Are You Listening?

We've covered a lot of social media themed ground around here, gotten on some kicks, and beaten a few drums. All for worthy causes, but for what good? Sure, your password will be safe (what do you mean that your password isn't a 16 character alphanumeric and special character acronym? Gah!) and your company has a nice, complete social media policy that everyone's signed and familiar with (right? right...) but what after that? Well, as this article points out, if you don't then listen, you've just waisted a lot of time. Social media isn't just sitting at a keyboard, talking into an abyss. It's about listening to what your customers/clients/users/prospects say back to you. And, I can't emphasise this enough, it's about listening to both the good and the bad. Listen. Hear and take into consideration the bad that is said. Try to analyse what is going wrong, and fix that. Let your consumers know that you've heard them, and are working to fix whatever the error may be. At the same point, listen to what is right, and try not to screw that up, shall we? I've seen many products "improved" badly, when they were perfectly fine to begin with (New Coke, anyone?)

Ignoring what your consumer says about your company, your brand, is nothing but disaster awaiting. Back in the pre-social media days, it was said that one person would tell 80 others about a bad experience. Now, that number is not capped at 80. Nor is the number limited for the amount of people that will see your praises sung. Listen, be helpful and attentive to your clients, and you will see the benefits.

Gawk While You Can

The question has been raised just about everywhere about if tablets are going to overtake PCs in Joe User's life. I've seen varying arguments for it happening, and others saying that it'll never happen. I've always read them with a grain of salt, gleaning what I can from them, and discarding the chaff. Until yesterday, that is. I read an article that, well, I pretty much agree whole hearted with.

Wait. What?

Yeah, I know. Shocking that I don't have a "Yeah, but..." statement to go along with it. Gawk while you can.

I'll wait.

Now, let me explain.

The keyboard. It's all about the keyboard. Some people don't mind not having a physical keyboard to peck out their manifestos on, but me, if I'm doing something that requires more than a Words With Friends game, I want a real keyboard. It's a quirk of mine. Hunt-and-peck sends me into a spiral of flashbacks to my first computer/typing class, and it's not pretty folks. And before you suggest it, I don't want to lug one around with me, as a peripheral for my ipad. I have enough things to carry and remember, what with purse (heavy enough already, thanks) diaper bag (not storing it with the sippie cup,) cell phone, etc. I have a hard enough time remembering my cheap-o sunglasses, for goodness sake. Thus far, I haven't forgotten a kid or the ipad, but honestly, it's just a matter of time.

Another thing about it, is that I realize I'm not Joe User. I am, however, friends with lots of them. While they want real keyboards to type their emails on, they also want it for things like hot keys.* Several fancy themselves as amateur photographers, cooks, bloggers, etc. As such, things like photo editing and more in depth applications require a real keyboard/mouse in order to not be a frustration. They are similar to me, in that their ipad/tablets have replaced the laptop for some things (Facebooking, Twitter, shopping, music, etc) but not for the things that are a bit more time/labor intensive. When the powers-that-be figure out how to resolve that issue, I think the tablet is gold.


^{*hot keys = keyboard short cuts. think "Crtl + C" instead of clicking the menu option for "copy."}

Peer Pressure

Realizing that I've beaten the social media policy drum before, I shall try to refrain from rehashing it all again. However, I had to share a triumph: my son's school has adopted a formal social media policy. We were notified yesterday that the school handbook had been updated regarding the school's policy for social media and its students (and before you ask, I had nothing to do with it.) If a tiny school in the middle of nowhere can have a social media policy, what's stopping your company? You don't want to be outdone, do you?* Don't be lazy.



^{*Forget everything your mother told you about peer pressure for this. You want to be like the cool kids, who have social media policies. Only the losers don't have one. No, really, they lose the lawsuits. It sucks to be the loser.}

Gamers to the Rescue

Let me clarify something, before I get into the meat of this blog post: I am not a gamer. Geek, yes. Nerd? About some things. But gamer, I am not. I was doing good to beat Super Mario Brothers, back in the day. Pinball, I'm golden. Air hockey? A more ruthless soul has not been met. Video games, though, notsomuch. But, being a geek and around computer people on a day-to-day basis, I know gamers. And knowing them, this article doesn't surprise me much. In fact, it makes me proud that gamers are helping do something so useful.

What I am curious about, is how will this information be utilized later. No, no, not the protein folding data. We pay medical researchers for that stuff. No, what I'm curious about is who else will start utilizing gamers as cheap problem solvers. We already have complex problems being solved via distributed computing* in other areas of science as well—SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) uses it to analyze radio telescope data, for example. What intrigues me, is the question of who else will turn a problem into a video game, and then let gamers do the dirty work, as it were. We already have folks who are using twitter as cheap research and development and open source code operating systems, so why not make a game out of problem solving? I'm not talking about the stuff that's kind of a given, I'm wondering what non-lifesaving problems could we solve. Could they figure out how to make my dishwasher load itself (my laziness knows no bounds, sure) or figure out how to find that one sock the dryer always eats. Figure out how to make flying cars an affordable reality; how to make my regular car's heater work faster on a cold morning. Would those things change the world? no. would it help the common man? Oh yeah.




*lotsa unrelated computers, networked together to compute a common problem

Wishing You a Geeky Halloween

If you have spent any amount of time around geeks, you have an idea that Halloween is a big deal for us. It is our high holy holiday, the day when you normal folk act like we do year round. For one dark, murky night of the year, we are not given odd looks for traveling with a robot or broadsword, nor are we mocked for our obsessive attention to detail. Sure, we made that costume for a *con earlier in the year, but hey, we arent going to turn down another chance to use it!
So, out of our love of Halloween, we at Addison Technologies are going to give you a roundup of things techy for Halloween:

Number 7 is my personal favorite:
Ghoulish Gadgets

While I *want* the vortex tunnel, the haunted toliet paper would be pretty fun too:
Terrifying Halloween Gadgets

Halloween up your cube at work:
Think Geek

What geek Halloween post would be complete without jack-o-lanterns:
Geek Jack-O-Lanterns

Or some nasty looking edibles:
Jello Blood Worms

Make Me an Offer I Can't Refuse...

If you've been on the interwebz in the last two days, you've noticed that people everywhere are griping about the changes that Facebook has just rolled out, just like every other time that they moved the cheese on the social media giant. And there, of course, are some great, snarky memes parodying both sides of the argument. but I ran across an article about Facebook that intrigues me far more than the volumes of others, crying out "My news feed is different! Wah!"

This article states that, in order for a business to be a successful entity on Facebook, you should not run a "campaign." That's a bit contrary to what we have been taught, isn't it? But it says that fewer people are liking brands, and recommending that their friends like the brands too. My experience on fb says that this is true--I'm very selective about the brands that I like, and I rarely recommend things to friends (my logic: I detest spam in any form, and do not, therefore, want to inadvertently spam my friends with my fondness for a certain brand of widget.) If I am not alone in that sentiment, then you can understand that some people will view an active campaign on facebook as a potential annoyance.

Well, lovely, you say. How do I reach my target audience on facebook, then? One way is to engage them with a program, as opposed to a one time campaign. Customer rewards can make it worthwhile for a person to like a brand. Using myself as an example again, I "like" a local deli for the sole purpose of finding out what the discount code for the week is. Say the word of the week to the cashier, you get a percentage discount. Other places keep me updated on the daily/weekly specials, free shipping, or any other bonus that they are not offering to the general Joe Customer. If my friends would like the bonuses that the business is offering, then I am more likely to send it on to them.( IE, because of me, my father, husband, and many friends "like" the local deli that offers specials.) Keep in mind that you can reach a more vast audience if you use your social media together. Use your geo-location program, your Twitter, Facebook, etc, all together. I cant tell you how many RT's I've seen on twitter, where someone was entering a weekly contest.

Before you go, however, do go read the article referenced. No, really. I only graced you with an opinion about part of the article, but it has more little nuggets for you to internalize. Consider it homework.

Labor Day Policy

Addison Technologies has always supported Labor day and its meaning. A Holiday created for the purpose of work, putting everything else on hold and giving thanks to having the ability to produce. We have tried many times to institute a policy of donating a day of work to your employer on this day, however for some reason employees would rather stay at home. It just seems counterintuitive to celebrate labor by grilling out as opposed working for free.

Until, Addison is successful in implementing free work day on Labor day, we sadly inform you our office will be closed Monday due to the policy of the current observance of Labor Day.