Defining The Obvious

22/12/2008 In Ideas worth sharing, social media by John R. Hopkins { }

I few days ago I was zooming along from Richmond to Norfolk on I-64. I kept noticing roads that run parallel to this stretch. They aren’t always visible, but I could see them off and on much of the way. On the interstate, there are nice wide lanes, at least two lanes in each direction and a bunch of fast-moving cars. On the interstate, you don’t care about anything but yourself, why would you? Everything else is just a blur except that pinpoint on the horizon, your destination.

Back to those side-roads… I can see places to eat, gas stations and get this, real people. They could even be seen communicating with each other! What a novel idea.

So there it is. My analogy. The interstate is the way most companies try to arrive at their goals. As quick as possible, the most direct path, no dirty hands. The side roads however, are different. They are where life is. They have a soul. There are communities along the way. One might even find themselves in a position to learn from these communities should they take the time to listen, maybe even participate in what is going on over there.

This said, I WAS on the interstate side of the fence. I didn’t have time for the other roads. Perhaps if I had taken the road less trevelled, I’d be someplace else today.

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23/09/2008 In Ideas worth sharing, social media by John R. Hopkins { }

According to an article on Reuters, Porn sites have been surpassed by Social networking sites for the first time. From what I understood of the article, it was specifically refering to internet searches. I’d love to find out more about their research. My indepth (not really) research didn’t show nearly the same results. Not exactly anyway. I did some additional looking and noted that about 18 months ago, “social networking” was more common than “porn” in News Reference Volume according to Google Trends.

If the claims are true and porn is heading for a cold shower, it would be an impressive defeat considering that currently only 42% of internet users know what social networking is and EVERYONE above the age of 14 knows what porn is.

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11/09/2008 In Ideas worth sharing, social media by John R. Hopkins { }

Tonight I decided to plan an event. Last year, a bunch of the people I worked with at a now defunct tech company got together for drinks after the winter holidays. It was great seeing them and I thought we should do it again. To organize last year’s event I used Evite, “Evite.com is the top online destination for invitations”. It has been around for a long time and it works well enough. I thought I’d see what new shiney tools were out there in the event planning/invitation space.

I immediately revisited Brian Solis‘ Conversation Prism on flickr. I remembed seeing “Events” listed on one of the petals. Based on the services I see there, I decide to look into socializr and madeit. While looking at these services I post the following on twitter: “socializr.com or madeit.com anyone prefer one over the other?”.

One Minute later I get the following response: “@johnrhopkins I like http://anyvite.com but that’s because I built it! Seriously though, check it out, you can try it without registering!”

It was self-serving yet honest. At this point I had already been looking at the other two services for a few minutes and not been terribly impressed with the look of the final product. I give it a click and run through the steps. I make an event, invite some people and it works. Not only does it work, but I like it better than the other two.

From my view: I had a question. I asked the twitter cloud. The cloud answered (very quickly). The answer was useful.

From @anyvite ’s view: doing a competitor keyword search using twitters own search functions (previously named Summize) produced a result. He/she responded, suggesting their service. This resulted in a new customer.

Win/win

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22/08/2008 In Customer Service, Ideas worth sharing by John R. Hopkins { }

This morning on my ride to work I had an anomaly.

It was at the first stop light I stoped at. the light turned green, I pulled the clutch lever, pushed down on the shifter with my left foot and there it was… Normally when I shift into first, it sort of “clunks” into gear. It has done this for years and the technicians tell me this is fine. When it was new it shifted into first gear rather smoothly. It isn’t new, it is 12 years old. Anyway, this time it shifted into first smoothly. It hasn’t done that for a VERY long time.

At first, you might think this is a good thing. It is not. It is an anomaly, a glitch, unexpected. When you rely on something whether it be a machine, a service or anything else that you put your trust in,  these anomalies are usually an omen. A dark cloud on the horizon and sometimes that horizon is VERY close.

What anomolies do your customers find in your organization? What sudden changes do you see in the world around you?

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07/08/2008 In gadget alert by John R. Hopkins { }

First off, thank you Lifehacker, for pointing me to this new Google toy, Google Insights for Search.

Google describes it like this:

With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, and time frames.

I can see already that I’m going to have to sacrifice something major to make time to learn the nuances and power of this new offering.

The first thing I did was search for one of the client names that my employer represents. It showed a downward trend that has been going on for the past four years. Then I added an additional search term that described that company’s industry. It also showed the same decline. Interrestingly, I recall that the same client has also reduced their PR budget ofer the past few years. Hmmm.

So, it can do relative keyword trend stuff, what else can it do?

It can let you know where searches are popular, countries, states and cities. You can ger really granular with it as SEOBook mentions. You can use categories to track the growth of a given keyword as it relates to the category it is in.

So, that is all I’m going to say about this now… well, two more things. Remember not to get lost in analysis. Research is important, but don’t get mired in it. The second thing is that research is only as good as the data you use. I’m becoming a little concerned that as Google grows into it’s obvious role of world domination, how long will we trust their data?

Some fun searches here, here and here.

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04/08/2008 In Customer Service, social media by John R. Hopkins { }

My RSS reader had let itself get a bit full and as I was skimming titles… then I see one on Seth Godin’s Blog labeled “My tooth doesn’t hurt“. I stopped at this one. Seth talks about how when your tooth doesn’t hurt, which I hope is most of the time, you aren’t looking for what they (dentists) are selling. He provides some suggestions for reaching the people that will eventually need your services. It seems to boil down to being there. When they need you (or someone who does what you do), you just need to be there in the front of their minds.

Another blog post I read today by Shel Holtz discusses the escapades of a rogue twitterer who seemed to be speaking on behalf of a certain large corporation. MAny of the followers seemed to be convinced. Acording to their public affairs people, this person was not associated with their communications efforts.

My point on mentioning these two posts is simple. If you have a brand, big or small, you MUST be listening. If it is your job to help others with social media, you must not let them only find you when there is a problem. If your charges aren’t at least listening to the conversation, then they can only lose. There is no gain in not listening. Whether the voices you hear are screaming in anger or singing your praise, or even and more likely both or a muddled mix of the two. Even if all you hear is silence, there are lessons to learn.

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27/07/2008 In Customer Service by John R. Hopkins { }

This morning I stopped in for a bite to eat at the local Hardee’s. I know, not really good for you, but I wanted a biscuit. I walked in ready to do the usual fast-food routine: Wait in a short line, give my order, give them a few bucks, wait a few minutes and then take my food and go.

The first thing I notice is that there is no one in line. People in the drive-thru but no one inside in the queue. The next thing I notice are two large touch screen kiosks where cash registers and employees are usually waiting for my order.

My first reaction to this is annoyance. I had been thinking a lot lately about how were are experiencing human/human interaction less and less in the customer service world. Then and I noticed that you get a free apple turnover for using the kiosk instead of an manned register. I thought, hmmm, this might just work!
So, there it is. The value of human interaction = one Hardee’s apple turnover.

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07/07/2008 In Ideas worth sharing, User Interaction by John R. Hopkins { }

You will need a couple things in order to get started.
1.    Internet Explorer (I’m using IE 7.0.5730.11).
2.    You will also need a Google account so that you can use their super-great RSS reader. Google accounts are free and have a LOT to offer. Get one here.

The first question many of you might ask is WHY? As in WHY not just use Firefox with Google Reader, or any other RSS reader you like?
Simply because some people don’t have the option to use Firefox. Many IT departments just don’t let Firefox or any other browser come to the party. They have their reasons, no flame wars here please.

Follow these steps carefully and you’ll be ready to rule the RSS feeds on your non-Firefox world. Really noting too difficult to worry about. In all honesty, I’m not sure the first step is necessary for this execution, but if you decide to use a different reader, I’m sure it would be useful.

1. First we need to stop IE7 from thinking it’s RSS option is the only game in town.
   Open “Tools” in the IE7 menu > Choose “Internet Options” > Click the “Content” tab > Choose “Settings” under the “Feeds” heading > uncheck “Turn on feed reading view”
2. Next thing we need to do is make a bookmarklet in IE7 that sends the feed for any given page to your Google Reader.
   Log into Google Reader > Click on “Settings” (top-right of page) > choose the “Goodies” tab > Find and read where it talks about “Subscribe as you surf” > Do what it says to do.
   One note: I noticed that I couldn’t drag-and-drop as the Google instructions suggested. Instead, you may right-click on the bookmarklet on that page > choose “Add to favorites…” > then use the pull-down to add it to your links or wherever you find it easiest to use.

Now you should be on your way to using RSS effectively in an IE7-only environment. WOOHOO!

That said, if you are in the position that you can use Firefox as your main web browser, Run screaming from IE and embrace the freedom of a real web browser.

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30/06/2008 In social media by John R. Hopkins { }

When you want to manage your brand, you need complete control over your identity, yes? I mean you want to own the brand, you want to make rules about where your logo will go and you want to rule it with an iron fist.

Do you? Well, I want to share a quick story about two fans of different brands. The story takes place a few years ago, but I think it applies even more today than it ever has.

The Art Director I worked with had just bought a Subaru Impreza. He loved the car. He wouldn’t stop talking about the damn thing. At roughly the same time, our Lead Java Developer bought a Porsche Boxster. As you might expect, he was also rather enamored with his ride.

The Subaru guy had such strong ties with his car, he created a fan site. On this site, he covered news about upcoming models, had spy photos, links that other owners would find interesting and lots of pictures of his car of course.

The Porsche guy was a heavy participant in a fan site for his car as well.

I can remember both of them talking about what would happen when the sites owners got “the letter”. The letter being a Cease and Desist document. The consensus was that there was no point in fighting it, they didn’t have the resources or time to deal with it.

And it came. Porsche had contacted Porsche Pete’s Boxster Board and told them that they were not allowed to use the Porsche crest on their site. I’m sure they weren’t too impressed by this, but of course Porsche has every right to control their intellectual property. They removed the offending details and went about their business.

A little later, Subaru guy gets a letter in the mail. Without even reading it, he declared that it was over. He knew what the letter was going to say.

He was wrong.

Dear Subaru Enthusiast,
I am with the eBusiness group @ Subaru of America. We are developing a panel of Subaru performance enthusiasts and would like to extend an invitation to you. We are exploring the opportunities of developing a relationship with those, who like yourself, have created web sites that promote the excitement of Subaru performance automobiles. We appreciate this enthusiasm and we would very much like to learn from you how we can contribute information that you would find valuable. Subaru of America’s intention is not to direct or limit the content of your site.

This invitation is being extended to a limited number of site owners that we chose according to search results. We believe that we can both learn and benefit a great deal from one another.

Subaru guy wasn’t too sure what this really meant other than he was allowed to keep the site he had put so much work into.

Over the next couple years, Subaru America had flown him to the Detroit Auto Show a couple times, gave him, and a group of other advocates, better-than-dealer pricing on Subaru vehicles, and even let him take one of their as-of-yet-unreleased sports cars for a spin on a closed track.

Subaru guy said this about his involvement:

Subaru was banking on this car reaching a market that was untapped and used us as a way to help support it. Due to the success of the WRX, that market has since been flooded by other manufacturers with other pocket rocket cars under 30k.

It can certainly be said that Porsche and Subaru both build great cars. Subaru however was very early to idea of reaching out to online influentials. While I don’t have any data on how well this worked out for them, I would guess that it has been an asset to have such avid influentials as avid customers. While this wasn’t by any means free advertising for Subaru, it certainly was more beneficial than the attention Porsche got from a site full of disappointed customers and potential customers.

Between the Porsche guy and Subaru guy, only one still drives the same brand… and yes, I mean Subaru guy.

The morale of the story, you can’t embrace your customer with an iron fist.

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30/06/2008 In social media by John R. Hopkins { }

In the competitive and costly world of recruiting, companies are doing everything they can to find out who they are hiring. They will spend sometimes thousands of dollars invistigating potential hires. I’ve known employers to do criminal background checks, calling neighbors, previous employers and even current employers. Some even want to know the status of your banking accounts and student loans.

With the popularity of social media, many people have some sort of online persona. Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, micro-blogs like twitter and Plurk, and all the other social media tools give users a place to share information about themselves. This information is, for the most part, available to anyone.

There are currently few companies who have looked into this area of background checking, but it is coming. As the wave of users of the social media sphere becomes larger, as they become older and begin to fill up the demographic charts, we will see more and more companies doing a little extra bit of homework.

If you are not using social media, I would make sure that you at least look for yourself and see what employers might find if they were to look for you. If this area is old hat to you, I would make sure your house is clean before sending out that resume.

There is, of course, bound to be a LOT of controversy ahead regarding this area of hiring, but it is going to happen.

So, you think you aren’t concerned? Not looking for a job? What, you have a great job? Congratulations. Did you know that in most states, you can be fired for having inappropriate content on your social media sites? Something to think about.

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