The end of Facebook? Engagement is not the same as “liking”. Who knew?
I subscribe to Bob Bly’s marketing newsletter. Even though I’m not a marketing guy, I always learn something useful about marketing (and teaching involves marketing, even if it’s the basic “know your audience” thing) and about good writing, as you can no doubt tell by the scintillating prose on this blog.
Mike Rogers has ranted written frequently about Facebook and other social media. Here’s just one sample: Too Many Social Media Parties
There’s so many social networks. I won’t name them, you probably know more than me. I use Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. From what I’ve seen, there seems to be way more social networks than we could possibly need.
Well, here’s an excerpt from a Bob Bly’s ezine I got today, specifically here’s the part that refers to Facebook:
Ad Age, a six-week study of Facebook’s Fan pages showed a mere 0.45% of fans engaged in any way beyond clicking “Like.” This indicates that Facebook fan bases and actual engagement aren’t the same thing.
The average engagement for the 10 brands with the largest fan bases (like Harley Davidson, Nike and Porsche) was 0.36%. The
highest engagement was in the alcohol category and the lowest in laundry detergent, social platforms and apps.In other Facebook marketing news, my colleague Brian Croner reports that “world famous Sun Valley Ski Resort here in Idaho,
invested their entire $950,000 ad budget in Facebook advertising in 2011 and it bombed. It bombed so bad in fact, they fired
their marketing director. Last year they had more snow than they knew what to do with and still couldn’t pack the hotels after
using FB exclusively.
This article appears courtesy of Bob Bly Direct Response Letter. Visit Bob’s website at www.bly.com Check out his site for excellent marketing/ad copy writing tips and advice.
And here’s another article, from February this year, that suggests Facebook’s “like” might be losing out to LinkedIn’s “Inshare” button. Whatever that is: Are People Falling Out Of Love with “Like”?
Look across the Web and you see it. While content surfers “like” plenty of content, they’ve fallen hard for LinkedIn’s “inshare” tab. It’s long been true of business news, which users overwhelmingly share with their professional networks; but even at general interest sites such as Time and the Atlantic, the “inshare” is beginning to steal some of Facebook’s “like” button’s thunder.
…
Andrew Lipsman, ComScore’s vice president of industry analytics, says he believes that the “trend you’re honing in on, and that I see, too, is a lot more ‘insharing’ going on now, which I think has to do with LinkedIn’s effort to turn its network into less of a utility and more of a content site.”
Next contestant Nikkei from Japan, special subject the bleeding obvious
How much sooner would this have happened if Tepco was a genuine private company?
Tepco has not gone bankrupt simply because it is being bailed out by the government. Financial aid from the government-backed Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund is expected to reach 3.4 trillion yen. The figure is already far higher than the 350 billion yen or so that Japan Airlines Co. received from the government and the roughly 2 trillion yen that went to Resona Holdings Inc. 8308.
In Tepco’s case, government aid will continue to grow unless the firm can plug the hole in the bucket.
Given this grim reality, what needs to be done is evident. Power rates need to go up so that Tepco can pay compensation for the nuclear accident and provide a stable supply of power. And some of its idled nuclear reactors need to be brought back online after their safety has been confirmed to curb the increase in power rates.
via 2012/03/30 05:38 – OPINION: There Are Solutions To Tepco’s Financial Woes.
The reason for my title, if you haven’t spotted it already, can be explained in this video. It’s a cultural reference to a line from the British comedy series, “Fawlty Towers” (and here for Japanese readers).
Another useful video from paperless master DocumentSnap – how to save search in Windows
Brooks Duncan, creator of DocumentSnap.com, has created another useful video – how to save search in Windows. (If you can, watch it in HD and full-screen, to see what he’s actually typing into the search box.)
Brooks’ videos are just the right level of sophistication for a non-geek like me, plus the video format means I can see exactly what he’s doing and copy it. I much prefer howto videos to purely textual explanations.
Brooks has created a free email course on how to go paperless, which I warmly recommend if you’re thinking of going paperless (scanning as many of your important documents then trashing the paper originals) but haven’t girded up your loins yet, so to speak. You can sign up for it on his homepage at www.DocumentSnap.com
After I’d taken his 7-part email course on going paperless, bought my Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner and started scanning stuff, I started gaily scanning everything I could lay my hands on. Wheee! This scanning stuff is easy! Then, a blog post of Brooks’ brought me back to earth: can I quickly and easily find what I’ve scanned? Do I have a backup system in place? Is the Pope a black woman? Maybe there’s more to this scanning lark?
I’m a strong believer in not re-inventing the wheel, and fortunately, Brooks has made lots of “wheels”: he’s tried a number of systems for sorting and organizing scanned files (mainly PDFs), including different software for Mac and Windows (Brooks seems to be a Mac user but he always provides tutorials for Windows users, too, which is very broadminded of him), as well as the ScanSnap Organizer software that comes with the Fujitsu ScanSnap (and tutorials for each of the models available so far).
Brooks put all this knowledge and experience together into a commercial package that includes workflow diagrams (what? I need workflows for scanning? Can’t I just shove the paper in the feeder and hit the button? Well, not exactly, if you want to easily and quickly find what you just scanned and then be able to trash the original paper with spirit and decision. If you’re going to go, “Well, maybe I should keep the original, ya know, just in case or whatever…” then save the 15,000 yen for the ScanSnap and keep to a hard-copy, paper system.)
Once you’ve completed the 7-part free email course on going paperless, and you’re ready to go cold turkey, scan everything and throw away most of your paper, then you’ll want to check out Brooks’ Paperless Document Organization Guide – Specialist Package. For more details see my earlier blog post: Going paperless: tips from a OneNote and Evernote user. Brooks recommends the Fujitsu ScanSnap, but his tutorials are generic enough to be relevant whatever type of scanner you have.
The Fujitsu ScanSnap series is much more expensive than a flatbed scanner or those new 3-in-one printers which include a flatbed scanner. Is it worth it? Check out Brooks’ comparison blog post: Fujitsu ScanSnap vs All-in-One Flatbeds – Which is Better? And here’s one comparing the Fujitsu ScanSnap lineup: Fujitsu ScanSnap: How Are The S1300 and ScanSnap S1500 Models Different?
Time run out for Japan? “The yen’s looming day of reckoning”
English-speaking observers of Japan’s economy have been sounding warnings since last year (and many before that), but within the world of Wa, there seems to be little sense of panic. Has time run out for Japan?
So says MarketWatch, and thanks to MarketingJapan’s Mike Rogers for the links: read Mike’s articles Yen Devaluation Now Imminent? Being Called by Major Financials! Get out of debt – Get your financial house in order now!
and
“A massive 40% devaluation of the Japanese yen is imminent and inevitable…”
Mike’s articles contain excerpts from a MarketWatch article entitled “The Yen’s looming day of reckoning” and from a ZeroHedge article by Tyler Durden of March 26th, entitled, “Four Years of Japanese Central Planning Failure Charted”. Both articles are worth reading in their entirety for the insights they give into how Japan’s economy works (or doesn’t, depending on your point of view).
Even though you may live and work in Japan, you may still get some insights and surprises, probably unpleasant ones. So buckle up, hold onto your seat, and read on.
Read the rest of this entry »
Going paperless: tips from a OneNote and Evernote user
For you OneNote fans, DocumentSnap has written a blog-post about how an accountant uses OneNote and a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner to go paperless.
I’ve frequently mentioned Brooks Duncan’s DocumentSnap website, and for good reason: his blog posts are often very useful, clearly written and apply to some problem or difficulty I have going paperless. I credit Brooks with giving me the push I needed to go paperless. I’d been putting off for months, but I took the plunge after reading his 7-part free email course on the subject. Brooks made it seem fun.
This blog post of Brooks Duncan’s is one in a series of “Reader Stories”, personal accounts of different folks going paperless:why they did it, how they got started, difficulties they faced and solutions they found, etc.
Especially useful, I’ve found, is people’s workflows. This is something that DocumentSnap creator Brooks deals with in some detail, with different examples, in his excellent Paperless Document Organization Guide – Specialist Package (click to read more details). I’ve referred to this over and over. I especially like the videos.
Brooks Duncan has a series of explanatory, how-to, videos on a number of subjects, not all related to going paperless but usually about some tip on how to streamline your workflow, Windows shortcuts, etc.
Here’s one I found useful: Video: Use the Windows 7 Send To Menu To Speed Up Copying To Dropbox. This is a useful tip for adding ANY location to the Windows 7 “send to” menu, not just Dropbox.
Brooks’ DocumentSnap site is full of useful free stuff, such as the video above. There are more tips on his blog.
If you are thinking of going paperless but unsure where to start, or even if you really want to tackle this, I recommend you start with Brooks’ free 7-part e-course which you can sign up for on his homepage here: http://www.documentsnap.com/
Then, once you’ve decided to go paperless, you’ll want to check out Brooks’ Paperless Document Organization Guide a steal at $47. This contains
- A detailed 10,000+ word PDF manual covering all the key aspects of organizing your electronic documents and comparing and contrasting the most popular software packages for Windows and Mac.
- At least 10 workflow diagrams with step-by-step descriptions.
- At least 4 interviews with DocumentSnap readers who have gone paperless and are sharing what they have learned
- At least 3 interviews with professional organizers (Paperless Specialist and Paperless Master packages only)
- PDF transcript of interviews
- At least 6 video screencastswhere I record my screen giving step-by-step instructions (Paperless Specialist and Paperless Master packages only):
- How to find your files on the Mac
- How to find your files on Windows and using ScanSnap Organizer
- How to encrypt and secure your documents on the Mac
- How to encrypt and secure your documents on Windows
- How to use Evernote to store your documents
- Step-by-step through my paperless workflow
As you can see, it includes info for both Mac and Windows users.
Today, I discovered that Brooks has an affiliate program for his Paperless Document Organization Guide – Specialist Package and I signed up straight away. I want to recommend products that I have used myself and got a great deal of use out of. Brooks’ Paperless Document Organization Guide is one of them.
It comes in three flavours:
He also has a guide to get the best out of your Fujitsu ScanSnap. I use this a lot as I bought mine in Japan and this English guide has been a great help:
Unofficial ScanSnap setup guide – combo. Click here to view more details
And finally, let me give another plug for two other Evernote-related how-to guides that I use a lot and have mentioned here many times:
- Brett Kelly’s incomparable guide to using Evernote, Evernote Essentials (PDF)
- and Dan Gold’s Evernote: the unofficial guide to capturing everything and getting things done (2nd edition)
Hugo – the movie by Martin Scorsese
Yesterday, I saw Martin Scorsese‘s latest film, “Hugo” , the 2D version, not 3-D. Perhaps that was a mistake, but I’ve seen too many so-so 3D movies recently, and our daughter gets bored and takes off the glasses anyway about half-way through, so we went for the 2D version.
The movie was very enjoyable. It turned out to be a different movie from the one I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a fantasy, like Johnny Depp‘s Alice in Wonderland, or The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec.
But it isn’t. Though it includes some elements of magic realism, it is the rather Dickensian story of a young orphan, Hugo, and his relationship with a grumpy old man (Ben Kingsley) who runs a toy shop in the Gare Montparnasse. Who is this old man, who confiscates Hugo’s precious notebook and who is so angry and silent about his past?
The story has several whimsical moments, which seem to have little to do with the action of the story, but add greatly to its charm. Here’s one: Isabelle (played by Chloë Grace Moretz) recites the first few lines of the following poem in an attempt to prevent Hugo from being arrested by another whimsical character, the station Inspector, brilliantly played by Baron Sacha Cohen, whose surrealist dialogue and deadpan delivery (and slightly Cockney accent) reminded me of both Peter Sellars and Peter Cook.
MY heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water’d shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these,
Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a daïs of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.”
[A Birthday" is reprinted from Macmillan's Magazine April 1861.]
via A Birthday, by Christina Rossetti.
ECB’s and BoJ’s balance sheet as portion of GDP
ECB BoJ balance sheets as % of GDP
The above graphic is from an RT interview with “Tragedy of the Euro” author and economics professor, Philip Bagus (Bagus’ interview begins @ 16:15).
Bastiat Circle blog has the transcript and the video.
What happens in Europe, of course, impinges on Japan because
- Europe is one of Japan’s major trading partners,
- the BoJ’s balance sheet is approximately equal to the ECB’s, and
- the BoJ’s and Japan’s Finance Ministry policies may well follow the path of Europe’s.
via Eurozone Wealth Transfers and Sovereign Default
Related articles
- Philipp Bagus On the LTRO and True Role of Central Banks (zerohedge.com)
- The Real Tragedy Of The Euro (zerohedge.com)
- Draghi Defends ECB Balance Sheet Expansion (blogs.wsj.com)
I Will Gladly Pay You 100 Years From Now, For a Hamburger Today
Mish asks,
…please explain the need for government to borrow money in the first place. The same question applies to the US, China, Germany, and the rest of the world.
There is no “need”, there is only political expediency of vote-buying promises that cannot be met with money that will never be paid back by inflation or default. This is what happens when there are no fiscal constraints anywhere. This is what happens when currencies are backed by nothing and can be borrowed into existence at will by central banks in response to out-of-control spending by politicians.
At some point, even if there is no default, those 100-year bonds will go for 20 cents on the dollar if not less.
Neither the UK, nor the US, nor anyone else needs 100-year bonds. What we need is sound money, backed by gold, coupled with balanced budget amendments, and an end to fractional reserve lending.
Since that set of needs is highly unlikely barring a global currency crisis, I advise preparing for one. I just cannot tell you when. I can only tell you it’s a wise thing to have some gold in your portfolio for when the inevitable happens.
Oh, and at least 2 weeks of water, food and supplies.
Related articles
- Britain to offer 100-year gilts (telegraph.co.uk)
- 100 Year Bonds (professorbainbridge.com)
- A hundred years of solvency? (economist.com)
- Osborne Eyes Revival Of 100-Year Super Bonds (news.sky.com)
- Budget 2012: will 100-year bonds work? (guardian.co.uk)
Big Japan trade deficits? So? We don’t need no stinking nuclear plants!
Asian trade deficits seem to be talk of the markets at the moment, with China and Japan both reporting notable trade deficits in recent days. Chris Martenson wrote a piece published in the Analysis section of this website yesterday, noting that Japan is now recording record trade deficits as a result largely of a surge in energy import costs.
Before the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the country relied on nuclear power for 30% of electricity production. But by the end of this month, that figure will stand at 0%. Resource-poor Japan is having to spend enormous amounts on importing oil and natural gas.
…
The fact that China and Japan are now both running trade deficits has troubling implications as far as heavily-indebted western countries are concerned. After all, if large Asian countries are no longer running large trade surpluses, then there will be less demand from them for western bonds, which will compound the already tricky financial situation that Europe and the US face.
However, mercantilism remains the dominant trading preference as far as both of these countries are concerned, so we shouldn’t expect the authorities there to sit back and watch these deficits increase. CNN reports that officials at the People’s Bank of China are already hinting at halting the yuan’s appreciation, while Japanese efforts to weaken the yen in recent years have been persistent – though unsuccessful on a relative basis
So in one form or another, China and Japan will both look to weaken – or at the very least in China’s case, suppress – their currencies. Whether or not they succeed on a relative basis is tricky to predict, given that they’re squaring off against the heavyweight money printers of Europe and America. But one thing is pretty much certain: the yen and the yuan will weaken against gold, and gold will continue to benefit from these competitive devaluations.
via Asian trade deficits: prelude to more money printing?
How to waste tax-payers’ money 101
As of March 2009, Japan‘s population is 127,076,183,
The Japanese government hires one million people. Compare this to the 1.7 million hired by the US government, to govern a population thrice as large as Japan’s. I don’t advocate kicking people out of jobs, but there are clearly inefficiencies that must be eliminated.
…
[Japan] bought 179 F-35s when they’ve only built 63 (ever) [i.e. when only 63 have been built - by the U.S., that is, Japan doesn't build them] and cost hundreds of millions of dollars per aircraft.
quantitative easing (if, like Pooh and me, you did know what QE is but have forgotten, these articles are helpful: “Does QE work? Ask Japan” and Wikipedia’s “Quantitative Easing: In Japan“)
subsidies for electric cars (for why this might not be a good idea, Google “Broken Window Fallacy“, or, like the author of Save Japan, read Hazlitt’s classic “Economics in One Lesson“; free PDF download available from Mises.org)
via [Weekend Countdown]: 8 Reasons Why Japan Should Not Increase its Consumption Tax « Saving Japan.
Image via Wikipedia
Related articles
- Hamish McRae: We can’t carry on living off all this free money from QE (independent.co.uk)
- Japan Looks Beyond Its Borders for Investors (nytimes.com)
- Japan’s misleading recovery (theglobeandmail.com)
- Is Japan next? (finance.fortune.cnn.com)
- Japan’s Demographic Doom (ibtimes.com)
