Urtak lets you create your own embeddable poll.

I love polls. I love that someone actually wants my opinion. Evidently, I’m not alone because polls are pretty popular (pun intended).

Market research people are not necessarily happy about this. They’re worried. Worried that they might be out of a job if any schmo can put their research in their customers’ hands. Worried that online polls might not be valid? Heck, are they even scientific? What if you run your poll on the day the stock market crashes, or your favorite sports team loses the big championship? Won’t that skew your results?

I’m no market researcher, but it seems to me that asking your customers’ opinions in an unfiltered way could have value.

How hard is it to create a poll? Not very. It took me just 15 minutes to put together a poll using Urtak. I called it
is your boss an asshole, just for fun. The poll isn’t really about your boss’ abilities or lack thereof. But it seemed like an attention-getting title. Market researchers will probably claim it’s misleading. And they’re right. But it’s my poll. Which means I get to ask the questions.

Click here if you’d like to take my poll. And please answer honestly. I won’t be able to see your answers. But if 100 people take it, I’ll be able to see how many people think the economy is getting better, how many think Boston is better than Los Angeles, and how many people think their boss is an asshole.

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This is even harder than it looks.

Our Siamese cat has asthma. We have to give him an inhaler. Have you ever wrapped a clawed creature in a towel and tried to get it to breathe through a ridiculous mask apparatus thingy? It’s a risky maneuver that takes 2 people to execute.

But we love the damn cat, so we cope. What I can’t cope with is the cost of his medication. The same inhaler that costs me a $15 co-pay costs almost $200 for the cat! When my vet suggested I order the inhaler from a company in the South Pacific called 4cornerspharmacy that offers the meds at half-price, I thought “Vanuatu veterinary meds? Seriously?”

As it turns out, nothing could be easier. I ordered the inhaler online. I immediately received an email confirming my order, then another confirming the shipment. The inhaler arrived as promised. Unfortunately I ordered the wrong one. My mistake. I sent customer service an email. They replied within 12 hours letting me know they’d ship the replacement inhalers immediately. They didn’t ask for my credit card number again. They didn’t give me a 13-digit Official Return Number. They didn’t give me any runaround at all. In fact, they shipped the new inhalers before I even had a chance to get the wrong ones in the mail.

Sadly, this experience isn’t likely to be repeated often. The products we consume are all the same. (O.K. occasionally a waterbobble pops up.) The service we receive is uniformly mediocre.

My fondest wish is that someday my health plan will provide 24/7 support and won’t let paperwork get in the way of my health; I’ll fly an airline that feeds me, and gets me there on time, with my luggage in hand; and I’ll shop at an organic market that refunds my money with no questions asked if I’m less than satisfied with the lettuce.

Until then, I’ll always have Vanuatu.

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I could use the excuse that I’m too busy developing communities for my clients to spend time with my own communities. But, I’m starting to wonder: is 24/7 access to everyone I know making me socially lazy? Is my drive to connect in person diminishing? Am I socially oversaturated?

What about you? Is social media making you less inclined to spend quality time with your peeps in the real world?

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Looking for a job? Then listen up: stop obsessing over your resume and cover letter. And start obsessing over your LinkedIn profile. Why? Because my recruiter friends tell me it’s their #1 resource for finding candidates. And here’s another eye opener: If you have more than twenty Linkedin connections, you’re thirty-four times more likely to be approached with a job opportunity than someone who has less than five. Those are damn good odds.

So, if you don’t already have a Linkedin profile, open a new browser window right now and go to http://www.linkedin.com. I’ll wait here while you join.

Now that you’ve joined LinkedIn, here’s what you need to do:

Complete your profile.

Start by entering your career history. List more than just a job title and company name for each position.

Next, write a summary. And add a photo.

Send requests to a few colleagues for recommendations. If they’re not sure what to write, point them to recommendations on someone else’s profile (who is in the same industry).

Add a few interests and any relevant websites, honors and awards.

Search for former colleagues and send them invitations to connect.

By this time, your profile should be pretty close to complete. Not sure how far you have to go? Linkedin displays a profile completion percentage score.

Last but not least, make sure your profile is publicly available.

Then, start sending out more connection requests. And start accepting them.

Set yourself apart by being uber Linkedin.

Add a Twitter handle if you have one.

Edit your profile to claim a vanity URL. This should be set to your name (or the closest possible match) within the URL. For example. www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccarivera

Find and join a few industry groups and use Linkedin Answers. This will help you build your reputation within your industry and to increase the number of internal links pointing to your profile from within Linkedin.

If you get stuck anywhere along the way, check out these Linkedin for Dummies links.
LinkedIn for dummies cheat sheet
How to create a Linkedin Profile even  your boss will be impressed by

Please let me know how your job search goes and how LinkedIn did or didn’t help and I’ll share it here so that others can learn whether their odds of finding employment are getting any better. Or any worse.

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In the 5 hours we spent together we listened to 60 songs and talked about what each piece of music meant to us. We also discussed: a local fish market; the merits of French press coffee brewing; dog treats; Siamese cats; why no one should get a PhD; the local biopharma and biotech market; Manhattan (and Cambridge) jazz clubs; Japanese Gibson knock-off guitars; books to read; stereo systems to buy; local music venues; whether Girl Scout cookies are really baked by Girl Scouts…and so much  more.

In the weeks since we got together, at least two items have been purchased as a direct result of the social connections and personal recommendations that were made that night.

This is what I mean when I use the word authentic.

And advertisers, if you’re listening, this is what the social shift to marketing looks like in the real, “on-land world”.

Our respective desert Isle playlists:

Sami’s playlist
Jeff Beck, Blow by Blow, “You know what I mean”
David Lee Roth, Crazy from the Heat, “I’m just a gigolo”
KISS, Alive, “Deuce”
Van Halen, Van Halen I, “Eruption/You Really Got Me”
U2, The Unforgettable Fire, “Bad”
Melissa Etheridge, ME, “Never Enough”
John Coltrane, Love Supreme, “Psalm”
Miles Davis, Milestones, “Straight, No Chaser”
Daniel Lanois, Acadie, “Still Water”
Tragically Hip, Up to Here, “Blow it high dough”

rr’s playlist
Ella Fitzgerald, Lady Time, “All or nothing at all”
Miles Davis, Kinda Blue, “All Blues”
Johnny Cash, The Legend of Johnny Cash, “Jackson”
Opera’s Greatest Moments, La Boheme, “Mi Chiamano Mimi” (Kiri Te Kanawa)
Joni Mitchell, Blue, “California”
Bruce Springsteen, Greatest Hits, “Hungry Heart”
Sonny  Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, “You don’t know what love is”
Perez Prado, “Perdido”
Beatles, Beatles For Sale, “Every Little Thing”
Caetano Veloso, Fina Estampa, “Mi Cocodrillo Verde”

Zöe’s playlist
Faithless, Sunday 8pm – Killers Lullaby
Imogen Heap, Ellipse – Half Life
Grimethorpe Colliery Band – Brassed Off OST – Jerusalem
Elbow, Seldom Seen Kid – Friend Of Ours
Madonna, True Blue – Papa Don’t Preach
Craig Armstrong, The Space Between Us – Weather Storm
Muse, Absolution – Butterflies and Hurricanes
Tori Amos, Boys For Pele – Putting The Damage On
Elton John, Blue Moves – Tonight
Editors, An End Has A Start – Spiders
Ennio Morricone, The Mission OST – Gabriels Oboe

Dan’s playlist
Orbital, C.D. – Belfast
D.J. Shadow, Endtroducing – Building Stream With A Grain Of Salt
Björk, Post – Army Of Me
Nirvana, Nevermind – On A Plain
The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses – I Wanna Be Adored
Talvin Singh, OK – Traveller
Spiritualized, Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space BP – Part 2
Leftfield, Leftism – Release The Pressure
U2, Achtung Baby, One
Burial, Untrue – Archangel

Sharon’s playlist
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
Gene Ammons The Gene Ammons Story
Best of Mississippi John Hurt
James Taylor Live
Glenn Gould The Goldberg Variations (1956)
Lyle Lovett Pontiac
Sinatra at the Sands with Count Basie and His Orchestra
Best of Journey
Ella Fitzgerald – The Best of the Songbooks
Dinah Washington – For Those in Love

Richard’s playlist
Charlie Parker with Strings: The Master Takes
The Genius of Charlie Parker (Savoy & Dial Years Compilation)
Miles Davis, Milestones
Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
Bach Unaccompanied Cello Suites, Yo-Yo Ma
Lester Young, The “Kansas City” Sessions
Sonny Rollins, The Bridge
Bill Evans Trio, Waltz for Debby
Dexter Gordon, Sophisticated Giant
John Coltrane, Coltrane’s Sound

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Facebook is strictly personal. It requires a deeper level of interaction to participate and shape any conversations that are already going on. Keep in mind that the parameters of those interactions keep changing. So stay updated on Facebook’s latest rules & tools.

Why do we need Twitter when we already have email? Because email takes awhile to arrive.  Twitter is instant. It’s 1 to 1, making it the perfect place to offer on-the-spot expert advice, share time-sensitive deals, track what’s going on at an event, respond in real-time to customer service issues or in crisis situations.

Linkedin is the be all and end all of professional networking sites. So use it accordingly. Make new contacts. Start a group. Ask and answer questions. Conduct informal market research. Post job openings. Or get creative and tap into “life events”.

Many clients use YouTube to share brand content. A word to the wise, unless that content is hilarious, or ridiculously useful, keep it on your brand site. Instead, use YouTube to let your customers create their own videos. How do you get them to generate content for you?

You don’t seriously think I’ll give away all my trade secrets… Ping me and I’ll hook you up with our new business team. 

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DO YOU:

• Control your message or share your brand’s personality?
• Sell stuff or listen first, then talk about what people want to hear?
• Provide a service  or provide personal service?
• Have the best price  or have the best values?
• Push one message to many  or engage each person individually?
• Stonewall when there are issues  or respond openly to issues?
• Know who you are or know who your customers think you are?

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Smithsonian image c/o Creative Commons

Why are there so many blogs? Because everyone has a story. And you don’t have to be a writer to write a good blog. So what makes a blog good?

• It’s interesting
• It’s brief
• It’s consistent

A good blog talks about what matters. It’s juicy, but easy to digest. And there’s a somewhat predictable rhythm to when new posts appear.

When writing your blog, here are a few more things to keep in mind.

• Be informative. Provide value.
• Be creative. And whenever possible, be entertaining.
• Be visual. Apply attributed, royalty-free imagery liberally.
• Be topical. Stay on top of what’s happening in the world.
• Be conversational. Ask questions. Pose thoughts. Provoke dialogue.
• Be honest. About who you are and where you get your ideas. If you “borrow” an idea or story, credit the source and if possible, link to it.
• Be personal. Be you. Not the meeting the pastor on Sunday you. The having a smashing time at the cocktail party you.
• Be responsive. Welcome comments and feedback and respond quickly to them.
• Be helpful. In addition to providing valuable information, share links to related insights, topic experts, etc. Facilitate connections when possible.
• Be respectful. Never insult or underestimate your audience.
• Be skim-able. Make your posts easy to read at a glance.
• Be generous. Give credit, attribute, admire. Share the stage.
• Be RSS-able. Let readers subscribe to your posts and/or blog.
• Be shareable. Make it easy to pass along your posts and blog.

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See my full portfolio on carbonmade

I’m a writer. So tend to think that if you want to get a real sense of who I am, you should see and read everything RR. Which is why I created this site. So you can read my blog, my twitterfeed, my LinkedIn profile and see my videos, my photostream and some of my portfolio. Certain folks, however, just want the juiciest bits — my best work in concentrated form. This link is for you.

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