Oct 15 2014
Yesterday I found another realtor who is using the name of one of our country clubs on her Facebook page. She sells homes in the neighborhood, but she has no affiliation with the private club and does not have permission to use our club’s name to confuse users and draw them to her business instead of our club. I tried to report it to Facebook through their online process, but have once again hit a solid brick wall (or is it now a brick timeline) in getting any level of customer service from the company that gladly takes our money for advertising. This is the fifth time this year alone I have had a customer service issue with Facebook but unable to get anywhere with their automated reporting process.
Based on this experience I don’t hold high hopes for Facebook as a long-term stable business. Why? Because I’m seeing history repeat itself.
Flash back 13 years. It’s 2001 and the Yellow Pages industry is invincible. Major players in the industry are cash cows getting a regal 50% margin on their products. I was working for SuperPages, the Yellow Pages division first of GTE and then the merged Verizon. A couple of times a year I would go out on sales calls to hear what customers were saying about my Internet Yellow Pages products. One particular call in Wisconsin shocked me.
The customer, an auto repair shop, voiced his anger that we had again significantly raised the price of his exact same ad, saying “You come in here once a year to raise my price and then I don’t see or hear from you again until it’s time to raise my price again next year.” The sales person’s well rehearsed and unsympathetic answer was: “What else are you going to do. You really don’t have a choice. You have to advertise in our book.” The customer thought for a moment and calmly responded, “You are right….But the first chance I have for an alternative, I am gone.”
After the call I asked our sales person if the customer’s statement worried him. He took a long drag on his cigarette and smiled. “Not really. He doesn’t really have any other choice.”
Then came Google. And Yahoo. And Craigslist. And Citysearch. And Trip Advisor. And Yelp. In the blink of a technical eye, the customer had alternatives. And, just as promised, he was gone within 5 years of that meeting. As Brian Solis so simply put it in his ebook What if PR Stood for People and Relationships: Ignorance + Arrogance = Irrelevance.
Facebook seems invincible now. They have the audience and the attention. But times change, and sometimes they change very quickly. Given the experience I and many others in the industry have encountered with Facebook’s customer service as a paying advertisers, my guess is that as soon as the audience begins to dissipate and alternatives start to emerge, the advertisers will gladly go elsewhere as well.
Photo Credit: Maria Elena under Creative Commons.
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9 Reasons to Quit Your Job As Soon As You Can
Oct 14 2014
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Quit your job to take a better paying position? Definitely. Quit your job for a great opportunity? Absolutely.
But there are a lot more reasons to quit your job (once you have something else lined up, of course.) And they all fall under one main category:
Life’s too short.
Life’s too short to go home every day feeling unfulfilled. Life's too short to work for a terrible boss. Life’s too short to go home every day feeling taken for granted, feeling taken less than seriously, or feeling taken advantage of.
Life’s short to not be as happy as you can be.
Say your grown daughter called and said, “I hate my job. I’m bored, frustrated, and feel like I'm going nowhere.” Wouldn’t you tell her to look for another job?
Shouldn’t you follow the same advice?
Here are reasons to stop being miserable and start looking for something better:
1. Your input is disregarded… or even not wanted.
Everyone has ideas. And everyone loves when their ideas are taken seriously – and implemented. The feeling that you’ve contributed in a special way is incredibly gratifying.
But when your boss or company shoots down or even laughs at your ideas, that’s not only insulting, it's demotivating. And pretty soon you stop caring.
Life’s too short not to care.
2. You get criticized publicly.
We all need constructive feedback. We all need a little nudge. We all need to be told when we can do something better – and how to do it better.
But we need to be told those things in private.
Life’s too short to walk around waiting for the next time you’ll be criticized – and even humiliated – in front of other people.
3. You never hear the word, “Thanks.”
Everyone also needs praise. We all need to know when we do something well (and everyone, even poor performers, do some things well.)
Life’s too short not to be recognized for the contributions you make.
4. Your boss manages up, not down.
You know the type: as a leader they should focus their time and attention on their direct reports, but they spend all their time “following” their boss. It seems like your only job is to contribute to the greater glory – and advancement – of your boss.
A great boss knows that if her team succeeds – and each individual on that team succeeds – then she will succeed too.
Life’s too short to spend your time developing your boss’s career at the expense of your own.
5. You feel like you have no purpose.
Everyone likes to feel a part of something bigger. Everyone likes to feel they make an impact not just on results but also on the lives of other people.
Life’s too short to go home every day feeling like you’ve worked… but you haven’t accomplished anything meaningful.
6. You feel like a number.
Everyone is replaceable. Everyone, ultimately, works for a paycheck. But everyone also wants to work for more than a paycheck. They want to work with people they respect admire… and they want to be respected and admired in return.
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