Andy Boyer

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Category: Business (Page 12 of 24)

The Sustainable Group

March 29, 2009 /

I’ve been meaning to endorse / promote / plug this company for awhile.  I’m a big fan of The Sustainable Group, an organization run by Brant Williams.  In a nutshell, imagine if all the binders, notebooks and other office items you buy, lose and throw away could be made of bio-degrabable materials instead of plastic.  Now imagine that there are even more benefits.  

Rather than try to convince you, I’ll just provide a link over to their web site.  Check it out, and email Brant if you have ideas for how to get the word out.

Why 30+ Year Olds Have More Fun on Facebook than Our Junior Counterparts

February 6, 2009 /

I just don’t understand when people my age tell me, “Facebook is just for kids.”  I will argue that the best part about Facebook is in fact lost on these newbies, and us more mature folks are getting the best it has to offer.

To wit: My friend’s daughter is 15.  She has something like 700 friends.  Basically every person she has ever met is on her Facebook page.  There has never been a time in her life in which she was not keenly aware of what her people were up to.

No consider the 30-something year old who is tip-toeing into Facebook for the first time.  First he finds some work friends and maybe some folks he plays soccer with.  Then a few folks from his last job.  Then a few people from the town he used to live in, then college guys and then back to high school and elementary school.  People he hasn’t talked to or heard from in 20 years are now available.

I mention this because this has happened to me twice now in the last few weeks.  An old friend from college disappeared off the planet, reappeared on Facebook and it allowed us to have lunch and catch up.  Meanwhile, the next time I’m in New York in June, I will be able to meet up with a friend I last saw in New Orleans circa 1986.  

Now, today’s 15 year olds won’t get to enjoy this type of reunion.  So I’m sticking with my story – Lil’ Green Patches and SuperPokes may be fun and all, but it’s the reconnecting with long lost friends that makes Facebook as powerful as it is.

Suck it up Haters – Twitter is here for good

January 28, 2009 /

I know – it still makes no sense.  And it still sounds dumb to say you “Tweeted” something.

But there are times when you have to admit things.  Like when you realized the DVD was replacing the VCR, that EVERYONE would eventually have a mobile phone, blogging was going to be here forever, and you would never again buy music that didn’t come as an .mp3.

Twitter has reached that stage.  It is here to stay.  It has enough users now that business models are being built around it, even while it doesn’t have one of its own.  And here’s the thing – it doesn’t need one.  Someone will buy it.  If you won’t listen to me, read the charts below – the ones that show 800% growth YoY.  So go get your Twitter account and stop resisting.  It’s free, it’s easy and it’s fun.  Quit making fun of it and use it.

 

 

I Become an iLemming

January 25, 2009 /

Well, I finally succumbed to the pressure.

Since it launched, I’ve seen proud and cheerful owners of the iPhone gleefully show off thier little toy.  In bars, in meetings, in lines at Starbucks, they tauntingly stick it into your face, showing you all the magical things it can do.

I resisted.  

I stayed true to my core Blackberry.  I like the Blackberry.  It’s easy to use.  I don’t need real time stock ticket updates or the best way to walk from the Space Needle to Palace Kitchen.  I need a phone and text, and maybe some Internet.

Saturday, something snapped.  

Suddenly I realized that the phone had changed.  I knew it before, but I finally admitted to the analogy that we’re in the mobile version of the shift from VCR to DVD, and I still owned a VCR.  And there is no reason to buy another souped up VCR.  It is no longer an issue of iPhone vs Blackberry.  It’s become an issue of mobile devices in 2009 and beyond, vs mobile devices in 2008 and prior.  I knew all of this already, but some light piece of straw finally made that camel’s back break.  And the camel asked for an iPhone.

Now I’m simply a junior member of the cult.  I look for and will listen to the teachings of those original iPhone disciples.  And I have to admit to myself that I’m more than a little excited to play with all the toys and gimmicks.  

Now, I haven’t yet stood in line and condescendingly scoffed at those simple “iNots” walking around with their pedestrian devices.  But I’m sure one day, as I breeze through Google Maps or order a video before boarding a plane, I’ll have that smug look of a full fledged cult member.  

If you are an iPhone Davidian and have a favorite “must-have” application, please let me know.

All Hail the Blogger In Chief

January 23, 2009 /

Inauguration day – Tears of joy, hope renewed and a feeling that we will all succeed.

Well, maybe that sentiment was felt by the general public as well, but anyone running a Social Media Marketing agency was even more pleased when the President of the United States proclaimed transparency was king and announced the White House would have a blog, communicating directly with its consumers/constituents in a conversational manner.

The news made waves around the Seattle Social Media community as well.  “Will he Twitter?”  “Will there be a White House YouTube Channel?”  “What new platforms will the White House use for Social Media?”

Any marketing effort that is being undertaken by the leader of the free world basically trumps every argument from any CEO rejecting Social Media as a valuable part of the marketing mix.  So thank you Mr. President.  You have already provided stimulus to one industry.

 

When Does Something Stop Being A Start-up

January 14, 2009 /

TechFlash details the latest version of Marcelo Calbucci’s Seattle Startup Index.  The index tracks the Web traffic of Seattle based startups.  TechFlash trumpets that once again, Zillow.com is at the top of the ist.

Now, I’m not trying to be ornery, but there’s something about being at the top of a list of “Start-ups” for multiple years, that feels akin to winning Rookie of the Year 3 times.  I see a lot of names on the Start-up list besides Zillow that have been around for quite awhile.  Names like Payscale, WetPaint, Jobster and Widgetbucks (formerly mpire.com).  

You might ask, “Who cares?”

Well if you are a start-up that launched in 2008, you certainly care that your traffic numbers are being compared to those of a companies that are reaching their 4th birthday.  Especially if some of them have geenrated serious rounds of funding already.  One would assume that a senior in his 4th year playing basketball would have more cumulative points than a freshman, no matter how exciting that freshman is.  

It all just makes me wonder how a “Start-up” is defined these days.

AOL Splits

January 13, 2009 /

We know that a number of companies are going to have to radically change their practices to survive this year.  In what could be the first “re-invention” of 2009, AOL appears to have split itself in two, blowing up the AOL brand in the process.

The new divisions are called MediaGlow and PeopleNetworks.  According to AdWeek, “MediaGlow encompasses a collection of 70 niche content sites launched in recent years, ranging from AOL Health to nonbranded properties like TMZ.com.”  it appears to be similar to Federated Media, a collection of web sites all served by a single ad network.

Meanwhile, “People Networks focuses on social media properties like Bebo and AOL Instant Messenger.”

The AOL portal is effectively gone, an acknowldgement that people are using search to land in their destination of choice, rather than having a single home page they visit every day.  

There are a number of other features that you can read about in the article.  Basically though, the old AOL is finally done.  It will be interesting to see if the new AOL properties become leaders in their new markets.

Will they or Won’t They? And Waht is the Effect of Widespread MSFT “Cutbacks”

January 5, 2009 /

So the blog world is all a-buzz with speculation about the rumored Microsoft cutbacks, layoffs, reductions, pruning, shearing or whatever other verb you want to use.  A lot of commenting is going on over at a blog called Mini-Microsoft, written by an insider.  

There are a ton of ways this could play out.  But at the end of the day, if Redmond makes either substantial cuts in one category, or small cuts across all full time heads, contractors, vendors and agencies, Seattle is going to feel a pretty big effect.

To the average Joe, it really doesn’t matter if Microsft makes formal layoffs, or just slows down the amount of contractors it brings on oard, or culls back some of its agencies.  In some shape or form, Steve Ballmer is writing checks to a bunch of people in this town.  Furthermore, if they do slash what they call the “10% ers,” those folks are going to come out with a tainted brand name on their resume.  If you are an employer, how do you justify hiring someone that was let go for being repeatedly on the “underperform” list?

Anyway, the point of this post is that it doesn’t matter what you call it.  Microsoft employing less people globally, means they will be hiring less people in Seattle.  And that causes not just full-time cutbacks, but also across agencies and temp firms.  And that’s bad for the city overall.  Let’s hope these rumors are disproven.  

1st Hand Account From Mumbai

December 1, 2008 /

Last week, you probably heard about the events in Mumbai, but glossed over them due to the hoilday weekend.  On Saturday, I discovered a friend of mine from Manchester Business School is now living in Mumbai.  I asked him to write a little about what happened out there.  Here is his email, unedited:

Re: Mumbai

well i am the worst when it comes to writing. i could relate some of the events to you to make up the script:

around 10.30pm we heard from the news that a place called Leobold cafe & bar had a gang war in which some people were shot. i actually had a friend just opposite that place curious about what had happened and could not figure out much. i heard stories of someone having their bachelor party there before the wedding.

it was only by 11pm  or so that we started getting news about 3 places and then 5 places that were hit by terrorist attacks. these included this bar, followed by a busy train station, and then these three locations that were under cross fire for 3 days, i.e. Taj Mahal Hotel, Trident Oberoi (two of the most upmarket hotels in the city which is a who’s who regular) and a predominiatly Jewish occupied building.

In the these three locations, the terrorists entered shooting at random. this followed with taking american, british and irish passport holders as hostage. many visitors from these nations also died in the attack. all these three locations were random killing grounds and under fire.

A hotel like to Taj could easily accomodate over a 1000 people. We hear from those inside that there were scores of dead bodies left in the hotel and many of them having bombs below them as booby traps. So we really do not know the actual death count but believe it is far above what the media portrays.

The following day we were hit by some rumours of terrorists in other parts of the city. We do fear though that there may be some of these terrorists that managed to escape and are busy planning something or finding an escape route. It is hard to say what is safe anymore here.

The government was quite unprepared considering the news shows a lot of the intelligence being made available to the state. the army did play a great role in stopping the series of sad events. it was quite late though. three days of anxiety has for the first time killed the spirit of a city that is known for rebounding back the next day from calamities and terrorism in the past. there is a great sense of unrest in the people now seeking strong action against the culprits and demanding a fair and committed government that really is concerned about its people and not to unkept promises to win their vote banks. most politicians that have tried to politicise this event have been come down hard upon by the media and public alike. 

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