Stop Whining About Google Mail
September 24, 2009
Seriously? The blogosphere and Twitterverse (and whatever other celestial body references we can make for social media sites) are obsessed and “freaked out” by a second Gmail outage in a short time.
I think it’s an indication of people who’ve never worked for a large company or within an IT infrastructure. As usual, those who grew up getting everything for free, and then complaining if it doesn’t work.
First, some facts. It wasn’t a wide spread outage this time – I had some slowness with contacts, for instance. Second, it’s painfully obvious that most of these people have no experience spending hours a week where email doesn’t work, or having at least one outage a month. And at VERY large companies who’s IT staff supposedly is a crack team. Even more hilarious, the regular outages at IT firms I know about. Stuff breaks.
I have personal experience working at 1000+ person organizations where mail is out for mornings or afternoons at least a few times a year.
Meet Elmer FUD
But here’s the real FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) behind all of this – there’s a lot of IT people who do not want Google Mail or apps to succeed in the business marketplace, because it threatens their jobs.
There’s a saying – “You can’t convince a man of something that’s against his wallet.” And it’s true. Many in-house IT people (of which many are on social networks) are petrified of the mass outsourcing of core functions because in their view, it’s their job. Not to mention the purchasing folks who have spent thousands on office, Exchange servers, et all. You can be for darn sure those who have skin in the game are waiting to pounce on everything Google could perceived as doing as a misstep.
Not saying GMail is the perfect answer for everything – but it’s good, and those paying the relatively paltry fee to get Google Apps for business are getting pretty good service. And for the cost/benefit, even if it’s as reliable as your in-house mail service, it can be way cheaper and you’re not dealing with the headaches. And there’s other options too – Gmail is not the only player by far – but housing all this infrastructure in your company is a recipe for expensive disaster.
What are your thoughts? I’m a proponent of the cloud in some cases – it’s served us very, very well. But I’d love to hear your perspective.
The Problem With Making Money Online Is Perception
September 21, 2009
There’s tons of talk about Hulu going paid or subscription of some sort.
Also, talk of how journalists are worried about how they’re going to get paid.
Well, it’s for a simple reason – it’s because, for instance, a Hulu viewer is worth $920 less than a broadcast viewer. Nevermind the ads could stick better, stand out from the flotsam, and can’t be easily skipped. There’s no financial choice to keep things the way they are – either programming or costs need to be cut drastically, or revenues increase. Either way, in a few years if trends continue, TV could be the next financial victim of the digital age.
The common saying is, “Trading traditional dollars for digital cents.” It’s so far proven mostly true – but why?
Perception.
I’ve learned, from personal experience, people are willing to pay more for a physical product even if the content is the same. I also know that ad buyers still “feel” like they don’t get as much benefit from online, and in some ways it’s because of the exact metrics they get (we only could guess if real TV metrics were rolled out how much damage that would do – yes, there’s Nielsen, but those ratings are nothing more than educated guesses and miss all kinds of niche audiences).
As long as ad buyers and media folks continually feel that digital is worth less than traditional, it will be. The real question is – how to change that perception? Why is digital so darn cheap, even though real numbers and even actions can be counted? Is the future in the affiliate marketing world, where there’s lots of folks making handy profits – of course, that limits you to certain kinds of products.
I know that in business, once you start out at a price, it’s easy to cut but very hard to increase – which is always a model that befuddled me. But that’s the past – what to do now to move the bar? If you buy media, what are the things you’re looking for that would warrant higher rates? Or, are we just going to have to adjust to this new reality that viewers or audience are only worth so much?
Who’s Your Weekend Social Media Anchor?
September 10, 2009
One of the trends the last year has been the prevalence of weekend social media stories. Whether it’s the Motrin Moms or anything else, many social media crises seem to arise on the weekend (when the most regular people are using the services).
These folks, because their jobs may not be tech or social media, interact the most on Saturdays and Sundays. Their idea of the story or item is reduced the snapshot they see over a bowl of cereal.. And as many know, incomplete information matched up with a few of your friends being upset is a recipe for reaction.
I’m reminded of my previous career in television news, and the importance of the weekend anchor.
As a place that’s usually slow (most brands aren’t swirled in controversy every weekend), the weekend was a great place to get talent ready for the big show; a golden opportunity for the new hires to excel when that story DOES break. Those weekend stories have sparked the careers of many reporters, techs and writers; as well as weeded out the weak.
If you’re a social media pro working a weekend, know your job is important.
If you’re a company, make sure a frontline is still available on Saturdays and Sundays. Early research and anecdotal evidence shows that, in a strapped budget situation, trading a weekday for a weekend day for staff can pay huge dividends, especially in the consumer space. After all, your customers are fixing their cars, playing with new computer software, going out to eat and enjoying what your company provides when they have time.. and that’s during the weekend.
Editors note: thanks to Nikki Stephan (@estrellabella10 on Twitter) for a tweet that was inspiration for this post.
