Max Hall, Transparency and Social Media

It seems Max Hall is the one who learned a lesson after the football team he quarterbacks narrowly beat the University of Utah in overtime during one of the most hotly contested games in this past weekend’s rivalry week.

The annual contest pitting BYU against Utah is typically closely fought.  After the game, Hall said -

“I don’t like Utah. In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, their fans. I hate everything,” Hall said. “It felt really good to send those guys home.”

“I think the whole university and their fans and the organization is classless,” Hall said. “They threw beer on my family and stuff last year and did a whole bunch of nasty things. I don’t respect them and they deserved to lose.”

I believe he meant everything he said.  What I don’t believe is the apology that was issued yesterday.

He said his comments were, “not intended to be directed at the entire organization and all of their fans and I apologize that it came out that way.

Overnight a Facebook group sprung up called “Max Hall hates me and thinks I’m classless” and has nearly 7,000 fans.  This is the challenge with being open and transparent in the media.

I understand in war, propaganda and competitive sports, the opponent is dehumanized.  At the end of the game, win or lose, it’s just a game.  Was I upset Utah lost?  Sure.  But it’s a game and we’ve got next time.  Max Hall is a senior and doesn’t have next time.  His team won, so no regrets right?

It seems his big regret was last year’s loss at Utah.  That’s what he was angry for.  It wasn’t a close game.  The BYU fans left in droves during the third quarter.  Hall himself had a horrible game.  That’s where the “hate” came from.  It seems to be a bit of self-loathing.

When I read Hall’s comment I wondered if I could “hate” him.  During the game, I hate BYU, but afterwords, it’s just a game.  He’s human just like the rest of us.  Do people get crazy at the game and maybe go too far?  Having been to several of these rivalry games over the years, I think so.  I’m not sure what can be done about it.

As fans, we don’t have any pressure or expectations on us.  As the athlete, quarterback and on field leader of the team, Max Hall does have pressure and expectations to ignore the grumblings of disappointed fans and conduct himself with class.  In this regard, Max Hall failed his team, his University and the faith he represents.

The Mountain West Conference has reprimanded Hall for his comments, but I’m not sure what that will mean from a discipline standpoint.  Hall’s behavior was the verbal equivalent to LeGarrette Blount’s sucker punch earlier in the season.

Throughout his tenure as a BYU quarterback, Hall has posted record-breaking numbers.  Maybe next time he’ll just let the numbers speak for themselves and keep his mouth shut.

Talk Like Chewbacca Day – AKA, Cyber Monday

Today is Cyber Monday, the first Monday following Thanksgiving when most people go back to work…and shop online.

Yes, today is the biggest online shopping day of the year.  And yes, Cyber Monday is a stupid name.  Who came up with that anyway?

A group on Facebook has decided Cyber Monday is so stupid, it should be called something else.  Why not “Talk Like Chewbacca Day?“  It makes as much sense.  If you hear me growl today, it’s not you, I’m just celebrating the holiday.

Let’s talk about what the online implications for today are.  First of all, it appears more people are shopping online for Black Friday deals beginning as early as Thanksgiving Day.  CNN Money reports:

It was a stronger picture for Internet retailing. The average online order on Black Friday rose 35% from last year, to $170.19, according to online retail analyst Coremetrics — an indication that people may be looking to buy gifts after a year of economic woes.

Online shopping will garner more attention Monday — the so-called Cyber Monday — when many Americans will take advantage of computers at work to shop for gifts.

This is a trend that will continue to grow.  As the Internet becomes more familiar and more trust in the process is developed by consumers and businesses, it’s natural that more commerce will take place online.  A 35% increase in online sales is quite substantial year over year.

With more people searching online it’s even more important to be found.  I’m starting to notice more ads on Facebook with coupon offers for fanning a company’s business page.  That’s a good idea for any of you e-tailers out there.  Couldn’t a coupon work for a service or a restaurant as well?

I believe competition is good for consumers and as more of our eyeballs are on the Internet, we’ll see more innovation and more creative ways to capture sales online.

This Cyber Monday if you see an ad or a deal that catches your eye, let me know how it stood out by leaving a comment on this post.  If you see something you don’t like, then growl at it like Chewbacca.

Why I’m Thankful for Facebook

There’s a lot to be thankful for this Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, 2009.  I am thankful for the wonderful new people who have come into my life; my clients, my business partners, my suppliers and referral sources.

Of course I’m thankful for the people in my life, but as I reflect over this year, I think I’m most thankful for Facebook.

Why Facebook?  Because it makes it easy to stay in touch with people.  Over this last year I’ve been able to reconnect with friends from high school, college, old friends from ten years ago and recent friends I’ve lost contact with.

I’ve made an effort to meet those who are local and I’ve enjoyed chatting to those who aren’t local.

Facebook makes it easier to connect with family as well.  I can now chat with my cousin in Jamaica and I recently connected with my cousin in England.  In California, Facebook makes it easy for my brother to post photos of his three-year old son.  I chat with my sister in Rhode Island when she’s bored at her job.

We take technology like this for granted, when it really is amazing!  Earlier this summer comedian Louis CK complained about America and said, “Everything’s amazing, nobody’s happy!”

The country is in a recession and people are feeling sorry for themselves.  We simply need to stand up and take charge and use the amazing tools we have to get back on our feet.  There are some people out there who say social media is a waste of time, or it doesn’t work.  That’s like saying a hammer doesn’t work because it’s not driving in the nail.  You are ultimately responsible for how well the hammer works.  It’s just a tool.  So is social media.

If you’re using social media and not making real life connections, you’re using it wrong.  I read about different strategies for Twitter that involved auto-adding people to gain large followings.  I don’t believe this is the right way to go about it.  Human interactions can’t be automated!  Those who are successful at social media convert that digital contact into a real-life face to face or voice to voice contact.  There’s nothing automatic about that.  It’s simply being thoughtful and working at it.

Why not push your boundaries?  I know you’re thinking about someone, a friend, a family member who you haven’t been in touch with for a long time.  You may think they don’t like you, or remember you.  Reach out through Facebook and see if you can reconnect.  Maybe next year you’ll be thankful for Facebook too.

Utah Seo Company Says Blogging Isn’t For Everyone – Press Release

Salt Lake City, UT – 25-November-2009 – 95% of Internet blogs fail says an article by the New York Times, however, companies that are committed to blogging can still succeed says Utah SEO company SEO by Swaby. The Salt Lake City Internet firm provides solutions for small businesses across the Wasatch Front. Find them on the web at http://www.seobyswaby.com.

“So many website options for small businesses exist these days,” says SEO by Swaby founder Nigel Swaby. “My ultimate task is to fit the right website solution to my client,” he continued. With blogs, websites and content management systems available, small business owners have more choices than ever. “It’s my job to use my experience to suggest the right solution for my clients,” said Swaby.

While Swaby himself uses blogs as a marketing tool, they’re not for everyone. He gets clients who he sets up with blogs to commit to the process. “For our business networking group that needs to make weekly updates, publishing a blog was a simple decision,” said Erin Norton, co-founder of Fiscal Networking. “SEO by Swaby asked us how attached we were to our current process and provided training to help us transition to a site we can update ourselves. While a blog was the right solution for us, it might not be for other companies and they presented all options to us,” she concluded.

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Analog Marketing – Live Blogging

This morning I am live blogging from the Art of Business meeting at Paradise Bakery in Ft. Union.

This is a great group that gets together every Tuesday morning at 8 am.

One of the benefits to attending this group is there is always a training aspect.  Today we’re discussing giving thanks as a business process and developing good relationships.

There are many business networking groups that go on each week, but there is only so much time in a day or week.  Choosing an effective group to go to is very important.  So far this has been a great group producing numerous contacts and business!

If you’re looking for a business networking group in Salt Lake City and you’ve never done it before or need help getting started, feel free to contact me and come to breakfast or lunch.

Internet Marketing Tools – My Mobile Kit

People have asked what I read and how I choose to operate.  Today I thought I’d share my mobile Internet marketing toolkit since I just obtained what I think will be a very critical piece.  One more tool still eludes me, but I hope to get it this week.

As many of you know, I spend a lot of time on the road during the week and I believe the addition of a Gateway netbook will increase my productivity.  I thought my Samsung Instinct smartphone would be enough, but I hate typing on it and it doesn’t allow a cut and paste for URLs in Twitter and Facebook.

So here’s my current list of mobile Internet marketing tools:

1.  Gateway Netbook – For typing out emails, sending my virtual business card, blogging and updating webpages.

2.  Samsung Instinct – Smartphone for reading and replying to emails on the go, phone calls, navigation, checking blog stats and updating comments.

3.  Olympus FE-340 digital camera (not pictured) – For photos and videos on the go.  I will be replacing this with a Flipcam this week.

4.  Kensington presentation mouse – It’s very flat and transmits to twenty feet for Powerpoint presentations.

5.  Olympus digital voice recorder – For doing interviews in person or on the phone.  This device will probably be phased out once I get the Flipcam.

6.  Mini-notebook with pen holder – I have a tendency to lose track of pens, so having one with a built in holder is pretty slick.  This came courtesy of Signature Press.

7.  Extra batteries – You never want to delay or fail at your job because of lack of power.  I keep extra batteries on hand for all my mobile devices including the Instinct.  I buy mine from Radio Shack (RSH) because they’re fresher than anywhere else.

8.  Gum – You don’t want to embarrass yourself when analog marketing by having bad breath.  Keeping a pack on hand can help you or a business associate stay on top of their game.

9.  Cloud based software (what you don’t see in the photo) – Except for a few applications, I want to be able to use my netbook just like I’d use my computer at home.  I try to be as “web based” as possible by taking advantage of free email, free blogs and even free imaging software.  Twitter and Facebook are also web based and Google is betting that will be the future of computing.  So am I.  I downloaded Gimp on it for image editing so really the only software I need on my old computer is Adobe GoLive for making webpages.  I can edit webpages in wordpad using code.

Low costs make the barrier to entry for a kit like this unbelievably reasonable.  The hard cost for all this items was $520.50 plus sales tax.  Of course it took me nearly twelve years to develop the experience I have, but that’s another topic.

How to Get Traffic to Your Blog – A Powerpoint Presentation

View this document on Scribd

Social Media and Stompernet Meetup

It was another great meetup for the Utah stompers group.  Tonight’s topic was social media.  Group leader Andrea walked us through some social media strategies at the new meetup location at Surface 9.

As always, the best information comes from within the group.  A lot of web tools get mentioned at these meetups, but usually only a few stand out as must have.

One of these must have tools was shared by its developer and was called twitjump.  It allows you to manage Twitter accounts and keywords.  If you’re like me and searching for a Twitter management tool, twitjump is it.

Andrea asked us not to share the other killer tool we learned about, but you can certainly ask about it at the next meetup in December.  The new location altered the group dynamic and the core group we had chatting last time didn’t materialize.

Instead we toured the recording studios of Surface 9 located one floor below where we met.

This was the second time I’d been in the studio and it was an interesting path the meeting took from discussing social media, to discussing outsourcing tools and technology to better implement social media to touring the video facility that produces a type of social media.

Several people pointed out that social media isn’t limited to Twitter and Facebook.  Anything on the Internet that allows direct feedback is considered social.  So put video (YouTube), photos (Flickr) and blogs into that category.  Andrea suggested blogs are the grandfather of social media and she’s right.

Tonight’s Stompernet local meetup was a great event.  I always learn something new.  Maybe next month you’ll attend and get some of the great information available from such a talented group of people.

Unfriend is Word of the Year…

Every year the Oxford American Dictionary picks a word of the year.  It’s typically something that has created such a presence in American culture that it commands inclusion.

With technology creating culture, this year’s finalists were predominantly tech oriented.  Words like “netbook”, “hashtag” and “sexting” were on the final list, but “unfriend” is the word of the year.

I prefer the word “defriend” if it has to come to that, but really the way Facebook is evolving (if I have anything to say about it) is towards conversion.  People’s feelings get hurt if you “defriend” them, but if you offer to get to know them to begin with through a “fan” page you don’t have to hurt anyone.

If you’re trying to be friends with someone you’ve never met in real life and don’t get “accepted” up front, that’s pretty easy to deal with.  On the other hand, a rejection after an acceptance can be a blow to the self-esteem.

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Coroon accepted my friend request.  I suspect he accepts everyones.  Even though I’ve met him in real life, I doubt he remembers me and that’s OK.  I don’t expect him to.  He’s now converting his personal profile to a fan profile and I think this will be a growing trend on Facebook over the next two years.  This is especially true for people who have combined business and personal or those with so many “friends” meaningful interaction isn’t possible.

Marketers and business people want to come into contact with as many people as they can, but they want to control that interaction.  A Facebook personal profile offers too much transparency for an individual to give it to strangers.  A fan or business page allows users to control what they share just a little bit more.

Unfriend is a poor choice for a dictionary word.  First of all “defriend” is the better term.  Secondly, social media strategy is adapting so quickly, by next year we won’t be friending people on Facebook we don’t know.  Either we’ll be filtering better or converting them to our fan or business pages where we can get to know them better and even in real life.

Isn’t that what social media is all about?

Paidin14days.com Giving Away Marketing Tips

Each Tuesday afternoon at Paradise Bakery in Sandy, UT, you’ll find Spencer Shaw and Erik Felsted giving away Internet marketing information that others charge for.

Consider it a marketing cost for the developers of the paidin14days marketing course the two refuse to pitch at their free class.

For three weeks I’ve been attending and not only is it great, free information, it’s a way to network with other Internet marketers and those wanting to learn.

I first met Spencer and Erik at the Stompernet meetup a month ago and I was impressed with their tactics and knowledge.  With Internet marketing, there are many ways to “skin the cat” so to speak and these guys specialize in affiliate marketing.  That’s never been my game, so it’s refreshing and interesting for me to learn more about it.  I’ve been an affiliate manager in the past, but never an affiliate marketer.

Their approach to marketing the new internet marketing course is also refreshing for two reasons:

1.  They’re giving away a lot of information for free.  Besides the weekly meeting, they live-stream the event for remote viewers.

2.  The course is a step-by-step guide that isn’t overwhelming, garbage or too much to handle for even the most inexperienced “newbie.”

Their idea for creating the course was to help people affected by the economy learn a new skill and business that would literally provide a pay back in two weeks.

Based on what I’ve seen in the handouts, the information is good and even I am learning some new ideas and concepts.  Plus the networking opportunities are tremendous.  If you’re in Northern Utah and want to check out a meeting feel free to stop by on Tuesday afternoons.  Space is limited, so please RSVP on meetup.com to insure a spot.

Full disclosure:  To fulfill FCC regulations, I must admit this is a paid post.  I’m not sure what I’m getting yet, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting something…otherwise this post gets deleted!  It doesn’t really matter that I’m getting paid because I’d be talking about these guys anyway.  Plus it’s free to come to the meeting and they even offer a free trial for their course.