Can You Still Use YouTube, Pandora or Netflix at Work?
USA Today recently reported that Procter & Gamble had shut down employee access to streamign sites Pandora and Netflix. However, P&G still allowed access to Facebook and YouTube for company use, (I guess watching laughing babies on YouTube still qualifies as work).
Part of the reason why companies like P&G and other companies are restricting use of these sites is because they lack of bandwidth support to sustain employees streaming video and music all day.
Plus, I do think companies probably do not want their employees streaming Hugh Jackman’s “Real Steel” on Netflix all day,when they should be closing credit card applications.
While the bandwidth discussion has merit, I think companies should relax their restrictions on Internet usage because in all honesty, most people hate their jobs.
Over the years, people have always found ways to make work more enjoyable, by getting out of their duties including:
Taking multiple smoke breaks
Taking a full newspaper to the bathroom
Taking eextended lunches
Taking “emergency” phone calls from their one month old
Playing solitaire on the computer
Staring at their cubicle for the last 45 minutes of the day
Staring at the gal in the next cubicle for the last 45 minutes of the day who wouldn’t date them
So if someone needs to check their fantasy score on ESPN or look at a Pinterest board, let them do it.
As long as they finish their work, who cares.
What is the harm of having listening to the Pitbull channel on Pandora? I think most people are more productive listening to music that they like, than hearing muliple plays of Mister Mister’s “Broken Wings” on Muzak all day.
In retrospect, it is still hard to believe that a large money making entity like P&G has bandwidth issues.
All of the money Procter and Gamble makes from Pampers and those high priced Gillette Fusion blades alone should be enough to buy some of the best bandwidth outside of the Silicon Valley.
Oh well, at least P&G employees can still watch those laughing babies on YouTube all day right?
Do you have Internet access at work? Can you watch YouTube and listen to Pandora?
What restrictions or non-restrictions do you have at the workplace?
Instagram for Androids Might Debut @SXSW
On Mashable today I came across a posting entitled “The Best Instagram Photos Ever Taken”
Photo taken by Simon (@stmng)
Now I have never owned an iPhone and while I have been pretty happy with my Virgin Mobile Optimus Slider Android, but I was always saddened by the fact that the droid does not have an Instagram app.
Sure there are some nice alternatives like Camera 360, Lightbox and my personal favorite Streamzoo, but when I see so many tweeting Instagram photos, I always feel like the kid who wasn’t invited to the cool party.
Well it looks like I might be buying a party hat!
The website GottaBeMobile.com reported that “Instagram for Android Could Launch at SXSW on March 11th“
If this true, this is great news!
Since I can’t be in city of Austin of Texas for SXSW this year to hang out with Lionel Richie, The Insane Clown Posse and Gary Vaynerchuk (no lie, there will all be there this year), the news that I can dump all my other camera apps (except Streamzoo) for Instagram clearly makes up for me missing this year’s music, film and interactive festival, (but I will be at SXSW next year singing “All Night Long” even if Lionel Richie isn’t there).
However, I have to keep in mind that Gottabemobile.com’s head still had “could” in the title.
So even if I have to wait for Christmas, I’ll bet you I will be snapping some of the best Instagram Christmas photos Mashable has ever seen!
Question: Which camera app do you currently use? Also, if you are going to SXSW who are you going to see?
VH1 and Foursquare Band Together to ‘Save The Music’
I’m not sure where I would be without music.
Music to me is like breathing.
I listen to it. I write about. I see it. I mixed it, scratched it and played it.
Growing up I was a drummer and for a short time I played the flute (I usually black out that year of my life).
Casey Kasem’s Top 40 was my religion as I wrote down each song every week, while studying videos on MTV like I was preparing for the bar, (quick, name me five songs by Duran Duran and one by Expose).
Like Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of Neptunes/N.E.R.D., I proudly call myself a band nerd because back then I was glee-fully surrounded by fellow music geeks who also loved music, (though I never had that “American Pie” band camp experience, I guess I was in the wrong band huh?).
Yet when I look outside my window, I rarely see a kid walking down the street carrying a trumpet, saxaphone or clarinet case or watch a young Phil Collins frantically air drumming down the block with a pair of drumsticks.
My former high school band has shrunken so greatly in the years since I hung up my bass drumming mallets for two turntables and microphone that it now looks more like a music club than an actually band; Combine that with music stores closing and people selling their instruments to pawn shops because of the poor economy and one would think that the craft of playing music is dead.
Well, VH1 and Forusquare are hoping to reverse this trend.
According to Mashable, starting March 1, “fans that follow VH1 on Foursquare can earn a special limited edition VH1 Save The Music badge…the first 35,000 users that unlock the badge, VH1 will donate $1 per badge to the VH1 Save The Music Foundation,” (the promotion will also be prominently be featured at SXSW).
VH1 Save The Music has done a great job over years in hepling restore music programs in public education across the country, so it is exciting to see social media platform like Foursquare joining the cause to help the arts remain viable.
Here’s hoping that some of the money from the Foursquare promotion not only find its way to my old high school but any public school where kids can learn to play music and continue fall in love with the art of melody and song that still thrills me to this day when I frantically air drum “In The Air Tonight” in my car.
Question: Am I wrong? Do you see a lot kids playing in your city. What other examples have you seen where social media is saving the arts?
Do You Spend Too Much Time on Social Networks?
“To me, that sounds unhealthy.”
That’s what Twitter co-founder Biz Stone recently told a Montreal audience recently that ”spending up to 12 hours a day on the platform is not necessarily a great idea” according to Mashable.
Isn’t there a joke that says if you with Tweet all the time you go blind? O
K that’s something else, but the same rules apply.
As great social networks are, I do think as a society we so spend too much times looking at a screen, while sacrificing face to face interaction ion person.
But who am I to talk?
When I am watching TV, there are times that I am constantly checking my Twitter. Then I have to rewind my DVR because I missed a crucial scene of Law and Order SVU?!?
Information is great.
I love information.
Finding information and sending it to my friends, fans and family members gives me great joy.
However, there are moments when I look around and I lost hours of my life looking at Facebook, Twitter, blogs and websites.
Instead of staring at my Asus laptop, maybe I could have used that time to begin working out or take some salsa lessons or visit a friend instead of sending a DM on Twitter.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the this new digital age.
I love how I can connect with old friends or make new ones in other cities, states and countries.
I love how the world has now shrunken to a point where content and distribution is now a lot more accessible.
Where I no longer have to wait for a magazine to pick up my submitted article on social media.
All I have to do now is make a YouTube video, podcast or write an article post it on WordPress or Blogger and anyone in Akron, New York or Africa can read my work anytime of the day.
But are we spending too much time scrolling, typing , sending and recording?
Recently , George Clooney was on “NPR’s All Things Considered“, discussing his Best Actor nominated role in “The Descendents” when he said ,”I think people are experiencing less and recording more.”
He mentioned that we was at a function with Brad Pitt when a person pulled out their camera and recorded the their interaction with ”Money Ball” star.
“You can tell people that you recorded Brad Pitt, but it would be very hard for you to say you actually met him, because you were watching it all through your phone,” Clooney noted.
Clooney’s statement of “I think people are experiencing less and recording more,” still sticks to me even as I write this post.
As much as I love Twitter, I don’t want my tombstone to say “He Re-Tweeted a Lot”!?!
So in 2012, I’m going to try my best to Tweet less and live life more.
Its going to be a struggle because I love media and content.
But I want to be in a place where digital to be a major part of my life, not the majority.
What about you?
Do you spend too much time on social networks?
How much time do spend ?
Has it hurt your social life or enhanced it?
Should People Get Tattoos Above the Neck?
I today I went to fast food eatery and when I paid for my food, the young lady who served me was very friendly and had a beautiful smile that could brighten gray winter skies here in Ohio.
As I drove off, there one thing besides her smile that stuck with me; She had a bunch of blazing yellow and red tattoos which looked like lightning bolts on the front of her neck.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not Mr. Anti Tattoo.
I was a big fan of Miami Ink (not so much NY Ink) and in fact I will probably get a tat of my down the road; but my tattoo will be hidden from plain sight, (if you have any ideas for tats let me know).
Unless you are a tattoo artist, professional athlete, bounty hunter, rocker, rapper, a circus freak or a cast member of “Sons of Anarchy”, tattoos above the neck should be a no-no.
When he was younger film actor, Johnny Depp famously had his “Wino Forever” changed from “Winona Forever” after he broke up with his then girlfriend Wynona Ryder.
The reason we don’t hear about that tattoo much anymore is because it’s on his arm.
While Depp has many more tats on his body, all of them are in areas that cannot be seen b film goers, (can you image Captain Jack Sparrow with a big W on his forehead? I can’t either.)
When you start putting ink on your neck, face, head or chin, I just think you’re asking for trouble.
Laser removal can be expensive, at times painful and could leave scars.
If you decide get rid of big flaming skull looking at a seagull driving a Maybach off of your neck, isn’t that going to hurt as well as take multiple trips to laser doc to get rid that tat?
When you’re young, you do stupid things.
I’ve done my fair share of dumb things, so many that I can write endless blog post about my mishaps, but most of my mistakes can not be seen naked eye.
Plus, the way the job market is, unless you have real hip boss, most of these folks are not open enough to give a tattooed person a chance to work in their company.
I’m not sure what’s going to happen to the young lady with the bright smile and the neck tattoos.
I think she can do more than work in a fast food place, but as long as she has those red and yellow sparks on the front of her neck, she might not ever grow into the person she could be; all because she made a dumb mistake when she was young.
Question: Have you lost opportunities because you had visible tattoos and/or have you had conversations with young people with tattoos? What do yo tell them? Also if you have stories where your tattoos are a non issue in the workplace, I like to hear those too.
Which Kindle Only Authors/Books Do You Like?
One of the places I enjoy finding books is the Dollar Store.
I know I should download all my books on a Kindle, but I don’ t own a tablet yet and I still enjoy the feel of paper in my hands.
(Plus, if I buy a book that sucks, it only costs me a buck!)
As I walked up to the register, the cashier looked at my books and said there is still hope that people still like to read.
I laughed at her statement and I asked her what kind of books did she read.
She said she usually download her books onto her Kindle and proceeded to name a number of young adult authors who writes tales about vampires, werewolves and angels.
I told her I didn’t recognize any of the names of the authors and she said most of the books she read are not known to the masses because they are e-book only writers.
“Some of these authors blows those Twilight books out of the water!”, she exclaimed cheerfully as she handed me back my change.
As we continued our chat, I noticed a portly, bearded guy behind me with a green dollar bag of sour cream chips, getting a bit agitated behind me. Never one to stand between a man and his chips, I thanked the cashier for our conversation and I left my three hardcovers.
As I drove home, I started thinking about my conversation with the bubbly, angel happy cashier.
I began wondering about the plethora of e-book writers who might be the next J.K Rowling, yet the masses may never see on the New Yorks Times best sellers list because their books are neither hardcover or paperback.
So for my friends out here who has a Kindle, iPad or any other tablet, tell me who are your favorite ebook only authors or books.
What books would you recommended for download, so when I finally save my pennies to buy my own Amazon Kindle, I know who to look for.
(Also if you published a book using Kindle Direct Publishing, tell me your experience?)
Do you Need Social Media? 5 Ways To Find Out!
Quite often I see TV commercials where the announcer will say “Catch us on Facebook and Twitter!”
While its great that more companies are using social media to connect with their audiences, just because social media is an option, it doesn’t mean that you need to be part of the revolution.
It’s painful to go to a company’s YouTube, Facebook or Twitter page and see very little or no activity.
If you are a company that is interested in using social media, make sure ask yourself these few questions:
1.) Who is my target audience?
Do research to find out if your audience actually uses social media.
Grab a tool like Surveymonkey and send out an email to your audience to gauge their social media usage. You might learn that your audience like Twitter over Facebook or Pinterest over YouTube.
No use wasting time and energy on creating a social media account, when your audience’s only use of the internet is their Hotmail account, (I have a friend who still has hers…Don’t laugh, she’s still proud of her relic account and Y2K survival kit.)
2.) What is the purpose of your Facebook page or Twitter?
Are you using social media to engage and connect or simply putting up press releases? If it’s the latter, bail out now. No one cares about press releases, they want to connect with YOU.
3.) How often will I post a message on Facebook or Tweet?
Will you send out messages everyday, once a week, several times a day? It’s not about volume, but social networks are useless unless you give your audience a consistent message.
Also make sure if people ask a question, you answer. Depending on how many people send your messages, it might be impossible to answer all of their questions. If that’s a case, choose a few everyday to answer or as many as you can. People will be more forgiving if you answer a few of their questions than not answering any of them.
4.) Who will sending out the messages?
Who will handle the messaging? Will it be the VP of Marketing department or the Social Media Director? The CEO or an intern?
Whomever handles your social media, make sure it reflects the voice of the company? Also, like with tip #1, know your audience. Using the term “Dude” might not fly if your audiences still watches reruns of “Murder She Wrote” on TV Land.
5.) Wait
If you don’t have a person in place to handle your social networks, do not launch a social site wait until you find someone in or out your organization to take the digital reigns.
Don’t forget that the SOCIAL part of social media could mean anything.
So if your simple 8 X 10 flyer on a community board brings in your biggest audience, then you are being SOCIAL because you connected with your audience in a community.
You just did it in a non-digital way.
Question: What companies do you of that has not used their social networks in a correct way?
