Brian Feener

Unless there’s a content-sharing, or link-sharing agreement, I don’t see the point behind the Blogroll.

I do understand that it’s important for your site to be linked from other sites, but I’d rather see my content on a single blog post rather than on the site’s blogroll.

Why?

Because it means that I’ve done something signficant enough that I deserve commentary.  It means that I’ve gotten enough steam behind an idea to keep other people thinking about it.

When I’m on your blogroll under a site that gets 10mm hits a year, I’m literally buried underneath the weight of traffic going to that site and not mine. It does not say anything about why you should go to my site instead.  In fact, if I weren’t me, I wouldn’t go to my site either if it came down to me or Seth Godin’s page.

And what’s it mean to you to be in my blogroll if I’m not getting paid to put you there?  Are Larry and Sergey going to thank me for putting Google in my brianfeener.com blogroll? Probably not (though they seem like pretty grateful individuals).

I’d rather be successful for the fact that I do a good job than be successful on the basis of association.  Those are the movies that tout the “writers of hit comedy X” and the rap albums that have all the “Featuring Lil’ ____” after the song titles.  Maybe it’s a way to build a business, but it’s not a way to build a career.

I’m all for forgiveness.

I’m all for giving people a second chance.

And I’m in favor of giving Rick Neuheisel another chance to prove himself an ethical coach.

If Rick does succeed at UCLA and become a great coach there, it will be because he made fundamental changes to the underpinnings of the ways he conducted himself at his job.  It will not be because he changed the image of the things he’s always done.  That’s what we’ll call: “changing the paint.”

In business, “changing the paint” can come in a lot of different forms, some of them more subtle than others:

• Your field marketing campaign is given a new booth to drive interest;
• Your affiliate marketing’s agreements are re-worked and so that you can re-coup some of the losses that your direct marketing is suffering;
• Your e-newsletter isn’t getting any clicks and you purchase a list;
• Your artwork doesn’t get the prices you think it deserves, so you start making less to create scarcity.

At its heart, “changing the paint” means that you’ve misidentified the problem and are trying to solve it through means that don’t solve the problem.

For the comments, what are some of your favorite instances where people have tried to change the paint?

Video to the introduction at the Olympics is floating out there.

And I’m here to say, “Relax, China.”

Everyone will still watch the intro, everyone will still be impressed.  The video out there is probably grainy, shot from a weird angle, and jumpy.  I haven’t seen it, but I’m willing to be that the portions that the camera phone caught will be at least 100% better on TV and 1000% better in-person.

From an artist-standpoint, I can see why the director would be furious over the leak.  I wouldn’t want someone to see my unfinished product.

From a marketing standpoint, I think that a grainy 2 minutes of a 50 minute performance is a good way to generate buzz about the performance.

So long as the final product cannot be duplicated or substituted, samples are great for business.

So to the director of the Olympic performance: Relax.  It’ll be ok.

For the comments, am I justified in my opinion about samples?

The Blackberry Bold got pushed back (video) to September ‘08 and I have the reason why!!

I think that with the popularity of the iPhone in the US and RIM’s CEO Mike Lazaridis being what we in hip hop call a hater, Blackberry is trying to hedge it’s bets.

I believe that you will see the BB Thunder/Storm released in the same breath as the Bold.

RIM will try to flood the market with multiple phones to give users the option to 1) switch from their current phone to a “safe, buttoned” experience; or 2) an alternative to the locked-down iPhone.

Personally, I want Thunder to be released yesterday.  I’m not willing to give up my $100 new-every-two credit to go to AT&T and their weak singal in my apartment.  And while the iPhone is really cool, I don’t like the idea of having everything locked-down like Pelican Bay.

Objectively, I dislike the marketing strategy.  If RIM is looking at the *buzz* that Apple got with their phone’s release and is looking to duplicate the feat, it’s not going to happen.  Part of BB’s strength is that the phone is really utilitarian and appeals to a very functional purpose - to feed Crackberry addicts.  While the company may earn the front page (or egad! the biz section) of the comic book known as USA Today, I can’t see this device generating the same 2hr lines that the iPhone did.  (After all, most BB users have jobs!  ZING!!!  ..heh - I’m getting a little punchy today!).

For the comments, why do you think the Bold got pushed back?  Was it a technical reason?  Was it a marketing reason?  Was it something else?  Conspiracy theorists, unite!!

It’s pretty well documented that Amy Winehouse has some chemical dependency issues. But as an American, I’m having a problem really calibrating how much of an issue because her speech is so …well… British.

I know that there is a Cockney accent, and a South London accent, and a Welsh accent, and a I’m-The-Queen-in-a-Movie Accent and they are all (essentially) British accents. How does Larry the Cable guy sound to the British ear?

When I hear Winehouse, I know that she has some issues and she doesn’t sound like I sound, but if her “Cockney/Whatever Region” accent is 90% of the reason for me thinking that she’s high, is there every going to be an opportunity for her to turn the corner in terms of image?

Sometimes, there are fundamental/structural problems to your audience perceiving you in a positive light. You can either embrace it or change it now.

I admit it - I wear one of those flashing Bluetooth headsets. It makes me look like I’m talking to myself, but it allows me to type and talk at the same time.

If businesses understood that a Bluetooth headset is the example that they should follow for their marketing strategy, their services would be more efficient and more user friendly.

1 - A Bluetooth headset eliminates the inefficiency of a wire in favor a semi-periodic charging time. (Over the weekend, I set up an internet service with Company X in my new apartment. In order to access the wireless password, I had to enter in a universal number while plugged into the modem. I didn’t know that I had to do this, but could have done so on my own with simple instructions if they were printed on the machine. Instead, I was on the phone with cust. service for over 15 minutes. )

2 - Your headset, once paired with your phone, does not need to be repeatedly paired again and again. (Over the weekend, I placed a technical support call into Company X. And then another and another and another. All-in-all, I probably called 10 times. I had to give my phone number at about 2.5 times for each call. If it took me 2 seconds to enter my number and 4 to speak it out to the cust serv. rep., figure that I wasted over 2 minutes on the phone JUST giving my phone number. Now times that by 1000 calls in a week. And a million calls over the year.)

3 - You can buy a headset for $10 (like mine pictured below) or for $150 (like the eliph Jawbone). Both are effective. I can use them with any cell phone with BT capabilities. (As a customer, I don’t care about “unusually heavy call volume.” All it says to me is that you haven’t planned ahead or haven’t found an innovative way to get me off hold, out of the queue, and get my problem solved without destroying your bottom line. It is YOUR fault, Company X.)

To summarize:

1 - Find inefficiencies by breaking down your process. There’s always SOMETHING that can make life easier on your customer and be beneficial for the company, too.

2 - If you aren’t doing anything to develop data past its pure form, then you’re wasting your (and your customer’s) time.

3 - Not everyone is the same or has the same needs. It’s not the customer’s role to adjust to your business - it’s the company’s role to adjust to the customer’s needs.

Enlisting the help of a 3rd Party site is worth the time and effort to upload and update content when:

• There can be a positive return on investment, including, but not limited to contacts, revenue, page views, or brand image.
• The overall image of the brand is improved.

To the peanut gallery: Thoughts?