Category Archives: Information Technology

Who Uses Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, & LinkedIn?

01 Thursday Apr 2010

Posted by in Information Technology, Management Practices, Public Relations, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM)

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Paul Kiser - CEO of Enterprise Technologies, inc.

by Paul Kiser [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype:kiserrotary or 775.624.5679]

People are surprised to learn that the fastest growing group on Facebook is women over 55; however, that demographic is still a small group compared to the younger age groups.  Only 16% of Facebook users (women and men combined) are over 55, so while women over 55 may be the fasted growing group, it fails to tell the whole story.

Yesterday I used Google Ad Services to look at the current statistics for Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn.  It is important to understand that the Social Media arena is a constantly changing, but there are trends that have developed and are shaping our understanding of who is using the media.  When considering this information please remember this does not tell us who is NOT using the Social Media tools.  Anecdotally we can surmise that the older a person is, the more likely that they are limited or non-users of Social Media, but I have no facts to support that conclusion.

Facebook Visitors 1Q 2010

In terms of users, Facebook still reigns supreme in the world of social media.  Worldwide there are 490 million users. Twitter and MySpace each currently have 80 million and LinkedIn has 41 million.  There is no doubt that many people belong to and/or use more than one Social Media platform; however, to my knowledge there are no statistics that can precisely measure duplicate users.

MySpace Visitors 1Q 2010

MySpace was a pioneer of the Social Media and it established the standard for most of the other web-based membership groups; however, it has undergone a series of scandals of misuse by some members and it has a reputation of being used primarily by young (underage users) which have driven people away.  MySpace is the only one of the four researched Social Media platforms that is losing users.  In the past year MySpace has dropped from slightly over 20 million visitors per day to about 13 million. Not the direction that they would like to go.

Another Discussion  about Facebook & Twitter

Women tend to use the Social Media more with LinkedIn having a tie of Male and Female users.  On Facebook and Twitter women account for 60% of the users, and on MySpace they account for 66% of the users.  The fact that women tend to use the Social Media more than men may tell us a lot about gender differences in behavior and attitudes towards the use of Social Media.

MySpace Age Groupings

Age differences among the four Social Media platforms have specific patterns that indicate some of the most interesting demographics.  In general terms, MySpace dominates the under 17 crowd with 34% of all users in that age group.  It would seem that a rite of adulthood is to end your MySpace account, which may be why 18-24 year olds have distanced themselves from the service.

Facebook Age Groupings

Twitter Age Groupings

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all have an older following than MySpace with Twitter users peaking in the 35 to 44-year-old range and 46% of the Facebook users in the 35 to 54-year-old range.  While the difference is not dramatic, Facebook users are slightly older than Twitter users, but both have over 70% of their users in the 25 to 64-year-old range.

LinkedIn Age Groupings

LinkedIn is unique in the distribution of the age groups with an almost perfect ‘Bell Curve’.  Considered to be the Social Media platform for business, it reflects a majority (56%) of 35 to 54 year olds as members, with another (33%) evenly spread on either side of the majority group.  The next age groups on either side of that are also evenly divided at 4% each.

Social Media Stats 1st Q 2010

Social Media is still in a transformational phase. With each passing month the users are redefining the significance of the new communication forms. With new applications and new uses for the multiple platforms being invented on a daily basis, the people who traditionally have been resources of Public Relations and Marketing are racing to understand what is relevant and what is not. In addition to business concerns like Public Relations and Marketing, experts in fields like Social Psychology, Human Communication, and even Information Technology are scrambling to grasp what all this means.

What we know about Social Media is that it is not going away, nor is it a fad. We also know that Social Media is becoming a force in informing and influencing people with speed that has never been experienced before.  It is macro-communication that occurs with micro-interactions. Much as the collective neurons in the human brain can influence our mood, the collective individuals in social networks are influencing the attitudes and awareness of a mass of people who often act or react based upon the knowledge gained through their Social Media group.

Those that engage in the tools of Social Media and learn the appropriate use of the tools will have a marketing advantage over those who shun it out of ignorance. Tools like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are even changing the way people manage and can be managed in an organization as they bypass all controls used by the Chain of Command leaving authority figures irrelevant unless they take part in the dialogue with those that have been empowered with a new voice.

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What Social Media tool do you use?

(polls)

It’s Baaack: Sunspot Maximum Here It Comes

25 Thursday Mar 2010

Posted by in Information Technology, Science

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by Paul Kiser

Updated March 25, 2010

After one of the quietest periods of solar activity in known history, the Sun has roared into a new sunspot maximum cycle.  With the increase in sunspot activity is the increased risk of solar flare activity that could impact human-created systems both in orbit and on the ground.   This occurs almost exactly 150 years after the biggest known solar flares that disrupted telegraph communications and created unprecedented auroras around the world.

A Solar Minimum to Remember

A Quiet Sun - April 12, 2009

In April 2009, solar physicist Dean Pesnell stated, “We’re experiencing a very deep solar minimum,” based on the number of days without recordable sunspots in 2008 and 2009.  That statement was before a late summer episode of 51 days in a row of no sunspot activity that ended on August 31, one day short of tying the record of 52 days.  The April 1, 2009, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) news release also stated that the solar wind pressure was at a 50-year low and the Sun’s extreme ultraviolet radiation was 6% less than the last solar minimum in 1996.

On September 3rd, NASA issued a news release titled, “Are Sunspots Disappearing?”  Solar Researcher Matt Penn states in the release, “Sunspot magnetic fields are dropping by about 50 gauss per year.  If we extrapolate this trend into the future, sunspots could completely vanish around the year 2015.”   However, even Penn admits that they have little historic data to conclude that this is a permanent trend.

Solar Activity Returns

A new Solar Cycle begins - November 21, 2009

However, by late in September the Sun started showing signs of new sunspot activity. The upturn in activity this year is dramatic. In 2009, 29% of the days had a visible sunspot. So far this year 93% of the days have had sunspot activity.  The expected peak of the current activity will be in 2012-14.

No one knows if the unusually quiet Sun of 2008-09 will mean be a quieter, gentler solar maximum, or whether the Sun will bounce back with a significantly more active period, but a scientific panel for National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) is betting on a quieter solar maximum than the last one in 2000-01 (see Table A) and no one believes we will have a solar cycle that will match the activity of 1859.

The Sun is Back - February 8, 2010

A 500+ Year Event
Almost 150 years ago the Sun’s activity appeared to set the sky on fire with auroras that could be seen as far south as Cuba and the Hawaiian Islands. The New Orleans Daily Picayune reported:

“Towards half past eight o’clock a singular phenomenon took place. The horizon from north to northeast became of a deep crimson hue, which expanding slowly, made the sky appear as if lighted by a Bengal fire…”

On August 28, 1859 and again on September 2, 1859, solar flares created so much electromagnetic energy on Earth that telegraph communications were temporarily disrupted.  At one point operators in the northeast were only able to communicate by detaching the power source to the telegraph lines relying on the solar flare energy captured by the wires between stations.  From 8:30 to 11:00 AM on September 2, 1859, telegraph operators between Boston, MA and Portland, ME discovered that by detaching the batteries that powered the telegraph lines they could send messages using the electromagnetic energy caused by a solar flare.  In addition to rendering most lines nearly useless the solar event created sparks from telegraph lines and telegraph equipment causing fires in multiple locations.

However, it has been determined that the magnitude of the August/September 1859 solar events are rare in human experience.  Through ice core samples going back 500 years scientists have determined that the 1859 solar flares were 6.5 times more powerful than any other flare event in known history.

Preparations for a Major Solar Flare Event

The Sun Today - March 24, 2010

In 1859 there were relatively few technological devices that would be affected by the electromagnetic energy from the Sun and had the event occurred 15 years earlier it is likely that the only note of it in history would be the unusually bright auroras.  Today the threat is much greater as power grids, pipelines, and copper phone and data lines would all act as a conduit for the energy of a major solar flare event.  Among the greatest concern is the loss of many, if not all, satellites in a major solar event.  To respond to these concerns a new field of Space Weather has emerged to monitor and respond to any potential, although unlikely, massive solar flare.

There are three satellites watching the Sun 24/7/365.   The first, called the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory or SOHO, maintains an orbit around the Sun that is directly between the Sun and Earth.  Two other satellites, the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory or STEREO satellites, are in the same orbit as Earth is around the Sun, but STEREO Behind trails about 45 degrees behind Earth and STEREO Ahead is 45 degrees ahead of Earth (See Figure A).

Figure A - Locations of STEREO Ahead and STEREO Behind

These three satellites give scientist a view of almost the entire surface of the sun.  Any flare threatening Earth would be identified and evaluated at least 15 hours prior to affecting the planet.  Most flares take 60 or more hours to reach Earth, but the flare of September 1-2, 1859 took an unusually rapid 17 hours from ejection from the Sun to interaction with the Earth.

To prepare for these solar related incidents private industry and government agencies have spent years creating a response plan that will minimize the effect of a major solar event on the nation’s vital systems.  Access to the Space Weather reports are also available to the general public at through both NASA and NOAA.

What’s Next?
No one disputes that the next few years should see an increase in solar activity.  Nor does anyone dispute that humans are more vulnerable to a major solar event.  However, as the Sun shakes off the quiet of the past few years it is likely we will experience a quieter solar maximum than 2000-01, and no one predicts a repeat of the solar storms of 1859 anytime soon.

Fear of Public Relations

21 Sunday Mar 2010

Posted by in Crisis Management, Human Resources, Information Technology, Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Passionate People, Public Relations, Re-Imagine!, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Tom Peters

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The fog of Social Interactive Media is burning off

There are two approaches to Public Relations. The first is to live in fear of it and tremble at the prospect of screwing up. Take only measured steps that are carefully calculated and planned.

The other approach is to dive in. Risk mistakes and live and breathe being real and human.

The old school of Public Relations is the former. It is controlled by the Chain of Command. No one is authorized to speak unless cleared by multiple levels of authority and even then, to say or do anything that is nothing less than perfect is to fail. It is that Public Relations of which the world has become accustomed. Anyone who mars the perfect image risks banishment from the corporate world. Nightmare situations such as the current Toyota recalls reinforce the fear that Public Relations is a beast that must be closely guarded and heavily controlled.

This is why the new world of social media terrifies the old school. The unprecedented access to expressing our individuality on Facebook, Twitter, or even our own blog is the worst possible situation for those who believe that control of the message is the alpha and omega of Public Relations. Many companies are establishing strict policies for their employees on using Facebook, blogging, and all other avenues of professional or personal expression. Most of this comes from the management attitude that employees are a necessary evil and potentially a major embarrassment to the company.

What the old school of Public Relations doesn’t understand is that social interactive media (SIM) is creating a new model of business that is being driven by a desire of the consumer to do business with real people, not corporations. In today’s interactive world the branding of the individual is now becoming a driving force to he branding of the corporation. This is 180 degrees from the mission of most Public Relation professionals in major companies and it gives indigestion to old school managers that live in fear of employee self-expression.

Re-Imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age

In 2003, Tom Peters came out with a book called Re-Imagine!: Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age. If you understand that the book was published before Twitter and Facebook were available to the public, you have to wonder if Tom Peters can travel into the future and back again. Today everyone throws around the term ‘Branding’ but few know that today’s usage of the term originated from Peter’s 2003 book. On page 232 of Re-Imagine! Peters explains a new world of people who develop her or his individual brand separate from the corporate world. Now, in 2010, social interactive media has provided the vehicle for individuals to show off who they are and what they know and Peters has become the Moses of the new business world.

Like all business, the winner will always be the one who can embrace change before others. Companies that can adapt and use social interactive media to promote and showcase the quality and expertise of the individual within their ranks will have the advantage over the competition. In those companies the new role for the Public Relations professional is to help employees brand themselves instead of trying to muzzle them.

Still, the old school will loudly point out every slight misstep or mistake made by an employee that may reflect poorly on a company’s reputation. What they don’t understand is that errors make us human and that can deepen the bond between the company and the customer. An error is the opportunity to make things right and that is the key to all long-term relationships.

Breakthrough Training Radio Appearance

16 Tuesday Mar 2010

Posted by in Information Technology, Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Public Relations, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM)

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Jeffrey Benjamin Motivates

This is an interview segment (about 6 mins.) on Jeffrey Benjamin’s (Breakthrough Training) radio show  on Reno 99.1 FM on Sunday, March 14, 2010.  Jeffrey is a motivational (kick you in the butt) consultant/speaker.  I talked about my company and Rotary.

Breakthrough Radio Interview

Playing the Whole Game

15 Monday Mar 2010

Posted by in Human Resources, Information Technology, Management Practices, Public Relations, Social Interactive Media (SIM)

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I’m not a big sports fan.  I tend to skim through games and watch for a few minutes, but I don’t live for sports.  Still, I watch enough to qualify for my chromosomes and I do understand the strategies used in most sports.

On Saturday I caught bits of the Ohio State vs. Illinois basketball game.  It was a close game toward the end and Ohio St. did something that I really like…they played the whole game.  Twice Ohio State was behind by two points and they had several seconds left.  If they scored too soon it would give Illinois the opportunity bring the ball back down court and win the game.

The strategy many teams have in this situation is to stall and go for the last shot.  But Ohio State didn’t follow the traditional strategy.  They shot quickly and gave Illinois the opportunity to win.  The irony is that Illinois did play for the last shot and in both situations they failed.  In the end Ohio State won.

I was happy for two reasons.  First, I was happy to see Illinois lose because the Illini (players and fans) are known for their trash talk. They think it is part of the game.  The second reason is Ohio State won by playing the entire game.  They didn’t stall and try to win in a last second shot for victory.  They tied the game and then played defense.

Go Ohio State!

I’ve never understood the logic of the stall tactic.  I know the only thing that counts is the score when the clock reads 00:00, but the measure of a team is what they can do for the whole game, not just up to the final 40 seconds and then stop playing until the last three seconds.  What type of message does that send?

The Whole Game in Business
I see this attitude creep over into the business world.  I was once told about a manager for a major package delivery company.  He had a budget for labor and equipment.  The manager would get a significant bonus if he was under budget on his labor and equipment, so he deliberately over worked his salaried supervisors, worked understaffed with his hourly employees, and didn’t purchase the needed equipment for the staff to do their jobs.  He ‘won the game’ and got his bonus, but everyone hated working for him.

Some might think that this misuse of people and resources will eventually be discovered.  It is not.  Employees don’t like ratting on their boss because management often fails to act in situations where the manager is a success on paper and sometimes it is the employee that suffers for speaking out.  To my knowledge this manager is still in his position and nothing has changed in five years or more. He might have even been promoted by now.

This is one of the reasons why I don’t like most performance evaluation tools. They may be based on ‘quantifiable’ measurements, but quantifying doesn’t equate to fairness.  I don’t oppose goal setting, but business is and should be a dynamic process.  Goals and performance measures make bean counters happy, but the can often be manipulated to work contrary to the needs of the employees and/or customers.

The focus of any business should be to play the whole game and not work for the score at the end of the ‘quarter’.  This involves Management By Walking Around (MBWA) and letting small groups in the company experiment with new ideas (Skunk Works).  If this sounds like old Tom Peters stuff, it is, but it’s GOOD old Tom Peters stuff.

Tom Peters

I read Tom Peters first book, In Search of Excellence, soon after it was published in 1982, and I have been a disciple of his rants for over 25 years. Of course, you don’t win many corporate popularity contests when you’re guiding principles are reflected by a rejection of the status quo, but I’ve yet to be proven wrong….just fired or let go. I’ve been dusting off some of his books and scanning them again. I believe that almost everything a business person needs to be successful can be found in Tom Peters writings.

We’re facing a new business environment and it’s time we rejected the habits we fell into during the last 10 years.  We can start by going back to the basic question:  What does the customer need and how can we provide what they want, before they want it, and better than they expect?  Get that question right and everything else is easy.

Go Ohio State!

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, OH MY!

12 Friday Mar 2010

Posted by in Human Resources, Information Technology, Management Practices, Public Relations, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM)

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My boy, Alexander, is almost four years and five months old. In one month (Jan. 2010) Facebook had almost one unique visitor (134 million) for each second Alexander has been alive. That is a 95% growth over Jan. 2009.

A Social Interactive Media in Snow

Alexander - The same age as Twitter

Twitter is also four years old and it has over 23 million unique visitors the same month.   Their growth during this last year was ‘slightly’ bigger than Facebook.  Twitter grew by 294% in one year. By the time my son is eight, Twitter plans to have over 1 billion users.

It is staggering to see how many people are connected in the Social Media world, and even more staggering to see how much it is changing every month. A person who graduates from college this May from a four-year Business or Marketing program started college before Twitter existed.   Business colleges are trying to teach students about a world that is undergoing an extreme makeover every six months and they recognize the importance of social media in business.   Fortunately for students at U of NV, Dr. Simmons (www.bretlsimmons.com) is staying on the top of the tsunami of social media and how it impacts Branding.  Dr. Bret Simmons of the University of Nevada Business School calls Twitter “the center of the Social Media universe.”

But what about the rest of us. Why should we care about Social Interactive Media (SIM)?

SIM: End of Innocence
Imagine two people. Each want to start a bicycle shop in Davis, California. One rents space, puts up his business sign, advertises in the local paper and puts out flyers.

The other person does all that and also has a Facebook page, Tweets regularly on various items of note for bicycle enthusiasts, has a website with a shopping cart feature that allows people to order parts and purchase bicycles, and the owner has a blog about cycling in and around Davis. Who do you think will have more success? All other things being equal, the one who has better SIM smarts will have the advantage.

But it doesn’t just stop with business marketing. SIM is influencing opinion, shaping discussions, and in general changing everyone’s life whether they participate in the new media or not. Life is being changed because so many people are now involved in Facebook, Twitter, and other SIMs. A person can choose not to be involved and disconnect themselves from all forms of new technology. There will be a segment of our population that does exactly that; however, they will find themselves more and more out of touch with a world that isn’t waiting for them. No one knows what our society will look like in five years, but for those who unplug themselves from society, I think they will find the world is a lonely, foreign place.

Windows Office 2010: What to Do?

01 Monday Mar 2010

Posted by in 2020 Enterprise Technologies, Customer Relations, Customer Service, Information Technology, Management Practices, Rotary

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by Paul Kiser

Paul Kiser - CEO 2020 Enterprise Technologies

(NOTE: This blog was originally published on March 1, 2010-Microsoft released Office 2010 on June 22, 2010)

In the next few months Microsoft will officially launch the next generation of Windows Office (Office 2010, code-named Office 14) and it will create new dilemmas for many business owners, Information Technology (IT) managers and users of Windows Office. Consider the following issues:

Microsoft Office 2010

  • Windows Office commands the office productivity software market with some claiming that Windows Office has a 95% market share, or better.
  • Once available to the general public, Office 2010 will be competing with its own predecessors. Office 2003 and Office 2007 are approximately equal in the number of users.
  • Although it is over seven years old, Office 2003 is still actively used in businesses because Office 2007 introduced dramatic changes that made the product more like a new product, rather than a new version. This caused many users to stick with the 2003 version, rather than trying to learn the updated product. (As of February 2009, users of Office 2003 still exceeded users of Office 2007.)
  • There are three different versions of the Windows platforms (Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7) actively being used in the business world.
  • Microsoft conceded to business last year by delaying the ‘Stop Sell’ date of Windows XP from June 30, 2009 to June 30, 2010, but the platform will not likely receive another stay of execution.

What faces the business world is a dilemma of what Windows platforms and versions of Office should be used in their work environment. This issue will become acute with the purchase of new computers, but will there be communication and document sharing issues between old computers and new computers and software?

The issue boils down to the individual user versus IT and management. From an IT perspective having everyone on one system is more efficient in terms of training and maintenance. Management usually prefers equipment to be interchangeable and using different versions of office productivity software could lead to minor conflicts when sharing files. However, individual users (including management) of Office 2003 are often adamant about staying with what they know.

The stark reality is that with the early success of Windows 7 and positive reviews about Office 2010 Beta, the old software (Windows XP, Vista, and Office 2003) have a limited business life. It is reasonable to think that by 2012, all PC’s will come with Windows 7 and Office 2010, and prior versions will not be an option. That is certainly the road that Microsoft would prefer and ultimately they will decide when all prior versions will 1) no longer be sold, and 2) no longer be supported.

How Did This Happen?
This issue has come to the surface for several reasons. First and foremost is the success of Office 2003. The version, originally named Office 11, built on the success of previous versions and coupled with the adoption of the Windows XP platform became the productivity software of choice during the years of 2004-07. When Microsoft introduced its new Vista platform and Office 2007 (code name Office 12) it anticipated a steady transition of business users from Office 2003 to Office 2007.

Unfortunately, Microsoft miscalculated by trying to make a major re-creation of its platform with Vista and, at the same time, introducing a ‘Mac’ like look to its software that required users to re-learn the software. The bugs of Vista and the new look of the productivity software gave a bad reputation in the business world to the revised software versions. Microsoft then pushed to bring out a newer platform version (Windows 7) to overcome the perceptions of Vista, but that did not overcome the negative impression of Office 2007. Office 2010 or Office 14 (the name ‘Office 13’ was skipped for obvious reasons) is Microsoft’s hope to get most users back on one version of its productivity software. It is a major gamble because the door is open for another software company to try and capitalize on users who don’t want to be forced to adapt the new look of Office; however, most businesses have invested too much into Microsoft products to change over now.

What to do about Office 2010?
The one inescapable fact is that Office 2003 is at the end of its business life. Yes, people will continue to use it and five years from now there will be a small group of people who are fiercely proud that they still use Office 2003; however, based on early reactions to the Beta version and the reality that new computers will soon come with Office 2010, it seems plausible that Office 2010 will rapidly eclipse both Office 2007 and Office 2003. In three years it would not be surprising to see Office 2010 have 60% to 70% of the market, so logically it would make sense for businesses to prepare to make the change.

But just because it is logical doesn’t mean the adoption of Office 2010 will be accepted by business users. Some companies will take a passive approach and let individuals learn Office 2010 as they purchase new computers. This approach is not recommended for larger companies or companies that have a high degree of internal and external communications. Having staff on different versions of office productivity software can create unexpected and time-consuming problems.

Each organization will have to make their own evaluation of what will work best for their situation; however, as Windows 7 and Office 2010 begin to dominate the market, staying with older version will seem less like an option and more like a liability for the company.

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