Gripes and Grins

Great post on Facebook scams

Very compelling play-by-play: http://www.marketersstudio.com/…union.html

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More on Microsoft vs. Google

Joe Marchese in MediaPost this morning is a must read: http://www.mediapost.com/…lications/

Here's the best paragraph:
"Why can Microsoft succeed? Unlike Google, which focuses on mathematical media efficiencies, which means it is limited by what can be measured, Microsoft has a history of focusing on people's productivity. If advertising has taught me anything, it's that "Microsoft makes People-Ready business" ;-). Seriously though, productivity and efficiency are not the same thing in this case. The human element to advertising and marketing cannot be ignored; it's the classic art vs. science argument. Whereas Google's efficiency goals look to optimize the science, productivity focus means better enabling for the practitioners of the art."

This is why I love MediaPost. Writers like Joe really know the business of marketing at a deep level and they do a great job of summarizing and explaining the critical factors succinctly while covering a "meta category" like search advertising.

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The case against marriage... or, how 'smart' people look and sound idiotic

So, I'm waiting for a call to start, and I go to Drew Curtis's Fark.  There's an MSNBC story on the top of the stack, tagged with "ASININE" and the descriptor "I cheated on my husband and destroyed my marriage. Obviously the problem is that I didn't have enough husbands, and a community of women to communally care for my children "

The genius of Fark cannot be underestimated.  Everyone I know is burning the candles at both ends because they have it all -- marriage, kids, good jobs, career challenges, outside interests.  And, for the most part, no one I love or befriend is so fucking thankless or self-absorbed as to bitch about these challenges.  And, no one I hang with is so fucking narcisistic as to extrapolate their own personal challenges as indicative of a "meta" experience for the American society as a whole.  Warning: Rant coming!

The video below, and the companion story in the Atlantic, by Sandra Tsing Loh, is the most self-unaware example of authorship and publishing ever.  While elegantly written, and a well constructed argument, the premise is so fucking ridiculous that I wanted to carve my eyes out with a rusty spoon.  In short, women ( really people as a society) need to rethink the need for marriage. 

Have we learned nothing from the political times?  Do we not know that marriage is a religious institution or a personal/individual choice to apply for a state sanctioned class, defined as the voters of a state or municipality choose to define it (I'm pro gay marriage, btw)?  Why should the media pedal these ludicrous ideas of rethinking marriage as a societal construct?  My friend Jeremy Zawodny would have some juicy thoughts on the media's interest in perpetuating this shit, but I digress.

The main point here is that this lady is a characature, a very ugly distortion of the people involved in the divorce rate.  Who cheats on their husband and ruins a bueacolic life because they aren't getting enough out of their relationship? 

The answer is simple: Idiots that don't understand life -- that's who.  Life, and this includes marriage, is what you put into it... and, yes, you're an idiot if you're in your forties or fifties and you've been married twenty years and you don't know this.  Sandra is most definitely an idiot.

In the article, Sandra chooses to cast her life and effort as thankless efforts, and even casually chides the new (read younger) American male trying to put more into their home-life by taking on more traditional female/mother efforts around the house.  In the video she jumps right into challenging the realisticness of marriage in a modern context... what?!

I feel sorry for Sandra's ex-husband and her next victim.  And, based on her self-glorifying descriptions of her parental superpowers, I'm betting that her kids need some sympathy too. 

As for the read, it's idiotic drivel, but if you want to see a smart person come undone in their own qwerty juice, read it.  Here's the video of an interview with a half-witted Viera and some other random that actually has some common sense.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

How to market Social Media... I kid you not, here's a good video on this subject

Every single day, I get bombarded by all kinds of messages, through all types of media channels.  My favorites are focused on how to use social media for marketing purposes.  By favorites I mean I hate these messages.  I wish there was an opt-out list so that I could avoid the "jr. edition" versions of social media 'how to' emails/posts/videos/presentations. 

There's nothing worse than getting a "how to market through Social Media" sponsored newsletter from GoDaddy, or, worse IBM.  I want to respond with PDFs of the PodShow presentations delivered to these companies' execs back in 2006... you know, the presentations explaining the basics of how podcasting and blogs worked... maybe include a copy of my expense reports to prove I was there, along with a request for a newsletter opt out. 

But, I can't do that.  I'm resigned to sift through mountains of basics to find nuggets of true insights from real professionals, my peers.  It's out there -- the good stuff. But, I get soured on the basics and get really pissed that email marketing experts aren't segmenting their audiences, sending basics to the noobs, and sending me the good stuff.  My assumption is that's its too hard to create social media marketing presentations for a broad audience.  But, there's an exception. 

As, I've noted before, Richard Brewer-Hay and I worked together at PodShow/Mevio, and before then at WebTV and Microsoft.  In the interest of full disclosure, we're friends.  I've even seen him with his shirt of... gross, I know.  Richard is a very good presenter on camera.  Watch his interview below... great insights into the specific challenges of creating and launching a corporate blog.  I know this stuff, but it still held my attention, contained some very good info I can apply to www.smartycard.com/blog, and it felt right for any marketing noob.  Kudos to Richard.

Experimenting with Facebook Y! Mail imports

We're working on a refer-a-friend feature over at SmartyCard.com - I just did a blind import of my Yahoo! Mail contacts to see what would happen to all of email contacts in there.  Actually, I was hoping to invite myself and accept and see what kind of weird infinite email loop I'd create.  But, one of the more interesting reactions was the auto-post of mail to my TypePad blog admin.  See below. 

Also, total nonsequitter, but check out this awesome OpEd.

Check out my photos on Facebook

Hi bf1fa6d20cd561b9@typepad.com,

I set up a Facebook profile where I can post my pictures, videos and events and I want to add you as a friend so you can see it. First, you need to join Facebook! Once you join, you can also create your own profile.

Thanks, Aaron

To sign up for Facebook, follow the link below: http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=654052351&k=RXL24ZRSVVWM5BD1QB6XPPRWP3F&r

bf1fa6d20cd561b9@typepad.com was invited to join Facebook by Aaron Burcell. If you do not wish to receive this type of email from Facebook in the future, please click on the link below to unsubscribe. http://www.facebook.com/o.php?k=c14ece&u=100000041434395&mid=b4a6e3G5af312f27d1bG0G8 Facebook's offices are located at 1601 S. California Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304.

eBayInk -- still unscripted, still candid

Great video of my homeboy Richard Brewer-Hay with Loic Le Meur, founder of Seesmic.  It's great because there is a fairly unscripted moment of authentic product confusion, and then the usual product plug from the founder.  Funny stuff tho.

Other people's perspective

Yesterday I posted over on the SmartyCard blog about our kick-ass design group. Check it out over here: http://www.smartycard.com/blog/.

This morning I'm cruising news feeds on Om -- not because we're friends, more like he is a friend of my homie Michael Cerda. So, I see this news and think nothing of it: http://www.smartycard.com/blog/.

Later, I see the below message from one of the afore mentioned designers, not sent to me directly, rather forwarded.

"every single corporate dork on this page has there hands posed the same way: http://gigaom.com/page/2/ its like corporate weasel air karate"

Okay, I do that stuff too. But this observation is so true.

During my next staff meeting I'm going to double-down on the air karate for the cheap "make-fun-of-my-jackass-self" laughs that I need to generate in order to forget the sound of my voice while I cover the same old boring status updates.

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Sacramento suburb to arm kids to hunt in suburbs

http://www.cbs13.com/video/

This is the most ridiculous story I've ever seen. For those unaware, California's central valley is a little looney. Check it out.

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Picking up my average

There's nothing like a lackluster performance to make you want to get back out there ans prove yourself. A few weeks ago I gave a lame interview -- nothing bad, just not interesting or provocative in the way of commentary. And, I didn't read particularly well either.

I'm back on the horse today: http://telephonyonline.com/…chresults/

Nothing special, just good execution and preparation. Glad to be "off the snide".

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