Testing . . . Testing . . . One . . . Two . . . Three . . .

Hey look, there's a blog here.

Pretty sure that this is a personal record for not blogging; my business blog has seem more action than this one has of late. I've shaken up my work life a little bit of late and hoping to be a little more engaged with life (personally, professionally, etc.) as a result. Time will tell....

But, for the moment anyway, I'm back...

Timexpo Museum to Close: Social Media Fail

The local news has disclosed that the Timexpo Museum in Waterbury is planning to close.

Low attendance at the museum, located at the Brass Mills Commons shopping center, was the reason for the closure, according to Timex.

I'd like to offer a more fundamental reason: Failure to engage via social media. 

Visiting the Timexpo Museum website, one finds the obligatory social media buttons at the bottom: Facebook, Twitter,  Email, Google-plus, and might think "Oh, yeah, they are doing social media...." But really, some webmaster or marketing consultant put those there (lipstick on a pig, so to speak) because clicking through any of those creates a Facebook post about the site or a Tweet link - but there's little evidence that Timexpo has embraced social media.

Their Yelp Page (4 reviews, 3 stars average) remains unclaimed. So too their Trip Advisor Page (32 reviews, 4.5 stars average).

There is a Facebook Page (not linked from their website Facebook button) - it was set up in Sept 2014 (too little, too late), they've posted less than a dozen times since then, with no serious social engagement (2 reviews, 131 likes, 196 check-ins). There is no Twitter account. Nothing on Instagram. There is an events page, but no blog or news page, no press page, no mailing list. There has been no real attempt to engage fans, visitors, the media, etc.  

It's probably too late for the Timexpo Museum - decisions have been made; plans are in the works. It's too bad, because it's got great location and visibility (who among us has not seen and are familiar with the Easter Island statue along I-84 in Waterbury) and really, time is a pretty ripe concept for social media riffing and event planning (time travel, steam-punk, the new Apple Watch, all come to mind)

But it might not be too late for your small / local business, arts group, tourism destination, community group, or cause. Get on the Social Media bandwagon, now!

Birthday Blues

It's harder and harder to ignore ones birthday in this era of social media and big data.

I've pulled my birthdate off Facebook and removed it from the yoga studio system, and that has been pretty effective in years past, but this year Linked In notified my contacts, and that bled over to Facebook pretty quickly. In addition, the camp calendar prints our birthdays. So although I was somewhat mysterious about the actual date, the word got out. It's been bouncing around since Friday, and as late as last evening, when I was acknowledging the event at the studio, people were assuming I was being disingenuous. 

See the thing is, my birthday was (and geenrally is) not all that different from any other day. Yesterday was no different - taught yoga, worked, practiced yoga, ate two meals alone (one not so healthy, one healthy). I did treat myself to a carrot cake cupcake but even that's not all that unusual. No cards, no cake, no presents, no family, no friends, no celebration.

So you will excuse me if I am less than effusive at the Facebook wishes for a birthday that is spectacular, monumental, or any other approbatory sentiment. Because that's not how my life is; and the more social and cultural promotion that comes my way to have that sort of birthday, the more painful and depressing the reality is.

I'm grateful for this life, I am happy to acknowledge the date. But the faux and surfacey "have a great day" aspect of birthday wishes (as heartfelt and well intended as they are) is just not a good fit for me; I do not have the sort of community or social circle to celebrate with.

At my age, birthdays are a bit like watching an altimeter pass through a 1000 foot rotation after one has jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. You notice the dial spinning but it's kind of hard to celebrate the ground approaching at terminal velocity....

Not Quite Getting the Concept

This one came across my social media stream this morning:

Hey Friends! We have two sweet concerts this weekend. Is anyone available to hang few flyers out of town? We got some special ones made up by Acme Foundation

First off, I saw your post. I was curious enough to click through to your page to see what the "special concerts" are. Of course, there is no mention of the concerts on your timeline, and no "Events" set up for these special concerts. Trying hard to be friendly, helpful, and less than snarky, I commented:

You'd have to hang fewer flyers if you told us about the concerts via social media

Because, seriously - all you'd need to do is mention the performers, dates, and times in your "please hang flyers" post and you'd kill two birds with one stone. I saw the post, I was curious - social media did it's job. But having baited your line, there was nothing to draw me in. And do set up some events for these concerts - and maybe folks might see that, comment, say they are going, share to their contacts.

It's nice to hang flyers, but it's pricey (labor to design, cost to print, labor to distribute) and social media is a lot less expensive. This particular entity has a respectable 2700 "likes" - and Monday is certainly not too soon (might even be a little too late) to crank up the social media engine.

Facebook Invites (How Not To)

I recently posted the following to my Facebook timeline:

Facebook folks, if you are using your personal account to promote your business or services, send out mass INVITES to events and workshops to your entire friend list, etc. I am probably going to unfriend you. You need to set up a separate business page and direct your solicitations and invites to folks who have specifically LIKED your business, rather than to every single person you know.

I don't mind an occasional update on what is going on, but my INVITE list is often filled with invites to events I have no interest in from folks I rarely if ever see that are pretty much the Facebook equivalent of SPAM.

Despite this, one of the main offenders on my friends list proceeded to send out a spammish INVITE just this morning. And was summarily unfriended.

I look upon invites from the perspective of "what if everyone behaved that way". I have 580 Facebook friends. Not bragging; it's just that I move through many communities - yoga, music, arts, local, history, glbt, etc. and a few in particular (yoga teacher training, GLBT summer camp, and the Falcon Ridge folk festival) tend to be "meet lots of people" places. Mind you, that 580 is a conservative number of "friends" - I have a fairly rigid "if we've never met in 3D, we're not friends" policy, I almost never make friend requests (but also rarely turn them down), and I have a "one friend connection per person" policy for folks who have multiple facebook identities.

Now, if every one of those folks used Facebook to promote a business, hobby, group, or cause with a handful of events or activities per month, I'd be looking at 1000-2000 "invites" per month. Declining Facebook invites would become a full time job, and I'd no doubt miss a lot of events and invites that I want to see in the "noise" of the unwanted solicitations.

We're not talking about a party here - but rather things like a weekly meditation class, or a monthly reiki training. Hey, I teach yoga. I could, I imagine INVITE all 580 of my friends to each of the three yoga classes I teach weekly, every one of the dozens or so Guinea Pig gigs we play. But no, because that's abusing the system.

Learn how to use the technology, folks. Set up a business page for your business, and send out invites to those who have specifically LIKED the page and expressed interest (and no, accepting a friend request is not an acceptance to get dozens of event invites). Create events for your activities, but instead of inviting 100s of people to each event (and forcing them to decline through gritted teeth of resentment) just post it to your personal and/or business timeline - folks will see it.

And if you are active in a cause, be mindful of flooding your timeline with posts about rescue animals or queer rights or politics or whatever. While nowhere near as intrusive as excessive invites, my "friends" list has several dozen people who I effectively ignore (using the Facebook tools) because of one too many "URGENT PIT BULL RESCUE" post or whatever. Love animals, my pup is a rescue, but I really do not want to weed through 20 such posts on my timeline each day.

Doing the social media dance, whether you are using it for personal or professional purposes, is walking a tightrope between "out of sight, out of mind" (under utilizing the platform) and "annoying your fans" (resulting in "unlikes" and "unfriending") 

An Annual Influx

I was playing around with Google Correlate today (prompted by a piece on Morning Edition). While the point of the site is to find sympatico (expected or not) search terms, there is an interesting trending function that is fun by itself.

Of course, I searched for "yoga", and here's the resultant chart:

Not surprising that "yoga" correlates to "vinyasa" - other correlations include "work out world", "bikram", and "lucille roberts"

What stands out is the annual, start of the year, new year's resolution driven interest in yoga. Each January, we see an annual swell in class sizes and students, and the fact that folks are searching for yoga brings that into focus. There is also an interesting upward trend, year over year.

Ah, well. Enough cyber musing. I've got two classes to teach today, and something tells me they will be full ones!

Groupon Redux

So I cranked out the following analysis in a fit of pique over on Facebook. Decided not to put it there (why stir things up) but I'll put it here. In lieu of actual blogging, which I have been doing little of, lately.

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So here's one way to think of it. East-West sold 345 "groupons" this morning. They sold $10 (lunch) and $15 (dinner) "deals", worth $20 and $30 worth of product. Let's average it at $12.50 and $25.

Now, Groupon takes the money from the Groupon, and sends something to the restaurant. I don't know the details but for low value deals like this it's at maximum 50% (and could be nothing, I've read that for $10 deals, Groupon takes $100%).

So East-West has just assumed liability for $25 (average) x 345 = $8625. They (hopefully) get paid $7.50 x 345 = $2588. So today's Groupon advertising cost them a bit over $6000.

Now folks will bring friends, buy more than the Groupon amount, etc. (all good) - and a certain percentage wll not be redeemed. But that $6000 in lost receipts is coming from somewhere. Assuming that the restaurant is making 10% profit on gross receipts (very optimistic, from what I have read), then East West needs to boost sales $60,000 to break even on the Groupon.

It works out fine if there are a lot of empty seats or folks visit during off-peak hours. But I don't go to East West on weekend nights - it's often full with a wait for a table. So one can assume that some of the Groupon customers are going to be taking seats from full priced customers for a while.

One can do an awful lot of advertising and buy a lot of goodwill with existing customers for $6000. But I think Groupon sales folks are pretty good at communicating "you don't have to pay anything, look at all the new customers, and we'll send you a check!" and businesses do not figure out how much all this advertising will be costing them in the long run.

I do think Groupon makes sense for a lot of businesses - if you can steer customers to off peak or slack times, if you have extra capacity, if you are new in the market or are branching out into new areas.

OK, I'm done kvetching (no, really!).....but please, if you DID buy a Groupon this morning, please tip your server based on the full, regular price of the meal. One of the gripes about Groupons is that folks tip based on the post-groupon bill - so the server / staff gets the raw end of the deal. And undertipped waitrons might be cranky and take it out on customers - even the full-fare ones. Yet another hidden cost of the Groupon experience.

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I've been a long time customer and fan of East-West Grill from the very start, and I want them to stay in business. Have no idea how well they are doing these days. But I would hate to think that one bad decision to advertise with Groupon might push them under.....so call all this sturm und drang self serving.....

Groupon - No!

This morning's Groupon deal is one of my favorite little Thai restaurants (East-West Grille) - a converted old diner that service great lunch and dinner, and has recently branched into some amazing breakfasts. I noticed it in my In Box, and one of my Facebook friends posted it to his wall.

Noooooooooooooooooooo!

I've been looking into Groupon lately for some clients, and it's not always good news for the businesses who sign up for the service. Some businesses have been driven under ...by the flood of Groupon business - often one-time customers who do not come back without a "coupon" - and in the meantime, having to staff up for the high volume, alienating regular customers (due to Groupon volume), and subsidizing the Groupon customers. Hey, we all know the folks who boast of getting a basket full of groceries for $0, through shrew sales shopping, rebates, and coupons. Not exactly the target demographic for a successful, ongoing business.

Groupon is reportedly pretty aggressive at selling themselves and their unique "deals" (encouraging businesses to agree to 50% off or more deals, etc.), and not permitting a cap on the number of deals sold. Would be one thing if one could limit the number of Groupon deals that one processes per day (like a service business that takes reservations, you could string it out for months) - but it's plausible that a restaurant could be full of groupons for days or weeks following the offer.

For low dollar deals, the business will probably get zero dollars for every Groupon sold or redeemed. (Groupon takes a high percentage of the receipts, 100% for offers under $10). Imagine trying to run a small restaurant for a few weeks with ZERO receipts, as your tables are full of folks with Groupon offers.

Here's one business's experience: Posies Cafe - a bakery / cafe that is probably not too different from my hometown restaurant in terms of scale and economics.

Bottom Line: I have been an East-West customer from Day 1, love their food, and especially their breakfasts. Would hate to see them driven under by a (perhaps foolhardy, and yes most certainly free will) decision to work with Groupon. But if, three or six months down the road, we read about the restaurant closing, I told you so, and I will sorrowfully take my Cassandra-like derriere elsewhere for Thai food.

As for me, I'm not purchasing a Groupon. I'll buy one for a place that I've never been to and would like to try out. But I value local businesses too much; I'll pay full price for my next lunch and consider it a fair trade....

Social Media

Social Media has been on the table the last few days.

At Thanksgiving, my sister's use of Facebook to keep tabs on her eldest (1/2 a country away as a college freshman) was bantered about - her son refuses to friend her, although has let in an uncle. So she keeps in touch via text message and skype. We were teasing her as a "stalker" although my niece used the perhaps trendier word creeper. She's not really that much of a helicopter mom, but a mom cannot help herself. We were laughing at what our mom would have done had she had access to such technology when we were in school - no cell phones even back then, and no land lines in the dorm, so we had to rely on the catch as catch can payphone in the dorm hallway.

Then at the reunion, a clear line of demarcation between those who have embraced social media (a handful) and those who have not. Interesting. I'm on the cutting edge, I suppose, at least for my age group (surely not in general) - part of my work involves staying abreast of such things for tourism and small business concerns, I've been blogging in one for or another since 2002, and have had an online presence (personal essays, business) long before that. And my social network skews younger and hipper - folks without land lines, who text first rather than call, who have less concern about privacy.

Being self employed helps - my clients come and go, but I am not wholly dependent on one entity for financial survival. So a lot less concern about propriety and discretion. And in some ways, all of my online presence is a marketing campaign for my brand - my self. My music, my balloon chasing, my yoga teaching, my writing - all of these little bits of renaissance me stirred into one gumbo.

In some ways perhaps I am a bridge figure, between we oldsters coming to terms with the new media, and the young guns who do not know anything different. Not fully embracing the technology but exploring it's capabilities and seeding the potential within my generation.

Dear Random Facebook Person....

.....who is now Facebook friends with 1/2 of my Facebook friends, but who I have never met. Here is my Friending Policy: At least one meaningful, in person encounter before I Facebook friend, please.....

It's a little like a wave....you watch this heretofore unknown person "friending" your friends, first one, then two, then 6 or 10. And then they decide that I am worth friending. Almost invariably, this is a person who is trolling for a network to sell or promote something. No thanks....

Madison, WI

Out of town all week, working with a client in Madison, WI. Of course, I've been here since yesterday at 1 pm and we have not done much work yet - lot of hurry up and wait (in this case for access to the system we will be testing). I've caught up on email and facebook and various message boards; might as well blog.

Staying at a fairly low cost ($60 / night) Extended Stay Deluxe property - about 1/2 the cost of the regular place I stay in and fine for me. I like the kitchen; I went out and picked up some fruit and cereal for breakfast, some yogurt and pretzels for snacks, and some water and skim milk - a lot healthier than the typical morning continental breakfast (I never sem to be able to resist the eggs or a waffle now and then). And since I am here all week, having some space (couch, lounger, desk, kitchen) is nice.

Some would say "hey, your client is picking up the tab, why do you care?" but that's not how I roll.....

While standing in line getting peeved at the rental car place (which I will not name for fear of earnest follow-up, see below), I tweeted a few times of my crankiness, specifically about the desk clerk who was a little too chatty with customers given that he was the only one there and had a line of folks waiting. So you need to bump the dude up to a pick-up, fine. Do you really need to know that he drives a truck and what kind and does he like it? Oh and do you think I did not notice you selling me (woman) hard on the coverage while you barely mentioned it to the three dudes in front of me?

So anyway, later yesterday my tweets were apparently scoped out by the director of social marketing for this particular company, who wants to follow up. Oh fine. Censorship comes not from the iron fist of big brother but the velvet touch of a caring marketing department wanting to make things right. I'll avoid brand names in the future just to not have to subject myself to "making it right"

While I am in general cranky about being away, and also cranky about being in the belly of the corporate beast (truth be told, its a good company and not at all annoying) - I do have a local yoga studio nearby that is pretty good, and might take an evening's drive up to Appleton to visit with some friends one evening this week.

Un-Facebooking

I've decided to unlink my blog feed from my Facebook account.

I guess I feel like I'm putting myself out there a bit too much. I do not mind sharing my thoughts on a public sphere (I've been blogging since 2002) but Facebook is a little too public - writing here, and a handful of frequent readers will see it, along with those who stumble upon the blog via search engines or links, and those who consciously seek it out.

But Facebook - just too many people reading, and I've found myself filtering what I choose to write about because I am concerned about, or conscious of, the ripples that my words might cause among an increasing large circle of "friends". I've been reading Donna Farhi's "Teaching Yoga" and there is a lot in there regarding boundaries between students and teachers that is making me think a bit, and consider pulling back a bit.

Still linking to Twitter; which is (if anything) even more impersonal, but at least there, readers need to click through to get to the actual blog / post.

Apologies to those who enjoy my writing; stop by the blog once in a while and you can keep up with me.

Flashmob. Or Not.

Apparently, the Greater Hartford Arts Council organized (or, to use the word that I saw on Facebook today regarding this, choreographed) a "flashmob" today at State House Square. It looked kind of fun....



A small slice of uneasiness here....does something cool cease to be cool (or perhaps, become less cool) when it's used as a tool by an organization (regardless of how worthwhile)? When people are invited to come watch? When it's pre-packaged and marketed?

I think back to that staple of arena and stadium fandemonioum, The Wave. Wikipedia has a few alternate versions of how this got started, but as I recall from those early years, the coolness of The Wave was its grass roots origins, how one fan, or perhaps one rowdy section, would work to get it going, how each section in turn figured out that it was happening, and how the stadium sort of caught it's breath and watched, hoping it would make it around. No organization or marketing needed.

Today, with a mascot leading the charge, a video screen, announcer, and theme music proclaiming "It's Time for the Wave!" - it is simultaneously simple to get a wave going, and a lot less cool. It was plucked from the realm of "self entertainment by the masses" and co-opted by management.

So, an organized "flashmob" set up by marketers and with full sanction of all parties (official or no), with an invited guest list. Kind of cool. But only "kind of".

Addendum: A follow up tweet from GHAC. "Clear Channel Radio was at today's hARTfordFlashmob...were you?" 5 points from Gryffindor. Clear Channel? The bane of independent, local radio? Might as well announce that Walmart, Monsanto, and BP were there as well....."

Addendum II: And ctnow.com (Courant, FoxCT, WTXX, Advocate, etc.) describes this as Spontaneous Dance Breaks Out In Hartford. Sigh. A quick foray over to Merriam-Webster online provides several definitions of the word spontaneous, including:

5 : developing or occurring without apparent external influence, force, cause, or treatment
6 : not apparently contrived or manipulated : natural

Au contraire. This appears to have been completely contrived or manipulated. IMHO.

Jude = Arts and Tourism Crank and Marketing Curmudgeon. Guilty as charged.

Font Critique Bureau

Really, NBC Connecticut, this is the best you could do? Ick.

Sidebar, what happened to WVIT 30? Your call letters and UHF channel are nowhere to be found on your website. Curious. Both WFSB Channel 3 and WTNH Channel 8 remain rooted to their broadcast roots.

Kind of makes sense in an era when most folks get their television off a cable, where NBC is sitting right there on Channel 4. But still, kind of curious. I'll have to check out the news to see if you've unbranded your broadcasts the same way you've unbranded your website....

Note to Billings Forge, Re: Branding

Center for Community at Billings Forge - http://www.centerforcommunity.org/

Billings Forge Community Works - http://www.billingsforgeworks.org/

The Workshops at Billings Forge - http://workshops.billingsforgeworks.org/

The Studio at Billings Forge - http://studio.billingsforgeworks.org/

The Kitchen at Billings Forge - http://www.thekitchencatering.org/

Farmer's Market at Billings Forge - http://www.hartfordfarmersmarket.org/

Firebox Restaurant - http://www.fireboxrestaurant.com/

Billings Forge Apartments - http://billingsforgeapts.com/ (admittedly a placeholder site)

There is a lot going on down there on Broad Street - but it seems like energy, communication, etc. are a bit scattered. I had a hard time deciding which website to link to in my previous post. Take a lesson from Real Art Ways (cinema, visual arts, spoken word, community outreach, social events, music, all coming from one entity and accessible on one website) - brand yourself. Set up one website, one path for communications. You can target marketing or outreach, slice and dice your email communications, fund-raising lists and organization internally - but give us one unified face, and we'll be a lot less confused and more likely to come on down!