Category: think

Google Plus, Suspension & Real Names | Open Letter To Google

googleplus suspension

Dear Google, I’m forever explaining my name so didn’t take it personally when on August 20th 2011 you gave me notice that my Google+ account will be suspended due to the breach of the real names policy.

I clicked the ‘challenge this decision’ button and hoped some human would click through to the bio link in my profile and confirm my pedigree (like when Facebook suspended me for the same reason but after a brief email exchange let me carry on my merry way).

A week or so later after no response and with a suspended account I went back in to qualify it further—you can see below how many links were given to back up my identity.:
google suspension sites

Over a month has passed and still nothing.

I’m really confused as the rules you’ve laid down state:

“The Names Policy requires that you use the name that you are commonly referred to in real life in your profile.”

So that’s DK, my name which:

Now I’ve resisted the urge to make up a name just to get back in there because that would be rude plus I thought there’s enough evidence illustrating the name I’m most commonly referred by.

One thing I need to add is how much I frickin’ love your range of online services:

  • I’ve probably steered tens of thousands of users to you guys through my MediaSnackers work: from CEOs, youth workers, large and small charities, brands, plus all my social media training participants sign up and use Blogger (even UNICEF and Gates Foundation—most of whom had never used it before)
  • I wrote a book and run a business using your Docs
  • Gmail rocks
  • in June I even visited your campus as a guest of one of your employees (who has raised my suspension internally but has had no response) and bought tshirts from your campus shop
  • plus, I’ve been utilising Reader as far back as I remember (luckily had a backup of my rss subscriptions and now using it through another account)

I’m a big fan.

So as a last ditch attempt I’m writing this open letter/blog post as there seems to be no humans in your system responding to my queries and qualifications about my name.

Please Google:

if I can’t use my name and you don’t want me to play then tell me why, then show me how to shut down my account and reinstate the use of the other Google services please*

* this would be so sad as would love to explore it further to see what uses my clients and employers could get out of it plus the teachers we work with could benefit from.

Looking forward to hearing from you and thanks in advance for your time.

Yours faithfully

DK

UPDATE 24.11.11: The lack of response after explorations into contacting Google direct plus so many retweets of this story left me no other choice…

“You’ve successfully deleted Google+ and associated social content.”

UPDATE 27.11.11: seems like when you delete your account it actually remains (although very happy to have my Reader access back):

googleplus deleted account

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Shortest Horror Story Ever Written

“The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.”
attributed to Frederic Brown.

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Defining Social Spaces

definition of define

How do you decipher and explain the different social spaces / platforms?

Well, a while ago I wrote a blog post describing the Golden Rule of Social Media—it’s really simple and is summed up as:

IT”™S JUST LIKE BEING IN A BIG ROOM, FULL OF REAL PEOPLE

This morning a colleague emailed me with her own definitions of the social spaces and how they relate to real world scenarios (like cocktails and offices etc). Here’s my response:

  • Website—your online ‘shop front’ and everything inside from the products, customer service, to what you discuss related to your industry etc.
  • Blog—same as above (if you don’t have a blog then you don’t have a space to inspire people to be awesome)
  • Twitter—(mainly) public conversation party, giving you an opportunity to connect with people you would never usually get a chance to (great for just listening in and gleaming amazing ideas and information)
  • Facebook—private members club with exclusive insights and offers others can’t get elsewhere (rewards based model. Why? Most people are on Stalkbook not to buy but to connect with people they know.)
  • LinkedIn—old school drinking mens establishment where not much happens. It’s great for getting introduced to interesting folks although you then try to get them into other spaces as the current place (LinkedIn) sucks and smells of old people
  • YouTube—your Tivo (another words what you want to show to other people relating to your passions, your ideas and maybe your products)

What do you think? How would you define the above?

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Measuring, Metrics & Automation | Asking the Right Questions

measuring tape

How do you measure social media? What are the effective metrics you focus on? And, how do you automate the whole damn process?

Questions I’m currently wrestling with. They act like a fibonacci spiral, floating outwards, replicating into other questions. I like this.

Whilst most look to social media to provide answers, I search it for better questions.

For example, the number of Twitter followers will tell you how many people clicked the follow button not who they are, if they share your tweets / values, how much traffic you get from them, if they even like you, if you’re adding value to peoples lives etc (need to look at the back-end web stats for this or deeper still with funky little tools like Twtrland and Tweetstats).

Measuring social is a design challenge: what is left out is as important to what you leave in.

My approach is by starting with the end in mind, by exploring ‘what does success look like?’.

This is a one of those questions which never fails to connect a few synapses, and in terms of my role it’s the following (lifted directly from my job description):

  • CORE Education is recognised as key player in effective use of social media in business
  • CORE’s profile and reputation for understanding of use of effective social media is increased, especially through increased publication and dissemination activity
  • Social media activities throughout the organisation are embedded and sustainable throughout CORE
  • Improved (wider/deeper) brand awareness enables CORE to reach into existing/emerging market segments (especially into corporate market)

So that’s the result but what now needs to be crafted and applied is a change based approach. A layer of social media monitoring tools / platforms / metrics and some kind of reviewing structure to track impact.

So this is where I am. Opening up this line of questioning and hoping you the reader will offer guidance. Some ideas. Steerage and influence on how you are measuring it for your organisation, what metrics prove success and, how is it repeated.

Also keen to hear from people like Radian6 and Brandwatch or any other companies offering the above (especially for non-profits)…

“If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.”
Jack Dixon

Image credit link
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