Twitter Lists and Promoting the Brand of YOU

I Shall Call Her...Mini Me.
Originally uploaded by heatherhoesly

The new list feature for Twitter is amazing! You can build lists for any topic imaginable and disseminate that info to other people in your network. Slick and simple - if you can get people to want your info.

For example, I'm trying to convince some friends of mine that social networking sites like Twitter are good places to begin looking for job leads.

"Get out there and get noticed," I tell them. "Network, promote the brand of YOU." (They stay with me on this point - so far.)

I tell them that a recent study published by Pingdom.com established that 64% of Twitter users are 35+ and the average Twitter user is 39 years old. (They recognize themselves in that general description and begin to show more interest.)

I tell them that since Google, Yahoo, and Bing now index Twitter posts, using Twitter for their job search has become even more valuable in the last six months. Twitter can help them get found, help recruiters find them, help them brand their subject matter expertise, help them increase their page ranking, and help them promote and find content - essentially help them promote their brand. (They like this idea.)

I tell them about all the vast quantities and varieties of different tweet-sources of job info on Twitter...and I lose them. ("Too much effort." I'll get lost." "I'll have a billion tweets to sort through." "I won't find job lead relevant to me." etc...)

Not anymore! I can do the work for them while I'm building MY network, promoting MY brand and looking for a job myself!

I've set up 2 job lead lists from my Twitter feed - one on any job in Kansas City (a bit general, yes, but all it takes is one lead on something related to get to what you really want) and one specific to tech jobs anywhere in the US (hey, not all my friends are in KC and some that are might be willing to relocate for the right position).

Anyway, I've done the research on finding interesting, relevant, accurate and timely jobs feeds for those categories, all they have to do is follow me and subscribe to the list of their choice. I'm adding new feeds to my list as I deem them relevant or necessary and will probably come up with other more specific lists to add to my list of lists.

I make it easy for them. To get this information all they have to do is follow me and subscribe to my lists.

Simple as pi...no...make that "pie."

RIP Sideways Smiley

RIP Sideways Smiley
Originally uploaded by heatherhoesly

Sideways Smiley Face
(1982-2010)

Sideways Smiley Face died on March 14, 2010, surrounded by his loved ones. The cause of death was over-use. Born on a Computer Science on-line bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University, Mr. Face devoted his life to pointing out that the previous sentence was meant to be funny. He also gained worldwide recognition for his tireless efforts as a glib substitute for the words “I’m amused.” His other interests included frowning and winking.

He is survived by his children, Sideways Surprised Face, Sideways Glasses Face, Sideways Abraham Lincoln Face, Sideways Santa Claus Face, Sideways Pope Face, and, of course, his beloved wife, XOXO.

In lieu of flowers, Mr. Face’s family has requested that people use actual words to express their feelings.

---------

This was courtesy of Chuck Lorre Productions. It was Chuck's vanity card after the March 22, 2010 episode of Two and a Half Men. It was just too funny not to pass along.

Danny's Last Catch

Danny's Last Catch
Originally uploaded by heatherhoesly

"Surely Jesus loves fishermen for He chose them for His own, to be with Him and learn from Him and someday share His home. It must have been their trust in God and patience He found rare, that keeps them very near His heart and ever in his care." - Anne Kujawa

May all your fish be keepers. RIP Uncle Danny.

Apple Marketing Machine Drops the Ball

Apple Marketing Machine Drops the Ball
Originally uploaded by heatherhoesly

Apple's marketing machine has goofed again.

Notice that phone number up there? The one splashed in big text on the iPhone...the product being sold in this ad? Call it. Go ahead, I dare you. And you get....? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Bupkiss. Not a valid number.

Apparently the genius' at Apple and/or ATT couldn't be bothered to set up a real working number that channels you to say a recording of something like, "Thank you for your interest in the iPhone. For more information about iPhone features, please press 1. For more information on your local iPhone retailers, please press 2..." and so forth.

THAT was a major opportunity missed. It's a phone number that you've just plastered in HUGE lettering across every tv in America. Did they not think people would actually call it out of shear curiosity?

It's like Jenny's number - you all know it - 867-5309. People call it out of curiosity and get various results depending on the area code. Tommy Tutone made it famous, but people actually calling a fictitious number from a song made it infamous.

Face it guys, you dropped the ball and missed a heck of a marketing opportunity. At least Jenny's number gets answered.

A Wicked Chicken & Egg Problem

It wasn't too long ago that space was the "final frontier." Today's frontiers are no longer "final"...just the "next one," and our generation of web programmers' next great frontier is development for the mobile platform.

As with any frontier challenge there are hurdles. Mine, for now, is to find a reasonable, economic solution to analytics for the mobile platform. There are services out there that can provide limited tracking analytics and such, but for a hefty fee. Even if you agree to their pricing structures, they all rely on the basic 1x1 pixel trick that traditional web programmers have used for years so why would we pay them to do what we can do ourselves anyway? Besides, Google and its compatriots are starting to seriously frown on the 1x1 pixel trick and we won't be able to do that much longer anyway.

In response to the burgeoning demand for analyzing mobile traffic, Google is trying to develop an analytics platform specific to mobile. It's just that most mobile browsers don't support JavaScript and AJAX - the 2 key technologies that current analytics rely on. They can build it for the newer smart phones like Droid & iPhone whose mobile Mozilla & Safari-based browsers offer limited JavaScript & AJAX support, but that leaves a goodly bit of the rest of the mobile market out in the cold with respect to a site-developer/owners need to track traffic.

The kicker comes in the hardware - the hardware makers and service providers WANT for their traffic to be found and accounted for. They WANT companies to know that thousands of people use their product to surf the web. It's in their best interest to make phones with browsers that are user friendly and can be found in analytical data. But to make a phone that uses a browser that supports the languages and standards needed to produce that traffic data increases the cost of the phone to the consumer - which risks alienating consumers because of price. I can name at least a dozen people who drool over my iPhone (some of them on it, but that's another issue) but who don't like the $300 price tag that comes with it. They'd happily spend their days surfing the web and paying to download apps - if the upfront cost was cheaper.

So here's the wicked chicken & egg bit...I want cheap analytics on mobile traffic. Google wants to give me cheap analytics on mobile traffic but can't give me ALL the data I want because 1) there are still older phones or phones with older/non-current-analytic-technology compliant browsers, 2) Google itself frowns on the simple tech that will provide at least some data for the remaining phone/browser set, and 3) hardware & service provider companies want to give me the data I need but to do so would require them to raise costs and spend more money convincing the consumer that the cost increase is worth it to have the latest and coolest gadget, but 4) many consumers are reluctant to spend the money for the "new coolness" and sticking with their older phones & browsers, which means 5) I have to find a cheap way to account for their traffic if I want a cleaner, truer data set, which - for now at least - still means the 1x1 pixel trick because I can't use JavaScript or AJAX.

And we're back at the beginning again.