Disqus - Friends of donnamcaleer

Re: Facebook SocialAds Hit A Few Bumps

Michael J. Pratt — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:45:48 -0000

Nick - I have been experimenting with pages and ads since the day they were introduced to promote and start discussion on my company www.giftgirl.com. The results are mixed at best. 1st Issue: technology. FB seems to think I have 2 pages and when I try to edit the "phantom" page it takes me to my personal page. FB support acknowledged this as a bug. I think it may directly be leading to other issues. I started running ads on Nov 07 and got a fair number of clicks when all of a sudden they dropped to single digits on the 16th. No explanation of why, etc I upped the bid, nothing. I then upped it to a ridiculous amount to experiment. Nothing. What changed? ( i do realize I could have just been way ahead of the curve and been the only one running ads! 2nd issue: management: You can't modify your ads, you must create a new one. bad. Graphs are on a week by week basis in the table. Why not allow for a longer time period? On a final note: They do a horrible job at telling you how to go about using pages vs groups. Should you post items? Should you post notes? Is there a way to put things on your fans' news feeds (perhaps with an opt out option so companies don't end up spamming) I created a fictional fb member to test what gets posted by my company page so I didn't annoy my fans and actually could tell how my actions looked as I posted them and I gotta tell you it's not obvious the best way to provide value to your fan base. The last thing I want is for the page to end up like a group....something that users join for status then blow off. Good article, Thanks - Mike

Re: My Facebook Ad Stats

Michael J. Pratt — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:18:43 -0000

Fred - Your journey through this new world of business possibilities in FB has guided much of my experience thus far in FB's world of ads and business pages. I have made many changes and additions to our page (http://www.facebook.com/pro... and I blogged about it as well. (http://blog.giftgirl.com/20... We're taking the Beacon thing a bit more slowly to see how it develops - both side make very good arguments. Our biggest fear is that Fb lets pages go the way of the group and everything devolves to a sort of lame fan club/destination that no one visits but loves the status of joining a club with a zillion members.

Please don't stop posting. You're my best consultant!

Mike Pratt
COO, Gift Girl
http://www.giftgirl.com

Re: You Won’t Win Friends With “Facebook Friend Bomber”

Michael J. Pratt — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:22:20 -0000

How true. Aside from the sad fact that this app will lure plenty of gullible fools (thank God it's marked down from its original price of $87!) the real value is FB is the huge benefit to be gained by the slow, methodical, and personal acquisition of real friends on the platform.

Re: Scoble, Facebook & Plaxo: It’s a matter of trust. And fear. | A View from Judi Sohn

Michael J. Pratt — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:50:49 -0000

Judi, I respect your position although I disagree with some of your points. Here's one: by your logic (it's wrong for me, via Plaxo, to move my FB address book over to Plaxo - or similarly in Gmail) if I did the same manually, one by one, by reading the email image off of every one of my FB friends - I would be equally wrong? To my mind, Plaxo isn't moving the addresses - I am, with a Plaxo tool. I understand it feels spammy and a violation but I am having trouble seeing you "all address book importers are bad" argument, which is how it sounds. All that said I am now subscribing to your various feeds. another articulate voice to listen to.

Re: Scoble, Facebook & Plaxo: It’s a matter of trust. And fear. | A View from Judi Sohn

Michael J. Pratt — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:54:32 -0000

oops. i should have read Robert's rebuttal 1st. didn't mean to repeat his point. sorry Scobleizer, my bad

Re: Social Media FAQ #1: What if they leave negative comments on my site/blog/forum?

Michael J. Pratt — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:53:27 -0000

Jeremiah - Ironic that you just tweeted this. I have had a running debate/argument (not sure why I am wasting my time) with @MarkMayhew (who also does @FacebookEconomy about his incessant negativism and dissing about all those he disagrees with or disagree with him. I keep trying to point out that it smacks in the face of his attempts to become a credible resource on his topic. Now, it remains to be seen how much moderation is required because the web's antiseptic nature tends to work well on negativism. Great post, Thanks. - Mike Pratt
the style observer
Gift Girl

Re: Watch these relevant documents

Michael J. Pratt — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:01:37 -0000

Wow. I often forget how fortunate I was to attend a University with a class size of 15, where you were taught and evaluated everyday, no one missed class and you learned a boatload of really cool stuff. Lucky me. - Mike, West Point '87

Michael Pratt's latest post: the bohemian bride

Re: Watch these relevant documents

Michael J. Pratt — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:02:50 -0000

and. double wow. See the lovely pic of Jean (my wife) you get to see if I promote her blog! I need to check out this thing called commentLuv!

Re: How Bebo Ruined My Life

Michael J. Pratt — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:57:29 -0000

I did the exact same thing several weeks ago inviting all my friends to StumbleUpon. To this day I don't know how I did it. Lucky for me the ex's are long gone from my address book and, interestingly, 11 friends wrote to thank me for the heads up on SU. I was pissed at them nonetheless. Oh, and one stone-age dwelling friend mentioned "What the hell is this you sent me?"

Re: Yahoo!’s Shine

Michael J. Pratt — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:17:30 -0000

1. Nice to see Yahoo paying attention to who is saying what about them. re xian. More importantly, however, is the lack of transparency on just where they are getting all the content from. They claim it's from blogs all over but checking the Fashion & Beauty section, for our own research purposes (and to perhaps consider joining the conversation if we can) you find very few blogs and mostly stuff from writers at Allure, Lucky or Shine editorial staff. They don't link directly to these places and to subscribe you have to sign in and go thru Yahoo processes. There is also no listing at all of the contributors. It's practically as closed a system as Facebook. That's fine, of course, Yahoo can do what it wants, but seems to go against their mantra expressed as a place to get the best of the web for women, etc. All that said, we'll try to get in on the fun as you can't argue with 40mm girls!

Re: Sex and the City Gets a MySpace; We Get Annoyed

Michael J. Pratt — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:29:52 -0000

I couldn't agree more. In fact it was the odd/arrogant treatment of the designers who contributed to the movie that led Gilles Montezin to want to do a wonderful interview with us at his studio rather than PAY the producers for coverage (if you can believe that) I'd love your feedback. Thanks, Jean Voute Pratt
http://styleobserver.com/2008/04/16/catching-up-with-sex-and-the-city-designer-gilles-montezin/

Re: Facebook continues to suck

Michael J. Pratt — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:46:09 -0000

Why on earth would MySpace kick someone off? For being offensive? Or do they differentiate between lurking and offensive lurking? As a business trying to take advantage of the demo Mr. S. speaks of, I can only express my frustration. They are SO not trying to help. The only bright spot has been the very nice person in cust svc who always emails me and tries to fix my recurring problems with Pages. Of course, they still aren't fixed but at least she's not rude!

Re: Bloglines vs. Google Reader: A Usability Evaluation

Michael J. Pratt — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:52:54 -0000

My biggest criteria to evaluate & compare is whether you like having feeds divided up by folder and that remains the domain of personal preference. I think "star" is misnamed, a common problem in UX. GR didn't put much thought into what they wanted the function to mean. Save & Pin do a better job, as you said. I'm also not sure I'd give as much weight to "settings", etc as we're probably more likely to sacrifice bad settings mgt for a good reading experience. Aggregation is also a personal pref thing: My feeds are so diverse, I can't imagine seeing them all together. All said, Bloglines has been in beta for so long, I think they forgot about it. It needs a great deal of work. Bear in mind, this is all from a person who doesn't like Gmail...an indicator

Re: Sex And The Single Site: Turner's TheFrisky Likes The Single Life, For Now

Michael J. Pratt — Mon, 19 May 2008 03:04:24 -0000

Thanks for confirming a suspicion. When I received the following impersonal email the other day from The Frisky, I wondered how such a new site could already be behaving in such a spammy manner. Answer: their used to impersonal corporate ways:
<begin copy>
Hi there,

I'm part of The Frisky webzine team and we just posted a slide show of the new Rogan line that will launch at Target this weekend. Plaid certainly is the new black this summer.

Here's the link to check it out - http://www.thefrisky.com/ta... - let us know if you link to it.

Hope all is well!
<end of copy>

No sense getting mean spirited so I left of the name of the "marketing professional" who "reached out" to us. Sad.

Re: Path 101 looking into using Facebook's amazing ad technology

Michael J. Pratt — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:40:30 -0000

Charlie - I would argue that the real gem will be when the web get's really good at showing an ad based on who is viewing his profile, not the fact that Alex needs a haircut. I think their targeting wrong here, however astounding the capability to match those two items. case: say I am Alex's friend, I don't need a haircut, show me something that I need, not related to Alex but my friendship with him

Re: Obama and McCain Sending Official Reps to Debate on Twitter

Michael J. Pratt — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 08:27:27 -0000

All great points but let's not race to conclude that Obama is making good use of Twitter. 40k followers is certainly an awesome indicator of his grass roots popularity but he (or his crew) has only updated 138 times. That's proof he's only jumped on the bandwagon to make a claim of usage later and appeal to his followers but he's not adding much value. There are no replies (fine, if you mean it to be a venue to get the word out but then GET THE WORD OUT!!) I expect more

Re: Media that feeds on itself | A View from Judi Sohn

Michael J. Pratt — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:56:26 -0000

I'd be willing to bet the "mood" during the great depression was much worse, and I'm sure it stinks for the person who got laid off or woke up to realize that he actually shouldn't have borrowed 100% of the price of his house, but I guess I'm not so sure it's at an historic low

Re: Members Only liquid leather leggings

Michael J. Pratt — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:35:22 -0000

Hey. I'm just trying out a new reply in Disqus, our new comment system I just installed last night. You can view the Style observer community discussion page at http://styleobserver.disqus....

Re: Fashion PR Agencies, Designers, Bloggers on Twitter

Michael J. Pratt — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:07:34 -0000

Name: Jean V. Pratt

Twitter:

@mikepratt
@jeanvpratt
@styleobserver
@giftgirl

Organization: GiftGirl, LLC

http://styleobserver.com
http://giftgirl.com

style observer - putting it all together: how to make style & fashion work for you
GiftGirl - The eHarmony of finding a great gift for any girl in your life

Re: Fashion PR Agencies, Designers, Bloggers on Twitter

Michael J. Pratt — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:09:54 -0000

Sorry, forgot:

favorite thing about Twitter: I have made more solid, worthwhile relationships on/via Twitter than anywhere else.

Re: INSIDE THE TENTS - NY Fashion Week Independent Blogosphere Coverage

Michael J. Pratt — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:17:34 -0000

http://InsideTheTents.com is sure to be the best New media initiate since Facebook!

Re: INSIDE THE TENTS - NY Fashion Week Independent Blogosphere Coverage

Michael J. Pratt — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:34:02 -0000

When you stop by http://insidethetents.com, tell us what you're doing at Fashion Week or what you want to see!

Re: Marketing e-mails that actually help customers

Michael J. Pratt — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:48:28 -0000

Whitney - remarkably poignant post (for me) Thanks for being brilliant enough to connect these dots

Re: Great News - StyleHop a finalist in the Mashable Showdown

Michael J. Pratt — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:35:34 -0000

Congrats, David. Pete's a great guy and, while I haven't checked out your competition, I'm sure you will be kicking butt.

Re: INSIDE THE TENTS - NY Fashion Week Independent Blogosphere Coverage

Michael J. Pratt — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:19:00 -0000

Shelli Mc - we know why you're here. Welcome!