Dive into the archives.
- AT&T, Verizon, and the Major Fail of Mudslinging Marketing
If you have watched any live television in the past month with the unfortunate inability to fast forward through the commercials, you have most likely witnessed the back and forth advertising campaigns of AT&T and Verizon. It started with Verizon’s launching of the new Droid phone and an all-out bashing of the current king of all smartphones, the iPhone. Verizon decided to seize the opportunity to point out AT&T’s lacking 3G coverage along the way, playing on the iPhone’s catch phrase, “There’s an app for that”. Verizon cleverly changed it to “There’s a map for that”, showing US maps displaying the disparities between the two competitors’ 3G coverage.
Not to be outdone, AT&T has launched its retaliation campaign, bringing in celebrity Luke Wilson to point out that AT&T has coverage for 97% of the country (deceitfully refraining from stating the fact that this number is not reflective of their spotty 3G-specific coverage, which is what Verizon was attacking), and attempting to punch back at Verizon by stating that the only comparison chart column they excel in is the one for a company name that starts with the letter ‘V’.
It’s only been a few weeks since the feuding began, but I’m already disgusted and exhausted with it. From my perspective, this type of advertising would be enough to drive me to cancel my contract with either one of them and find another cell phone service provider.
- Don’t Let Your Bad Attitude Or Ethics Ruin It For The Rest Of Us!
The other night my wife and I went to our eldest daughter’s high school basketball game to cheer her on. We took our regular spot up at the top of the bleachers so we could lean back against the wall rather than slouching on the hard wood for the entire game. As we settled in, we noticed a few parents from the other team had the same idea and were setting up camp about 15 feet away. We commenced with the standard smile and nod acknowledgements and then turned our attention to the beginning of the contest. What transpired over the next hour inspired a range of emotions, from anger to frustration to disappointment. And I’m not talking about what happened on the court.
- A Social Media (and Life) Lesson I Learned From My 12-Year-Old
Today is my son’s 12th birthday.
It seems like only yesterday that he was without a doubt the cutest toddler on earth, and as the youngest in the family it is definitely with much melancholy that we approach the incoming teen years with him, never to steer through the early childhood years again. From day one he has been his Mom’s “baby”, the youngest and only son and more-than-willing recipient of all the benefits that are a part of that special mother-son bond. So it is probably most difficult of all for my wife to watch him grow into a young man. Still, we are proud of who he is becoming, and it is part of this that I want to share with you in a simple but profound lesson I have learned from him.
- Where Has The Art Of Customer Service Gone?
Call me old fashioned, but I have this crazy idea that businesses should provide at least a minimal amount of human element in the customer service they offer to their paying clientele.
- Google Buzz (Kill) Has Driven Me To Social Media Self-Examination
What I need is to continue to get better at giving and sharing and interacting with others who have similar interests, interesting viewpoints and intelligent discussion. Not another social media tool.
- Surprise!!! Social Media (and Life) Is NOT A Competition
Spend a few minutes browsing through recent headlines about social media and you will most likely be left with the impression that all of the networks are in a fierce competition with each other. Facebook is the king, with more paticipants than any other. Twitter recently boasted that its users are posting an average of 50 million updates a day. Google Buzz burst onto the scene and the pundits immediately pitted it against the others in comparisons and contrasts. The list goes on and on, with countless also-rans and quickly-developed newcomers waiting in the wings, all hoping to compete for your membership and usage.
Zoom in and take a closer look within the individual social networks and you will witness users clamoring for significant increases in followers and friends, regularly checking numbers and trying a myriad of techniques to grow their counts to what those who are paying attention might call ‘respectable’. Tools that rate, rank and grade feed the frenzy and give us all the ability to measure our success in order to insure that we are doing things ‘correctly’.
A few weeks back I got involved in a conversation on Twitter in which another user (identity to remain anonymous) was tweeting complaints to TwitterGrader (a tool that ranks users based on an algorithm that goes beyond simple numbers). This person was upset because they have almost twice as many followers and updates as I do, yet TwitterGrader listed me in the top 5 in my city while leaving him somewhere further down the list. I told him it really didn’t matter and that this whole thing is not a competition, to which he responded vehemently, “EVERYTHING is a competition! LIFE is a competition!”
Really? Is that the world we live in?
- How To Fail At Using Twitter To Drum Up Business
Several times over the past few months I have received some ridiculous communications via Twitter from freelancers or small businesses who obviously are new to Twitter and have clearly decided to jump on the social media marketing bandwagon in an attempt to utilize the tool to find new clients. The reason I say these exchanges are ridiculous is because they have been asking me – a web designer – if I would like to hire them to do web design! Not asking if they can assist me or if I need an outsourcing contact, but flat out asking me to hire them to design a website!
Thanks to yet another misguided attempt at engaging me as a client for web design recently, I have written this post to help identify some critical steps that should not be overlooked if you are trying to use social media to drum up business. My hope is that it will provide some much-needed guidance for those that are new or considering diving in, while simultaneously aiming to rid current social media enthusiasts of the annoying, hard-sell marketing spam that is making its way onto our platforms.
- WordPress: Hire A Pro Or Do It Yourself?
I am a frugal person. If there is a deal to be found I will sniff it out and make it happen. If there is a way to do something myself rather than pay someone else, I will take the extra time (and sometimes the headache) and figure it out in order to save money. The ever-expanding library of online resources has helped me save money by doing my own auto repairs, computer upgrades, and much more. Of course, I have also used it to continually teach myself web design and development for the past 15 years.
Because of my personal understanding of a desire to save money, I have at times helped potential clients install and set up their own WordPress websites when their budget did not allow for the hiring of a professional. While this means less paid business for me, in the end I am helping someone out who couldn’t afford to pay me anyway. If I can help save someone a headache or two by giving them a small amount of my time, pointing them in the right direction and answering a few questions, I will do it.
Unfortunately, there are usually problems that occur when someone with little or no experience begins attempting to set up their own WordPress website, and I have had countless inquiries from the frustrated and confused webmaster wannabes, buried under the weight of something they never really completely understood in the first place. While WordPress is a relatively simple way to set up a basic blog or uncomplicated website, it can quickly become a nightmare for the weekend warrior website builder.
In this post I want to point out a few of the pros and cons of hiring a professional to set up your WordPress website versus doing it yourself. If you are considering either, hopefully this will help you know what to think about and weigh in your decision making process.
- Social Media, SEO, Design, Brand, Influence: What’s Most Important?
It was about 9:30 on Tuesday morning when I got a call on my cell from my eldest daughter. The voice on the other end was trembling, and I could tell even before she said two words that something was wrong.
“Dad, I just got in a pretty bad accident.”
- Weekend Reading: The 419 Design, Freelancing, Social Media & SEO Links I Tweeted This Week (8/21-8/27)
Back again by popular demand. Well, okay. Only 3 or 4 people expressed a desire to see this series continue, but who am I to deprive them? And yes, I counted. 419 links in all my favorite interests – web and graphic design, freelancing, social media, SEO and more! Hopefully there are some tasty little tidbits of info here just for you.
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