Mashable rocks!

I’m going to be a little lazy about this post because everything that needs to be said is included in the Mashable article: HOW TO: Customize Your Background for the New Twitter.

If your Twitter page was recently updated to the new format, your old background theme may no longer show the images and information you painstakingly fit into the previous background space. This Mashable article provides the measurements, options, and tools you need to revamp your Twitter presence.

This is a great opportunity for you to sweep the cobwebs off your Twitter page and maybe invite new followers to a “housewarming” party at your newly decorated digs.

__________________________________
Images: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/

I’m an advocate of SMART goals. These are goals that are:

S – specific
M – measureable
A – attainable
R – realistic
T – timely

Perhaps the most challenging of these attributes is “measureable.” In order to measure something, you need to know what the critical numbers are. In baseball, for example, there are a plethora of batting statistics, but two critical statistics are the number of runs scored (individual achievement) and runs produced or created (contribution to team) because these two statistics directly affect a team’s win record.

When you’re investing time and resources in social media, you want to know whether you’re getting a positive return on your investment (ROI). The challenge with social media is that the tools for measuring ROI don’t necessarily reflect the actual effectiveness of your social media strategy. As described in Mack Collins’ blog, too many social media numbers are completely useless. And Mack Collins isn’t the only social media consultant who expresses that belief.

In his blog post, Mack compares his Twitter following (22,000 people) to his effective reach into that base (estimated 1%-2%). He also compares his Google Feedburner feed stats (number of readers who subscribe to his RSS feed) to the number of site visitors reported by Site Meter and finds the Feedburner stats to be significantly higher (i.e., unrealistic).

What this means is that businesses trying to achieve marketing goals in the social networking space are fighting an uphill battle in determining the effectiveness of their campaigns. This is in stark contrast to direct mail and email marketing, both of which have sophisticated tactics for evaluating what works and what doesn’t.

Does this mean that you should give up on setting quantifiable goals for your social media campaigns?

Continue reading

A surprising (to me) number of people who comment on this blog ask me which blogging platform and theme I use. I’ve tried to answer each person’s questions, but I’m sure that a simple response to comments isn’t adequate to satisfy everyone. So I’ve decided to write a short series about the choices I made and steps I took in setting up this blog. I hope that readers will find this information useful.

I haven’t yet finalized the outline of this series, but here’s a preliminary list of “chapters”:

1. Platform Personality – why I chose WordPress.ORG and what you should look for in the platform for your site
2. A Host of Choices – do you need a hosting service and how do you select it
3. Themes: Decisions, Decisions – the winding journey I took to choosing the current theme; reasons for which I might change it
4. Plug Me In, Turn Me On – the plug-ins I use and alternatives
5. Can You Read Me Now? – testing in various browsers
6. Do I Really Need to Do All This? – how much time and effort do you want to invest in your blog/website; what are the alternatives?

I plan to start the series tomorrow (assuming no deadlines suddenly appear), and I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on the planned topic list — Are these the right topics? Are there other topics I should add to the outline? Do you have specific questions about any of the topics that I can include when I write the “chapter”?

Taking a quick break and then the writing will begin!

I’ve had several comments from readers who had problems finding or using the RSS subscription service for this site, or who wanted to subscribe by email. Thanks to their feedback, I’ve made some minor changes to the subscription feeds for the site, which I hope will make it easier to follow “what’s new.”

First, I should explain that we use Google’s Feedburner service for RSS, and now also for email subscriptions. The “Subscribe to Posts by RSS” and “Subscribe to Posts in Email” links are located in the sidebar on the right side of the web page (see figure to the right).

If you want to use an RSS Reader, click the RSS icon below the “Subscribe to Posts by RSS” heading in the right sidebar. The Feedburner subscription page will load (see figure below). You can click on the icons to select one of the more popular RSS readers, or use the dropdown menu to select other news readers.

You can choose the “Get Unfolding Fire delivered by email” link to receive your subscription by email.

You can also sign up for an email subscription by using the “Subscribe to Posts in Email” area in the sidebar on the right side of any page on this site. Simply type your email address in the text box and click the Subscribe button. Both options for subscribing by email use Google’s Feedburner service.

I have temporarily disabled the “Subscribe to Comments” feature due to the number of spam and duplicate comments the site has received. Only subscriptions to blog posts are currently available. I’m testing whether posted comments are sent to the Feedburner feed before being approved. We want to reduce the amount of spam and duplicate comments sent to comment subscribers. (I should remark here that I have been approving a number of duplicate comments because I can’t be 100% certain that they aren’t sincere, and the duplicates sometimes don’t appear until after the original has been approved.)

After I’ve determined that “Subscribe to Comments” will be a useful feature, we’ll make it available again; however, it’s likely that subscribers to comments will receive duplicate comments or comments that are not clearly related to the post.

I hope this post will help you to subscribe to the RSS or email feeds for this site. Please let me know if you have any problems receiving new posts.

I plan a future post to describe how to set up Google Feedburner, should you want to add this feature to your own web site.

This presentation by Rapleaf outlines ten Dos and Don’ts for your social media campaign. It’s a great introduction for those who are new to social media and a necessary refresher for those deep in the social media weeds. You’ll see that the title on the presentation itself is “9 Tips on How to Run (And Not Run) Social Media Campaigns,” but there are actually 10, and the tenth tip: “Don’t hesitate to ask questions” is critical to the success of your marketing strategy.

Many of the these tips can be applied to traditional marketing efforts as well, so this is a quick but valuable read for any business.

Continue reading

Today I’m frustrated by Google Chrome, and I didn’t even have it installed on my machine.

Background

Several months ago, I installed Google Chrome because a friend of mine recommended it. I was satisfied with Chrome and liked some of the plug-ins. My favorite was Speed Dial.* However, during the time I was using Chrome, it bombed on me several times and when it recovered, all of my Bookmarks had been lost and my plug-ins were gone. I had to reinstall my plug-ins, but had simply and completely lost my bookmarks. Speed Dial at least seemed to retain its settings even after having been “removed” from Chrome.

This happened often enough to drive me a little crazy, and I have too much going on to continually have to try to rebuild my bookmark list. I did an Internet search and found that this had happened to others, and occasionally someone was able to get their bookmarks back, but their solution didn’t work for everyone and it didn’t work for me. In any case, why should there  have to be a separate, non-intuitive workaround required to restore bookmarks? Other browsers save bookmarks in a way that allows them to be automatically available when the browser recovers from a crash.

So I uninstalled Chrome and am currently using FireFox and IE 8.0.

Why I Hate Google Chrome Today

Today I was reorganizing my Outlook inbox and happened to click on a hyperlink in email. This error message appeared:

This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer.

I’m the Admin on my machine. I use the default restrictions on hyperlinks in email. This had never happened before.

I spent almost three hours checking any system or application setting that might remotely  have been set to restrict hyperlinks. I did searches on the Internet for the error message and for word strings like “Outlook links don’t work.” I found several messages in Google forums describing that this problem happened after people had uninstalled Chrome. Apparently, Chrome doesn’t clear all of its registry entries and setting a different browser as the default browser doesn’t overwrite all of Chrome’s entries.

So even though Chrome was not installed on my machine, it was preventing me from activating hyperlinks!!!

One solution is to edit the registry. However, this doesn’t always work. It didn’t work for me. I followed the instructions to edit the registry entries and set IE as my default browser, but now a different error message appeared when I clicked a hyperlink in Outlook email.

The only solution that worked for a couple of people, and the solution that worked for me, is to reinstall Chrome and set it as my default browser. This is totally #lame. Hijacking my machine is exactly the kind of behavior that I associate with malware.

I’ve seen at least one report that this may happen with FireFox as well, but I don’t know if I’ll experience that problem on this machine because Chrome is the bad actor that owns the browser registry entries.

To be fair, I use other Google apps, Gmail and Google search, so this is not a blanket condemnation of Google. Just Chrome. But I am seriously upset about this and every time I click a link and Chrome loads, I’ll be reminded of this incident.

What bad behavior have you experienced using any browser? And did you ever find a solution?

__________________
* Speed Dial adds thumbnail shortcuts to the default Chrome page and can also add bookmarked sites to a toolbar.

The new Twitter interface hasn’t appeared on my account yet, so I haven’t had a chance to test drive it personally, but here are a couple of reviews by those who have.

Based on these reviews, I’m really looking forward to #NewTwitter:

TechCrunch – The Best Subtle Things About New Twitter

Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford Motor Company – What’s #NewTwitter?

Inside Facebook – Twitter’s Site Upgrade Reveals New Social, Transaction Possibilities for Third Parties

What makes your customers press the “Buy” button, swipe their credit card, or hand over their hard-earned cash for your product or service?

I had an interesting discussion about buying behavior with an architect colleague. He recounted a story from the early days of his marriage. His wife was recently pregnant and they were looking for a new car. He had put together a decision matrix that compared their needs with the features and costs of various vehicles. His rational choice was a station wagon. It had enough space to carry all the baby supplies, lots of packages from supermarket trips that would now include diapers, baby formula, toys, and other items not yet imagined.

When he went to the car dealership, he looked at all the station wagons but what caught his eye was a little MG convertible. It met none of the key specifications in his decision matrix for a family car. It might even have been a little pricey for their budget. He struggled over the choice: station wagon or MG.

In the end, he bought the MG. As he put it, he “went with his gut.”

Would he make the same choice, under the same circumstances, today? Maybe not. He chose the MG at a time when carseats were not legally required for babies and small children.

Products and services, like people, have certain attributes that will make them more appealing to either the rational buyer, the emotional buyer, or the impulse buyer. The selling proposition is made more challenging because sometimes these three types of buyers are actually aspects of the same person, and may change over time or due to circumstance.

You increase the likelihood of a buyer choosing your product or service if the story about your product or service appeals to more than one of these three buyer profiles. While your story will depend entirely on the specific product or service, some examples of what should be included are:

- a feature list, preferably comparing your product’s features to other choices in your product or service line and/or to competing products or services.

- tangible benefits to the buyer. It is critical to explain to the buyer how key features will benefit him/her.

- what makes your product or service unique. This can be a feature/benefit, a design element, a personality association, the number of options available, color choices, and so on.

- design. It’s impossible to calculate the importance of setting a design standard for your company and its products and services. Design is what makes your product or service immediately identifiable. Others may follow or copy design elements, but if you create a distinctive look-and-feel, similar products or services will be compared to yours in any review and that adds to your name recognition.

- is there an impulsive element to your product or service? Even very expensive items can be impulse buys for the right buyer. The “impulse” element may be where your product is located in the store or showroom. It may be the urgency of a sale (as long as you don’t have sales every month on the same item). It may be limited availability of a special edition of the item or service.

After you have developed the story, you need to tell it consistently, emphasizing each element in various combinations (the rational, the emotional and the impulsive) to keep the story fresh. Imagine how you can integrate your offline messages (print, signage, brochures, etc.) with your online messages (web site, social network interaction with potential buyers and existing customers, blog, etc.). Look for ways to lead potential buyers and existing customers from your offline marketing to your online presence and vice versa.

This post is intended to start you thinking about a fully-integrated marketing strategy that integrates buyer triggers in an environment that is familiar (consistent story) keeps their interest in a world with more and more enticing distractions. A short blog post can’t encompass all the possible options for achieving this integrated approach.

If you have specific questions about how this might work for your product or service, post a comment with some details and I’ll consider it for inclusion in a future blog post.

______________________
Images: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/

First, I must apologize for not posting recently. My work has taken over my life of late and I wasn’t quite prepared for the 18 deadlines that all happened to be set for yesterday. I found out about a few of them yesterday morning.

In the past week or so, I disapproved a comment (i.e., did not let it be publicly visible) and received a follow-up comment that asked: “why have you taken out my post?”

Today I think it’s only fair to clarify my policy regarding comments. I value relevant comments, including criticism and suggestions for improving this blog. Currently, I moderate comments before they are actually made public. This means I read and approve the first comment by any reader of this blog. When I do not approve a comment, I’ve tried to contact the person who posted the comment using the email address that they provided. So far, 100% of my attempts to make contact have resulted in “this is not a valid email address” autoresponders.

Here are my reasons for not approving a comment:

1.   The comment is a recommendation for a product, service or business opportunity that is obviously simply using this blog’s comment space as a free ad. After I have disapproved the comment, I send the commenter an email with an explanation.  If I find that the commenter is a real person who sincerely recommends the product, service or business opportunity, I may reconsider approving the comment, although I may edit it to include a personal and company disclaimer for this blog.

2.  The comment contains offensive language. I believe that negative comments, disagreement, and criticism can be civil. Nevertheless, I may approve comments that contain modified spellings of words generally considered “foul language” in certain contexts. (Some of my own posts may contain what some might consider ”foul language,” but I will try to remember to include warnings for those posts.)  Context is everything, but it is not the only thing.

3.  The comment is sexually explicit (but I will not necessarily disapprove relevant comments by readers with provocative user names).

4.  The comment contains hate speech. Hate and prejudice exist in the world. That is reality. I wish it weren’t the case. However, I will not approve comments that deride, ridicule, or promote hate of any individual or group. The commenter can always revise the original comment and I may approve the revised version.

I may find other reasons to disapprove comments as I mature as a blogger, but the above describes my current list.

Here are my reasons for approving comments:

1.  The comment relates directly to the post. It can be positive, negative, critical, thoughtful, funny, oblique, poetic, almost unintelligible, or vaguely dissonant.

2.  The comment doesn’t appear to be directly related to the post, but is about this blog or the general topics discussed in this blog.

3.  The comment recommends a product, service, or business opportunity as an aside to a comment about the post, this blog, or the topics discussed in this blog, but is not a blatant advertisement. It would take an entirely separate post for me to describe how this is different from the product, service, or business opportunity comments that I would not approve. I can only say that when you read the comment, some are just over the top and others have an aura of authenticity. If I have doubts, I disapprove the comment and send email to the email address of the person who posted the comment. As noted above, if the person and recommendation are real, I will usually reconsider and approve the comment.

I do appreciate the comments of everyone who has taken the time to let me know their thoughts, and I hope that you’ll feel free to share your thoughts about this and any other post on this blog.

If you’re a blogger, how do you handle comments? Do you moderate comments? If so, what criteria do you use? And how do you address offensive or spam comments? I’d love to know your best practices so that I can refine my own.

______________________
Images: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/

This week seems to be the week of security issues. As I’ve just started this blog recently, I’ve discovered spam comments.

I hop around the Internet quite a bit to keep up with social media, social networking, and marketing trends and personalities. So my I run antivirus and anti-malware software at least daily, and sometimes more often.

And recently, I’ve read a couple of good articles describing potential threats that I want to share so that as many people as possible are aware of the potential danger.

Anyone who uses Google, or other search engines, regularly should read the Social Times article: ALERT: Nearly 3 Million Malicious Fake YouTube Pages Indexed on Google. The article includes screenshots of typical search results as well as the fake YouTube page. Briefly, when you do a search on “hot videos,” the search results include fake YouTube sites that actually redirect you to sites that host fake malicious antivirus software.

Although I don’t search for “hot videos,” I can tell you from personal experience that the fake antivirus infections can be fatal to your computer. Several colleagues were infected not long ago and fake popup ads saying that infections were detected and inviting you to purchase antivirus software were constantly interrupting their work. The source was virtually impossible to find and neutralize. I did searches on the Internet for solutions and there was no single solution that worked for 100% of the infections. Several of the solutions included editing the system registry. Ultimately, several computers simply would no longer boot and had to be replaced. While I can’t say that all of the fake antivirus infections are so destructive, you won’t necessarily know how serious an infection can be until it’s too late . . . and you may infect other computers by sending files with the virus attached.

While the Social Times article refers to Google, I would imagine that other search engines are likely to return some of the same malicious links. According to the article, these fake pages are virtually undetectable and only 11% of antivirus vendors are detecting them.

My recommendation is to do what most legitimate sites have been telling users to do for years.

1. Do not follow links to their site from unknown sources. Go directly to the site itself and do your search. Even though Google may be considered a known source, it doesn’t vet every link it returns in search results.

2. If you can read the link (e.g., it isn’t a shortlink), check the link before clicking and if it looks suspicious DON’T CLICK IT.

3.  Activate your firewall software.

4.  If you’re on the Internet a lot or if you share files on a company or personal network, run your anti-malware and antivirus software frequently. It can take several hours to run a full scan on large hard drives, but it’s worth the time. (Running a full scan on all of my drives can take 12 hours or longer. I run partial scans daily and full scans at least twice a week on different days or if any infections have been discovered.)  It has been my experience that anti-malware and antivirus software will run in background. They do slow your machine down so you don’t want to be doing any really intense work while they’re running.

5.  Speaking of anti-malware and antivirus software, it should go without saying that these should be updated regularly. Most of these protective software programs are able to update automatically as long as your computer is connected to the Internet. New versions of malware, viruses, trojans, and worms are being released all the time. To stay ahead of the attacks, your protective software needs to be kept current.

If you have any security tips to share, please post a comment.

My next post will also be about a potential security issue of concern to bloggers.

Stay tuned and safe surfing!

______________________
Images: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/