mQuotientIRL

Facebook Perfects the High School Reunion

Social Media has revolutionize social interaction. In fact Facebook has succeeded in removing the most socially awkward aspects of that classic post adolescent ritual, the High School Reunion

This was brought home to me recently when someone one from High School started a group page for my graduating class.

My high school years were difficult on a good day, I had the full complement of adolescent woes: acne,  asthma, angst, I was small  in stature and not particularly athletic....need I go on? I received very little acknowledgment of my existence and felt pretty much ignored.

Needless to say, I had few buds and really hadn’t kept in touch with anyone (What kind of memories would we share? ”Hey Mike, I’ll never forget that gym class when you sounded like a tea kettle every time you exhaled...good times, man!”)  so I was surprised when I received a slew of “Friend” invitations.

Well, “Why not”, I thought. We’re all adults. We do have a shared experience. We’ve all been “around the block” a few times and, regardless of what we were like as teenagers, we probably have more in common now.

I approved all of the “Friend” requests with a brief “Personal Message” that went something like, “Hi, Good hearing from you. This is what I’ve been up to. Let’s catch up soon”, and was curious to see who would respond.

Nobody responded. Not one. Nada. I’ve tried commented on other peoples “Status” reports. I’ve commented on other people’s comments. I have had people send me virtual fish, toys, drinks, and I got one invitation to battle Ninjas but I haven’t gotten any replies to my personal message.

I received very little acknowledgment of my existence and feel pretty much ignored... JUST LIKE REAL HIGH LIFE SCHOOL!!!!

What is this phenomena? Why “Friend” someone you have no intention of being friends with? Are they merely  “Friend Packing”, adding names to their “Friends” list so that they can appear to be more popular than they really are?

I also noticed something equally interesting....many of the people who’ve joined this group do not use a profile picture, preferring instead to hide behind the default Facebook silhouette, or, in some cases a picture of a dog, a cartoon character or some other generic image.

Then it hit me,  Facebook has perfected this particular right of passage.

High School Reunions present us all with three potential moments of terror:

You run into people who don’t remember you (“I sat behind you in Math, we dated for a couple of months, we had a child, is that ringing any bells?”)
You run into someone who is as big a jerk now as they were then. (“The ‘milk through the nose’ stunt never was funny, especially when you used someone else’s nose.”)
People remember you but you look completely different than you did in High School. If you look better than you did people might ask “What happened to you?” as if to say, “Wow, you used to be such a loser.” If you look worst than you did people might ask “What happened to you?” as if to say, “Wow, you turned out to be such a loser.”

But there are no such risks with a FB - HSR! It removes all possibility of direct human contact. You never have to pretend you remember or even like anybody and it doesn’t matter what you look like now! It limits your exposure so you can re-connect without connecting! You don’t even have to get dressed!

Can the Facebook marriage be far behind.

When in Rome, or on Facebook...

Social Media has moved out of it’s embryonic stage to be regular part of cyber-life and to some, a key component os their business communication strategy. Now that’s it been around for a while, the “rules of the road’ are becoming clearer and we can start to formulate guidelines for getting the most out of these experiences.

 Pick You Site -Take the time to learn what type of audience uses a given social media site. Facebook is all purpose, LinkedIn is for business professionals looking to network, there are also specialized social media sites for individual professions

Study the Content - Pay close attention to what type of content appears in which environment. This will tell you that you have targeted the right social media site for the audience you’re trying to reach, and also tell what kind of content to contribute within a particular environment.

Learn the Sites Language and Value System - Each social media site begins to develop their own unique dialect. If you don't understand the basic dialect, you will stick out like a sore thumb to the regular users of the site.

Make Friends - In particular, try to make friends with the influencers on the site. On a site like Digg, these are the top 100 users. The best way to do this is a corollary to the next point - add value to that power user. Comment on their stuff. Reference their stuff from your site, or in comments elsewhere. Suggest related things to them that is not your own content.

Add Unique Value to the Community - Become a member. Social media is, oddly enough, social. People who take, and don't give, are not popular in any community. Note that adding value does not always mean contributing your own stuff. Find other people's great stuff and contribute that.

Don't Self Promote - There are almost no social media environments that are keen on aggressive self promotion. Even if the site terms of service say that self promotion is OK, the community itself tends to frown on it (this is true on Digg and Reddit, for example.

Provide Accurate Information - Don't be lazy about fact checking. Make sure your contributions will stand the examination of the hundreds or thousands of people who will be looking at it. You don't want to be outed for providing bad or inaccurate info.

Be Transparent - This is another biggie. If you are saying something about a company that you have some association with, be open about it. You definitely do not want to be outed for that either, it will destroy your credibility

Be Patient - The big wins may well take some time to achieve. You are going to need to make up front investments to become a part of the community and figure out how to fit in. The right way to get the content you are trying to promote on the community site varies by social media site, but following the above guidelines will cause the people who come to know you to start following you.

Let it Go - Once some of your content is taken into the community, the community will begin to redefine it. This is one of the trickiest parts of social media. However, if you have created something of value, this metamorphosis is extremely powerful. Those who participate in these actions will begin to take ownership for what they have created - and they will drive the success of your content / brand for you.

 Don't spam -  If you haven’t realized it by now,  social media communities tend to be very fast in acting on spam. Just don't go there.

All of these sites are self policing to a certain extent, there is little tolerance for bad behavior. For example, bulk friending the friends of friends on Facebook has gotten people into trouble. Everything you do or contribute is open for review, any inaccuracy, or problem with what you are doing will be discovered immediately. You may also have people challenge you who themselves are completely inaccurate and off base. You just have to deal with that.

Keep in mind that the people you encounter online are the same as the people you encounter everyday in real life, common courtesy and common sense go a long way in both worlds.

From Edison and Ford to Jobs and Gates

These four men “Book-End” the Twentieth Century. Shaping the culture through the development and spreading of technology, they changed the we live and gave generations of teenagers numerous ways to ignore their parents.

Technology is more than just what happens in the lab. The cultural impact of any development is often more significant than the break-through itself. The ancient Greeks were aware of steam power and had even developed something akin to the computer, but they were never applied to everyday life and their potential remained lost for centuries.

The Twentieth Century saw the introduction technologies that dramatically changed the way people live. The early 1900's saw the introduction of mass communications and mass production, the late '90's saw birth of the computer age and dawn of the Internet. Just as Thomas Edison and Henry Ford typified the former, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates personified the latter.

 All four were “outsiders”, visionary entrepreneurs who not only marched to different drummers but wound up leading the parade in totally new directions. Edison and Ford were close friends, Jobs and Gates started as friends, became rivals and later reconciled. Each "couple" represent the two sides of the development coin...innovation and accessibility

Edison and Jobs were practical innovators.

They each developed things we didn’t know needed until we saw them. Had Edison discovered the Laws of Gravity, he would have figured out a way to market it. (Gravity Boots anyone?)

Edison invented the light bulb, but it was of little use at the time. There were no lamps, no sockets, no switches, no power stations, no electric bill and no “How many whatevers does it take to screw in a light bulb” jokes. There was nothing to screw it into.

All of those items (including the electric bill and probably the joke,) were invented by Edison. He went also went on to invent the Phonograph and the Motion Picture, put them all together and you could say he invented “Night Life” and set the stage for today’s Pop Culture, culminating in Harry Potter, P-Diddy and Paris Hilton.

Like Edison, Jobs has the ability to use to create whole new industries that changed the cultural landscape.

Starting with the Apple Macintosh, he introduced a new way to interface with technology, the Graphic User Interface (GUI or Gooey). Yes I know...he may not have invented the individual pieces, (the use of icons, a mouse, etc.) but it was Jobs who put them together and got them to work.

He revolutionized the music business with iTunes and the iPod, and coincidentally came close to wrecking the industry that Edison’s earlier invention spawned. Napster may have been first, but iTunes had the advantage of being legal.

In the 90's Apple introduced the Newton, the first PDA, paving the way for the Palm Pilot and the Blackberry. Jobs later took them both to the next level with the iPhone. If Jobs were put in charge of Detroit for a year he would probably develop the iCar.

Ford and Gates made technology widely available and acceptable.

Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, he developed a better way to get them into the hands of the average American. No single machine had as much impact on the American way of life in the early Twentieth Century as the auto. It gave people freedom of mobility, lead to the development of the suburbs, the road trip and the drive-thru banking.

He brought mass production to American Industry, making anything you can think of available in mass quantities at affordable prices....at the time it was a good thing (see winning WWII)

Like Ford, Bill Gates did not invent the personal computer, but made then easier to use and essential to business.

Nothing has done more to empower individuals since the automobile than the PC. MicroSoft Software gave business, and then individuals, a reason to go out and buy personal computers, kicking off the age of laptops, smart phones, animated stuffed animals ...and ultimately the Internet.

The next  "Power Couple"...

We now stand at the crossroads of change, with a new President and the country realizing that it’s time to rethink the way we do things. Somewhere, in some garage or basement or college library, either separately or together, the some guys and/or gals are working on the ideas that are going to shape this century...stay tuned.

Whose Website is it Anyway?

We got our own dose of reality a few weeks ago when, for the first time since the Clinton (Bill) administration a client canceled a project. It came as a surprise, as up until the end all of our meetings had been productive and cordial...wish I had been to the meetings between the meetings.

We did have a few discussions on process: they kept trying to jump or combine steps, we kept trying to keep them on track, could be they resented us tugging on the leash as it were. They also kept making repeated requests for those "window shade" drop down menu items you see on a lot of horizontal navigation bars...we strongly advised against them for usability and  SEO reasons, but never flat out refused to implement them.

This got me thinking: What exactly is our obligation to our clients? Are we just "Digital Gunga Dins" following them around, carrying their water or are we "Cyber-Gurus' leading them to the nirvana of internet business success?

We've always seen development as a collaboration, we each bring certain things to the table and we learn from each other. That said we do have many years of experience and many web sites under our belts and awards on our wall, that has to count for something.

Are we serving the client well by just doing their bidding, even if they're heading over a cliff, or are we serving them better by giving them the advantage of all the experience we accrued over the years (I built my first web site in 1996)

In the final analysis, its a decision every professional has to make for themselves, how much to go along, how much to push back.

As for me, I have found that people who see us as order takers tend not to be a very good match....and those same people will hold us accountable if the project fails, even though we we following their lead.

Like I said, we see development as a collaboration, its about finding that good match...maybe there should be an E-Harmony for business.

Real Estate in Real Life

We have client who is a real estate developer on the Yonkers waterfront. 

Up until recently, when you mentioned the Yonkers waterfront, you got one of two responses:

1) "I did not know Yonkers had a waterfront."

2) "How many bodies were fished out of the Hudson this week."

In other words, this area has something of an image problem.

Which is why working for this particular client has been so gratifying.  Aside from promoting the building, we also had to change perceptions of the neighborhood.

The client, MetroPartners, had the courage and foresight to renovate one rental and construct a new rental building, right in the heart of the business district.

The renovated building was originally known as the Trolley Barn. It was just that, a garage for trolley cars built around the turn of the century.  The building had been converted into loft style apartments, but the original landlord wasn't fulfilling his obligations....our clent took over the building, finished the renovation and within 6 months had fully leased the building. See http://www.metro92.com

The new rental property is literally up the block and within 8 weeks of opening its doors was almost 80 percent leased. See http://www.66main.com

Our contribution in both cases were in the areas of identity creation and website development, and it says something about how the real estate has been changed by the internet.

In the old days most of these leads would have come from classified ads, even real estate web sites, such as Rent .com. But today prospective renters want a more pro-active way of finding apartments. They want to "shop" as much as possible before picking up the phone and seeing the property.

Driving those future renters to he website, and then giving them a meaningful experience, with lots of information about the building, the apartments and the neighborhood has been key the success. The two major web drivers have been Craigslist ads and banners on the sides of the buildings. A look at the web traffic reveals that the average visitor sees almost 10 pages pe visit...so by the time they do reach for that phone they are well on their way to signing a lease.

As I said before, we also had the challenge of "re-branding" the neighborhood. Working with marketing firm, we re-named the " Tolley Barn" Metro92 and created a be identity that also paid homage to the building's roots. Being new construction, the rental property, 66 Main, needed a hip, urban identity that would attract new people to the neighborhood. We also ran a contest on YouTube, asking people to send us videos telling us why they deserved one of te new apartments.

In both cases, not only did we make the client happy, we also had the satisfaction of knowing that we played some small part in the rebirth of the Yonkers waterfront. That's about as real as it gets. See mpilla.com for details.

Earth to Michael...

OK...I admit that once I put this blog up, many months ago, i pretty much forgot about. It's not like I had a core of dedicated fans to cater too, I had only written the one post and I got distracted by such frivolities as making a living, eating and saying good bye to the Sopranos.

That all changed today when I checked my traffic stats for the past month and noticed that, out of the blue, IRL had collected 24 visitors all by it's little self. I had recently joined Linkedin and I can only assume that when people checked out my website they also took the time to check out the blog.

It drove home to me, yet again, that if you put something up there you just never know who's going to find it or when. I have to say I've been encouraged by this sudden interest and look forward to keeping this blog somewhat more current than I have been.

See you soon.

All That Digital Jazz

In the 1995 film The Net, Sandra Bullock played a reclusive software engineer whose life becomes a nightmare when her identity is altered. While tracking down the culprits she exchanges a series of text messages with a fellow programmer who has key piece of evidence that he can only give her “irl”. (Yes...it all works out in the end.)

At the time those three letters marked the boundary between two different worlds, the embryonic online world, and the rest of us. Two worlds with different concerns, different rules, and, as computer dating was demonstrating, different people. Through the years that divide has narrowed to the point where the two worlds have, for all practical purposes, become one, which brigs us to the purpose of this blog. It's easy to forget that all these web sites, blogs, SEO strategies and who knows what else are only a means to a end.

Just what effect does all this cyber-activity have
in the real world?

Eager see what was going on, I fired up the car and headed south to Philadelphia to visit a client, find some good barbecue and groove on some heavy vibes.The West Oak Lane Jazz and Arts Festival is a free, outdoor celebration of jazz, art, food, and community held in North Philadelphia over the last weekend in June. The web site we created had given the three year old festival a higher profile, an increased level of credibility while acting as central point of contact and information. It allowed the producers to reach artists and jazz lovers through out the world. (see what we did)

Going there I was able to put faces to e-mail addresses and meet artists who I had only seen in jpegs and heard in MP3. I saw many "real-world" examples of how the web site had become an integral part of the festival:

People carrying printouts of the web site with them to the festival, especially the schedule of events and artist information. I heard a young woman give her friend the site's web address over her cell phone so that they could meet up later.

The Festival promoters sponsored a contest in conjunction with JazzTimes Magazine that could only be entered by going to the website. The grand prize was an all expense paid trip the three day festival. The winner came from the other end of the country, Vancouver, Washington.

With its added credibility, the festival was able to attract better artists and bigger sponsors. WAR, the rock/soul group from the mid 1970's was this year's headline act. During negotiations Roy Ayers, a world renowned jazz musician, was directed to the web site for more information. After viewing the site his agent quickly called back to say that though Roy would be appearing in Paris during the weekend of the Festival he would fly back to perform.

Total attendance for the three days was estimated at over 125,000 with many people attending for the whole weekend.

In addition to three days of great music and the best pulled pork I ever tasted, it was important and somewhat uplifting to see how our efforts had helped the festival to grow. (We are now adding an e-commerce component...I can get you a deal on T-shirts.) We’re not just sharpening pixels, the work we’ve done has had very tangible results.