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Monthly Archives: September 2010

When A Tweet Falls in the Forest and No-one Hears It …

Posted on September 30, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 5 Comments

Guess what? Nobody’s reading your Words of Wisdom on Twitter.

Actually, it’s possible that many people are reading what you write, but if research from Sysomos is to be believed, 71% of the time people Tweet, absolutely nobody responds.

This dovetails with a couple of things I’ve written about before: your follower count on Twitter is pretty much meaningless, and unless you have a reason to tweet, you shouldn’t bother.

The question, though, remains: how should your business use social networking? ... READ MORE of When A Tweet Falls in the Forest and No-one Hears It … at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (301 words, estimated 1:12 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Comment On This Post. I Dare You!

Posted on September 29, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 5 Comments

Solve a problem: let’s make what shows up in CAPTCHA forms easy to read. And while we’re at it, let’s make some money by turning the space CAPTCHAs take up into advertising.

Just how much do you hate those little password forms you need to fill out all over the Internet? CAPTCHA is important and annoying all at once, and forget the interruption; more often than not, you can hardly read the squiggly little passwords. ... READ MORE of Comment On This Post. I Dare You! at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (611 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Content, Media

SmartPhone Paralysis: You Won’t Buy a New One!

Posted on September 28, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

By now you’re using a SmartPhone. Or not, you big hold-out, but everyone around you is clutching either an  iPhone, a Blackberry, or an Android SmartPhone.

The sales figures say that these devices are being adapted at unprecedented rates. Everybody has decided to Tweet on the go, babble about where they are via Foursquare, and buy stuff on eBay while driving to Aunt Sadie’s house.

Unexpected side effect: we’re actually buying new phones less frequently. This from a study by J.D. Power. ... READ MORE of SmartPhone Paralysis: You Won’t Buy a New One! at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (536 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

Your Résumé is Meaningless; The Internet Knows Better

Posted on September 27, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

I have this ongoing disagreement with my best friend: she believes that a degree from a prestigious (read: Ivy League) college means something, and I say it doesn’t. We’re both wrong.

Actually, it isn’t as simple as that. The real story is that we both believe a degree from a well-known school with lots of well-connected alumni can be really useful, but her position preceding that statement is that a bachelor’s degree has an intrinsic value that I believe stopped meaning very much around twenty years ago. ... READ MORE of Your Résumé is Meaningless; The Internet Knows Better at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (475 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

Where Should You Publish Your Pearls of Wisdom? (Blogging)

Posted on September 24, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 3 Comments

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Are you listening?

Well, sure you are. in fact, I know exactly how many people read what I write here, where they come from (both in terms of geography and who sent them) and lots more about the “circulation” of these pearls of wisdom. And I know those things because of the choices I’ve made in how I publish this little journal of my thoughts on business change.

The key word there is “choices”. ... READ MORE of Where Should You Publish Your Pearls of Wisdom? (Blogging) at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (436 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Marketing

Facebook, Twitter Show All. Is It Time for FILTERED Search?

Posted on September 23, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

Drowning in information? Feel like Google’s search results are too hard to wade through? And never mind the fire hose that is Twitter. Or Facebook.

Maybe it’s time for filtered search.

Actually, this isn’t a new idea; it’s just one that we mostly ignore. Your browser has some sort of “safe searching” mechanism built into it, but most people don’t give it a thought. And there’s no good reason to; if you ask what is being filtered by your browser you’re not going to get a real answer. ... READ MORE of Facebook, Twitter Show All. Is It Time for FILTERED Search? at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (250 words, estimated 1:00 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Who Owns Your (Copy)Rights?

Posted on September 22, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 10 Comments

On the Internet, no one can hear you scream. Or at least no one cares if you scream about your copyright being violated.

A few months ago I told you about a blogger who’d broken a big story. And then watched in dismay as major news outlets copied his story and failed to give him any credit. It’s becoming harder every day to track what belongs to whom, and while the Internet has done some great things for us it’s largely responsible for that problem. ... READ MORE of Who Owns Your (Copy)Rights? at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (425 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Content, Media

Old or Young, SmartPhone or No, Forget Stats: It’s The Apps!

Posted on September 21, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

It’s all about managing change. Let’s wrap my two most recent posts together: older people don’t “get” SmartPhones, and iPads are cannibalizing laptop computer sales.

One statement is anecdotal, the other driven by anecdotal statistics. In the end, though, managing business change successfully is a mix; you need to find and understand statistics and anecdotal information.

So forget for a moment the 54-year-old who had such a hard time understanding her SmartPhone, and forget the statistics about how many iPads BestBuy is selling as their laptop computer sales go into the tank. For clues on business change and technology look at how people actually use their SmartPhones. ... READ MORE of Old or Young, SmartPhone or No, Forget Stats: It’s The Apps! at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (307 words, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

Are Older People Too Set In Their Ways To Use SmartPhones?

Posted on September 20, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 8 Comments

I’ve written a couple of times about the problems that markets in general and the specific type of service market that computers and the Internet have created in particular create in deciding between the skills of younger and older workers.

I’ve also been effusive in my praise of the Droid ever since I started using one last November. Really I’m praising the Android operating system; I believe that between its features, distribution, and Google’s amazingly successful play getting others to market it for them that Android is the Smartphone OS. Period. ... READ MORE of Are Older People Too Set In Their Ways To Use SmartPhones? at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (488 words, 1 image, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics, and The iPad at Best Buy

Posted on September 17, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 7 Comments

I love statistics.

No, I’m not a big math geek. And by “love” I actually mean “hate”. As much fun as statistics can be to play with and as useful as they can be when viewed objectively, they’re incredibly easy to manipulate so they say something different once you’ve twisted them.

Or as Mark Twain once put it: “There are three kinds of lies. Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics“.

The CEO of BestBuy has been quoted, or perhaps misquoted, as saying that the iPad has cannibalized 50% of laptop sales. And nobody is better qualified to make a judgment like that than the man who runs the USA’s largest electronics chain, right? ... READ MORE of Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics, and The iPad at Best Buy at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (382 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

Where Are You, Craig Newmark? The Surrender of Craigslist.

Posted on September 16, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

It’s official. Adult Services (Or Erotic Services as they were once known in the USA and continued to be named elsewhere) are gone from Craigslist.

This makes me sad.

I don’t use those services and never have. I don’t know people who do use them. And I don’t want this to be a too-far-to-the-left political rant where I scream about free speech. I’m disappointed that in an era where communication itself is the world’s largest growth business someone as smart and well intentioned as Craig Newmark has caved in. ... READ MORE of Where Are You, Craig Newmark? The Surrender of Craigslist. at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (488 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

Is Biggest The Same As Best? Not in Search, Social Networks

Posted on September 15, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 4 Comments

Google is amazing. It knows everything, and each day its definition of everything expands. I use it continuously, in more and more ways. So do you. But is it any good?

If your definition of good is having almost any piece of information you could ask for at your fingertips, then clearly the answer is “yes”. But if you need something specific that isn’t easily adapted to encyclopedic knowledge, or you want to compare a couple of things, or you need expertise, Google may not get the job done for you.

When does information become knowledge? ... READ MORE of Is Biggest The Same As Best? Not in Search, Social Networks at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (430 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Design

Solving Illegal Software License Terms: More May Be Better

Posted on September 14, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

Every time I write an article I worry about whether you’ll enjoy it. Is it informative? Does it make you think and ask questions? Will you gain something that you can add to your business change repertoire?

Yesterday’s piece on the now-illegal practice of selling used software was a bit longer than my usual posts. So today, I have . . . MORE! The good news? If you ever find yourself in an intellectual property dispute  you may be able to balance this story against yesterday’s. ... READ MORE of Solving Illegal Software License Terms: More May Be Better at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (511 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change

Want to Sell Your Old Software? That May Now Be Illegal.

Posted on September 13, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 6 Comments

When I was in the publishing business, I received an amazing amount of software from companies that wanted me to write about their stuff in IYM Software Review. The pile got huge; it literally lined the walls of a small room in my home, stacked five boxes high all the way around the room.

A time came when I needed to get rid of all those boxes, and I approached a local library about them taking the software off my hands. My idea was that they could create an archive of software development, and be one of the few places in the world where people could come to research that topic. ... READ MORE of Want to Sell Your Old Software? That May Now Be Illegal. at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (705 words, estimated 2:49 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Development

Google Instant: Cool For You, a Game Changer for Them

Posted on September 10, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 3 Comments

Google just keeps impressing me. But this time “impressed” and “happy” have diverged.

I think.

Everybody’s favorite search engine has started doing something new. If you use Google’s standard home-page search tool, you no longer need to hit <Enter> to get results from your search. Search results are displayed A-S Y-O-U T-Y-P-E. It’s really pretty amazing to watch, and I’ll cop to one of the things Google is saying in talking about “Google Instant”: you really might get a chance to discover a few things that you’ll miss when typing an entire search term and telling Google to execute your search is necessary. ... READ MORE of Google Instant: Cool For You, a Game Changer for Them at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (380 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change




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