@DanaMNelson – Page 7

July 6, 2011

The Corporate Breakup

When I ran a computer consulting business, I started noticing some trends with businesses that were confusing to me.

We don’t like change, even if it is good, even if it saves us money and time.
That fear of change makes us very forgiving.
We fear conflict that ultimately leads to change.

For example, old antiquated hardware and software that breaks and requires constant maintenance cost us more than money. It costs frustration, employee productivity and happiness. But we keep calling in the IT guy who band-aids us back together. We fear the hassle of learning new software. Again time, money, productivity and company morale are all at stake.

But now I’ve noticed this pattern in other areas of business, not just where it relates to tech.

We forgive the mistakes of vendors over and over. It’s easier than finding a new one and making a change.

We forgive employees. There are times when managers and business owners look the other way because they fear the process of hiring and training a new replacement. We forget that by “protecting them” – we’re really protecting us from the hassle and fear; we’re hurting our other employees in the process.
We hang on to dead weight accounts. Yes, sometimes you need to let a customer go. The one who has burned you, taken more time, energy and effort than they’ve invested in your business; the one who refused to pay you or takes forever to pay. We forgive them too, for fear we won’t replace the income they represent. (If you have one of these customers… let him go. You’ll more than make up for it in time and happiness.)

I’m not suggesting that at the first mishap you drop a vendor, employees, or clients. I’m saying if you’ve been dealing with the same old story from one of them for a long period of time, maybe it’s time you step back take an objective review, and evaluate that relationship.

You can be friends with any of those people; social media makes it so easy to fall into friendships with business acquaintances. You need to remember, however, this is your business. We do forgive friends, but even with friendships, when a relationship is toxic to one party, it’s time to end it.

If you benefit from this post, great, but I wrote it for me. I wrote it because after:

repeated bad customer service
hours and hours on the phone caught in a phone maze, transferred to the wrong department repeatedly, where I had to tell my story again
repair request after repair request; it took over 4 months to get help
help arrive and made the problem worse
a major cell tower went down and is still not replaced
countless dropped and missed calls
I have been emotionally and financially abused

I am leaving AT &T.

I’m standing up for myself and my business. I’m done forgiving and I’m taking back control of my communications.

June 25, 2011

McGary’s Walk for Food Justice

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This summer my son, Xavier, is attending summer school. This isn’t the summer school I remember.

This program is taking place at McGary Middle School in Evansville, IN and is a service-learning project.

To say Xavier was unhappy about attending summer school would be a gross understatement.

He’s completed two weeks of “summer school.” He’s helped start a community garden, helped to build a greenhouse, used real world data from the Tri-State Food Bank to explore mathematical concepts, and researched childhood hunger.

He’s excited about completing these projects and about school, and I couldn’t be happier about this transition of attitude about his education.

His class has initiated a fund raising campaign running between June 25^th and June 30^th, accepting donations of food and money to go to the Tri-State Food Bank.

How you can help

If you know Xavier or a student participating in “McGary’s Walk for Food Justice,” pledge a donation.
Please post this to your facebook page, your twitter, re-blog it, e-mail it to your groups…. Spread the word however you can!
Take a food donation to one of 3 locations:

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Evansville:

Ameristamp Sign-A-Rama

1300 North Royal Avenue

Wireless Zone

724 North Burkhardt

Newburgh

Wireless Zone

8300 Bell Oaks Drive, Bell Oaks Plaza

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At both Wireless Zone locations:

$10 off with a donation

Or

50% off Cellairis case with donation

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On behalf of Xavier, all the students and teachers at McGary, and the hungry in the tri-state,
THANK YOU!

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June 24, 2011

Review: iphone Shoot Out

A few months ago I was approached by Verizon to test some equipment. I happily agreed. I was traveling to a 4G city and wanted to take it for a spin. At the time they also offered me an iphone 4.

“No thanks I have one of those.”

LOVED the 4G goodies – more about them another time.

After returning the items, again they wanted me to try out an iphone 4.

“No thanks I have one of those.”

“But yours is AT&T. “

So for 3 weeks I forwarded my AT&T iphone 4 to my Verizon iphone 4 and put it to the test. I have been an AT&T customer for a very long time. I know everywhere AT&T drops calls. (And that’s quite a few places.)

For 3 weeks I called, I e-mailed, I texted, I tweeted, I posted on every platform. When I had down time, I played games. I used, really used, that phone.

Not once… yeah, you AT&T people who drop calls while driving down the Lloyd heard me, not once did I drop a call. I went from Newburgh to USI, from the Lloyd up 164 and out Boonville New Harmony all the way to Highway41 and back again. Not once did I drop a call or have a complaint of voice quality.

Using the Wifi, both phones preformed about the same, with the exception of time spent finding a network. I could find and join networks much faster with the Verizon phone. Once connected, however there was no noticeable difference.

The big difference: Not being able to multi-task. On my AT&T iphone I can be carrying on a conversation, put the other person on speaker, and look up an address or event time on the web. With the Verizon iphone you can’t be talking and use over the air internet.

So the big question is:

How much do you value undropped calls?

Everyone, even AT&T employees, know AT&T has customer service issues. But over and over, as I dealt with local and national Verizon people I was always treated with kindness, and respect.

Is customer service important to you? Dropped calls Important to you? Then Verizon is the way to go.

Stuck with At&T?

On a side note; if you, like me, have an AT&T iphone and are “locked-in” to a contract, but want to make the jump to Verizon, E-bay is buying AT&T Iphones flat out. In most cases selling your AT&T phones will more than cover these pesky early termination penalties.

iskin-logo — Thanks to Wireless Zone for the iskin case that protected my Verizon phone for this trial.

June 13, 2011

“The Creed Official” : Rules for online (and offline)

You know how a quote from a person long dead can sometimes apply to today’s current situation, even though nothing that involves the current situation was even invented at the time of the original speech?

I had one of those moments this past week.I was volunteering at Patchwork Central last week, and every day as we read “The Creed Official” out loud, I kept thinking how appropriately it fits our online lives.

“The Creed Official”

Listen and be safe

Online LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN… it’s never all about you. Listen for feedback and ideas from your customers. Listen to what people are saying about your competitors. Listen to what people need, and develop accordingly.

Follow directions and stay with your group

This is my favorite. Most online platforms have terms of service, or directions that you must follow. Many companies don’t follow the guidelines on facbook in particular.

Be nice and respectful

Yes, if a company truly deserves to be called out, call them out, but do so with respect. As BGKahuna said, Let’s Cut People Some Slack.

Use good manners

This is one I’ve wanted to touch on for a while. If someone talks to you, it’s good manners to reply. If they say or do something nice, it’s good manners to say thank you. Many businesses using social think it’s another way to share a message with its consumers, and it is. The difference is, consumers are talking back. Are you listening and using good manners, or ignoring the people who keep you in business?

Have a good attitude

No one likes a whiner. If you’re always telling the world how bad your life is, who would want to be near you? If your employees have a poor attitude online, what does that say about you and your company? (Do you even know what they’re saying?)

Be respectful of others’ art

This goes for any type of content. Don’t plagiarize someone’s blog, use photos without credit, or disrespect someone online. First, it just makes you look bad. Second, there can be very real and serious consequences.

Keep your hands to yourself

Don’t be a creeper. I tease many friends that they are “twitter voyeurs.” By this I mean they rarely tweet, they just use twitter to get news and updates. Don’t be creepy online.

Do your best and have fun

It doesn’t matter if you’re not great at composing tweets or blogs at first. Start small, ask for help, do your best, and have fun!

Use nice words – no cursing

I’ve seen people tweet their way out of a job because of the vulgarities of their twitter stream. I’ve seen teachers and youth leaders be poor examples to kids, with foul posts. Really, if you are trying to build your brand online, (See Branding Yourself for more on how to do that.) refrain from overly harsh language.

June 3, 2011

4 ways to Use Your Influence to Help

Like is good, but show the love

As more and more people flock to social media sites, like facebook, twittter, and youtube to get daily and in some cases hourly dose and over doses of information input, so too are businesses and not for profits following along. Go where the people are right?

As one of the people that not for profits are following to your favorite social site in hopes to get your attention, how can you use your influence to help?

Like is not enough

Ok, you band, youth group, club, church or other not for profit is on facebook and they asked you to like them. Great. But that’s not enough. Granted they’re going to have to provide good content and keep you informed. But other than just seeing it in your stream, what good does this do them?

1. Share

If they share you share. Whether it’s a blog on the latest update, a picture of a cool event, or a link to a story written about them, share it on your platforms. And while you’re at it switch it up. If you want to truly leverage your influence, take what your NFP posted on fb and share it on twitter, or Linkedin. By mixing up the platforms you help your cause reach a greater audience both for that event or post and for greater awareness.

2. Support by attending

Was that a call to action they posted? Attend the event as a participant. If you use geolocation, check in and let people know your there and the details they need to do the same. Post pictures of you and the event on your social platforms.

3. Offer to help

Contact your NFP and ask if you can help. Sometimes one more set of hands is exactly what is needed. Offer your connections. Maybe it is an event that needs businesses to sponsor or support it. Offer to contact a few of your connections to present the opportunity. Just as in selling, a warm introduction is always more profitable than a cold call. Don’t forget to post pictures.

4. Tell your story

Why do you support them? What did they do to win you over? If you, a family member or close friend has been impacted by a service or program from your favorite NFP, consider telling your story. Post it on your personal, or company blog. Don’t have one? Write it out anyway, and send it to them.

No matter how you do it, do more than like.

May 15, 2011

Social Media in the Classroom

In an article by the New York Times

this week, they discuss one of the biggest challenges I see every time I enter a classroom. I’m not a professor. I teach people of all ages to use social media to do whatever they’re doing in life better: In the classroom, to learn. Outside the classroom, to get a job, and to become the best in their industry or field. Every time I walk into a classroom however, I get the same frustrating tag at the end of an introduction, “It’s time to learn, turn off your phones and laptops.” I usually tell them to turn them back on.

In this article, they discuss the use of “backchannels” – or conversations driven by technology (twitter, and other chatting platforms) where students are free to ask and answer questions of the teacher and their peers without having to be embarrassed by speaking out loud in front of the whole class. One student stated:

“When you type something down, it’s a lot easier to say what I feel.”

Isn’t that what you strive for, a way to encourage classroom participation?

Sugato Chakravarty, who lectures about personal finance at Purdue University,said before the backchannel tools:

“I could never get people to speak up.” “Everybody’s intimidated.” “It’s clear to me,” he added, “that absent this kind of social media interaction, there are things students think about that normally they’d never say.”

What are your students thinking, but not saying?

The students who’ve been allowed to express themselves in a way that’s comfortable to them, digitally, have shared with us how they feel. In their own words:

“Everybody is heard in our class,” ~Leah Postman, 17.

“It’s made me see my peers as more intelligent, seeing their thought process and begin to understand them on a deeper level.” ~Janae Smith, 17

That would do it for me, but I’m not a professor. Yes, there are fears and risks to deal with. But what else is holding you back? What can we do to convince you to overcome these fears and give your students an opportunity to be heard?

Again the students say it best:

“We tend to have the attitude that someone else will do it. But what happens when everyone thinks the same as you?”

“It only takes one individual to change,” another typed.

“If you want something to change you have to be willing to be that voice.”

“It really shows the impact one change can make,” a third student wrote.

“I agree with Katie!” someone added. “This class has given us a voice!”

Please post your comments. Tell me what we (the Social Media Club Education Advisory Board) can do to help you overcome your fear, answer questions, offer support…. So that you can give a voice to one student more who might just be the voice that can make a difference in your class room, to a peer, or to make a major change in the world?

Join us as we discuss this topic on the regular weekly twitter chat: #smcedu Mon 12:30pm

Not sure how to participate in a twitter chat? Here is a simple guide on how to participate in a twitter chat .

May 13, 2011

A Green Geek

I’m a proud geek. I love all things tech. I owned a Commodore 64 in 1982. I’m not always the first in line to get the newest product, but I do trade up, and often. Phones, computers, laptops, televisions… But with the desire and acquisition of the latest and greatest of new tech, comes the forgotten tech.

What do you do with your old tech? If you’re like many folks, you don’t know what to do with it. Know this; you can’t throw it in the trash. Most tech has toxic material that will be harmful to the environment, and plastic that just won’t break down. ( It’s illegal to chuck it in the trash in Indiana, BTW.)

I spent part of the evening going through old phones, PDA’s, lap tops, and monitors. What am I doing with all of it? My van is loaded up and I am headed to Electronics Recycle Day. <– That is a link to the recycle day information for Evansville, IN that will take place on Saturday May 14th.

Why not be a green geek, de-clutter your home or office, do some good for the earth, and get rid of the old tech by finding a recycle day near you?