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Mark Drapeau
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3 weeks ago
in U.S. Government Asks Twitter to Stay Up for #IranElection Crisis on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Ben: That is an almost laughable oversimplification of the way the U.S. Government actually works.
1 reply
TrafficVault.com
@Mark @Ben All Social Studies/History/Government teachers just let out an enormous groan!
3 weeks ago
in U.S. Government Asks Twitter to Stay Up for #IranElection Crisis on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
This is a good article, and an interesting topic. Not to take anything away from the people involved, but in the greater scheme of "Government 2.0" let's be clear - when you say "the U.S. Government understands just how instrumental these web tools are to the #IranElection situation," what you really are saying is "about 10 people at the State Department experienced in social media technologies understand just how instrumental these web tools are to the #IranElection situation." In this case, that may be enough. But there are certainly many people within the government who do *not* understand as well. And so in that sense, this is an ongoing process.
2 replies
Ben Parr
These types of decisions usually come from the top or the high level. If the leadership understands the power, then the rest of the government does because it's a top-down organization in the end.
streetleveltech
You make a good point here but consider the fact that many of the senior managers and upper level officials in the US civil service started their careers when high tech office equipment was an IBM Selectric and a 17-key adding machine and computing, if any, was done on mainframes and dumb terminals. The sensibilities about online technologies will change when the "digital natives," the people born since the mid-80's, take over.
1 month ago
in Is Momblogging The New Radio? on A VC
Mom bloggers are a fast-growing category of social media. So what? To me, I would expect that to be one of the largest categories, so basically they're playing catch-up. Slightly over half of adults are women. Well over half of adult women are moms in the U.S.. So, that's at least 40% of the adult (used loosely) population. This is roughly equivalent to saying that businessmen in suits are an increasing population among airline passengers.
1 reply
fredwilson
And they are
1 month ago
in Exploring the 2010 Web on Scobleizer
Do you really think that the average potential Toyota Prius buyer wants real-time, mobile, decentralized, social conversation about the cars? Or do they simply want to know what they're getting at what price and when? I think more the latter.
1 reply
Scobleizer
Mark: actually studying human behavior tells me you're wrong. People do want to talk with other owners of cars and other products before buying them and, once they bought them, a lot of them want to join a community so they can get more value out of the products that they bought. I'm already looking to join a group of Prius owners who are hacking their cars to do various things. At the Dream Machines show people demonstrated how they added more batteries to their cars to let them plug in their cars, which let them go even further on a gallon of gas.
3 months ago
in How To Do Customer Service in a Twitter World and Case Study: Robert Scoble on Loic Le Meur
I am thinking about how this applies to local and national governments?
1 reply
loicdirect@gmail.com
good point Mark, I think it will take a long time before governments enter
this type of direct conversation...
this type of direct conversation...
4 months ago
in Why We All Benefit From Big Brands Being in Social Media on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Has Starbucks ever truly changed anything because of customer feedback? Most Starbucks still have poor customer service, confusing ordering/paying protocols, bad food, kitsch that no one buys, and not enough seating.
1 reply
Cecile Hudon
Hi Mark,
I'm the community manager of the My Starbucks Idea website. This site launched a year ago and we have actively listened to our customers and turned numerous ideas into action including offering GOOD sheets in our stores in response to the "great conversations at Starbucks idea", the #1 idea on the site to splash sticks, free birthday beverage, and more. Customer ideas from My Starbucks Idea have helped shape the Starbucks Card Rewards program and our food team is actively engaged in the plentitude of food ideas generated on the site. Look for more Food ideas to launch soon. The items you call out above relate to many of the ideas we're working on - like a new register system to help make the ordering and paying process easier. I hear you on not enough seating. At the same time customers are telling us they want more soft seating, like couches that take up more room and cause less seating. We're working on finding the balance. I encourage you to share your ideas on our site: www.mystarbucksidea.com. I hope to see you on MSI!
I'm the community manager of the My Starbucks Idea website. This site launched a year ago and we have actively listened to our customers and turned numerous ideas into action including offering GOOD sheets in our stores in response to the "great conversations at Starbucks idea", the #1 idea on the site to splash sticks, free birthday beverage, and more. Customer ideas from My Starbucks Idea have helped shape the Starbucks Card Rewards program and our food team is actively engaged in the plentitude of food ideas generated on the site. Look for more Food ideas to launch soon. The items you call out above relate to many of the ideas we're working on - like a new register system to help make the ordering and paying process easier. I hear you on not enough seating. At the same time customers are telling us they want more soft seating, like couches that take up more room and cause less seating. We're working on finding the balance. I encourage you to share your ideas on our site: www.mystarbucksidea.com. I hope to see you on MSI!
4 months ago
in Why We All Benefit From Big Brands Being in Social Media on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Yay for citing six companies that are clear outliers when it comes to using social media well. How many articles are there about how Ford, Nike, and Coke are cool? You seem to answer a question about whether some companies can do it right, and whether that is good. Of course it's possible, and of course it is good. The truly interesting question is, what are the other tens of thousands of global companies going to do with social media over the next five years, and how might that change business operations?
1 reply
Rommell
Your response reflects my sentiment about social media. It has great potential and there are few to have implemented it correctly. But until it becomes as ubiquitous as e-mail marketing, statements that refer to a social media "mass market" assume that once people sign up for Twitter, that their behavior will automatically or eventually change. I find it interesting that a demographic that tends to lead in this kind of technology adoption has not done so, it alludes to doubts concerning Twitter as a mass social marketing medium. Twitter still has a lot to prove to many 100,000's business owners before it begins to the earn the media hype that has lauded it. I know and believe that social media has a tremendous amount of potential. But adoption is dependent on how this industry matures, how it gets monetized and how marketing value is convincingly propositioned to all type of business owners.
5 months ago
in It's About People, Not Technology on A VC
First - It is so obvious that "social media" is not about technology, it is about people sharing information. Everyone who has thought about the field knows this. This is not news. Not even worth sharing on Twitter. I heard this almost a year ago, and I am far, far from an expert. Big deal.
Second - You say, "there's way more chatter about Twitter than is necessary". No. There is precisely as much chatter about Twitter as people want there to be. It's like saying that someone paid too much for a house. No, they paid precisely what it was worth to them at that time. Lots of people want to chatter about Twitter at this time. The "conversation market" will decide how much is necessary.
Third - You suggest that, "if anything the hype machine should crank down, not crank up even more" No. Should, according to you perhaps. But everyone working with social media knows that no one can control the conversation. People will talk as they please, and hype it when they like, and criticize when they like as well. They will hype Twitter until the nanosecond they get bored with it, or a superior competitor comes along. Kind of like an actor in his hey-day.
Second - You say, "there's way more chatter about Twitter than is necessary". No. There is precisely as much chatter about Twitter as people want there to be. It's like saying that someone paid too much for a house. No, they paid precisely what it was worth to them at that time. Lots of people want to chatter about Twitter at this time. The "conversation market" will decide how much is necessary.
Third - You suggest that, "if anything the hype machine should crank down, not crank up even more" No. Should, according to you perhaps. But everyone working with social media knows that no one can control the conversation. People will talk as they please, and hype it when they like, and criticize when they like as well. They will hype Twitter until the nanosecond they get bored with it, or a superior competitor comes along. Kind of like an actor in his hey-day.
1 reply
dasil003
Are you so in love with the status quo as to have no opinion on anything? Yeah, people should pay what they pay for a house, but I'll be damned if I'll agree that the government should bail out the banks who gave them loans they couldn't afford, in order to prop up the bubble which prevents me from being able to afford a house, because what people are expected to pay is inflated by greedy fat cat money shufflers getting extremely rich making terrible decisions, and the government waving fear of another depression in our face to justify protecting everyone who fucked up at the expense of a meaningful market correction and, of course, future generations opportunities. Free markets are nice in a lot of ways, but don't fool yourself into thinking that there are many.
5 months ago
in What If Your Model Is Wrong? on A VC
Has no one read The Black Swan?
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fredwilson
I¹ve read it. I understand why everyone loves it so much, but I was not
impacted by it as much as a bunch of other books this year.
impacted by it as much as a bunch of other books this year.
Wille
I'm not sure Black Swan applies for the current crisis at all.
It should have been blindingly obvious for anyone with a bit of common sense that lending vast amounts of money to people who had no ability to repay it, secured against assets with prices that where overinflated was not sustainable and was only ever going to end in tears. The only thing in question should have been the scale of it..
The current crisis, with common sense and hindsight was as predictable as gravity, it was hardly a Black Swan event of the same type as 9/11 was.
It should have been blindingly obvious for anyone with a bit of common sense that lending vast amounts of money to people who had no ability to repay it, secured against assets with prices that where overinflated was not sustainable and was only ever going to end in tears. The only thing in question should have been the scale of it..
The current crisis, with common sense and hindsight was as predictable as gravity, it was hardly a Black Swan event of the same type as 9/11 was.
