Deys.ca | Bill Deys

Watch the video

Popularity: 9% [?]

Technorati Tags: greycup, justonemorebook, MarkBlevis, montreal, ottawa, podcamp, podcampottawa

So if you know me at all you’ll know I have a big problem with Expert being used with Social Media, or any other new Web thing! I have a few reasons for this.

The one I want to focus on is, this stuff is too new for ANYONE to be an expert! If your marketing yourself, sure you want to pump yourself up, hell I’ve done it, in the title bar I had Social Media Expert for a while. Mostly just for SEO rank but that’s a whole different story. I understand that, I’m not a big fan though. On the other side if your looking to hire someone to do the work OR consult don’t fool yourself, the person your working with may know WAY more then you when it comes to Social Media but they are far from an expert. I’m always amazed to find out new tools that have been around for a while that I didn’t know about. One person can’t know everything in this space. Does that mean they wont get you results? Of course not! Can someone else do a better job? Maybe, maybe not. There are a lot of different ways to market your product so everyone will give you a different answer.

What you have to do is find someone you feel you can trust and listen to them, it’s not a bad idea to seek second, third, etc. opinions but don’t be surprised if you get different answers. Ask questions from anyone your talking to. Ask if the first guys plan would work, if second guy shoots it down completely maybe guy two sucks. Go with your gut! Hey, this stuff usually isn’t like blowing your whole budget on a TV campaign so you can play a bit and if the guy you got isn’t showing a progress, can him!

Whats your feeling? Had any luck? How about horror stories?

Popularity: 11% [?]

Technorati Tags: consult, expert, marketing, media, social, socialmedis

Ford SYNC in Plain English by the Folks at Common Craft

So you probably know I love what the folks at CommonCraft do with their “In Plain English” videos and I do think, although I’m an Apple fanboy, the Microsoft Sync in car system is pretty cool. Well I got put on to this video by my friends over at the Social Media Group. Awesome to see the team up, and get the facts “in plain english” about the SYNC system. It’s also kinda funny that the MP3 player is of course a Zune but my question is does it work with the iPod?

Popularity: 17% [?]

Technorati Tags: activation, commoncraft, Ford, Microsoft, SYNC, technology, voice

So I attended PodCamp Michigan on the weekend, had a great time despite the abundance of what seamed to me to be sales pitches disguised as presentations. Don’t get me wrong I know everyone likes to toot their own horn but sometimes you just have to get to the point. Aside from that I met a bunch of VERY cool folks that I look forward to getting to know better via Twitter, FB, etc. Hope a few will also make it to a MeetUp here in London as well as PodCamp Toronto, there was some interest!

But as usually PodCamp isn’t the topic of the post. My topic is leaning to the business side of things, and it comes from something I noticed while I was across the border.

Basically we Canadians were scared to use our mobile phone, mostly their data feature, while we were on the US networks. I have to ask is that the best way for your customers to behave? Should you set up a system under which your customers are afraid to use your product or service for fear of the charges that may result? I don’t think so! You want your customers to be happy, the more they use you, even the odd time when maybe it’s costing you to provide the service,  the more you’ll make in the end!

Popularity: 9% [?]

Technorati Tags: cell, cellphone, data, michigan, Mobile, pcmi08, pcto09, phone, podcamp, podcamptoronto, podcamptoronto2009, toronto

Popularity: 10% [?]

Technorati Tags: ccmixter, cote, cotedazur, dazur, duckett, tea

 

 CMC57 [17:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

All tracks ar by Peter Bradley Adams from the album Leave Taking and they are as follows (in order)

1) Ohio
2)

Peter Bradley Adams
“I’ll Forget you” (mp3)
from “Leavetaking”
(Sarathan Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Rhapsody
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at mTraks
More On This Album

3)
Peter Bradley Adams
“Under My Skin” (mp3)
from “Leavetaking”
(Sarathan Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Rhapsody
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at mTraks
More On This Album

4) Always

You can find more from Peter at

www.myspace.com/peterbradleyadams
www.peterbradleyadams.com
http://amiestreet.com/music/peter-bradley-adams/

Website: http://countrymusiccast.ca
Feedback Email: feedback@deys.ca
Forums: http://podcastforum.ca/countrymusiccast
RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/cmc
Direct Download: MP3

Popularity: 23% [?]

Technorati Tags: always, amiestreet, country, countrymusic, countrymusicast, illforgetyou, ohio, peterbradleyadams, undermyskin

I’m going out on a limb here and asking you to join me in my fight to stop using Credit Cards. I’m going to keep my purchases on it to a VERY minimum. I don’t use mine much anyways, I can’t remember the last time I used it in person. If there was another way to pay for things online I could do with out completely.

Anyways, lets get on to why I think we should get rid of them. There are two reasons from both sides of the fence. One from the consumer perspective and one as a businesses accepting credit transactions.

First I’ll tackle the simple one. It is absolutely crazy the way that they are screwing the general public. With the crazy interest rates and they practices of raising limits. They are preying on people who don’t know better and can’t stop them selves from spending. I can’t count the number of friends who got credit while in school and maxed cards out very quickly and are still paying on them today. I think this practice is worse south of the border where there is less regulation on who can offer credit which has lead to more card issuers and people have more cards. Look in your wallet. How many cards do you have? Why do you need 3 or 4 or 5? Because then you get more credit that you’ll be paying off until your dead? You should have a card in case of emergencies. They do come in handy, and like I’ve already stated, there’s no other way to shop online in most cases!

On to my second point. There are changes, I don’t know if this is happening outside of Canada, but as of TODAY it’s here. Used to be that when a merchant accepts a credit card for say $100 (round numbers to make it easy) they pay a percent or two fee to the credit company. So as a merchant you loose a buck or two on that transaction, usually no big deal, in most cases it’s factored into the price to begin with (a point that is increasingly pissing me, as a cash customer, off).

The credit companies have just, suspiciously at the same time, changed the way they charge merchants. After years of introducing Air Miles, Points, Cash Back programs to entice consumers to get their card and use them, they are now passing on that expense to the merchants. As a merchant you used to have to sign on to the Air Miles program, which meant you paid a bit more fee but customers would shop there because you were giving out miles. I’m totally fine with that. But after that they took it a step farther, you can now get money back on every purchase and guess where that money is coming from now?

Now they are jacking up the fees they charge, and I’m not complaining about them raising their fees. If they all go up it’s still a level playing field. What I don’t like is not knowing what I’m paying. You see under the new system, each and every card could be a different fee and it varies a lot. On top of that the same card from day to day can carry a different fee. See they have this “high spender” flag, it’s not a specific card, it’s a flag on any card that can change after just one transaction. So say Tom walks in to my business with $10 in goods, we charge his card pay our 2% then he goes to the Buy More to but a new home theater system for ten grand and his card get flagged as a “high spender” card. Tomorrow he comes again and buys $200 in gods and now with the new “high spender” designation we pay 3 or 4% (or more it all depends)! How can they justify that?

I don’t like these practices. I personally don’t like owing them money either. I’m going to make an effort to stop using my card. I’m asking you to join me!

Popularity: 10% [?]

Technorati Tags: card, credit, creditcard, stop