak at the Social Media Jungle event that Jeff Pulver hosted the day before CES really kicked off.

This year, I'm co-hosting with Jeff and we have a pretty amazing lineup of speakers for our half-day event on January 6th, 2010 in Las Vegas.

Here's Jeff's description of the event:

It's wild out there in the social media jungle! Unbridled growth and tens of millions of "addicts" have made social media an unstoppable force that's changing the way we live and work. Sit in on state-of-the-industry updates, and get a candid look at how social media disrupts the workplace by empowering companies to lower burn rates. Plus, you'll learn how companies can use social media to motivate consumers and drive product sales without increasing costs. This year our underlying theme is: "How the consumer electronics industry can benefit from social media."

So who do we have speaking at the event? I'll do you one better: here's our full schedule:

9:00-9:10 a.m. Welcome to the Jungle, Jeff Pulver

9:10-9:30 a.m. Consumer Marketing in the State of NOW, Jeff Pulver

9:30-9:45 a.m. Social Media Reputation, Dave Taylor

9:45-9:55 a.m. Brand Engagement in Social Media, Chris Rauschnot

9:55-10:20 a.m. Effects of twitter on Consumer Marketing, Jeffrey Sass

10:20-10:30 a.m. Building Trust in Social Media, Eric Weaver

10:30-10:50 a.m. What's Next in Social Media? Robert Scoble

10:50-11:00 a.m. Social Media ROI, Ben Grossman

11:00-11:10 a.m. Social Media Reciprocity, Warren Whitlock

11:10-11:25 a.m. Digital Presence in the NOW and Beyond, Dean Landsman

11:25-11:35 a.m. Effective PR Strategies in the era of Social Media, Susan Etlinger

11:35-11:45 a.m. Leveraging the Livestream in Consumer Marketing, Kevin Sablan

11:45-11:55 a.m. Social Media Lessons Learned during 2009, Justin Levy

11:55-12:15 p.m. Evolution of Trust Agents, Chris Brogan

Personally, I'm pretty psyched to be in such august company and consider many of the speakers good friends and all of them highly respected colleagues.

How much would you pay to pow-wow with these folk? Well, we won't have a fire going and we won't be passing around a peace pipe (though it is a pretty cool idea!) but we do very much welcome your attendance, but more, your participation in the Social Media Jungle next week in Las Vegas.

To join us please start here: CES Registration then follow the registration process and select Social Media Jungle as the registration option.

Hopefully we'll see you there!

Lack of quality control on Facebook ads leads to...

There's really no nice way to say this. You just need to see the ad:

Ayup, spell one word wrong in your ad title and the meaning changes rather dramatically, to say the least.

The problem here is that Facebook, for all it has an interesting self-service advertising model, also suffers from the problem of user-generated content. Ultimately this is not serving the community well, and I expect that either ads over time will prove less and less effective as users learn to tune them out, or that Facebook will need to hire quality control folks...

What's your reaction to the advertisement above?

What's the impact of social media on business growth?

A reader writes to me:

"As an empirically-based economist, I would like to know whether there are studies that show the impact of twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites on business growth. I have a client (I do a small bit of consulting) that is pushing hard to get "into" social networking to grow the business. I am a bit reluctant, because there is no way to "control" the message. If there's even one former customer that is unhappy with my client, the negative effects can be explosive. I also wonderwhether paying Google for per-click exclusive use of specific words can really grow a business. Your thoughts would be most welcome!"

I'm so intrigued by this question and its implications that I thought I'd offer up my answer here and also ask you, dear readers, for your two cents too.

First though, are there non-empirical economists? What would that mean? That they follow economic theories even when actual real-life data proves them wrong? Hmmm...

More seriously, the first comment I have about this question is that the writer is already out of step with modern reality. As merchant after merchant has demonstrated, there is no controlling "the message" any more and the sooner marketing and PR people accept that, the sooner they can start helping their clients in this brave new world. Control always was an illusion anyway.

Given that fact, it also means that your customers, your competitors and your marketplace are already having discussions about your products, services and employees, and they're having it in online forums, whether it's a protest group on Facebook ("United Airlines Sucks!"), a persistent hashtag on Twitter (#attfail) or just a meme that travels from blogger to blogger.

The question then isn't whether it makes sense to delve into social networks even though you can't control the message, the question is whether you're paying attention to a medium where the message has long since escaped and has a life of its own. This means that your customer defines your brand. It's not about expensive TV spots, it's not about the right Pantone color in the logo when printed, it's not about the company at all.

This is both terrifying and exhilarating because it means that good companies with good products -- like Apple with its insanely popular iPod line -- can benefit even without any branding or marketing efforts, and bad companies -- like United Airlines -- are going to suffer from a bad reputation even as they spend money advertising and trying to position themselves as a market leader.

My take is that it's "step zero" to monitor what's going on in the social media space. Even if you don't want to participate, which is a mistake, you should at the very minimum be paying attention to what people are talking about. You can use individual services like search.twitter.com, but far smarter is to use a more sophisticated monitoring tool like Filtrbox or Radian 6.

There are many studies, some apocryphal, others actual more rigorous scientific research, on the topic of social media on business growth, and a quick search of Google will reveal quite a collection of data on the topic. Intuitively, though, if your customers are already talking about your product, service or competitor, how can that discussion not have an impact on your business, for better or worse?

My take away is this: if you are truly going to help your clients succeed in the brave new world of 21st Century business, you need to enthusiastically embrace social media, jumping in and learning best practices from such books as Trust Agents, The New Community Rules, The Tipping Point and Groundswell, along with by participating in the communities. The key is to remember to engage with your customer base, not just join these social media sites to create new bully pulpits for your marketing and sales messages.

Interview with PR expert Deirdre Breakenridge

I recently had the pleasure of listening to Deirdre Breakenridge talk about the future of public relations, and was quite impressed. The co-author of the book Putting the Public back in Public Relations, she's smart, accessible and has a great, pragmatic view of social media, marketing, customer service and public relations. I asked her if she'd mind answering a few of my questions and, well, she's a writer, so we've ended up with a nice novella. Please enjoy, and if you have further questions for Deirdre, please feel free to post them in the comments. -- Dave

Discuss your background and professional experiences.

I've been in public relations and marketing for over 21 years. I knew in college that I wanted to practice PR and started my career at an agency in New York City after interning there for two summers in row. My background has mostly been small agency PR. When I was running a very small firm for my employer in Northern, NJ, I realized that I could start my own PR/communications company and build a business for myself. I launched the Breakenridge Group with two employees in 1997, while I was still studying to receive my MBA degree.

The Breakenridge Group lasted a little less than a year, when one of my clients, at the time, PFS New Media, asked me if I was interested in becoming a full partner of their agency. They acquired my firm and the rest is history. I've practiced so many different kinds of PR over the years, working with brands in healthcare, broadcast electronics, non-profit, HR, technology and telecommunications. I've always enjoyed working with different types of brands and organizations both large and small. Every company, no matter its size, has unique challenges.

continues...

My upcoming speaking gigs Oct, 2009

I can't believe how many speaking gigs I have coming up, really. Wondering what's on my agenda? Here's the list:

Aren't we all just wasting our time with social media?

Thurs, Oct 22 at 7pm

I'm speaking as a representative of Boulder Digital Arts at the Goozmo open house in downtown Boulder. This is a free event, and you're definitely welcome to show up for my thirty-minute talk / discussion.

More information: Goozmo Open House

What's the Point of Social Networking?

Friday, Oct 23 at 9am-11am

This is a two-hour breakfast discussion / networking meeting in South Boulder, a part of the Stay Sharp! series I'm doing with Joyce Colson, Liz Ryan and Jeff Finkelstein and it's a nice, informal event at a fun venue: Eggcredible Cafe. There is a nominal fee for attendance.

More information: Stay Sharp!

Should I Blog, Or Should I Tweet?

Tuesday, Oct 27, 5:30pm-6:30pm

This is a free, public discussion I'll be hosting at the Techstars Bunker in downtown Boulder, and it's my vision to spend more time having a discussion than to pontificate on my own opinion. I will say this, though: I do both.

More information: (please email me for details)

The Impact of Social Media on Cable Television

Wednesday, Oct 28, 12:30-1:30pm

This is a closed event for the cable industry, but it's going to be a very interesting panel and we will be live-tweeting it. One of my great fellow panelists? Filtrbox's Ari Newman.

More information: (sorry, it's a closed industry conference)

Front Range Blogger Meetup, Broomfield CO

Wednesday, Oct 28, 6:30-8:00pm

This is a discussion and social networking group that meets monthly, alternating between Boulder/Broomfield and Denver. Generally 30+ people show up and it's always an excellent discussion and great fun too. We're very welcoming to new folk, and even if you're just getting into the blogging space, you'll get great value from attending. Join us?

More information: see our meetup page

Holy cow, I'm exhausted just thinking about this! But I do hope you can join me at one of these venues and let me know what your thoughts are on these various topics!

Worried about the FTC going after your blog?

One of the big discussions both here at Blogworld Expo and in the blogosphere in general is the implication of the new Federal Trade Commission's new regulations for online advertising practices from the Bureau of Consumer Protection.

The regulations seem to address the issue of disclosure: if I give you a copy of my book and you write about it, you have to let your readers know that. If I buy you dinner and then you write about my book or reference my site, you have to disclose that. And so on, and so on.

Problem is, this FTC guideline has gotten more and more onerous in the echo chamber of the blogosphere, and bloggers are getting a bit paranoid about the implications.

Luckily, it appears that this paranoia is misplaced, so you can all take a deep breath. Earlier this week - Oct 14th, 2009 - Mary Engle, associate director for advertising practices at the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, had a conference call with reporters to clarify the situation and here's what she said:

"We're not going to be patrolling the blogosphere, we are not planning on investigating individual bloggers."

Engle emphasized that what they've released are new guidelines. "They aren't rules and regulations, and they don't have the force of law. They are guidelines intended to help advertisers comply with Section 5 of the FTC Act [PDF]" which focuses on unfair or deceptive practices.

So it's not the rebirth of the Blog Police as the Disclosure Police, as I tweeted earlier while listening to a panel on this subject here at Blogworld, but it is nonetheless a reminder that you should still be transparent anyway. If a vendor pays $200 to write about their product, don't run away in terror, just let your readers know.

And that's what this brouhaha is all about anyway: just be transparent and disclose what's going on, and you'll be in the clear from both the FTC and ethically on the right side of things too.

Twitter "virus" via video, I don't think so!

I don't get it. Are people really this clueless in the social media world?

I woke up this morning to boldface warnings New virus on Twitter! Don't click on video links in DMs!

Of course, it didn't take long for me to get one:

Being the reckless tech guy I am (and running on a Mac, not PC, so far, far less susceptible to viruses), I clicked on the link anyway, and got this:

Ah, okay, so, duh. Here's an easy rule of thumb:

Surely you, dear reader, aren't so daft that you'd click on a link to see a video and then blindly log in to what appears to be Twitter to do so?

Btw, if you're curious, enter random user credentials on the phishing (NOT virus!) login screen, then you'll see a failwhale screen, then you'll be bounced to some random blogspot.com blog that doesn't even have an entry.

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