Disqus - Latest Comments for merubin75

Re: No support on Twitter please. (Scripting News)

merubin75 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:35:43 -0000

One of the amazing things that Twitter has done is that it has put human faces on faceless corporations. Sending e-mail promises the return of a form letter (most of the time), and navigating through the twists and turns of a modern-day call center menu is infuriating (again, most of the time). Nowadays, when I have a problem that needs support, I like the fact that I can shoot up a proverbial flare (tweet) and I will get a personalized response. Comcast, Dell, UPS, Home Depot and many others are proving that it can be done and done well.

Disclosure: I help companies do this for a living, so of course I have a vested interest here. None of the BigCo's I mentioned are clients, and this is my own opinion.

Re: Style Remains - I had to run a lot of errands yesterday (including...

merubin75 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:24:21 -0000

Were you going as "Casual Jackie O" or a Fashionista? :)

Re: Twitter feeds stray puppies (Scripting News)

merubin75 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:09:37 -0000

Sorry that you're getting so much vitriol for the linkblog. Personally, I love it. I'm a big fan of reading the links other people find interesting.

Your linkblog reminds me why I started reading blogs in the first place.

Still digging,
Michael

Re: FTC to Fine Bloggers up to $11,000 for Not Disclosing Payments

merubin75 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:18:37 -0000

ConnorJack -- disclosure is easy. In your review, just say "Disclosure: I was provided with this free product by <insert the name of the company here>." That's all.

That's been the key message for WOMMA, Social Media Business Council, the 4A's, the ARF, and others for years. Disclosure isn't hard. Now it's no longer optional.

Disclosure: I used to work for both WOMMA and the Social Media Business Council (when it was called the Blog Council). This is my own opinion.

Re: Honda on Facebook: Crosstour’s Styling “May Not Be For Everyone”

merubin75 — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:45:56 -0000

I totally agree with some of the commenters here that give kudos to Honda for handling the uproar well. They showed they're listening. Kudos to them.

What bothers me, though, is the fact that employees posted without disclosing their relationship with the company. Honda *does* have a policy on this, but some either didn't know it or willingly flouted it. Bad move, and of course, the violators got uncovered immediately.

Here's the funny part -- transparency and disclosure are amazingly simple to do! All Eddie had to do was insert ten magic words at the end of his Wall post: "I work for Honda, and this is my personal opinion." End of story, no controversy.

Cheers,
Michael

Disclosure: I work for an agency as a manager of social media. This is my opinion, and it's also my policy.

Re: 7 ways I’ve almost killed FreshBooks

merubin75 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:41:38 -0000

Mike,

Thanks for being so open and honest. It's a rare thing in this business to hear someone say, "Here's what I've done wrong and here are the lessons I've learned." Kudos to you.

Your post inspired me, especially the item about word of mouth. I've written more about it here:
http://post.ly/4ZUT

Cheers!
Miichael

Re: How A Single Email Killed A PR Firm

merubin75 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:20:41 -0000

I'm sensing major league backlash in the next few months. First it was mommybloggers and the sick catfight over swag displayed at BlogHer. Soon it will be "influential" bloggers and the snarky "holier than thou" attitude many (not all) display.

Disclaimer: I am an Empower MediaMarketing employee and this is my own opinion.

Re: Rage Against The Assembly Line

merubin75 — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 08:07:32 -0000

Chris,

I know you're just trying to throw some thoughts around based on your experience, and I appreciate it. Good on you for pointing out that even a $4,10/hr grocery bagger can make the customer experience better. I had a similar experience as a $5.25/hr Customer Service Representative at Blockbuster Video.

For three years during high school, I was the best darn CSR Blockbuster Video ever had. I would help people pick out the best films for whatever occasion they were renting --a date, family coming over, babysitting, etc. Even if I was supposed to be shelving, I would put my stack down and help people find exactly what they were looking for -- even if it wasn't on the approved list we were asked to direct customers toward first. My best friend worked there, too, and we would make it a show by tossing videos back and forth behind the counter and bringing an "Italian restaurant" feel to it. It was a ton of fun, the customers enjoyed it, and I have no doubt that our store rentals increased overall.

Don't get me wrong. Working at Blockbuster was a McJob in every sense of the word. It if were up to Corporate, we would have totally acted in the manner that this young lady did at the Subway you visited. In fact, as Blockbuster expanded into more stores, the rules got more strict. You couldn't be away from the front checkout area for more than 30 seconds, you always had to steer people toward certain product, etc.

The question comes back to customer experience. And who is going to deliver that? Marketing? PR? An expensive ad campaign? A Facebook app? None of the above. The customer experience is shaped by the last person on the assembly line: a freckled, chubby front-line customer service clerk.

Re: Social Media Monitoring Wiki – 30 Top Monitoring Tools

merubin75 — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:53:14 -0000

Seriously, Ken, this is absolutely FANTASTIC. Thank you for gathering this wiki together.

Re: A neat conference hack? (Scripting News)

merubin75 — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:05:00 -0000

Thanks for the kind words, Mark and Dave. I should reiterate that this was definitely a kludge and not at all perfect. There were some folks in the audience who used the giant screen as a big billboard showing off their "humor." But the signal was definitely louder than the noise, and the one time that the sophomorics got a little out of hand, the others in the audience took it upon themselves to keep the content vigorous and the tone civil.

Re: A neat conference hack? (Scripting News)

VictusFate — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:27:17 -0000

Friendfeeds real time search would also be great for this. Love the idea of tapping the brilliant yet shy folks Michael

Re: A neat conference hack? (Scripting News)

dave — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:27:30 -0000

Thanks for the thoughtful comment, and you're right -- in fact there are
times when I would be unhappy to be called out that way. This post was more
a reaction to being subjected to an incredibly boring and self-serving panel
at a conf I was watching online today.

Re: A neat conference hack? (Scripting News)

merubin75 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:21:32 -0000

Dave,

This sounds *great* for extroverts like you, me, and the 6 other people who have commented on this. But the truth of the matter is that a great majority of people are naturally shy and do not want that kind of attention. They may have very good ideas, too, and would add a great deal to the conversation, but their own ingrained shyness and introvertedness would cause a disturbing scene if you just sprung this on them at random.

I know you've organized conferences before. I have, too, and also have moderated many panels. I have striven at great lengths to get everyone in the room to participate and turn it into an interactive conversation. For instance, I have two main rules of the road:

1. No PowerPoint

2. No 'about me' talk

Since there is no PowerPoint filling up the screen, I have been able to use it to display a live Twitter feed. I continually hit refresh and pose questions to the panelists based on what's coming up. It's made for humorous, interactive, and vigorous discussions.

I know it's a kludge. It's not perfect. But I've had many people come up to me afterward or email me in private to say they appreciated being brought into the conversation without having to get up in front of a microphone.

Keep diggin'!

Namaste, y'all,
Michael

Re: comScore Announces Media Metrix 360

mizznike — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:44:00 -0000

Right, but your point only reinforces the point - if we counted AJAX/Flash etc. interactions, that 100 pages/visit would look more like 150~200 pieces of content consumed per visit, which would make the uniques that comScore counts look even more out of whack.

My point is not that PV's are the end all be all, but that either a page is loaded from the web server or not. If you work the math, it should be obvious that comScore severely undercounts uniques.

Finally, as a guy working in web, I'm with you, PVs do not fully represent modern web interaction. But as an ad-supported publisher, we have to juggle between adhering to standards that are important to our advertisers (like page impressions), and helping to influence change in those standards.

Re: comScore Announces Media Metrix 360

merubin75 — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:45:38 -0000

"A *pageview* is a pageview, regardless of unique visitors."

*sigh* Mike, no, it's not. This has been an issue for several years, especially as Web 2.0 applications that do not generate page views (AJAX, especially) have come to the forefront.

Even back in 2006, we were deailng with this issue:
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2006/12/84...

Page views just aren't relevant in 2009. They need to be retired to the dustbin of web measurement like other 1.0-era traffic metrics. After all, you aren't still insisting on "clicks" and "hits" as being relevant today, do you? So, too, with pageviews.

Disclaimer: I used to work for comScore but don't anymore. This opinion is my own.

Re: PR Agency sites practicing what they preach

merubin75 — Mon, 25 May 2009 11:19:53 -0000

David,

Besides having Todd Defren blogging, how does SHIFT incorporate social media sharing tools into their web site? No snark, just curious.

...Michael

Re: Reminder: Why I switched to Mac in 2005 (Scripting News)

dave — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:50:27 -0000

Microsoft still hates its users after all these years. I couldn't believe
how they stood by and did NOTHING when their users were being picked off by
malware. This is the company that viciously defended its turf against
Netscape, yet when the threat really was harmful, when they went after their
customers, never got the clue that they needed to get inbetween the
vulnerable users and the predators. They still don't get it. If I use
Firefox on Windows -- they're still making most of the money. Some of that
should go to defending Firefox users against the craziness.

Re: Reminder: Why I switched to Mac in 2005 (Scripting News)

merubin75 — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:46:12 -0000

"I don't use MSIE. Please no need to tell me not to use IE. I use Firefox."

Exactly, Dave. I've been told by tech support before that they wouldn't help unless I switched to MSIE. This makes no sense, and is a non-starter as a technical solution. Which browser you run shouldn't matter one iota. Blaming a computer problem on a browser is like blaming God for the weather. It just doesn't matter.

Keep digging.

Re: Sometimes 140 characters is enough (Scripting News)

merubin75 — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 23:29:47 -0000

Emotional subtlety is a casualty of the Age of Irony. People (myself included) have a difficult time distinguishing between passion and anger in part because we have lost the ability to distinguish between closely-related emotions.

To get beyond that -- and to make my intent absolutely clear -- I make sure to use emoticons and expressions like *grin* and *laughs* in my digital communications. 140 characters may be a simple way to get your point across, but emotions tend to get lost in translation.

Still diggin' after all these years,
Michael

Re: Should PR Own Social Media?

davidparmet — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:39:02 -0000

Retainers are going to have to come down to earth. And agencies are going to have to invest a lot in education.

Organizations like yours and work like I am involved in goes a long way to help move the ball. But I don't think we're going to see much change until the market forces agencies to change the way they do business,

Re: Should PR Own Social Media?

merubin75 — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:58:30 -0000

What's missing here is one word: EDUCATION. A lot of what needs to happen is good, solid education about what social media is, how it works, and more importantly, how it doesn't.

I agree with you that it's not about using the next new shiny tool to shout out a client's message. But too many clients feel like they're paying a LOT per month in billings, and dammit, they oughta' be getting something in return for it. It's incumbent upon PR agencies to explain to their clients that social media is not as simple as "insert X to get Y" and that it's more about building relationships and connections. It may not translate well on a monthly billing spreadsheet, but it will certainly help in the long run.

Terrific post and thoughts. I tweeted it.

Re: Thank you, fine readers

merubin75 — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:01:57 -0000

And thank YOU, Jake, for all the amazing commentary you provide day-in and day-out. You're one of my daily reads, and there is no doubt that your insights have helped me see through a problem one more than one occasion.

Take care, amigo, and all my best wishes to you and your family for a fabulous, healthy, and happy holiday.

Re: Forrester Research Gets It Wrong By Saying Corporate Blogs Aren’t Trusted

maxkalehoff — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:41:26 -0000

Thanks Michael. You confirm the muddy extrapolation from that questionable survey question. Otherwise, the examples and recommendations were great.

Re: Forrester Research Gets It Wrong By Saying Corporate Blogs Aren’t Trusted

merubin75 — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:42:09 -0000

Terrific analysis as always, sir.

One thing we need to keep in mind is that there is a generally low opinion of corporations in general, and the Forrester data reflects that. We talked about this with Josh in a private briefing with the Blog Council on Tuesday. By and large, people just don't trust large corporations as having their best interests at heart. So when they see that a corporation has started a blog, they see it as the Big Bad Wolf knocking on the door.

What's sad is that they don't see that there are *real people* writing these blogs. The work these people do is outstanding, and comes from a good place. They genuinely want to help make their customer's lives better.

For example, look at one of the example Josh wrote about in the report: Rubbermaid. (*) You have Jim Deitzel blogging about getting organized, preparing for the holidays, getting ready for New Year's, etc. It's fun and personal. He even posted pictures of his kids. Yes, he talks about Rubbermaid products, but in the context of getting organized and helping to solve real world customer problems.

How any of that could generate mistrust is beyond me.

cheers,
Michael

----
312-932-9000 / michael@blogcouncil.org / twitter: merubin
I am a Blog Council employee and this is my personal opinion.
* Rubbermaid is a Blog Council member. I write about them because I like them and they are good people.

Re: No One Trusts Your Corporate Blog

merubin75 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:34:50 -0000

Barry,

There are actually examples of corporate blogs that do write about products in a fun and friendly way. As it was pointed out in the report, Dell, Rubbermaid, and Microsoft all do this pretty well. In fact, Microsoft's Outlook blog is one of my favorite blogs (corporate or non-corporate) because it's fun, friendly, and informative. It also just happens to be about a subject I care about (email productivity).

Some corporate blogs that do blog about their products and do it well:

Intel
Lenovo
Nokia
Sharpie
Walmart

All are Blog Council members, BTW. You can find other examples here: http://is.gd/aS5J

Cheers,
Michael

----
312-932-9000 / michael@blogcouncil.org / twitter: merubin
I am a Blog Council employee and this is my personal opinion.