Tag: Social Media

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Independent News Inspired Me to Make Videos and Now it is Dying

10 years ago if you had a camera and $15 bucks to register a domain, you could get into the independent news media game (maybe not successfully, lol).

Vice, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, and even Mic inspired me to make content and made me believe I could make decent content all by myself. It pushed me to get better an use the tech available to make something presentable.

Social Media sites like Facebook pressured smaller outlets to do more video which increased expenses. It didn’t bring more clicks, it didn’t bring more ad revenue, and now these sites are going under.

What does all of this mean for the little guys (and gals)?

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Customer Service and Social Media

( @petershankman, @Mortons )

I read this story over the weekend and feel like I needed to pass it on. In short, Peter Shankman is a writer and a speaker who loves Morton’s Steak House. Morton’s is a chain and this fellow travels quite a bit, so he frequents Mortons throughout the country.

Mortons has documented in their system that Shankman is a good customer.

One night while on a plane, he tweeted that he was craving Mortons and when he got off the plane, there was a care-package waiting for him. He of course wrote about this story on his blog (and he has 100,000+ twitter followers) and the whole situation went viral.

It should.

How much did the meal and the travel time cost Mortons? 100 bucks? And now they are getting great word of mouth and public interest. Hell – even with my butcher father, I want to check the place out. I’d love to have this set up with an outfit, so the moral of the story is that it pays to be loyal. And for businesses, it never hurts to be a little creative and willing to think outside of the box.

Kudos Mortons.

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GooglePlus Review

( #GooglePlus, #SocialMedia )


Image Credit: Paul Vedar

Last night the good people over at Lifehacker offered invites to the new Google+ service. I jumped at the chance to get one because I have been looking at a way to do multiple people video chats for months. Skype offers it for a few bucks a month, which I was considering, but I don’t like that I have to install software to video chat when Google does it in the browser.

Google calls the feature “hangouts” and even in beta, it works pretty damn well. Actually checkout the Lifehacker crew’s video:

Google seems to have built this service around security and privacy. This sounds like an odd thing for Google, but it comes from the public scorn they got from rolling out Buzz (which automatically shared private info like email addresses) and also as a response to Facebook. Even though Facebook has privacy features, I feel that they always trying to get you to share more public data (and their updates always change settings to make that happen). In order to compete, Google is focusing security groups (called Circles) so you can share certain things with certain people much easier.

I am sure Big G isn’t completely saintly in this service, but since they have the Government breathing down their necks and face fierce competition with Facebook, I think the Google+ service is as legit as it can be. Since I am a google guy to start, I am hoping the service takes off because it will be much easier for me to manage my social circle with the plus service than with Facebook since I already have a hands off attitude towards it.

I was going to offer invites to readers, but it looks like Google shut down invitations already. But drop me a note, and if they turn it back on, I will try to get you in.

UPDATE: A blogger buddy (and current Keypulp founder) Joss Ross already found a security issue. Even if you choose a select group to see your post, someone could share it with everyone. Google has a fix, there is a drop down in the right corner that disables sharing. I think it should be defaulted that way, but for now, be aware and don’t share!

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Drinking Made Easy: Social Drinking Apps

( @drinkingmadeeasy, @beerby )

My reign of terror over at Drinking Made Easy continues. This time I discuss social drinking apps for your smart phones and hint at my disdain for hipsters!

Read More: Drink Socially…Alone?

Update: DME’s links are dead, here is the full article…

A few years ago, I met my friends at the local pub for a beer or two almost every night. That was then. Between work, kids, and household projects (those damn shelves won’t hang themselves), I don’t see my friends as much as I used to. Just because my friends are not around, I haven’t stopped drinking. In fact, since I have been left to fend for myself, I have found some excellent beers by chance.

My less adventurous friends and colleagues often ask me what beer I am stocking my fridge with. The first few times made for an enjoyable conversation, but after a while this small talk became tedious and repetitive; enter social media! Leveraging Generation Y’s inability to look up from their smart phones to hold a conversation, everyone can now share what beer they are enjoying at any given moment via a few difference social apps.

Social drinking apps like Beerby (http://www.beerby.com) and Untappd (http://untappd.com/) allow you to tell your friends what beverage is in your hand (the hand that doesn’t have the phone in it) as you are enjoying it. Beerby integrates with an existing Foursquare account allowing drinkers to log and comment on the beverages they are enjoying. The program has over 30,000 beers in its database and growing. Untappd seems to be the newcomer in social drinking apps, but it offers a nice interface and community. Beerby seems more focused on you and what you are drinking, while Untappd has more of a social focus (what your friends are drinking).

At the moment, I prefer Beerby over Untappd. I had some issues getting Untappd’s location based services to work properly (could have been my phone), which gives me the impression that Beerby is a little more polished. Another smart feature from Beerby is that system allows a user to simply rate the beer in addition to making comments. Both apps feature rewards/badges for tracking certain kinds and different numbers of beers, which is great because it encourages consumers to try out new beers.

Untappd and Beerby have an excellent feature that allows you to determine what bars near you stock/serve your favorite brews. I assumed this would be great news for all the emerging micro-breweries, but Beerby’s top beers are:
1. Yuengling Traditional Lager
2. Pabst Blue Ribbon
3. Miller Lite
4. Coors Light
5. Bud Light
This leads me to the drawbacks of social media: who gives a damn if you are drinking a Miller Lite or PBR? They are perfectly fine beverages, but they are nothing to tell the world about. Broadcasting that you are drinking Bud Light is the social media equivalent of tweeting that you are going to the bathroom. I want to know about all the other beers that I never heard of. I want to know who is drinking Rogue’s Chocolate Stout or who serves Duvel in my neighborhood. Isn’t that what social media is all about… letting people know about something that was criminally overlooked?

Any Drinking Made Easy readers up for the challenge of knocking the big three (Miller/Bud/Coors) out of Beerby’s top 5? Feel free to comment below on your favorite beers, and any other social drinking applications you are using.