MommyBloggers, Narrowcasting, Tribes, and Social Networking

Posted on May 17, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

When I was The Computer Answer Guy (OK, when The Computer Answer Guy was a media personality—I’m still The Computer Answer Guy), I did a weekly radio program that ran on several terrestrial radio stations and reached a large audience across the globe via the Internet. One day in, oh, 1996 I was speaking with the owner of the radio station that I broadcast from, and he said something that stuck with me.

Broadcasting is dead; everything is about narrowcasting

Jeff Yablon, The Computer Answer Guy, on CBS-TV News' Up To The Minute

Despite getting The Computer Answer Guy in front of a lot of people both through the radio and Internet and via CBS Television’s Up To The Minute overnight news broadcast, I was narrowcasting, and I knew it. I had no expectations of gazillions of people being aware of me, even being on national television, since the crowd at 3:36 and 5:36 AM is . . . thin, both in terms of numbers and demographic makeup. ... READ MORE of this article, MommyBloggers, Narrowcasting, Tribes, and Social Networking from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (844 words, 4 images, estimated 3:23 mins reading time)

Tagged with: advertising, blogging, broadcasting, business change, engagement, media, mommyblogging, narrowcasting
Posted in business change

No, 60 Minutes, You Surely May NOT Have My Browser History

Posted on May 16, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

With the question of privacy continuing at the forefront of our minds every time we touch a computer keyboard or our SmartPhones, yesterday a new bad guy emerged. Hold on to your hats; the latest “I want to steal your data” villain is . . . 60 Minutes.

Yes, that 60 Minutes. A few months ago the several-decades-old, started-it-all television news magazine created a Google Chrome App to make watching the TV program on-line as easy as possible for you. Then yesterday, when a new version of the Chrome Internet browser hit my computer, the 60 Minutes App became a privacy and security hazard. And Google’s browser caught it, and stopped 60 minutes from stealing my browser history.

Sort of.

The first time I started Chrome after yesterday’s update, I saw—just for a moment—this warning message:

... READ MORE of this article, No, 60 Minutes, You Surely May NOT Have My Browser History from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (409 words, 2 images, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Tagged with: 60 minutes, browser, Google, privacy, security
Posted in business change

The Music Business, Customer Service, and Kool Aid

Posted on May 15, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Sometimes the best way to see where you’re going is to look back at where you’ve been. As a big proponent of drinking your own Kool-Aid, I was thinking back on some of the things I write about frequently, and what I’m passionate about.

We have three major themes here; Customer Service, Search Engine Optimization, and most broadly, Business Change. All of those are general enough that I have a lot of fodder to pull from; especially on that business change topic, finding things to write about is rarely a struggle for me. But some themes keep showing up.

The Music Business is one of those. As I write this post, there are twenty articles at Answer Guy Central that contain the phrase “Music Business” (you can see them by clicking the link). And when it comes to the idea of customer service, well, all you need to see how important I think great customer service is to your business is a visit to The Answer Guy’s Verizon Wireless Customer Service Wall of Shame. ... READ MORE of this article, The Music Business, Customer Service, and Kool Aid from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (834 words, 1 image, estimated 3:20 mins reading time)

Tagged with: "customer service", "search engine optimization", business change, SEO
Posted in business change, Customer Service, Search Engine Optimization SEO

In Freakonomics You Need to Pay Your Employees A LOT More

Posted on May 14, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Thinking different pays off. It’s a lesson that applies to many parts of business change.

Perseverance pays off, too, but perseverance can get in the way of thinking differently, so as business people we need to find, but also constantly be re-evaluating the line between staying the course and business change.

Last week, Stephen Dubner at Freakonomics laid something out that illustrates this—and that I’ve said for years.

You Aren’t Paying Your Employees Well Enough

In the zero-sum game that business often feels like, the idea of giving more money to your employees or contractors sounds crazy, right? You should pay your people only as much as is necessary, so you can keep more for yourself (or your shareholders)!

No.

As I pointed out in my comment at Freakonomics, this is one of those amazing “think different” issues that we can debate forever. Here’s my very real experience on the matter: ... READ MORE of this article, In Freakonomics You Need to Pay Your Employees A LOT More from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (438 words, 2 images, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Tagged with: "perception is reality", business change, perseverance, think different
Posted in business change

With a BING!!!, Search Engines Start Making Sense

Posted on May 11, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Oh, SNAP!

Bing is changing what you see when you use them to do your searching. And Google, I hope you’re paying attention, because the new Bing gets it right.

If you take a look at this article from The Washington Post, you can both see how the new Bing will look and get an exhaustive analysis of the changes. For my part, I’ll say that the new Bing just plain makes sense. Search results are search results, your social recommendations are there but separate, and of course, advertisements are included—and segregated.

Microsoft, you’re getting smarter. I still don’t know why you paid so much for Barnes & Noble NOOK, but irrelevant, you are not.

Well, maybe not that smart. Bing has way too low an opinion of my importance as “Yablon”:

... READ MORE of this article, With a BING!!!, Search Engines Start Making Sense from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (429 words, 1 image, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Tagged with: "long tail marketing", "search engine optimization", bing, business change, Google, yablon
Posted in business change, Search Engine Optimization SEO

Zuckerberg’s Hoodie As Measure of Maturity

Posted on May 10, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

You know that scene in The Social Network where Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg looks down his nose at an attorney and talks to him as though he was pond scum?

You have part of my attention – you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing.

Whether Zuck ever uttered those words or anything like them doesn’t matter, but during Facebook’s pre-IPO road show this week, young Mr. Zuckerberg made a even bigger statement without ever opening his mouth.

Horror of horrors, Mark Zuckerberg wore a hoodie to a meeting with a bunch of guys in suits. ... READ MORE of this article, Zuckerberg’s Hoodie As Measure of Maturity from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (650 words, 1 image, estimated 2:36 mins reading time)

Tagged with: age experience, business change, hoodiegate, mark zuckerberg, maturity
Posted in business change

Pulse, Flipboard, Android, Journalism, and Business Change

Posted on May 9, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Flipboard is the future of journalism. Here’s how I know that’s true: I’ve just installed the Flipboard App on my Galaxy Nexus SmartPhone, hate it, and I’m still going to be using it.

The journalism wars are over. The bad guys have won. Go Home.

Flipboard, long a staple on iDevices, isn’t even supposed to be available for Android. It’s part of the pre-installed software package on the just-announced Samsung Galaxy S III, and was supposed to be an exclusive on that not-yet-available device for some months. But Flipboard for Android has leaked and is easily available.

In the image at the top of this piece I show you both Pulse, previously the closest thing to Flipboard on Android devices, and Flipboard itself. You may or may not feel that the Flipboard interface is superior to Pulse’s presentation, and you might catch on to the fact that in Pulse you get to select your specific news sources while—unless you dig deeper than most people ever will—Flipboard feels like it’s the sole curator of broad categories you select—and hate that. ... READ MORE of this article, Pulse, Flipboard, Android, Journalism, and Business Change from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (629 words, 1 image, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)

Tagged with: apps, business change, choices, flipboard, journalism, media, news, pulse
Posted in business change

Microsoft Says My 4-Year-Old Computers Are Dead

Posted on May 8, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Today is the fourth birthday of two of the three computers I use regularly.

I talk about the three computers I use as though that’s all there are, but of course I really use many more computers than that. Not including my SmartPhone, I also use cloud-based servers for hosting e-mail and the web sites that make up Answer Guy Central, for storage, and even for managing my appointments.

Those servers are improved so often that talking about their update schedule is almost unmeaningful. And they need to be updated; any server manager worth his salt will tell you that as our traffic grows, the Internet evolves, and components inside these heavily-used mission-critical machines just plain wear out a two-year replacement schedule is about as far as you want to push things.

And when you install new computers they come with updated operating systems. ... READ MORE of this article, Microsoft Says My 4-Year-Old Computers Are Dead from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (825 words, 2 images, estimated 3:18 mins reading time)

Tagged with: "computer support", "customer service", "operating system", "windows 7 starter edition", business change, computers, windows xp
Posted in business change, Customer Service

Facebook, ‘Like’ Buttons, and Staying Out of Courtrooms

Posted on May 7, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Oh, that pesky Facebook “Like” button. It turns out that your friends seeing what you read isn’t the only think that Facebook can broadcast to get you into trouble. Now, your ‘Likes’ can be held against you.

And frighteningly, that isn’t even the news here.

A federal judge has ruled that clicking the ‘like button’ doesn’t qualify as protected free speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. It’s a mind-boggling development in the “what is OK to say and do on the Internet?” branch of business change, and while this non-attorney is pretty sure the ruling will be overturned at a higher level, please be clear that if you fall into a Like Button Trap, ‘overturned on appeal’ isn’t going to help you.

Read the story if you want the details. Here’s the short version of what matters: ... READ MORE of this article, Facebook, ‘Like’ Buttons, and Staying Out of Courtrooms from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (518 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Tagged with: business change, facebook, free speech, law, like button
Posted in business change

The Latest Threat to Free Speech: Censorship by a High Court

Posted on May 4, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Yesterday, I told you about Sex.com becoming the Pinterest of Pornography. I wrote about that to illustrate the way social networking, done correctly, operates, and acknowledged that I talk about that topic pretty often.

I also talk about Piracy quite a bit. Media Piracy, be it movies, music, books, or software, is an incredibly complicated subject, and one that has many ways to link into a conversation about business change. This week, The High Court in The United Kingdom took aim at Piracy, and in mid-2012 I’m both amazed and a little frightened that they’ve pursued the particular action they’re attempting.

The High Court ordered that UK ISPs must completely block access to The Pirate Bay. Think what you will of Piracy or The Pirate Bay, singling out a web site as so bad that access to it must be blocked for an entire populace is an extraordinarily scary step. And not one that a supposedly democratic society such and The United Kingdom should be taking. ... READ MORE of this article, The Latest Threat to Free Speech: Censorship by a High Court from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (526 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Tagged with: business change, censorship, due process, free speech, law, media, piracy
Posted in business change

Today’s Subject: Gizmodo. And Arrogant Felonious Conduct.

Posted on May 2, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — 4 Comments ↓

About ten years ago, an acquaintance found himself spending a few weekends in the Westchester County Jail after he was convicted of a “computer crime” under the regime of then-Westchester-County-District Attorney Jeanine Pirro. Ms. Pirro was one of those political climbers who topped out before she wanted to, and the conviction of this guy I used to know was questionable, but he is, nevertheless, a convicted felon.

Yesterday, the folks at Gizmodo published an article advocating behavior that’s pretty similar to what the no-longer-a-computer-consultant was convicted of. Essentially, the article says that if you’re a computer consultant, have access to your clients’ systems, and your client doesn’t pay you, you should A) mess around with those systems and B) then use your client’s systems against them to shame them publicly.

I’m not an attorney, but I’m pretty sure that would break a whole bunch of laws. ... READ MORE of this article, Today’s Subject: Gizmodo. And Arrogant Felonious Conduct. from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (458 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Tagged with: arrogance, business change, free speech, gizmodo, journalism, Nick Denton
Posted in business change

Microsoft, Batteries, eReaders, and Stock Valuations

Posted on May 1, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Yesterday, Microsoft created a joint venture with Barnes & Noble. The new company, named—I’m not kidding—NewCo, will own and operate Nook, the eReader that Barnes and Noble sells to compete with Amazon’s Kindle (there are others, but frankly the eReader wars are already over; Nook and Kindle are the only two combatants that matter).

The fact that Microsoft bought their way into the eReader market isn’t much of a surprise. Microsoft’s been branching out from their declining Windows-and-Office business for a while now, and spending some of their considerable cash hoard getting into alternate markets is a great move. Maybe Microsoft can stave off irrelevancy, after all. Batteries? eReaders? Why not?

The question is why Microsoft paid so much for so little of Barnes & Noble’s Nook eReader business.

... READ MORE of this article, Microsoft, Batteries, eReaders, and Stock Valuations from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (510 words, 1 image, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Tagged with: barnes & noble, business change, e-readers, microsoft, nook, stock valuation
Posted in business change

The Storage Wars and Google Drive

Posted on April 26, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — 3 Comments ↓

Yesterday I promised to tell you everything you need to know about Google Drive. GDrive is a subject that been tossed around literally for years; we all knew Google Drive would show up eventually, and if “storing your stuff on line” was the only thing that interested you, it’s possible that you figured out how to create a virtual “Google Drive” years ago by putting your files into GMail.

From the moment Google Drive was announced on Tuesday, it was discussed, analyzed, sliced, diced, and flipped on its head by every technology pundit around. And Google Drive is a big deal. It’s one more way for you to get all of your stuff done, flexibly and without the need to figure out what yet another new thing from another company does and how to use it. Woo Hoo! ... READ MORE of this article, The Storage Wars and Google Drive from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (1292 words, 5 images, estimated 5:10 mins reading time)

Tagged with: business change, dropbox, Google Drive, storage, the cloud
Posted in business change