Be Careful What You Write

A few weeks ago, I attended a presentation on Internet Security. The purpose of the talk was to expose the dangers of putting too much personal information on the Internet. With the advent of Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook, there are a lot of ways to keep all of your friends up-to-date with your latest activities. However this can be a bad thing. Perhaps you mention that you have just acquired that rare item on e-bay that represents the bulk of your net worth. Then a few weeks later, you mention that you are on vacation. Any thief with Internet access and a willingness to do a bit of research can figure out how to unburden you from your prized possession.

For some in the audience, it was difficult to see how one could make the jump from reading a blog (like this one) to knowing the exact location of a person. The speaker then gave an illustration of how a teenager was befriended by an online predator. The teenager was smart enough to know better than to give out personal information but that didn't stop the predator. He was able to discover her e-mail and did an Internet search. He was able to find a post on a collectibles website where she gave her mother's phone number. The predator was able to do a reverse telephone lookup and get her address. It was only a matter of luck that the authorities were able to apprehend the predator before any damage was done. When they caught him, he had a map with driving instructions to the teenager's house.

At the end of the presentation it became very apparent that the speaker was against any type of online presence. While that may be a bit drastic, he did have some good points. First, make sure you have a valid reason for posting information. Second, be careful what you post as it may become a lure for tragedy. Finally, be aware of what your children are posting. While I may be upset if someone were to steal my favorite pair of skis, I wouldn't cry too long. If someone were to harm one of my children, it would be a much different story.

Friendly Recommendations

Last night was my monthly Board of Directors meeting for the Snowbird Sports Education Foundation. During the meeting we talked about attracting more members and the topic of online media came up. One of the board members had just attended a seminar on viral marketing and using sites like Facebook and MySpace to increase memebership.

I sat there quietly listening. I actually am in the process of getting a patent for some software I wrote that is used for viral marketing. I understand the lure of low-cost marketing methods and can see why organizations would want to embrace them. However I also understand the difference between theory and reality. It is one thing to talk about success cases but quite another to actually implement one.

The idea behind viral marketing is that people are more likely to purchase something based on a friend's recommendation than an ad seen on TV (unless it is after 9pm and you see a fast-food commercial . . . they make me hungry). For example, if a friend goes to see the latest action movie and comes back with a glowing recommendation about how exciting it was, I am more likely to go see the movie than if I read a review.

The problem is how to get people talking about the movie and recommending it to their friends. Unless someone asks me what I did over the weekend or if I have seen a specific movie, I am reluctant to share my thoughts about it. I am also careful about what movies I recommend to whom. I was once on a business trip with one of our salesmen. We arrived at our hotel and saw that there was a movie theater across the parking lot. We quickly checked in and ran to see if we could catch a late showing of a newly released movie. We made it and had a great time watching the film. But it was a "guy" film and most of the women in the audience came away thinking less of their dates. Naturally I would never recommend that film to anyone but guys. Furthermore I would recommend they see it with other guys and not their wives or girlfriends.

How does a company leverage "friend's recommendations" to sell product or, in our case, increase ski team participants? With the ski team, you want the current kids to have a great experience and talk about it to their friends. I think that is already happening as shown by the number of team members that live close together. The real trick is getting outside the existing circle of influence. If all your friends are on the ski team, there really isn't anyone else to recommend.

I guess my only advice with viral marketing is to proceed with caution. Some strategies work while others just sound good on paper. As for me, I'm just trying to figure out how to get more people to read my BLOG.

Increased Efficiency?

Computers are supposed to make our lives easier. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. When I first started doing database consulting to help pay my way through college, I had one of my customers question why computers were even necessary. My customer was a glove manufacturer based in Tacoma, Washington. His company had been making gloves since 1917 and didn't need computers when they started. His question caused me to think if computers have really made our lives easier or not.

Unfortunately for my customer, things had changed significantly enough that there was no way you could go back to doing business without a computer. In 1917, union rules didn't exist that do today. These rules are the reason for 90% of his computing needs. Today a seamstress in the glove factory is paid a different amount for each type of stitch used to make the glove. That and several other rules mean that the glove manufacturer would be out of business without extensive computer bookkeeping.

When I first started questioning whether or not computers were helpful in my own life, I was going to college. My primary use of computers was as a word processor to help turn in homework. Having done one or two papers on a typewriter, I felt the computer was a huge benefit for me in getting my assignments done. I would have flunked out of school without spell-check.

Today I look at my own children and see how they use the computer. My oldest daughter is in college and she uses her laptop computer constantly. She even brings it to class every day for taking notes. My three other kids are constantly using the family computer for their homework as well.

Unfortunately there is a downside to all this increased productivity. There is now more time to relax. Instead of going outside and hanging out with friends, kids are sitting at home and spending time on Facebook or MySpace. When my oldest daughter was home during the summer, she spent so much time on Facebook, I had to turn off her computer's access to our home Internet connection. Recently we have had to limit Facebook time for our youngest daughter as well.

Once again I have to ask myself if the computer is really helping me and my family. I think that having a computer is now a necessity. If you don't have a computer that your kids can use to do schoolwork, they are at a huge disadvantage. However some of the efficiencies gained through having a computer are negated by some of our leisure activities.

Oh good, my oldest son just finished his game. Now it is my turn to slay dragons or race electronic images on the Playstation 3.