Adjust and Improve

Gotta jot this down 'cause it's on my mind. And I want to leave it where I can see it, maybe it will serve as a timely fit for someone else, too. I have some new things coming at me personally and professionally. I believe I'm exposed to these opportunities because I'm ready to handle them. Change requires courage. The courage to reach off the comfortable limb to way out where the best fruit grows. I won't distance myself from my past or what I've built to get this far, but it's time to grow. I am ready to put myself out in waters where risk, rejection and reward swim. I will adjust - and I will improve. 

Happy Tuesday!

~dm

The best way to give advice.

I went for a ride early Sunday morning, a 50 mile jaunt to a familiar spot near Port Salerno, Fl. Many of our area's athletes participated in a triathlon on Saturday, so attendance for this ride was lighter than usual. I rode with my son's friend who has taken on training with adults at age 15. His name is Austin. He is a good rider and what we did yesterday falls well within his abilities. 

Do you know the story of a sports coach that can impress something meaningful upon your kid despite you as a parent telling him the same message? Well I am this voice to Austin. Sometimes he listens and sometimes it seems as if he picks through what I say "cafeteria style," taking just the parts he likes. The morning weather was nice, our pace was good and we spoke about many things on the ride. I found myself listening to him go through a story about how he tells his friends at school that aren't willing to wake early in the morning why he does this training. He rationalized the fitness benefits, the goals, his willingness to be more than a "let's drink or get into trouble" kind of teen. It was then I chimed in unrehearsed, with something I swore to myself I'd have to write down when I got back home. I said,

"The best way to give advice ~ is to live the advice. Your example says it all."

I try to guide myself with this idea. When I do it right, it works! Happy Monday everyone.

-dm

Excited for Bing

Bing will incorporate elements of Facebook activity in their search results - this made techie headlines a week ago. If the news of an impending Bing search engine collaboration with Facebook isn't ringing a bell for you, it should be. This partnership looks to be a game changer in how we experience Internet search. Even as the advertising machine of search itself, a model built largely by Yahoo and brought to an apex with Google, is under attack from hardware manufacturers and social media outfits, Bing looks to freshen the experience by dancing with Facebook.

Bing popped onto the scene with a graphical "smile" and claimed its algorithms were better and more accurate than those of Google. They both display different results for the same keyword search, with Bing delivering graphics and images in such an effective manner that Google quickly altered their image search results to match suit. The Facebook social element added to Bing poses an interesting question - how can popularity influence SERPs (Search engine results pages) and will it make a difference at the cash register? Google has shunned displaying the details and search results that come from inside Facebook. Why not, their competition gets enough hungry eyeballs each day, it would be crazy to send more their way. Small bits and pieces of Facebook info makes its way to Google's search results, but for the most part, what you post on Facebook is ignored (or mothballed) by Google. Bing sees opportunity by integrating the Facebook LIKES and related social media activity of your chosen group of friends into search results. And they are spot on with this assessment! How likely would you be to click on a link or photo if it was also recommended or lauded by four of your trusted Facebook friends? This influence has already proven powerful with Pinterest, a social experience that thrives on sharing of dreams, experiences and shopping hints and tips. Bing can tip the table in an interesting direction by making their meshing with Facebook compelling for the web surfer. Bing also claims that the days of search engine results consisting of a white page with blue hyperlinks is short-lived. They hint at displaying the search results with their usualy graphical flair, photos, icons, perhaps they'll even incorporate familiar Facebook items to enrich what you receive. This is very exiting to me, Bing is not my default search engine today, but I'd be more pressed to try them if they could sprinkle in my Facebook marketing gold among the search engine results. Example, what if I learn that my childhood friend Tom has just returned from a trip to Paris as I search "Tour de France?" Or friend Shiela's photo of new Aasics running shoes (with 12 "likes" from her other friends) is displayed when I search for athletic wear on Bing? This could be very impressive and engaging! How many people are thinking the Bing-Facebook reationship could also have benefits on the Facebook side of the equation? Could my searches, with my permission, become part of my Facebook Timeline or Wall, allowing even more input and interaction with my friends in the Facebook world? Inject a new Facebook mobile presence, mentioned frequently last week among all the IPO talk, and what "could be" is exciting to consider.

Knowing the possibilities is fantastic. Seeing that this new relationship between two Internet titans can also spur Google and Apple to better tit-for-tat competitive advances. This is a great time to be wrapped up in the online shakeout called search!

A promise revealed?

Have you heard of people attending classes on how to use Facebook? Probably not. Or how to work an iPhone? Not really, besides basic swapping SIMM cards and contacts from old phones to new phones, they work right out of the box. Tech has delivered on a promise that most people didn't see coming. IT GETS EASIER! Part of the allure of technology has always been "cooler," better features, faster, more attractive, but seldom does ease of implementation of the technology itself rank so high in the deliverables category. We are there, it's proven wildly successful and profitable, so user experience and mass adoption of complex tools is widespread. I was in a meeting last week and one participant said, "Many older people don't have smartphones." I don't agree with this claim, late model Droids and iPhones are very easy to use, thus their appeal to the older generations. Visit a Verizon, Sprint or AT&T store and see who's in there. It's all ages. And it is only going to continue! Tech gets easier and we all benefit.

Put our franchisees in the mix and tech "ease of use" shines through in a pronounced way. Our people are subjected to so many pulls at their time, the new technology available can really make a difference. Being able to price and schedule your work from any location is a dream come true. Could this be any easier than with a tablet computer? No way! Storing files in the cloud for accessability anywhere on any device is wonderful. Posting to social media in real time with pictures, links and information solidifies the belief that each franchisee should "be the expert" in their local market. And we at the Corporate Office are delighted for two reasons. We don't have to train people on how to use the tools, technology has given us a big lead-in for this task. Most importantly, we DO get to teach how use of the tools is beneficial to their business. We distribute information as to what our collective group finds successful. We focus more on the business of business instead of the buttons and gadgets that for years were the root of so much frustration for new franchisees.

Somewhere along the path, technology "promised" it would become easy and its use would become commonplace. It's happening right now to all of us. It's a promise I'm happy to say is coming true. 

The Facebook Diet

It's Friday, May 18th. Facebook stock, through an initial public offering, will be sold for the first time today. This occurrence will make a few Americans ultra wealthy - those that helped Mark Zuckerberg build (Or swipe, whichever you believe) an extraordinary platform for advertising and marketing. All under the guise of friends and family!

I won't be buying stock today, quite the opposite, I'll be divesting some of my interest in Facebook. This is ironic because at work, I help instruct and guide our franchisees to use Facebook in their business. Facebook does help bring more awareness to what you sell or service, because so many people use the service. I'll go further and state that you'd be crazy as a business owner not to have a strong online presence and Facebook Business Page. But I'm referring to personal Facebook, you know, the reason we all went and set up our own walls and profiles in the first place? I've been a user for 5+ years, before the fad hit many. Now I'm going on what I call a "Facebook diet."  I am cutting way back on my personal use of Facebook, primarily because unlike a business, I stand to gain little by pouring more of my time into the exercise of keeping my page and profile updated along with checking the never-ending flow of status updates that come from my group of Facebook friends. I like my collection of friends and I have enjoyed looking at their pictures and their posts. My friends are great! I just find I'm not getting enough of what I want to warrant the time I spend on the site, so I'll be doing less of it. Maybe I'm leading the trend of folks who will find that like American Idol, The Biggest Loser, and other pop culture sensations, at some point, it's just not important anymore.

Diet may not be the best terminology to use, but it sure gets attention as a blog title. Most people look to "lose" when they take on a diet plan. I'm on the other side of the coin, I'm looking to "gain" by virtue of my Facebook diet. Personally, I look to gain back the time I would be spending online for more worthwhile purposes. I'll use this time to better myself, my family and my friends. Just like Facebook said would happen :)