Andy Boyer

Blog

  • But How Much is My Facebook Page Worth

    So Twitter doesn’t make a dime of revenue.  But there must be value there, since it’s extremely popular and nature abhors a vacuum.  So maybe I’m the one who should generate the revenue from it.  

    For example, suppose Pepsi called me and wanted me to tell all my Twitter friends that Double Caffeinated Clear Blueberry Diet-Pepsi was a one calorie blow pop of hyperactive goodness.  How much would I charge them?

    Well lucky for me, I can go to TweetValue.com and get an estimate.  Turns out all my 60 or so Twitter friends are worth a measley $18.  Which actually sounds like a lot of money to me because it’s around to a $300 CPM.  Pepsi media buyer, call in the next 48 hours and I’ll give you a special deal price of $10 for each January tweet, and we’ll see how it goes.  

    Maybe one day I can get as valuable as Shaquille O’Neal’s Twitter feed, which is a reachable $302. Barack Obama’s value of $41,000 seems a little unattainable.

    But, I do wonder what would I get to message my Facebook friends?

  • Techcrunch Crashes

    I don’t know why I find this amusing.  But Techcrunch, the sometimes snarky, often critical, source to get news about the technology industry, experienced a site crash today.  

    This is only relevant since they consistently blast web sites and technologies when their servers break.  I wonder of they will explain what caused their own server issue.  

  • Why Models Don’t Run PR Agencies

    So someone writes something nasty about you on a blog no one reads.  What do you do?

    a) Ignore it 

    b) Write a post on your own blog explaining why the other post is libelous

    c) Do some personal SEO work so that you can bury the post on Google under a list of your own links

    d) File a lawsuit so that the post goes super public across the blogosphere, letting everyone in the world link to the post that says the nasty things about you, and making it the number one link that shows up when people Google you for the next 20 years?

    If you answered A, B or C, then we can have a reasonable conversation.  If you said, D, then you are model Liskula Cohen and are not familiar with how the world of Social Media works.  According to this Mediapost article, “Cohen alleges that she was defamed by the blog Skanks in NYC. The entire blog consists of five posts, all dated Aug. 21 that jab at Cohen.”  Note that the posts came out in August 2008, and if anyone cared about it then, they certainly don’t care now.  But, Cohen has managed to grab the remains of that flame, fan it, dump gasoline on it, and insert half a forest into the campfire.  Well done.

    On a side but not totally irrelevant note, this is an important lesson in why you need to spend the $50 a year to own the url’s of your name, to register yourname.everyblog.com, to have basic profiles on Ning, LinkedIn, Naymz, Biznik, etc….and lock down yourname@everyemailaddress.com.  Because, you just never know when you may be named to a blog like Skanks of NYC and need to bury the link when people Google you.

  • What is Happening at Qwest Field July 4?

    If you google: Seattle Sounders July 4 (or just click on this link) you’ll get a mysterious return.  All of the major ticket scalping sites have seats for sales, some for as much as $3000.  What do they know that the Sounders aren’t telling us?  And is it brilliant or careless to let the ticket brokers leak that some event is going to occur before you send out any formal announcements?  Hmm…. 

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

    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.  

  • Fudzilla Stakes Entire Reputation on the Line With Bold Microsoft Prediction

    A Tech blog called Fudzilla announced on December 30, that Micosoft will be laying off 17% of its workforce, which comes out to be about 15,000 people.

    Now, this is interesting because they don’t use the terms “speculate” “”could”, “might” or “possibly” to describe the layoff.  The exact quote is “The rumor that Microsoft was set to lay off people on January 15th, 2009 is no longer a rumor but a fact. Staff at Microsoft have been informed that the company is readying major layoffs to its worldwide operations and it’s not a small cut, either.”

    Meanwhile Henry Blodget of Silicon Valley Insider Reporter reports today that Fudzilla is just that, full of Fud.  He says “A cut of this magnitude seems highly unlikely, although the targeted areas do make sense.”

    I don’t know much about Fudzilla, but I do know Henry Blodget is on the speed dial of every person in Microsoft PR.  So it’s liekly that Blodget is repeating something he’s been told.  Either Blodget is lying, is being lied to, or Fudzilla received some faulty info.  

    On Jan 22, we’ll see who is closer to the truth, the blog that originally broke a story, or a reporter breifed by a PR team.  Should be interesting.

  • 9 Not Well thought Out Predictions for 2009

    In no particular order…

    1) Facebook will start charging $10 – $20 a year for company Pages, and no one will mind. Every small business has to pay $10 a year plus hosting for a web url, why shouldn’t they pay a yearly fee for a Facebook one?  Other companies like YouTube, MySpace and Twitter will attempt to follow suit.

    2) Seattle sports:

    • Mariners’ youth movement is fun yet painful to watch.  Bedard and Washburn are moved to contenders in spring.
    • Since the Bidwill family owns the Cardinals, they make a huge off-season mistake and plunge themselves back to the NFC West cellar.
    • The Seahawks meanwhile make a brilliant off-season acquisition, and climb back through a weak division to 9-7 and the NFC West title.
    • UW football beats UCLA and guarantees Steve Sarkezian “hero status” for a year.

    3) Layoffs at WAMU, Microsoft, Starbucks and other large companies create two phenomena:

    • A greater number of qualified, highly educated, intelligent, white collar professionals than ever apply for teaching credentials.  The Teacher’s Union immediately works to figure out a way to stop this from happening.
    • With a lack of full-time jobs and everyone fearful of the stock market, people turn to entrepreneurship, opening coffee stands, noodle trucks, photography studios and more.

    4) Some state goes nearly bankrupt, and teachers and public workers get paid in IOU’s so that there is cash for welfare and unemployment checks.  This finally makes a segment of the voting population ask if things are out of whack.

    5) New industries asking for government bailouts:

    • Ski Industry:  If Global warming is real, and the US is responsibile for Global warming, then the US government should pay reparations to the US ski industry for screwing up their climate.
    • Major League Baseball Players Association:  They’ve never needed a reason before, so they’ll ask for the fun of it.  And threaten to strike if they don’t get it.
    • Green Technology:  Anyone who invested in a green company, bought a green car or acquired a green investment fund when gas was $5.00 a gallon now wants money back, blaming the US foreign policies for bringing prices back down to a reasonable level.

    6) In a change, a number of ordinary line workers employed by the UAW are caught in an expose detailing some sort of extravagance.  Since its not an executive scandal, but ordinary workers living lavishly on tax payer money, we see a huge backlash toward more bailouts.

    7) A perfect storm of rising dollar and great airline deals make it cheap to travel to Europe – cheaper even than Asia.  Tourism booms to Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.

    8) With oil at $40 a barrel, this ridiculous winning streak the state of Oklahoma is on finally comes to an end.  Florida 59, Oklahoma 35. 

    9) Thanks to the Sonics debacle and the host of other circus events coing from City Hall, people actually CARE about City Council elections this year, and a highly qualified pool of moderates and business people come in to take some of the spots. 

    Got any predictions of your own?  Put them in the comments section below.  Happy New Year.

  • Web 2.0 Quiz

    Ok, you’re at work.  But you really don’t have *that* much to do.  So once you’ve exhausted the stories analyzing “Who will Jerry Jones Shoot First – Terrell Owens or Wade Phillips,” head on over to http://quizible.com/quiz/how-web-2-are-you/22 and see how many of the top Web 2.0 logos you can identify.   Why not?  

  • Happy Holidays

    Dear Santa:

    This year I would like an additional 15 hours a month.  I certainly think it’s a reasonable ask, since if you would just give me an extra 1/2 hour a day, I could really do a lot more for mankind.

    First off, I’d write on this blog more often, and while that doesn’t seem like it’s really going to benefit society that much, follow me on this.  If I write more, more people will continue to read.  And if more people read this, I’ll feel better when I look at the traffic numbers.  And if I feel better after looking at the traffic numbers, I’ll be less grouchy at the end of the week.  And if I’m less grouchy, I’ll be able to spread that joy to all your loyal subjects, or customers, or whatever you call them.

    Now before you say no, hear me out.  Because I don’t need all 15 hours to write.  So, I’ll make you a deal.  Give me 5 to write, I’ll donate 5 to charitable causes, and give me 5 more to deal with work stuff – not the boring work stuff – but helping employees and clients to make sure they are all in a good mood too.  So then, that 5 hours you give me would pay itself forward to a lot of people, and then they’d all be in a better mood too.  It’s really a sound investment on your part.

    This isn’t a whim, and I have the logistics all figured out.  With the exception of one weekend in Las Vegas that really shouldn’t count, I have not been awake between 4:30 and 5:00am for a long time.  So, all you need to do is let me repeat that 1/2 hour every day, which would then give me an extra 1/2 hour of sleep.  So, instead of my normal bedtime, I’ll go to bed 1/2 hour later, since I know I’ll get it back.  See, the plan’s simplicty is it’s greatest attribute.

    So look, have one of your guys run the numbers on this, because I think you’ll see this is a win-win-win Xmas present.  More content on the blog, more smiles from the author, more smiles from everyone 2 degrees away, plus a healthy benefit for a charity (you can even choose the charity.)  It sure beats a BB Gun.  Let me know what you think.

    Yours Truly,

    Andy

  • Prolebrity

    You may have seen this already, but Prolebrity is a pretty interesting collection of blogs writeen by athletes.  I’m not sure what the model is, or why the athletes are inclined to take part, but the Mariners’ Ryan Rowland-Smith has a blog that he posts to about once a month.  Worth a gander.