(NOTE: I'll get back to my irregular commentary on saving the world with social media shortly, I have so many more tales to tell. I just have to get something off my chest first...)









Mr. Hooper’s Handy Dandy General Store
(..a tall tale told too often these days)

Hey there mom and dad became so distraught one day when they found that their little loveable Larry had been hangin’ 'round and playing with Bobby, that brat from down the block. Bobby was one of those nasty little boys, not so much a bully but always up to something, you know bad. You’d told your little loveable Larry to steer clear of the likes of Bobby, but Bobby, that brat from down the block was you know, fun Bobby.

One day Bobby told Larry about a little game he’d been playing. He’d found the keys to the backdoor of Mr. Hooper’s Handy Dandy General Store. On Sundays when the folks were at church he’d go in, play with the hardware and leave with a handful of candies that would last him the whole week long. At first Larry didn’t like the sounds of this but you know, after a while, boys will be boys and boy it sure was nice havin’ all that candy.

Hey there mom and dad were so happy to hear one day that Bobby, that brat from down the block had moved out to Brooklyn. Little loveable Larry had made new friends and seemed a whole lot happier; oh how we love our little loveable Larry.

One day while picking up a lightbulb from Mr, Hooper’s Handy Dandy General Store, we noticed the likeable old coot was almost crying; “they’re stealing all my stuff” he sniffed ...oh that sad ol’ Mr. Hooper. He’d likely been hallucinating again as the old men do, thinking of the good ol' days when this used to be a bad bad neighbourhood, you know before the likes of all these hey there moms and dads had moved in and made the place their own, spruced it up a notch, or two.

Later that evening, while putting away the laundry you stumbled upon a secret stash. It would seem that little loveable Larry had himself a closet full of candy (and a whole chest full of hardware) too. “LARRY” you yelled but Larry was too busy flying & fighting the flickering images on the video-game box you’d bought him last Christmas… “LARRY, YOU GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW” you yelled again, and Larry came in a bounding ‘n a leaping in shock when he’d realized that you’d found… his stash.

After a lot of lying and a little crying you finally got the straight story of the keys that Bobby, the brat who used to live down the block had given up to your little loveable Larry… “it’s not my fault” cried Larry meekly; “it’s not my fault, I mean fun Bobby gave me the keys!”… Sigh… You looked your little loveable Larry in the eye, your little pride and joy; he trembled with fear as you struggled to make the decision how to punish the little wee one… And low and behold, just about when you were ready to make the call, ready to bring down judgement, the verdict, a versions of your dad’s ancient ‘n calamitous punishment upon your little Larry’s head, the thought occurred… 

“...Larry…” “ya dad…”…you wouldn’t happen to have a Snickers Bar in there, you know, would you?”

“The internet is on principle a system that you reveal yourself to in order to fully enjoy, which differentiates it from, say, a music player,”

“...The majority of people in developed countries spend at least some time interacting with the Internet, and Governments are abusing that necessity in secret to extend their powers beyond what is necessary and appropriate.”

                                                                              Edward Snowden, June, 7th, 2013

I find it rather trite, a bit sad and kinda tired that there are still a few people who deride and ignore an image simply because of the technology used to capture, create or enhance it. An image is an image, is the image, no?

That it was captured over the "phone" rather than a D4; drawn or painted with hoghair or sable, crayola or Sennelier... filtered at the point of capture, the darkroom, photoshop or... instagram. How can this matter?

Some protest, there are just SO SO many images being flung upon theses streams; they all look the same! I simply say to this... Well, I'm having a hoot re-imaging all my old images into filtered little squares; AND isn't it nice that maybe 10, 12 or 24 people out there are getting a little enjoyment along with me, even if just for an instant, rather than these images laying buried under 60,000 shots of my son in some long forgotten folder in iPhoto?

Sharing an image, a moment a thought, even an odd feeling... I do believe that's what André Breton and Ansel had in mind; I mean, they weren't selling cameras.

NOW the instagram as an Ad-platform? For Pete's Sake! (we'll get around to that later :)

@mashygogo over there on instagram if you have any interest at all

If any of you had plans to call my 647-920-5445 number today... forget it. Do what you always do, email me, DM me on Twitter, msg or call me on Skype, or simply reach out over any of the other multiple option you have to reach me.

I have embarked on the final herculean battle in the ongoing war with my "phone" provider. I'll show them! (ya, right... like that'll get me anywhere :)

Voice has quite simply become the least used app on this communications thingy I carry around in my pocket. Calling this thing a "phone" has become completely anachronistic...

Why I pay for the privilege of Roger's dreadful reception and sound quality, has become well, beyond me; Who do I ever talk to over the "phone", my wife and my son mostly... Easily, 90% of my business VOICE communication is pre-arranged and takes place over Skype, Viper or Google "Phone".

So... I'm going to take this opportunity to simplify... SIMPLIFY. The battle has been over the cost and combination of services I thought I needed, don't use but pay for. Seeing how my provider doesn't wan't to sell me X without Y to carry the Z... I think I'll reduce them to X, or less... all I really need from them is access to their tower for those rare moments I'm away from my own or some kind souls WiFi connection.

Going to use these next few days to beef up my VOIP accounts... Organize a voice service for myself with a cost in relation to how seldom I use it. The REAL concern and what I will pay most attention to is ensuring this system of mine is transparant to those who still maintain that "phone" is important. Any help from brave pioneers who have blazed this trail before me, mucho appreciado!

• WISH me luck and, talk to you shortly.  Oh, and if you'd like to know where to reach me (click below)

The other day I found myself playing the part of the man in the conversation I truly have no time for. I found the need to just say to myself; who cares that you can so easily see Facebook as nothing more than MySpace and Friendster which were nothing much more than well worn out but well working old BBSes. Who gives a darn that from one angel Pinterest is merely a beautifully visual bookmarking system and that Tumblr is just a well connected blogger that tweets. Who minds at all that each and everyone of these facilities, functions, platforms and apps can so easily be traced back to the origins of that very first web page or email or further... back? I just shook my head and said shut up to myself …and gave myself that simple reminder, this really is all so bloody wonderous!

So what if 75% of the things we don't remember that Facebook has ever tried never worked… They're trying, and in so doing have only done what? Well, only teach 1 billion people how to use these tools we've adored for what seems like forever! What the heck if each and every one of these companies struggles to stretch things to add another ad-dollar-opportunity to make that first dollar; even if it's at the expense of some little thing we thought was quite cool. They're convincing the money that the billions that's been thrown onto this beautiful bonfire is worth billions more.

I've had a monstrous love affair since I linked my first hyper link on HyperCard and made my screen shout out "ping" about 4 million years ago… When I first made that link link to something outside, across the room or the  continent, I was locked in this wedlock for what will most likely be the rest of my life. So what if it's all just a sometimes justs fanciful variations on tired old theme; if this is merely an updated and more polished version of that? It's been update after all. The plain fact It's being polished at all, day in and day out by bright minded people with brains full of great ideas and an eye to making it better (and work).

There's so much good work that's been done and so much more left to do; radical changes unexpected advances as it all becomes more used and more useful. There are 5,000 ways to skin each of theses cats and I think it's become obvious …there are just so many cats left to be skinned (on Facebook alone). I have no advantage in all this other than knowing that this once wasn't there… Well and perhaps witnessing to the proof of these improvements allows me more confidence in the knowledge that it can and will always be better. 

Good work people.

READ THE ORIGINATING ARTICLE ON SOCIAL MEDIA TODAY: We’re constantly assessing the impact our of various marketing channels. • One thing has become painfully clear: Facebook is not worth the time and effort. • Today I’m going to tell you why we decided to stop wasting time on Facebook.

BY: Jeff Gibbard from True Voice Media via Social Media Today connect with Jeff on Twitter: @jgibbard

...I just had a wonderful morning read, maybe even a minor epiphany really... Jeff Gibbard's article (linked above) has so succinctly expressed what we suspected...

Indeed, I've long been suspect of the "Facebook Page"... I don't know how many times I've had to plead with a client that it is NOT a page, NOT another site and that outside the cover image, a profile picture, and a few apps; it isn't to be... designed.

History 2.0

MySpace became Facbook because MySpace lost it. It lost it's own notion of "the stream" and let us go nutz and attempt "page" personalization. Suddenly it was suggested that we create our own funky MySpace experience, color up and put doo-dads all over our "page". Well, we all know where that gif induced blinkity-blink nightmare ended up; right in the hands of a man who'd made billions in the "old world" selling, pages. We didn't know it but we didn't want MySpace pages; we wanted MORE and more of the steady STREAM of good greeting from old pals.

A steady stream of hello, how ya doing, here's what I'm getting up to. MySpace did this very well, Facebook originally did it better simply because; Facebook forced us to do it. Facebook provided the same stream in a tight and directed fashion, even gave us a methodology for kicking the thought off, IS.

We left the blinkety-blink "pages" in droves; and invited all our friends along at exactly the right moment in the history of the inter-webs for Facebook to blossom (expand and explode). Did anyone ever to thank Tom? I have, I thanked him for my renewed friendships, my new friendships, the love of my life and the son we now have because of... MySpace.

SO... Facebook = Blossom... MySpace Blinkety-Blink Pages not so much... Good Business... this. is. simply. not. going. to. work.

In search of the money-machine...

Now, who doesn't like money... Does anyone recall where Facebook didn't try to put advertising? Does anyone recall each revolting revolt each time Facebook re-jigged the template to accomodate us marketers and our retched cousins, the Ad-man? All applause due and kudos to these good folks who built a billion person following made up primarily of whiners, screamers and cry babies.

The addition of the Facebook Business Page and to a lesser extent the attempted formalization of our timeline was nothing more than an attempt by Facebook to add a THERE, there. A place to post and sell ads onto... I recall the New York Times no less announcing that they would be adding the entier editorial history, ever last single article ever written to their timeline; my goodnees (hands rubbing together) This was almost the second coming of the Louisiana land grab; think of the Ad-real-estate! Somebody quick, we're going to need a bigger drool bucket!

But... we don't want a Facebook Page, blinkety blink or no blibkety blink. Facebook and Twitter provide us, the steady stream; AND, who the heck amongst us whiners & cry babies wants to add more Ad-real estate into our stream? Who the heck wants to stop, midstream to read about shoes... now buying shoes; better yet, buying shoes with my friends in the stream... that's whole other tall tale...

For certain I may have a passing interest in a page from time to time; I even stop for long enough to "like" some companies offering, but... that's that, that's done... I've already moved on... why on earth would I ever go back to a Facebook page when, if I really liked what I liked, I'd go where there's even more of what I liked, ie that companies site, that places, their blog, better yet, their store?

Putting on my marketing guy hat; my justification for selling my most valued clients on the idea of a Facebook Business is, it is a place to capture and collect a passing interest. To store the warm not yet cooling bodies. But what mechanisms does Facebook offer me to move these bodies to my customers site/store... What, I just keep clogging their feed, keep tapping into their stream, keep interrupting the conversations they are having with friends? How can that work well? - Most often, it doesn't; even if it could... maybe.

Once again, the AND being mightier than the OR...

The more brilliant amongst us have realized that this remains a grand experiment, long ago let themselves realize that locking oneself in the idea that this is right and you are wrong usually leave you, well... locked out.

There is no reason NOT to have a Facebook Business Page as long as you and your client have reasonable expectations. If you have the cash-ola to buy what Facebook is selling to push that page, it might even work for you, for a while. Maybe, just maybe, in their continuous search for a "done is better than perfect" solution the good folks at Facebook may even make another mistake that allows for a momentary explosion of success (watch for these, there have been many).

In the end I find myself less and less interested in struggling with a Facebook Business Page mainly because, that's Facebook's struggle. To find the money machine in their own business model is their own business issue. My concern is NOT making my own our my clients "page" the best Facebook Business Page, ever... It's my business to move the customer from the "stream"; or simply from what ever other activity... to our display window, show case; through the door. It's my business to allow my client the opportunity to engage with their customer, have him try on that pair of those shoes, talk the attribute talk, "...corinthian leather-etter!". Fawn over the benefits .. "you look smashing" in those...

And... it's my business to focus on the only "digital-social-business-metric" that matters most to my client. that is, add at least one dollar more into their till than is taken out...

The stream is a wonderful busy sidewalk... your ad in the stream? Is it a homeless man in a sandwich board or a handbill pasted on the telephone poll? Your window is dressed in a lovely display, with all your product Pinetrested into it's proper place... the Marketer can only do as much as he can to get those folks through your door... But take a cue from the Italian waiter on Lower Mulberry Street... There's little harm in hitting the sidewalk and asking someone in the street and/or stream... "Do you like Penné Aribiata?" Oh and... I like your shoes.

(this ain't over)