4 Reasons Why Foursquare May Be Bad 4 Your Business

Consider the Consequences Before Posting These

Foursquare is supposed to be a fun Social Media tool that can help a business to identify their most loyal customers and promote patronage. By ‘checking in’ using their smartphone with a GPS function, a Foursquare user let’s the business and the user’s friends know that they are there. If a user checks in at a business more often than everyone else he/she can become the ‘Mayor.’ That sounds like a great idea, but there is a dark side that could lead to Foursquare chasing customers away from a business. Here are four reasons why you may want to discourage Foursquare from being a part of your enterprise, especially if you have significant customer traffic.

Negative Comments
Foursquare encourages users to give ‘tips’ to other Foursquare users. I often see negative comments as a tip. At one Starbucks I noticed that the tip that shows up when I check-in states, “Don’t come here if you’re in a hurry” That tip was left on May 6, 2011. Negative comments will haunt your business for months. Not a great first impression for a first time customer.

Competition Between Your Customers
Foursquare pushes your customers into a competition for the prize of being the Mayor. Not all Foursquare users are rabid about becoming Mayor; however, competing customers can be good or bad for your business. Under normal circumstances the competition can lead to more customer visits by those who are trying to rack up more check-ins; however, if becoming Mayor is important to a user, too much Foursquare competition could make a regular customer become frustrated. There will only be one Mayor and if that user has a lock on the Mayorship, then other users may decide to go to a competing business or store where they have a better opportunity to become Mayor. 

Not All Check-ins Equal
In addition to competition, there is an issue with fairness of the Mayor selection. On the face of it the Mayor should be the customer with the most check-in days, but that is not exactly the way it works. I have 49 check-ins in the last 60 days at my favorite Starbucks but the user who is the Mayor only has 45 Check-ins. Why is that user the Mayor? Apparently some of my check-ins don’t count even though I have 32 days in a row of check-ins at this Starbucks and the Mayor was out of town for a week during that time. I am consistently listed as 3 days away from being Mayor. I contacted Foursquare for an explanation and other than an auto-reply that they received my request, there has been no response.

Rewarding Customer Loyalty Not The Primary Goal
Foursquare would seem to be a great method for identifying and rewarding your most loyal customers; however, Foursquare is, in large part, a game and rewards those who are the most competitive, not the most loyal. While most employees can quickly recognize their loyal customers, they may not be able to recognize who the Foursquare Mayor is for their business. This is especially true of businesses with a high volume of customers and/or with a drive-thru window. The Mayor may be the person who simply plays the game and has little interest in supporting your business. If your business offers a special to the Mayor or attempts to recognize Foursquare users in some way, it could be insulting to loyal customers who feel they have neglected for their support of your business.

While Social Media tools like Foursquare can be useful in a business environment, it is important to consider the limitations and risks of employing them into your customer service plan.

New Religion For Business: Believing in the ‘L’ Word

Paul Kiser

For a hundred years the Church of the Big Sell has preached to enterprise decision-makers that they will give a voice to their company…for a price. Media chieftains told the world of business that the customer is a commodity that can be manipulated and controlled with the right ad campaign, the right slogan, the right spokesperson, or the right look. Then came Social Media.

Social Media has put a lot of business traditionalists in a tailspin. It turns out that the customer is not a commodity and they hate it when they are treated like one (e.g.; Netflix, United Airlines, Bank of America, etc.) Customers  are people and they have feelings, wants, likes, and dislikes.

Facebook and Twitter gave the people fire and they liked it. Now the customer has a voice and they use it. They talk. They converse. They express. They judge. Not only do they have a voice, they now have the power to turn off advertising…and they do.

The Church of the Big Sell is burning and the voice they were supposed to give to business is wasted on ads in newspapers and magazines that nobody reads, radio and television commercials that nobody listens to or watches, and yellow pages books that go from the front doorstep to the recycling bin…unused. Social Media took away the microphone of enterprise because people are tired of being preached to by the Church of the Big Sell.

Business is realizing that customer interaction has changed. Enterprise in a Social Media world is not about talking, but about listening. Listening is the alpha and omega of the Social Media world. Almost everything a business needs to know is there, if they listen. A new church is being built on the ashes of the old and the religion is based on the ‘L’ word.

Listening is not as easy as it sounds (pun intended.) Social Media is noisy. Too many voices, too many issues. A restaurant owner does not need to know that Emily had a great date last night…unless Emily’s date was at his restaurant. Then he might want to know that Emily’s date was great despite her eating experience, where the food was cold, the parking a pain, and the service rude. The restaurant owner might also want to know that nine of Emily’s friends responded to her Tweet by agreeing that his restaurant sucks and they will never eat there again.

Rob Bailey - Head of US Operations and new CEO of DataSift

Tools of Listening in the New Church of Social Meda
Paring down the noise of Social Media is a major challenge for a business and the new religion has new tools. “The amount of Social Media that people are producing is doubling every year…,” explained Rob Bailey, who is the head of United States Operations for DataSift, a Social Media filtering platform for business that was launched last week. Bailey said that there are three steps in refining raw Social Media into relevant information for any enterprise.

The first step is to refine the data down to what is being posted about an organization, subject, or topic. That refinement may require multiple filters to distill out undesired spam, retweets, and other noise. The second step is to analyze the results based on factors such as age, gender, geographic location, and sentiment. The final step is to have a visual tool that reports the results simply and accurately for interpretation by the decision-maker in the company.

Nick Halstead - Past CEO and now Chief Technology Officer

DataSift had 8,000 users in the alpha test of its Social Media monitoring platform and found that the interest in this technology spanned a wide variety of industries. CEO Nick Halstead said that they had, “… government agencies to pharmaceuticals, a lot in finance, a lot in retail…and quite a few start-ups…” interested in DataSift’s technology to monitor issues of concern to their business and organizational operations. Another industry that wants to be able the monitor the Social Media are News Outlets that are trying to compete with Twitter and Facebook in providing events in real-time. Bailey said, “Twitter is an incredible vehicle…” for finding out what is going on in the world.

Public Relations and Social Media firms are also using tools to filter out the Social Media noise for companies who would rather hire an outside service for their Social Media presence rather than doing it in-house. In addition to listening to the Social Media these agencies help a business identify and correct their public image by handling public image issues and concerns for the organization.

View of data stream screen

The tools of the new platform allow the user to search multiple Social Media formats and have access to the full Twitter worldwide database in real-time. Beyond listening to what is being said about a company’s public image, they can now test market products or services and use Social Media to determine the reaction. The platform also has an interesting application in politics by allowing campaigns to determine sentiments on key issues by geographic region before a candidate campaigns in that area.

Improved customer response is probably the most obvious benefit to listening to Social Media, as a business can now pick up any post written about their company, product, or service and appropriately respond in minutes with a thank you for positive comments and a resolution or apology for negative experiences.

There is no turning back. Social Media demands that enterprise be great listeners and now they have no excuse.

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5 Reasons Why Ignoring Negative Social Media is a Career Ender for a VP of Customer Service

USA PDT [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype: 775.624.5679]

Paul Kiser

Despite the overwhelming evidence of the impact of Social Media on the perceived public image of a business, many Customer Service (CS) and Public Relations (PR) executives still handle negative Social Media (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp, etc.) by ignoring the bad publicity. One can only marvel at the rationale of an executive team in the 21st century, which believes that avoidance behavior of PR problems in the Social Media environment is the best policy.

I would suggest that there are four reasons for this philosophy, which are as follows:

Bad Social Media PR is Bad for Business

• An outmoded understanding and/or denial of Social Media and its long-term impact on the company’s public image.
• A belief that negative statements in the Social Media have no cumulative effect and that they will disappear over time.
• An arrogance by the executives of a corporation that they control their public image by what they say and do and by the money they spend on advertising, not by what individuals outside the company say about them.
• A belief that by giving attention to someone with a complaint about their company will cause more problems and possibly force the company to admit to their stupidity.

There are five reasons why ignoring negative Social Media is a bad idea and why the CS and PR executives who follow this policy have an expiration date on their careers:

1. A negative Social Media comment is forever. It doesn’t fade and it doesn’t go away.
2. A negative blog can and will be found by any Google search of your company. Why would a CS or PR executive let people who search for their company be exposed to everything said by the people who hate you?
3. Bad comments on Social Media are cumulative. When someone is mad at your company they will search to find other people who feel the same way, and then you have a movement of people who are united against your company.
4. Waiting to address bad publicity only makes a company look like they are hiding something when they finally do publicly address the issue, which is a lose, lose, loser in damage control.
5. Once a company wakes up and realizes that ignoring bad PR is a stupid idea, how long will the implementor of that policy have before the company seeks someone who is smarter about handling negative Social Media?

A negative Social Media comment about a company is an opportunity. Everyone knows that major corporations are monitoring the Social Media, so when someone makes a negative comment they know that someone in the company is reading it. A company that contacts the author of the complaint to show concern will, at the very least, prove that the company appreciates its customers. By, 1) addressing the reason for the complaint and, 2) making some tangible effort to offer a reward to the person for bringing the issue to the company’s attention, the complainer will likely become a positive voice for the company’s public image and may even delete the negative blog or comment.

Companies, and their executives, who fail to address negative Social Media comments are risking their future. Netflix and United Airlines are just two examples of corporations that have done too little too late to address public image issues in the Social Media and they are paying the price. How many companies have to become a joke to their customers, investors, and the public before they realize the mistake they are making by ignoring Social Media?

Social Media ‘Evolution’ At Nation’s Investment Firms

USA PDT [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype: 775.624.5679]

Paul Kiser

Can your investment advisor write a blog about his or her job? Can they Tweet that they just read a great article on oil futures and add a hyperlink? Can they post that they had a big day in the market? Prior to January 2010, the answer was no…not unless they wanted to risk her or his job.

Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) rules didn’t specifically prohibit business-related Social Media participation, but SEC regulations on advertising and communications have been presumed to extend to online engagement and in a vacuum of good guidance, most major firms took the position of forbidding their representatives from participating in Social Media formats. This removed the fundamental aspect of Social Media that benefits commerce on the Internet, the one-on-one connection.

In January 2010, FINRA issued Regulatory Notice 10-06, which gave investment firms parameters for allowing their representatives to use Social Media within the bounds of SEC and FINRA regulations. The reaction was not instantaneous because firms had to solve the issue of how to supervise agent’s online communication. Protocols had to be established, software had to be adapted and installed, and training of agents had to be implemented; however, there has been a rapid Social Media ‘evolution’ in investment advising during the past 12 months.

For some firms, a deliberate, but ‘conservative approach’ to implementing Social Media engagement is being employed. One industry representative said, “…we had to help agents know what they can talk about and what they can’t talk about.” But she added, “…I’d rather be doing this now than wait three years and try to figure it out…Social Media exists and it’s not going away.”

For New York Life the direction was made very clear according to Ken Hittel, Vice President, Corporate Internet, who said, ” Our CEO, (Ted Mathas) made it very clear that agent participation (in Social Media) is a requirement.” New York Life uses a software program to meet SEC and FINRA regulations of supervising agent’s Internet interactions. Hittel said that the implementation of the program, “…went smoothly and was completed in a couple of months.”

The SEC regulations on advertising and adviser/investor communications are not new and apply to all methods of interactions, including those performed via the Internet. A FINRA podcast outlines five issues that apply to all forms of investment communications. All statements made by an agent must:

• not be exaggerated or misleading and all material facts must be disclosed
• clearly identified the firm and agent
• not include or imply any forward-looking statements
• provide the customer/investor a sound basis to evaluate the services or market
• file any statements regarding mutual funds, variable products, and/or exchange traded funds within 10 days of being published

Each investment firm is expected to train their agents on how to comply with SEC and FINRA requirements. Hittel said that the New York Life agent training program is “..not just compliance.” He pointed out that Social Media creates 12,000 “Brand Ambassadors” for the company and they based their Social Media training on a “best practices” approach. Hittel said that there is a saying at New York Life, “…that you can do anything, not everything,” which is reflected in New York Life’s approach to Social Media engagement. The firm has established a progressive program for Social Media participation by their agents…within the scope of SEC and FINRA regulations.

FINRA Clearing a Path for Investment Firms to Engage in Social Media

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A version of this article first published as
Investment Firms Allowed to Use Social Media Under SEC/FINRA Rules
on Technorati.com

Paul Kiser

Eighteen months ago a game launching bird heads at pig heads didn’t exist.

Eighteen months ago Tony Hayward was a star as CEO of BP.

Eighteen months ago most people thought Charlie Sheen was an actor.

Eighteen months ago most investment firms thought that financial advisors were prohibited from using Social Media in business.

Now Angry Birds is near world domination, now Tony Hayward is a footnote in public relations infamy, now we know Charlie Sheen is Charlie Harper…the possessed version of him, and now Social Media is not taboo in the investment business.

…in the world of investing, the Social Media ‘evolution’ has had to meet the compliance issues of the regulatory agencies meant to protect the investor from unethical advisors…

The world is evolving faster than most people can absorb, so it’s not surprising that some industries are adapting to new technologies faster than others, but in the world of investing, the Social Media ‘evolution’ has had to meet the compliance issues of the regulatory agencies meant to protect the investor from unethical advisors.

Social Media tools like blogs and Internet-based social networking tools have opened up a new environment for business by allowing a rapid-response connection between the customer and the seller of a product or service. In most Internet commerce it is a caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) situation, where the buyer must pursue legal remedies for a broken contract or unethical representation of a product or service after the fact. In investment advising the company or firm is expected to protect the buyer before, during, and after the fact, which requires the firm to intercede and supervise interactions that involve investment advice. That has led many firms to prohibit all Social Media involvement by its representatives.

However, seventeen months ago the largest independent financial regulator stepped forward with a road map for investment firms on how Social Media could be used by their representatives while meeting the need to protect the investor.

…the regulations only effect business communications that involve investment advising and promotion. Personal blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other Social Media tools are not a concern for the regulators…

Joseph Price, Senior Vice President of Advertising Regulation/Corporate Financing at FINRA (Financial Industry Financial Authority) discussed the issues with investment firms and Social Media with me earlier today. Price is one of the authors of Regulatory Notice 10-06 titled Social Media Web Sites – Guidance on Blogs and Social Networking Web Sites that was published in January 2010. Price said that using Social Media, “..depends on the firm’s business model,” and that it, “..has to make sense for the firm.” He confirmed that the regulations only effect business communications that involve investment advising and promotion. Personal blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other Social Media tools are not a concern for the regulators even though individual firms may have policies prohibiting personal on-line interactions.

Price said that a common question he hears from firms is from those who prohibit all Social Media involvement by their representatives. Their concern is whether a firm is meeting the regulatory requirements when they have no Social Media supervisory functions in place because they have prohibited the activity.

Another question that FINRA has had to deal with involves deleting inappropriate user comments in chat rooms and on blogs. Price asked, “..by selective deletion, has the firm adopted the posts they haven’t deleted?” His suggestion to firms is that they have a policy in place that outlines the approval/deletion of comments. As long as a firm follows the policy and doesn’t prejudice the comments to favor the firm and its products, the company will likely not be considered to have approved and adopted the user comment.

Regarding investment business blogs, Price explained that they “require prior approval” by a firm before they are published because they fall into the category of a static communication that includes any form of advertising.

The Regulatory Notice 10-06 answers ten questions for firms about guidelines for using Social Media in the industry of investment advising.  FINRA has followed up that document with webinars, podcasts, and seminars to assist their member firms in the ongoing process of adapting regulatory requirements to Social Media tools available to the rest of the business world.

Firms now the option of fully engaging in Social Media, which is rapidly becoming less an option and more a matter of survival.

Does FINRA Prohibit Social Media Activity for Investment/Financial Firms?

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Paul Kiser

Last year I managed to offend some investment and financial professionals when I said that their industry would have to engage in Social Media, including blogs, if they were going to stay competitive. They told me that their firms and industry regulations prohibited them from using Social Media tools in their business practices. They also said that some firms that prohibited personal involvement in Social Media. The reaction during and after the meeting was one of a strong denial of the usefulness of Social Media in their industry mixed with a ‘kill-the-messenger’ attitude. It was a typical response by business people who have been blindsided by Social Media.

…Professionals that rely on personal contact and personal relationships are finding that effective use of Social Media is key to maintaining and growing their business.

It is hard to start a dialogue with business professionals on how to use Internet tools such as blogging, Facebook and Twitter when the attitude is that Social Media are an encompassing evil that must be avoided, or at the very least, ignored. The problem, and opportunity, is that business professionals who can use Social Media to engage with others will have an advantage over those who are mystified, or more typically, scared by the power of Social Media. Professionals that rely on personal contact and personal relationships are finding that effective use of Social Media is key to maintaining and growing their business.

The fact is that since that meeting many investment related firms have changed their positions by at least 90° and some have done a 180° shift in their attitude about Social Media in business. That is not surprising considering that their future is at stake; however, investment firms do have strict guidelines on advertising and investment advisement, so using Social Media is not the ‘anything goes’ environment for which most of us are accustomed.

Both the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)[1] are charged with protecting investors by establishing rules to govern investment-related activities. Among those rules are requirements for firms on educating, monitoring, supervising, and document the activities of brokers representing their company. In January 2010, FINRA issued Regulatory Notice 10-06 titled Social Media Web Sites – Guidance on Blogs and Social Networking Web Sites. This notice did not prohibit firms from engaging in Social Media activity, but rather offered common-sense guidelines for investment firms on how Social Media tools could be used to meet FINRA and SEC requirements.

(End of Part I)

(Note: Part II will be posted by 5 PM PDT, Monday, May 23rd)

[1] FINRA is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. FINRA’s mission is to protect America’s investors by making sure the securities industry operates fairly and honestly. All told, FINRA oversees nearly 4,550 brokerage firms, about 163,500 branch offices and approximately 631,110 registered securities representatives. (From About FINRA at www.finra.org.)

(This article is advisory in nature and the author does not represent the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA,) the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), nor any federal or state regulatory authority. The opinion expressed should not be considered as a legal or official position regarding the use of Social Media tools in industry practices.  The author has sought out publicly available relevant documents and information as the basis for the opinions expressed; however, final authority on the issues discussed in this article rests with the appropriate government, regulatory, and/or company division that oversees the area of concern.)

Who Uses Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace – Social Media Update: 4th Q 2010 and 1st Q 2011

by Paul Kiser
USA PDT [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype:kiserrotary or 775.624.5679]

Paul Kiser

The last two quarters have seen some interesting trends in the big four Social Media services. The most obvious is the leveling off of growth of Facebook and Twitter, but of greatest interest is the clarification of who is using the Social Media tools.

Despite the plateau reached during the last two quarters, Facebook gained 100 million unique visitors per month over the same time last year and now stands at 590 million unique visitors per month. Twitter is the runner-up at 97 million unique visitors. To put Facebook’s Internet presence in perspective, the combined daily circulation of the Wall Street Journal, USAToday, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, and the New York Post equals only 36% of the average daily unique visitors (19 million) of Facebook.

LinkedIn remains stagnant with no growth over the last five quarters and MySpace can claim the most significant trend as it continues its death spiral. It dropped from 80 million unique monthly visitors a year ago to 34 million at the end of the 1st quarter of 2011. This has all happened in a year where the owners of MySpace, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, made desperation efforts to re-invent the service, along with massive layoffs to cut costs, in hopes of selling it. So far, their attempts to prop up MySpace and sell it have failed.

FACEBOOK – Don’t Hate Them Because They’re Beautiful

The Disneyland of Social Media

Facebook has remained at an estimated unique visitor count of 590 million for in the last two quarters. This has caused some Social Media naysayers to proclaim that Social Media is dead. It’s amusing and sad at the same time. It’s like a used car salesman saying that new car sales are dead because they’ve leveled off for two quarters.

Facebook is and will continue to be the way that individuals communicate, inform, and influence others for the foreseeable future. A more reasonable growth during 2011 should be anticipated with Facebook ending the year around 610 to 625 million.

The return of female users on Facebook continues. I say ‘return’ because female users were at 60% at the end of the 1st quarter of 2010 and dipped in the middle of the year. The percentage of women users stood at 57% the end of the 3rd quarter 2010, 59% at the end of the 4th quarter, and is now at 61%.

There has been no significant change in the age groups using Facebook during the last three quarters. This would indicate that Facebook users are becoming more stable and identifiable in terms of demographics. Seventy-two percent of users are between 25 and 54, and dividing those into ten-year spans (25-34, 35-44, and 45-55) results in near equal distribution among the three age groups.

CONCLUSION: Facebook is used primarily by adults of both sexes, but significantly female, in the prime of their active professional careers for social interaction.

TWITTER – The Scoop on Real-Time Events and Discussion

The David to Traditional News Media's Goliath

Media ‘Experts’ continue to try to figure out how to ‘monetize’ Twitter and come away with programs that annoy people and are rejected by Tweeters. When they offer dismal ROI (return on investment) figures to their client they shrug their shoulders and declare Twitter is a fad and useless. Then a major world event happens and Twitter becomes the most important information tool on the planet.

Twitter is an acid test on whether a person ‘gets’ Social Media or not, because it is one of the most powerful Social Media tools on the web, but it is not a space for advertising or marketing. This makes Twitter one of the most envied and hated Social Media tools by traditional marketing and media people, but one of the most loved by those who are believers.

Twitter has been hanging just under 100 million unique users per month since the 2nd quarter of 2010, but did dip down to 89 million at the end of 2010. Since then Twitter has jumped back up to finish the 1st quarter of 2011 at 97 million. The jump in the 1st quarter of this year is likely due to the world political events in north Africa and the earthquake and tsunami in Nippon.

Women use Twitter more than men, but like Facebook, there was a dip in the middle of 2010, when female users dropped from 60% at the end of the 1st quarter. By the end of the 4th quarter female users were at 55% and that has grown to 57% at the end of 2011′s 1st quarter.

Age demographics for Twitter also haven’t changed significantly during the last three quarters. Twitter users skew towards the young professional age group with 54% of the users falling in the 25-44 age group. At the end of the 1st quarter of 2011, only 18% of the users fell in the 45-54 age range compared to 26% of Facebook users.

CONCLUSION: Twitter is used by primarily young professionals of both sexes, but significantly female, to discuss current, real-time issues including world events and business-related topics.

LINKEDIN – Social Media for Head Hunters and Salespeople

It's all about Marketing

Many people don’t realize that LinkedIn (launched in May 2003) predates Twitter (July 2006) Facebook (February 2004,) and MySpace (August 2003). Despite its seniority in the Social Media world, it has failed to catch fire with a larger audience. It is sometimes thought to be a Social Media tool for business, but this is almost always proposed by someone who is an employment recruiter or a sales and/or marketing person.

Because LinkedIn specializes in giving a person a format to publish their resumé it is the ideal network for those seeking employment as well as those who make a profit off of people seeking employment. The irony is that at a time of record unemployment, the unique users per month have stayed flat, alternating between 41 million and 38 million for the past five quarters, ending at 41 million this past quarter.

The reason LinkedIn lacks a higher level of interaction may be due to users who have an agenda (selling themselves or their services,) which is annoying to most Social Media users. It is an inherent flaw in the premise of LinkedIn that will always keep it from broader acceptance and usage by Social Media users who like interacting, but loath selling and advertising.

LinkedIn also creates barriers to forming connections by asking “How do you know ____ ?”, and in some situations will require a user to prove that they know the person by providing their email address. While you can work around these barriers fairly easily, it inhibits people from making new connections with someone who may have similar interests.

Regarding the male to female user ratio, male users have been at 55% for the past two quarters, which is up from the 50-50 split in the 1st quarter of 2010. The users also tend to be older professionals with the 35-54 age group making up 61% of the users at the end of the 2010, and 62% at the end of the 1st quarter of this year. Those percentages were up from 56% one year ago, indicating that LinkedIn users are skewing towards the older professional.

CONCLUSION: LinkedIn is used primarily by older professionals of both sexes, but significantly male, to market themselves and their services.

MySpace – 2011 R.I.P

A Social Media Radioactive Fallout Zone

It is time to accept that MySpace is no longer relevant as a Social Media tool. It seems to have been abandoned by all but, 1) independent bands who use it to advertise themselves, 2) law enforcement agencies who pose as 13 year-old girls using images of tweens in bathing suits to lure in child predators, 3) real teenagers saying that they are 19 or older to bypass the security restrictions on minors, or 4) females who are seeking to attract men and women to their adult site. That is oversimplifying it, but it is difficult, if not impossible to find anything about MySpace that would make it competitive with other Social Media tools like Facebook or Twitter.

In addition to the largely objectionable user base, the site is slow and requires a log in with each visit, rather than accept the cookie identification from the returning users’ computer like most other Social Media services.

News Corp seems to have made a major error in purchasing MySpace at a time when it needed massive updating and redesigning for a more sophisticated user. Instead they tried to dress it up last year as a music-based Social Media service and sell it off without investing the money needed to save it. It is now so dysfunctional that the best thing that could happen is to shut it down, build a new and better program from scratch, and launch a new service that competes with LinkedIn or finds a new niche.

It is rather pointless to discuss the age or sex demographics of MySpace because while the statistics for the last two quarters may indicate that the users are 68% female, false profiles seem to be so rampant on the service that nothing can be believed.

CONCLUSION: MySpace is used primarily for nefarious, hormonal, and/or deceptive reasons for purposes that tend to exploit or expose unsuspecting users.

Is Higher Education Doomed? (Part III): The missed opportunity – a viable alternative to the status quo

by Paul Kiser
USA PDT [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype:kiserrotary or 775.624.5679]

Paul Kiser

Article first published as
Is Higher Education Doomed? (Part III): The Missed Opportunity – A Viable Alternative To The Status Quo
on Technorati.com

Part III
(Click on link for Part II)

In Part I of this series we reviewed the factors that are setting the stage for a major paradigm shift in Higher Education. In Part II we discussed a hypothetical scenario involving the two people who matter in higher education: the Professor and the Student.

Is the Sun setting on the state-run university?

Unfortunately, when considering how to resolve the current financial crisis confronting higher ed, state-run university administrators have tended to focus increasing class sizes, cutting class offerings, and replacing permanent faculty with less costly contract lecturers as is the case in Iowa (Article:  Iowa State increases class sizes.) No one can defend this strategy as beneficial to the Professor or the Student.

So what is the solution?

Some have proposed replacing public, state-run universities with private, for-profit schools (See: Are America’s University In Danger of Being Privatized?;) however, substituting a public bureaucracy with profit-motivated, uncaring people does not solve the financial pressures crushing higher education. Past attempts to privatize public sector industries demonstrates that the concept rarely offers the results promised (Ellen J. Dannin paper on privatization.) Existing private, for-profit universities are already under fire for mining federal loan programs for their financial gain (See: For-Profits High Risk Loan Strategy.)

Another alternative are online and/or independent study programs. These programs have been around for decades; however, both have a questionable track record with some programs being too expensive, lacking quality learning objectives, and/or being illegitimate scams to trade money for a diploma. The parent university accreditation group (The Council For Higher Education Accreditation or CHEA) encourages universities to aggressively discredit any higher education program that might be a ‘Diploma Mill’ (CHEA paper,) so most alternative higher education programs risk unwanted negative publicity from traditional schools.

Yet, the current crisis in higher education offers an opportunity for a Socrates-type model of learning that re-establishes the Professor/Student focus without the costly baggage of a brick and mortar university. The use of Social Media blogs, webinars, and other online connection tools have the potential to re-invent higher education; however, there is little evidence that these tools will replace the traditional university system of teaching.

No one can doubt that higher education will survive this crisis, because it has too. Our economic success is driven, not by people who have a college degree, but by people who have a higher education. In the end, the success of any post-secondary teaching program will be measured by how well it educates, not how much it costs.

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• Starbucks Siren gets facelift after 40 years
• “…and your little dog, too”  Words define intent, evil
• Facebook and Twitter Doomed? …Chicken Crap
• 5 reasons why you shouldn’t title your blog with number reasons
• A Question of Ethics
• HR/Security Hot Topic: Should you watch your employee’s personal Internet activities? (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.)
• Relationship Typing: 3 factors that affect the quality and depth of friendship (Part I)
• Starbucks Re-Imagines the business … again
• Your Privacy Rights on the Internet: Read before you write
• Social Media 3Q Update: Who uses Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn, and MySpace?
• Richmond Embassy Suites: The best at true Hospitality
• Dear Business Person: It’s 2010, please update your brain.
• Selling watered-down beer: The best spin campaign in advertising
• Communication: Repetition of message does not increase awareness
• Is it time to fire yourself?
• Millennium Hotel: Go away, spend your money elsewhere
• Rogue Flight Attendant shows his arrogance, Airlines dislike for the customer
• 2Q 2010 Social Media Tools: Facebook/Twitter sail on, LinkedIn/MySpace don’t
• War Declared on Social Media: Desperate Acts of Traditional Media
• Pay It Middle: The Balance between Too Much and Too Little Compensation
• Mega Executive Pay Leads to Poor Performance
• Relationships and Thin-Slicing: Why the other person knows what you’re really thinking
• Browser Wars: Internet Explorer losing, Google Chrome gaining ground
• WiFi on Southwest Airlines: Is it ‘Shovel Ready’?
• Starbucks makes a smart move: Free WiFi
• Foul Play: FIFA shows what less regulation offers to business
• The Shock of the McChrystal Story: The story is over before the article is published
• Tony Hayward: The very model of a modern Major General
• Epic Fail: PR ‘Experts’ don’t get Twitter
• King of Anything: Social Media vs Traditional Media
• Twitter is the Thunderstorm of World Thought
• Signs of the Times
• How Social Interactive Media Could Transform Higher Education
• How to Become a Zen Master of Social Media
• Death of All Salesmen!
• Aristotle’s General Rules on Social Media
• Social Media: What is it and Why Should You Care?
• Social Media 2020: Keep it Personal
• Social Media 2020: Who Shouldn’t Be Teaching Social Media
• Social Media 2020: Public Relations 2001 vs Social Media Relations 2010
• Social Media 2020: Who Moved My Public Relations?
• Publishing Industry to End 2012
• Who uses Facebook, Twitter, MySpace & LinkedIn?
• Fear of Public Relations
• Dissatisfiers: Why John Quit
• Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…Oh My!
• Does Anybody Really Understand PR?

Rotary Related

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• Rotary@105: 7 Relationship types that affect membership retention (Part II)
• What most non-Rotarians don’t know about Rotary
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• Rotary@105: Grieving change
• How Rotary can..must..will plug into Social Media
• Rotary PR: Disrespecting the Club President is a PR/Membership issue
• Rotary Membership/Public Image Challenge
• Rotary New Year: Retread or Renaissance?
• Rotary@105: A young professionals networking club?
• One Rotary Center: A home for 1.2 million members
• Rotary@105: What BP Could Learn from the 1914 Rotary Code of Ethics
• Rotary Magazine Dilemma Reveals the Impact of Social Media
• Rotary@105: April 24th – Donald M. Carter Day
• Rotary@105: What kind of animal is Rotary International?
• Rotary: The Man in the Yellow Hat as the Ideal Club President?
• Rotary@105: Our 1st Rotary Club Dropout
• Rotary Public Relations and Membership: Eight Steps to a Team Win
• Rotary: All Public Relations is Local
• Best Practices: Become a Target!

Science Related

• Happy New Year!!!
• Negative Time: The Self-fulfilling Prophesy a Scientific Possibility?
• Physics in 2010: The more we understand, the less we know

Personal Experience Related

• Knowing when it’s over or beyond over
• Dear Teresa Laraba, SVP of Southwest Airlines Customer Service
• Things I didn’t know about being a Father to a four-year-old boy
• Riding Reno: The Ladies of Reno
• Up in the air down in Texas
• I mow my lawn because…
• Nevada I-580: An Interstate by any other name
• Nevada’s oldest brewery opens a Reno location
• Two Barbecues and a Wedding
• Car Dealership Re-Imagines Customer Service

Our Country and History Related

• Dates of Historical Note in 2011
• Sandoval/Reid campaign money not a stimulus for Nevada
• Nevada’s Best Kept Secret: #1 in Crime
• The Vultures Start Circling on Election Day
• The Quality of Mercy: Tea Party seeks its pound of flesh
• I’m not angry, nor am I stupid … and I voted
• Point of Confusion
• What I’m not buying this year
• Nevada: State of Disaster
• Thank you, Mr. President
• America’s Hostile Takeover of Mexico

Starbucks Siren Gets Facelift at 40

by Paul Kiser
USA PDT  [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype:kiserrotary or 775.624.5679]

Paul Kiser

Article first published as
Starbucks Siren Gets a Facelift at 40
on Technorati

The problem with Social Media is that it sometimes gives a bigger voice to the reactive minority. Such is the case with the announcement made yesterday by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.

As part of several changes to move Starbucks forward for its 40th anniversary, the company is changing the logo for the first time in almost 20 years. They have simplified the logo by removing the words, “Starbucks Coffee” and the circle around the mermaid…technically she is a Siren.  She is bigger and she is now green (originally black.)

(Starbucks Web Announcement)

Based on some of the reaction on the web you would think that Mr. Schultz had just sent naked pictures of himself to Katie Couric. Among the comments on the Starbucks website were the following:

Starbucks Logos through the years

MimiKatz:  ”Who’s the bonehead in your marketing department that removed the world-famous name of Starbucks Coffee from your new logo?”

Rbailer:  ”…Why is that companies always take away products or change them when eveythings going along smoothly…”

Jaga30:  ”…let’s not kid ourselves–Starbucks has never been the brilliant marketing mastermind of the Northwest.”

There were several comments of support for the change, but that is not what most media outlets and bloggers picked up…probably because comments of support aren’t as newsworthy as reactive comments.

The reaction could, and probably was, expected. The announcement was sent out in an email to all Starbucks Gold Card members and they probably have the deepest attachment to the status quo, as well as the most severe caffeine addition. Change and caffeine don’t mix, (remember ‘New Coke,’) so no one in Seattle should be surprised by the drama.

The controversy will serve to create free publicity resulting in increased revenue. The only thing that Starbucks could have done better to engineer more publicity would have been to put breasts back on the Siren… is it too late to make another change?

More Articles

Business: Public Relations, Management, and Social Media Related

• “…and your little dog, too”  Words define intent, evil
• Facebook and Twitter Doomed? …Chicken Crap
• 5 reasons why you shouldn’t title your blog with number reasons
• A Question of Ethics
• HR/Security Hot Topic: Should you watch your employee’s personal Internet activities? (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.)
• Relationship Typing: 3 factors that affect the quality and depth of friendship (Part I)
• Starbucks Re-Imagines the business … again
• Your Privacy Rights on the Internet: Read before you write
• Social Media 3Q Update: Who uses Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn, and MySpace?
• Richmond Embassy Suites: The best at true Hospitality
• Dear Business Person: It’s 2010, please update your brain.
• Selling watered-down beer: The best spin campaign in advertising
• Communication: Repetition of message does not increase awareness
• Is it time to fire yourself?
• Millennium Hotel: Go away, spend your money elsewhere
• Rogue Flight Attendant shows his arrogance, Airlines dislike for the customer
• 2Q 2010 Social Media Tools: Facebook/Twitter sail on, LinkedIn/MySpace don’t
• War Declared on Social Media: Desperate Acts of Traditional Media
• Pay It Middle: The Balance between Too Much and Too Little Compensation
• Mega Executive Pay Leads to Poor Performance
• Relationships and Thin-Slicing: Why the other person knows what you’re really thinking
• Browser Wars: Internet Explorer losing, Google Chrome gaining ground
• WiFi on Southwest Airlines: Is it ‘Shovel Ready’?
• Starbucks makes a smart move: Free WiFi
• Foul Play: FIFA shows what less regulation offers to business
• The Shock of the McChrystal Story: The story is over before the article is published
• Tony Hayward: The very model of a modern Major General
• Epic Fail: PR ‘Experts’ don’t get Twitter
• King of Anything: Social Media vs Traditional Media
• Twitter is the Thunderstorm of World Thought
• Signs of the Times
• How Social Interactive Media Could Transform Higher Education
• How to Become a Zen Master of Social Media
• Death of All Salesmen!
• Aristotle’s General Rules on Social Media
• Social Media:  What is it and Why Should You Care?
• Social Media 2020:  Keep it Personal
• Social Media 2020:  Who Shouldn’t Be Teaching Social Media
• Social Media 2020:  Public Relations 2001 vs Social Media Relations 2010
• Social Media 2020: Who Moved My Public Relations?
• Publishing Industry to End 2012
• Who uses Facebook, Twitter, MySpace & LinkedIn?
• Fear of Public Relations
• Dissatisfiers: Why John Quit
• Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…Oh My!
• Does Anybody Really Understand PR?

Rotary Related

• Leaving Rotary
• Re-Imagining Rotary
• Rotary@105: 7 Relationship types that affect membership retention (Part II)
• What most non-Rotarians don’t know about Rotary
• Rotary@105: Making Rotary Sexy
• Rotary@105: Grieving change
• How Rotary can..must..will plug into Social Media
• Rotary PR: Disrespecting the Club President is a PR/Membership issue
• Rotary Membership/Public Image Challenge
• Rotary New Year: Retread or Renaissance?
• Rotary@105: A young professionals networking club?
• One Rotary Center: A home for 1.2 million members
• Rotary@105:  What BP Could Learn from the 1914 Rotary Code of Ethics
• Rotary Magazine Dilemma Reveals the Impact of Social Media
• Rotary@105:  April 24th – Donald M. Carter Day
• Rotary@105:  What kind of animal is Rotary International?
• Rotary:  The Man in the Yellow Hat as the Ideal Club President?
• Rotary@105:  Our 1st Rotary Club Dropout
• Rotary Public Relations and Membership: Eight Steps to a Team Win
• Rotary: All Public Relations is Local
• Best Practices:  Become a Target!

Science Related

• Happy New Year!!!
• Negative Time: The Self-fulfilling Prophesy a Scientific Possibility?
• Physics in 2010: The more we understand, the less we know

Personal Experience Related

• Knowing when it’s over or beyond over
• Dear Teresa Laraba, SVP of Southwest Airlines Customer Service
• Things I didn’t know about being a Father to a four-year-old boy
• Riding Reno: The Ladies of Reno
• Up in the air down in Texas
• I mow my lawn because…
• Nevada I-580: An Interstate by any other name
• Nevada’s oldest brewery opens a Reno location
• Two Barbecues and a Wedding
• Car Dealership Re-Imagines Customer Service

Our Country and History Related

• Dates of Historical Note in 2011
• Sandoval/Reid campaign money not a stimulus for Nevada
• Nevada’s Best Kept Secret: #1 in Crime
• The Vultures Start Circling on Election Day
• The Quality of Mercy: Tea Party seeks its pound of flesh
• I’m not angry, nor am I stupid … and I voted
• Point of Confusion
• What I’m not buying this year
• Nevada: State of Disaster
• Thank you, Mr. President
• America’s Hostile Takeover of Mexico

2010 Paul Kiser’s Blog in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 20,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 4 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 140 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 266 pictures uploaded. That’s about 5 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was March 26th with 1,177 views. The most popular post that day was It’s Baaack: Sunspot Maximum Here It Comes.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were standeyo.com, digg.com, facebook.com, twitter.com, and millennium-ark.net.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for maslow’s hierarchy of needs, who uses facebook, maslow hierarchy of needs, facebook users 2010, and who uses facebook?.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

It’s Baaack: Sunspot Maximum Here It Comes March 2010
4 comments

2

Pay It Middle: The Balance between Too Much and Too Little Compensation June 2010
2 comments

3

Who Uses Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, & LinkedIn? April 2010
3 comments

4

King of Anything: Sara Bareilles song reflects Social Media vs Traditional Media attitudes July 2010
1 comment

5

Does Anybody Understand PR? March 2010
4 comments