Social Tuesday - LinkedIn did what?

Facebook Delivers the Ads - Media Post 

This is not the same ads. You can not compare a Facebook Ad with a Banner Ad for form fit and function.

LNKD goes Public. Wall Street fleeces LinkedIn and Main Street. Nice to have things back to normal.

They IPOed at $45 but quickly peaked at $122 on the market. Just think LinkedIn could of gotten easily double what they got. Who got the rest? Wall street. They bought the shares bid them up sold to the public high. So many of the 'Gold Rushers' who thought this was money in the bank bought no matter the price. Someone bought at $122 share! It's $89 today. 25% loss for whoever bought at the peak.

Remember 9 out of 10 IPO's end their first year at a lower share price than their issue price. 

Fun fact: You can buy $1 of LinkedIn's Revenues for the same price you can buy $1 of Apple's PROFITS! In fact it costs $18 to buy $1 of Apple profits today. It costs $1,312 to buy $1 of LinkedIn's profits.

Yes Social Media has gone Traditional Media with ReTweet This!

Why I Hate Info Graphics - They are Deceptive

So to be kind since I could just go whirlwind through Mashable and the Blogosphere on this I will use a recent Huffington Post Article on how Bush's tax cuts for the rich are our biggest deficit problem. While I am sure we can prove using MATH that this is a major factor, the infographic is disingenuous because it leaves out any money we will owe for Medicare, Social Security, the new Healthcare Law because I am very positive the debt wouldn't be coming down (noted as Debt Without Those Factors) without changes to those massive programs.

Social Tuesday - Facebook $100B Follies + Top 50 Twitter Women

Just going to cover two topics. I figure you can enjoy a more leisurely day than most Tuesdays.

First off Congrats to this great list of Women on Twitter! I know there are many such lists but just to be named in any list is an honor. As you know us Space Aliens are all for equality and a huge supporter of the Ladies. This comes from the wonderful Cheryl Burgess of Blue Focus Marketing and Tom Pick of Webbiquity. Not sure when a Top 50 Space Alien's on Twitter list is coming but it had better be soon!

NIFTY 50 TOP WOMEN OF TWITTER

Next topic which is like the weight around your ankles as you are tossed into the ocean by the mafia for not paying your gambling debts. Our Chief Alien has proved over and over that Facebook is dying just waiting for a better network to pop up and poof we all migrate. Yet more and more idiots keep claiming higher valuations. I have told everyone to sell the IPO short. It is the biggest pump and dump scheme in history and will make Bernie Madoff seem like peanuts when this is done. Please if you have a pension or 401k beg the administrators not to buy their stock when they IPO and that you value your retirement.

This article from Media Post covers not only a ridiculously rosie Social Media display ad forecast but notes the Wall Street Journal (whom this Finance Grad doesn't read anymore as a trusted business news source) is claiming a $100bil value next year. Go to the NYSE and NASDAQ. Look at all the companies that have a $100bil value. Look at their revenues. Their profits. Look at what they MAKE AND SELL. And you get my drift.

LINK 

The problem I have with the display ad forecast is once Brands realize they aren't getting clicks on Facebook and the Facebook ads are pitiful vs real Display won't prices slump and what Social Media Properties are going to pick up the slack?

Mobile Monday - We Need to Separate the L, the B, and the S

LBS is no different than Social Media. It covers a wide array of technologies thus confusing everyone except the people who might make money off the confusion. Different Businesses and Platforms have different goals.

L is for Location:

Do we need a Satellite Linkup? Yes and No.

Yes if you want to be found. I use FourSquare, Gowalla, and Yelp! when in an unknown place to see what is around. What restaurants and stores are nearby.

But does a store I am going to visit need a satellite to engage with me? No. I can do that via my mobile device in person via 3G 4G or whatever G network I am using with a simple scan of QR code placed inside the store. This will prove no fake check ins. Even better instead of looking for a deal and blowing you off maybe I come in don't see a deal yet see something and buy it.

The problem with the Satellite is immense. Doesn't work indoors most of the time so if I am at the mall I have to go back outside to check in if I see a store I am curious if they have a deal. Doesn't work in the Upper East Side of NYC because of the tall buildings. It allows false check ins.

B is for Buying:

The goal is to get me to buy something correct? I was up in Vermont last week and checked Foursquare and saw some deals but none that was enough for me to come in and try a restaurant. To get a half price small plate isn't enough. But it's great if I am going anyway and know I can get that. But does that help or hurt your margins?

For a Store whether it is piggy backed on a Service like Gowalla or Shop Kick or a Proprietary App if I had a unique customer identifier that knows it is me with full purchase history would that create the basis for the most robust margin building, revenue growing platform ever? You can pull up the Chief Alien's history and custom craft the hooks possible to maximize a sale, move older inventory, or customize my experience just like if I had my own personal shopping minion.

S is for Social:

Does Location Based Services need a Social Element?

NO

But if people want to share you better sure enable that activity. I myself am sharing my check ins less and less with Twitter. I surely won't be sharing purchases etc. I definitely will never check in to a Place on Facebook. But that is me. If you want to go ahead. It benefits the Store or Business you are patronizing. Maybe there should be an added incentive to share kind of like what Lockerz is trying to do. 

For a Customer to Store connection if I check in and share with Twitter I get 1% off. If I share my purchase activity on Facebook I get another 1% off. If it takes place on a larger platform maybe I can accumulate points for a reward down the road.

Mobile Monday - On Tuesday!

I know everything got kind of wacky with Bin Laden having to die and go mess up my normal order of blog posts.

I am going to start a new format or test it for all 5 of my readers 8). First will be some observations as I use my Droid2 and followed by news and worth blogposts.

Part Uno:

So I was jogging and there was a link posted on Twitter for a You Tube Video. Which I clicked on. My Droid asked me do I wish to play in the Browser (generic), Skyfire, or Firefox. Yet I have a You Tube App which is owned by Google. Why doesn't it just launch in the YouTube App? This might be a Motorola or Twitter App issue. But if I was Google I would fix this flaw right away.

Mobile browsing kind of sucks. I hesitate to use my Droid2 for Mobile Browsing because the experience isn't that great no matter what Browser I use. And why when I use the Generic Browser does it ask permission every time it needs to go to a new page? I already chose it for that action show some balls! Own it!

I learned I was allowing Apps to search for updates non-stop. It was freezing the phone. I recommend manually looking for updates.

When I brought the phone in to be swapped by Verizon whom suggest I wipe the phone out and start clean I asked why do the Apps I kill start up again. I was told I can manually fix that in the application settings. Big Phat Wrong. Can't fix the problem at least so far can't find a setting to only run Apps when I let them run.

Kudos to Verizon Wireless. While I was very miffed they didn't swap my phone and instead wiped it clean and started over the process was amazing. All my Apps reloaded on their own. I was blown away. Same with my contacts etc. The only issue I had was Apps needing a login like FourSquare or Gowalla. I had forgotten them and had to get them when at home.

Lastly still to date Gowalla and Foursquare have rewarded me only once and that was back in October when I got free Chips and Salsa at Chilis. The special offers still suck. Mostly Radio Shacks. I really just check in for fun especially when traveling to show where I am but not very often to Twitter. Just in-network. They are handy like Yelp! to see what is locally around for eats, drinks etc.

Part Dos:

Edward Boches covers Rudeless a new IPhone App

Fred Wilson covers Apps that know where you are and set your phone accordingly.

Social Tuesday - On Monday - Who Cares about Real Time Web?

I feel like a pinata when something happens and I have to react with a blogpost. Saturday was case in point when while the premise of Huffington Post and Fred Wilson's article about would we pay for Facebook was true today, it made me respond. Because I wouldn't pay for Facebook now because it sucks as a network, but there was a time before all the Brand and Marketing pollution when I would of. When many of us would have. LINK

Now Osama Bin Laden. Last night there was the announcement that President Obama had a press conference scheduled. I learned during the Mets vs Philly's baseball game on TV. I then went to Huffington Post and saw Bin Laden is Dead but no story. I then went to Twitter and saw the chatter.

Someone who is very well known in Social Media sent a Tweet stating Twitter trounced for the story. Then he posted a blog post about it. I got pissed because of many reasons.

1] He didn't know this or could prove it. Not at that time. Maybe never. And how many knew who had to sit on it because they wanted to know it was true vs Twitter where we libel all the time with lies, rumors, hate, etc (just check the hashtag #TCOT)

2] I learned from TV first

3] 96.7% of the US was not on Twitter yesterday. How many were on at 10pm EST? I had Twitter in a Tab on FireFox but was viewing something else.

4] During the Philly game the crowd found out before any announcement and started chanting USA USA! Yes Philly fans are dumb. They acted like that kid you beat up every day for 10 years who then you wipe out on your bike and they come running over to taunt you saying they won. I mean your bragging after this guy took down the Twin Freaking Towers! He humiliated us for ten years and suckered this country into bankruptcy and some heinous behaviors in wartime and the destruction of the fabric of American cohesiveness. I think not only does Osama Bin Laden win. He should be buried with Ali's Boxing Belts. Hell throw in Fraziers and Tysons as well.

But I want to focus on the crowd. Because Gini Dietrich posted a well crafted blogpost that Social Media was definitely a news facilitator and I agree. It only took a few people in the Philly crowd to see a Tweet, a Facebook update, get an SMS Text or Phone Call to have the whole crowd know really quickly. But I will bet the bank 95% of the fans learned by verbal communication from their neighbors in the stands. No different than how things spread in Egypt or Tunisia. It only takes a few well located people with access to others to get a message moving. Even if very few are using Social Media or Mobile Technologies.

Interestingly enough as proof of Social Media and Technologies lack of reach. The announcers kept mentioning the Phillies in the doug out were clueless about why the chants for USA were going on. And not just for a minute. For a whole half an inning! None of those people have phones? There wasn't one support person in the clubhouse watching TV? No coach in a booth watching the TV feed for coaching purposes?

So since not just most I bet 80-90% of the US learned about Osama Bin Laden outside of Social Media. And some people knew before others. And all these people are pushing real time web like it matters like the person who got me riled up last night.

WHO CARES?

Why do so many Social Media people need validation of the importance of Social Media even when it's not that important? They rubber stamp events without critical research or proof. And often over stuff that doesn't matter.

WHO CARES?

This was not life and death. This proves the fallacy of the REAL TIME WEB being worthless most of the time. If I learned 10 minutes later than you WHO CARES? Are you that much of a stuck up whiny geek that you want to brag you knew before me? I have found VERY FEW examples of where REAL TIME WEB is more important than ALMOST REAL TIME WEB. And they are so few and so rare.....WHO CARES? The ones I have found are important ones like if I was trading stocks. But most people will never benefit in almost all instances.