douglasmkelly's posterous

I attended (and moderated) an aimWest event this past week. I'm writing a future post about the event topic: the Filter Bubble. It was an awesome event! More on that to come, but this post is on Klout. Klout.com was discussed a little at the monthly aimWest - but more importantly "Have you quit Klout yet?" was the theme of that discourse. Klout is a site that presumes to measure your social media influence. You wind in your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and WordPress IDs for tracking. Those of you that only use Posterous, you're out of luck. Klout only measures from WordPress and Blogger. Also, none of you on Android cells with other social picture sharing apps can increase your Klout - only we iPhone users that have Instagram get the bump. Nice, huh?

So why would you want to quit? Why wouldn't you? is the better question. I know, I know, we humans want to measure and score everything. We like competition. But does Klout really do that for you? For one thing Klout keeps changing their algorithm, stating that the changes will make things more even - more realistic. After the last change, however, Klout's CEO feared (publicly) that he may have made a mistake. I think monetizing people's clout in Social Media was the first mistake, personally. But seriously, did your Klout "score" actually make you want to better engage your audience? Did it change you? Did you tweet more? Did you use Facebook better? Did you actually influence more people?

I believe true influence is noticed on and off line. A friend coined the term "Meat Space" (or at least started using it) a while back. It means to meet in 3-dimensional space - actually pressing the flesh. Touching the meat of someone by shaking their hand, patting them on the back, and interacting in person. To me, you influence someone by receiving a reaction or at least an action. You can see their reaction in person. You can tell you've influenced someone if they take action - like signing that contract. Klout doesn't measure your offline influence. 

I did partake in the Klout.com phenomena for a while. But I never really understood why I should care? Other than measuring myself against others - in that same competitive way that everyone else liked about it - why use it? If any of you can give me a valid reason, I'd possibly consider joining Klout again. Until then, I'm going to use Google Analytics and link shortners to track hits and clicks to my blog, site and other websites. I am going to measure my clout by getting new customers or perhaps new members to aimWest. I quit Klout. If you want to quit too but can no longer find the opt out, do this:

Klout disconnected the link between "profile settings" and "delete your account".  The removed function is now pushed to the very end of the "privacy" policy page which you can only access through a text link at the bottom of your "profile settings" page.

Thanks Sage Telecom For The Push Out The Door

This week, I killed the house land line. There's a little history: Had Sage Telecom for a home phone service. Their service was ok and all, but I under paid them by the giant sum of 1 dollar. They shut off the phone. I called them up - Spent probably about 25 minutes while the very nice lady looked up my account. I'm busy. A home phone was never a priority - not since the cell phone revolution. But there I was. Evidently Sage has this complete automated system that if you haven't paid the full amount, they disconnect you. I DON'T EVER USE THE HOME PHONE! So I went online and made a payment through my bank, whence I noticed it was off. Crazy, there had been less politicians after my vote for a couple days.

After making the payment, I didn't care that the line didn't get turned on right away - I assumed that some person had to "Touch" the account. See loud all caps statement above. However, when it didn't get turned back on for 4 days, I went to the Sage site - I noticed and paid a balance ($20), believing that maybe now they'd turn it back on. Turns out I was supposed to call them to let them know that I wanted to keep my home phone. I'm not exactly sure how I would have known that. So the lady from Sage apprises me that I now need to pay $86 to get the phone turned back on. All OVER A $1!! A dollar? Seriously? Good bye Sage and thanks for over charging me for 3 years for something I barely used. It was mostly a tool for politicians and marketers to call and bug me anyway.

Now for the rest of the story: Everyone, that matters, already has my cell digits so this is just to have something in the house - for the occasional sitter.  First I purchased a tracphone from AT and T. They call their pre-pays Go-Phones. I grabbed 250 minutes for $25 and have 3 months to use them. The cool thing is I set up a new local Google number so it can be given out to friends and family. Google rings my iphone with this new number as well as the "home" phone. Voice mail is emailed - and transcribed - so I can get it from anywhere.

The steps were pretty easy, you just go to Google.com/voice and set up an account (if you don't already have one). It does need to have a GMail account associated with it. Then you select a number or have Google do it for you. You can look up by Area Code or Zip Code. Finally you "point" that new number to an existing telephone - Google rings you up with a code and you're done. You give that number out and it can ring multiple lines. The first to pick up gets the call. The free part is that you go to ATT.com and put in the new telephone number as a free call (A-List). Then when anyone calls that number it comes across to your cell as your new number. With Google Voice you can opt to have everyone state their name prior to you answering. Do this as their number won't register (you want free don't you?).

Note: Outgoing calls from this new line will be charged. Incoming answered calls will go against your minutes too. So you just answer one of your other lines on the account. If you have less than 5 lines on your ATT account, just add a line and it will share the minutes and free goodness. I didn't have that option. This is just an emergency phone. And at $8/month it's worth it. Sorry Sage Telecom - The only way you'll get me back is to give me back my old telephone number, waive the fees and turn me back on. I'd pay the difference of $20, if I have to. The only other issue is that Dish will now charge me $5 for not having a telephone plugged in. Let's see... $48-$57 per month vs $13. The new phone was $20. That's a sum total of $500 per year for an emergency line.

I am not sure how long this particular scenario will last as I have a few other options, like porting my business line over to Google and just forwarding that to my iPhone, then dropping the track phone and switching SIM cards.

Last week a virtual friend sent me this "Hey what's with this post about you" Twitter Direct Message. I actually clicked the link, as I had believed there might be some bad feelings in the local area about my company. Of course I'm not telling you why - suffice it to say a competitor may not like my firm for some strange reason. So Google Chrome saved me from going to that site. w00t! Today two friends' twitter accounts were hacked. They're both very Social Media savvy.

I also received a call today from a lady who clicked the spammer's DM link and got through to that site. Lucky she didn't fill out the form that was there. I DON'T LIKE SPAM! This kind of spam is the worst kind. It plays on your emotions and draws you in - then steals your identity. The viagra spam emails never trick me - I'm not 60. I don't know why they continue to find their way to my inbox. But this new Twitter DMing is a little scary.

Here's one way to not get hacked: Only use https://twitter.com. Its the secure version. In fact, only go to sites that have a security seal or SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certification when in a public wireless area. Facebook has one. My blog has one. The cert's not owned by me, and you might get an "Error" if you try, but it works and is legit. This is only really necessary if you are using open wifi. If you're in a coffee house and browsing the interwebs and log in, you can be "Sniffed" by a FireFox plugin (there are actual sniffing programs too) that can view all your open tabs, and gain access to your logged in sites. If you normally have Safari, FireFox or Chrome (or God forbid, IE) manage your passwords for sites where you have to log in, ensure that you remove this saving feature for non-https sites. That 's' means the site encrypts your virtual transactions, thereby making your password very hard to learn. 

If you get hacked - and you're a business - you need to contact all of your clients and apologize. Then you need to give them the name of a very good internet guru (or this blog post) - and say that even you can get hacked - and if they don't want to get their sites and accounts compromised, they need to get some security in place. Suffice it to say that a guru I use had his twitter account hacked a couple months ago. It can happen to anyone. If it ever happens to me, I'll be referring you back to this post. 

What is your 118 second elevator pitch? Have you refined it down to 118 seconds? Here's mine: "Evolve is an internet business development firm, specializing in Website Design and Development, however we provide soup to nuts Internet Biz Dev. We help companies with everthing from rebranding to being found, from looking good to garnering new customers through Social Media and Marketing and Search Engine Optimization."

I've refined and changed this over the last year since Jeffery Hayzlett asked me that question: http://bit.ly/qdGph4 

So - What's your 118? 

I have been on the Beta - Invitation-Only - Google+, for a few weeks now (thanks Jay!). I don't feel all special and alone, however. Almost everyone, that I get all Social Media with, are in. Actually that's a pretty good thing - as, if they weren't, I wouldn't be having any fun.

So far, I like the cleaness, and I like the lack of ads (so far, right?). Circles are nice - and slightly easier to use than Facebook's lists. I like that I get notifications while I'm using other Google apps. I also like that all the Social Media Gurus and Techies have embraced Google+ and write frequently. It almost has that brand new Twitter feel.

However, I've not been using it as much as Facebook for a couple reasons:

One: I can't publish from Hootesuite or Tweetdeck to Google+. When you post to 4+ social networks, you look for the easiest possible way of transacting with them.

Two: I'm using/playing EmpireAvenue. EA gives you increased share price based on your social media use. It's just a way to monitor engagement. Also, it's a great way to find people to follow and engage people with similar interests in Facebook. Actually I've been contacted by and contacted EA users about all sorts of things including finding speakers for a non-proffit I'm a part of - Oooo Social Networking! Think what you will about EmpireAvenue, however, it is gaining traction in the SocMed sphere and almost all the Fortune 500 companies have a presence/user on EA. So I'm on EmpireAvenue - as it is a way to measure Social Engagement, it is growing, and I'm intregued by a Social Media game. This all said, they're not wired in with Google+ yet. I get no boost to my share price by posting to Plus. I do get the bump from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. And hundreds of people that I do interact with often, are on FB. 

So I'm looking for some thoughts and musings from my blog followers here. Are you using it daily? Do you like it more or less than Facebook. Is it as important to you as Twitter? Do you dislike the Mobile App?

Also, I started writing this post long ago, and haven't blogged in all of August, so wanted to get this done and out. Hey it's Summer. I'd rather be outside, or increasing business, or writing other's Social Media Content - than blogging. Call me odd.

Shot with an iPhone 4

Last week I did a bit of camping - so if you missed me on Social Media or wondered why I wasn't blogging... I needed to get meetings out of the way and keep clients happy ahead of going away for a few days. One of the meetings I had was with a fellow entrepreneur. He has had a business for around a year. He wondered to me, how does one take vacations when you have your own business. I responded that I'd only taken anything over 3 days off once in 8 years. I generally work mornings when on "workations".

So the camping involved kayaking, swimming, fishing, beer drinking and a very small amount of mountain biking. To those of you that manage a business or are involved so drastically in the day to day that you don't take vacations or only have working vacations: How do you do it? Do you attach 4 days to a business trip to get some deep sea fishing in? Do you throw a couple days in at the beginning and end to spend with family on the slopes? Perhaps you don't take vacations, you just ensure that you have 2 hours in the middle of each day to eat lunch with your kids and play a little Wii or go cycling. Maybe golf is your game and you set up as many business meetings as you can for the links. 

Tell me your business/pleasure stories. 

Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Failure is Not an Option

I recently read a blog post by a local acquaintance and fellow small business owner. She mused about the slow climb of her business and at times not focusing on the positive successes. She also wondered if it was all worth it. I've had the same issue at times. She, like me, started her business about a decade ago. That was a rough time to start a company. The internet bubble had just burst. My business, as you may know, provides internet business solutions. Lisa creates awesome jewelry that she sells locally and online.

So after reading her article, I reflected a little on my successes and failures. There are lots of them. Negative: Went broke. Positive: was able to keep the house. Positive: Still going and growing. Negative: Not where I want it to be. There are many more pros and cons, and they pretty much counteract each other when one lays them out on paper. Evolve's doing better than last year and other past years, but I'm still hungry. Some would say that to be hungry means your clients are taken care of and you are always looking for the next one. I guess I would agree. During the fat-cat years I didn't chase new work. New work fell in my lap. I wasn't hungry. Overall, in the history of Evolve Solutions, there have been up and down years - some really bad - some REALLY good. And when I was making good money, would bitch about the taxes. So I guess I too, need to also focus on the successes I've had.

There have been plenty of sleepless nights - plenty of worry - lots of introspection - loads of prayer - grey hair. I've had to change directions and add products to stay relevant. Partnerships have come and gone. But you know what? I'm good at what I do. I love being a solopreneur. I love working with awesome people. I love finding new potential clients. I love solving their needs. I love closing the deal. I love delivering great products and service. I think it's great that I develop friendships with my clients. I love working from my couch. I love going for a bike ride at 9 am, with my daughter. Those things definitely counteract, and leave in the dust, the getting up at 5am and going to bed at 1am, to get a quote out or finish a project. All those loves belie the fact that I've taken a vacation once in 10 years. But I don't mind so much. If you don't get something often - you don't miss it. I look for the little things - the small vacations. We go camping, kayaking, bike riding... and I coach the kids in soccer - That's 7-9 hours per week. That's like a whole day off for most people.

If I'm going to be able to take care of what I hold dearest (my kids) I'm going to need to keep going. Failure is not an option. I will continue to focus on the positive, otherwise I'll go insane.

What about you, Dear Reader? Have you ever started a business? Did it succeed? What kept you going? Would you do it again?

Yes that's a play on words. A few of us in West Michigan have noted that there seem to be more startups in Grand Rapids than in some other areas of the country. Now I don't know if that's actually true or just a perception. Some modest research shows Michigan near the bottom middle of states with per-capita allotted startup capital, so I could be wrong. I don't know if that stat includes angel investors or not, either. What is exciting is that we have some local entrepreneurs that are putting up some funds to help local startups - like the 5X5 Night and the Momentum Lean Startup Project.

This last month aimWest also touched on Startups, covered by M-Live, with young and old startups alike on the panel. Zipments' Founder, Garrick Pohl, in response to a question about "Where did you raise your Start Up Capital Capital?", said that 100% came from West Michigan! The others had various answers, but all said that a large portion came from donors, angels and resources in Michigan. So why not start a business here? We do have millionaires and billionaires here. I started Evolve Solutions with some investment money back in 2002 during the height of the Dot Com Bubble Bust. I don't think I would have done the "Pay For It With Your Own Money" route like some do, even though it's the smartest route (in my opinion and in retrospect).  

One take away that I liked from Roger Jansen, PhD (@Kidtelligent), Co-Founder of Kidtelligent, was that all companies must assign as much budget to Marketing as any other major portion of their business. Of course, what I liked about the statement was that I help companies with internet business marketing, from SEO to Social Media.

For any of you considering starting a business the Small Business Association has some great information including how to write a business plan. Check out their site - There's info on everything from writing a business plan and obtaining licenses to finding a mentor. I recommend doing all of these things. And revisiting your business plan after a couple years and every few years after that to revise and update.

So I'm hoping for a bit of a discussion here:

1. Are you a small (or medium) business in Michigan? 
2. Where did you get your start up capital and was it the smartest move to go that route? If you're not but want to comment, I'll take all comers. 
3. What about your marketing budget, and do you outsource or have you hired someone that has been forced to learn all this new Social Media and Search Engine Optimization and Search Marketing stuff? 
4. Is West Michigan a start-up capitol?

... and one last plug for aimWest: we're having the Momentum Lean Startup companies out to the downtown GR campus of WMU for their pitch night... come check it out.

History: You could say that I'm an Apple Lover. I own 2 Apple Macintosh G4 Desktops - in use - one Graphite 500MHz I tricked out with a Dual Gig-a-Hertz processor, additional hard drive and maxed RAM. There's a MacBook Pro in various pieces in a drawer in my office. I won an iPad at a Networking Event (see the top article from the previous link and others on Networking in GR). And, I'm writing you from my big girl friend - See above article. I own an iPhone 3GS purchased the day they came out June 21st, 2009. It's white. I loved her until 2 months ago, when alla-sudden she started being whiny when using location based services or switching between the 3G AT&T Network and Edge (2G) or the WiFi radio. Essentially she'll just crash. Poof. Narcolepsy.

Apple? Are you listening?

I've just pretty much stopped using the AT&T 3G Network, consequently. It does work if I'm connected to a power source, so driving while using Google Maps, requires being plugged in. If I use location in one place, and use it again in the same place, I should be ok... but not all the time. Generally she gets all whonky when I move around between towers using Location apps. I think the tower database may be corrupted or perhaps the battery... But who really knows, since the Apple.com site is no real help with this regard. Monday, the speaker at the top, where your ear goes, ceased to work. Lucky I have Blue Tooth headsets and/or ear buds. Just one more thing that isn't happy with her.

Yesterday I went into the Apple Store, was met by a cutie at the door, saying that I needed an appointment - the next one available was for 4PM in the afternoon - there must have been at least 35-40 patrons in the store, and at least that many Apple-logoed, blue-shirted people with iPads walking about. Last weekend the employees at all the Apple Stores redid the stores to put iPads at every product station, where you could learn more about that particular product and request an Apple Employee to assist you. They were up late getting ready for the opening. It was different, and slightly cooler. The iPad apps that are Apple iStore-Only are cool, but I don't know how 10th Anniversary-Cool it all was. The manager introduced himself to the conversation and was able to over-ride technology to give me an appointment with an Apple Genius in 1/2 hour. I made for the Starbucks and should have offered the cutie some coffee, she kept yawning.

30 minutes later... The Genius, after listening to all that I'd already accomplished, backed up my iPhone, then did a wipe and told her that she was a new iPhone. I'm pretty sure she didn't believe him. She might have played that game before. Funny thing: When I initially purchased my iPhone, they had to set up a device twice, as the first one didn't take to me. I'm wondering if there's a symbiotic thing. So anyway, my phone was done: Dude turned her on - I switched from Edge to 3G, did a Google Maps look up, switched off 3G started importing all my contacts - EVERYTHING WORKED!

I left the store believing that the phone was working, and made it to my car, wherein the New Amnesia Girl Friend starts acting like her old self. I returned to the Apple Store to talk to the girl answering the door. She remembered my name. I'd like to think it's because I'm cute - Yep, I'm going with that. The Genius that assisted me, ran up. We turned the phone back on and it did the same thing, wouldn't finish booting unless plugged in... He thinks the phone is somewhere between death and burial. MEH.

Note: Neither the Cutie nor the Apple Genius made mention of the fact that AT&T may do some original thinking with regards to my contract, as it was just about to expire ;-)

I walked down the mall to the American Telephone and Telegraph store. That store was empty, save for 3 employees. $50 for a refurb 3GS. $200 for a new 4G under contract. $450 for an out-of-contract new 3GS. I'll let you know what I decide.

Let me conclude on a positive note: The Apple employees that I interacted with, were awesome. From the Manager that was able to intercede with an appointment squeeze, the Greeter that remembered my name and email address even with helping the intervening 40 or so people in the hour and 1/2 since we met, to the Genius, who really was a genius. Even though they couldn't fix my device, they checked in to what they could do including offering me a minor discount on a new gal.

I have heard, and read, some awesome stories of Apple hook'n a brother up. I would love nothing more than to write a post on how over the top Apple's Customer Service really is to those of us that have owned Apple products since 1997 and still actively purchase them.

Last week I discussed changes in business from a Social Media and Marketing stand point. Today I want to apprise of other changes – more of an Evolve business nature.

I mentioned, in the beginning of March, that change was gonna come. That change was that I merged my company with another in the Greater Grand Rapids Michigan area. We had been selling each other's services for some time and developed a friendship. We decided that living together was worth giving a try. So I grabbed some clothes, my tooth brush, and was allowed way more than a drawer in their apartment.

Do you know how much work it is merging two companies? And on top of that we thought we could also start another company together? Consequently, I've been too incredibly busy to blog - and, until recently, barely able to tweet.

Things didn't work out, unfortunately, and the merger diverged or divested a couple weeks ago. Occasionally, through no end of trying, relationships don't succeed. So as to not lose a friendship or working relationship, gNetworks' owners and I separated back to being Affiliated Partners. Evolve will still work with gNetworks to provide the highest quality website designs and Content Management Systems for West Michigan and beyond, but we're going to do it in a coextensive manner. So we're kinda like friends with privileges.

I am back accomplishing Social Media Consulting, Website Design, eCommerce applications and Internet Business Consulting for Evolve Solutions' clients. I am pretty happy about this move. Some might think this a setback or a failure - I believe something untried is a potential loss. Risk doesn't always succeed in reward, but you will not know until you try. We tried something that sounded great, looked good on paper, and was an expansion of an already good relationship. I learned a lot. I hope they did too. Moving on.

Quote: "For every failure, there's an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour." - Mary Kay Ash (1918-2001) Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics