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![]() Together with a friend Phindi, I have embarked on a project to provide a home for 6 young girls by 2016, as they will get 'kicked out' of the institutions and children's home they have been living in to date. At 18, the government stops funding their housing, school etc and these youth have to fend for themselves. I can't change the world, or the city, but I can make a difference to six young girls. Read more here.... We need not only funds, but contacts that can open doors, and for you to share your skills so that we can run a Lifetools programe to enable them to succeed. Why don't you join me?
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Need to chair a difficult employee disciplinary - here are a few tips you might want to have handy . I wonder if this applies to 8 years olds too!- Wilna JACQUELYN SMITH FROM BUSINESS INSIDER A 2002 study conducted by University of Massachusetts Amherst psychologist Robert S. Feldman found that 60% of people lied during a 10-minute conversation, and they told an average of two to three lies in that time. Luckily, fibs are fairly easy to spot — you just have to know the signs. Dr. Lillian Glass, a behavioral analyst and body language expert who has worked with the FBI on unmasking signals of deception, says when trying to figure out if someone is lying, you first need to understand how the person normally acts. Then you'll want to pay careful attention to their facial expressions, body language, and speech patterns, she writes in her book "The Body Language of Liars."
When their breathing changes, their shoulders will rise and their voice may get shallow, she adds. "In essence, they are out of breath because their heart rate and blood flow change. Your body experiences these types of changes when you're nervous and feeling tense — when you lie."
3. They stand very still. It's common knowledge that people fidget when they get nervous, but Glass says that you should also watch out for people who are not moving at all. "This may be a sign of the primitive neurological 'fight,' rather than the 'flight,' response, as the body positions and readies itself for possible confrontation," says Glass. "When you speak and engage in normal conversation, it is natural to move your body around in subtle, relaxed, and, for the most part, unconscious movements. So if you observe a rigid, catatonic stance devoid of movement, it is often a huge warning sign that something is off." 4. They repeat words or phrases. This happens because they're trying to convince you, and themselves, of something, she says. "They're trying to validate the lie in their mind." For example, he or she may say: "I didn't ...I didn't ..." over and over again, Glass says. The repetition is also a way to buy themselves time as they attempt to gather their thoughts, she adds. 5. They touch or cover their mouth. "A telltale sign of lying is that a person will automatically put their hands over their mouth when they don't want to deal with an issue or answer a question," says Glass. "When adults put their hands over their lips, it means they aren't revealing everything, and they just don't want to tell the truth," she says. "They are literally closing off communication." 6. They instinctively cover vulnerable body parts. This may include areas such as the throat, chest, neck, head, or abdomen. "I have often seen this in the courtroom when I work as a consultant for attorneys. I can always tell when someone's testimony has hit a nerve with the defendant, when I see his or her hand covering the front of his/her throat," says Glass. "I never appreciated the potential use of this very telling behavior until I joined the FBI as a Special Agent," she says. 7. They shuffle their feet. "This is the body taking over," Glass explains. Shuffling feet tells you that the potential liar is uncomfortable and nervous. It also shows you that he or she wants to leave the situation; they want to walk away, she says. "This is one of the key ways to detect a liar. Just look at their feet and you can tell a lot." 8. They provide too much information."When someone goes on and on and gives you too much information — information that is not requested and especially an excess of details — there is a very high probability that he or she is not telling you the truth," writes Glass. "Liars often talk a lot because they are hoping that, with all their talking and seeming openness, others will believe them." 9. It becomes difficult for them to speak. "If you ever watch the videotaped interrogation of a suspect who is guilty, you will often observe that it becomes more and more difficult for her to speak," writes Glass. "This occurs because the automatic nervous system decreases salivary flow during times of stress, which of course dries out the mucous membranes of the mouth." Other signs to watch out for include sudden lip biting or pursed lips. 10. They tend to point a lot. "When a liar becomes hostile or defensive, he is attempting to turn the tables on you," says Glass. The liar will get hostile because he is angry that you've discovered his lies, which may result in a lot of pointing. 11. They stare at you without blinking much. When people lie, it's common that they break eye contact, but the liar could go the extra mile to maintain eye contact in attempt to control and manipulate you. "[Bernie] Madoff, like most con men, overcompensated and stared at people longer than usual, often without blinking at regular intervals," says Glass. "When people tell the truth, most will occasionally shift their eyes around and may even look away from time to time. Liars, on the other hand, will use a cold, steady gaze to intimidate and control." Also watch out for rapid blinking. Vivian Giang contributed to an earlier version of this article. For Forbes, by 1. First impressions matter. Walk up to, and into, your establishment with the eye of a customer. A customer perception is his reality, and a first impression is important because it tends to linger in a customer’s memory. Ditto if that fist interaction is on the phone, via chat, or via mobile. 2. Impressions before the first impression matter. Of course, there is no “before the first impression.” But the first impression is very likely happening before you realize it: how you’re portrayed online, how your grounds look well before the front door. Disney even obsesses over the route to their parks for this reason. 3. Last impressions matter. It’s so easy when you've “completed” an interaction with or project for a customer, to rush on to the next one with the next customer. Doing so can erase all the goodwill you created. The “goodbye” is an important stage, one of the most important, because (like a first impression) it tends to linger in a customer’s memory. 4. Are you easy to use? You won’t know until you try. Try your own website without your auto-log in. Is it easy? Or a pain? Come in the front door and see if the door swings open easily, or whacks you on the shoulder. And so forth. 5. Do you offer self-service options for your customers? Many customers want them today: unless you’re open 24/7 or at least all conceivable business hours in all time zones in which you have customers, you need such options. And even if you are open ‘round the clock, many times customers today just want to handle it, or at least be able to check up on it, themselves. 6. Do your self-service options include escape hatches? For when the self-service isn’t working or the customer isn’t in the mood–there should be an easy way out, to reach a human. Make it obvious, like hitting “O” on the phone. 7. Do your customers have to ask you to answer questions for which the answer should be obvious? Customers don't like to be burdened to contact you for items that could easily be provided for them on a self service basis. Do your FAQ’s actually include the questions that customers want the answers to? Or were they written six years ago by your web developer? Do they get an auto-confirmation when they order or do they need to call to ensure their order wasn’t lost in the ether? And so on. 8. Timeliness: Are you considerate of your customer’s time? This is a big, big, big one. A perfect product or service delivered late is a defect. 9. Commit to continuous customer service education. Education is an investment in organizational development. 10. Get rid of the fine print. To a customer, fine print is where a company hides something that will protect them from a dissatisfied customer. Better to fix it than hide it. 11. Define a simple service recovery process. Things will go wrong. Either objectively (whatever that means) or in the eyes of your customer. Either way, you need a plan. Consider my ARFFD approach, for example. 12. Consider the feedback you receive from your customers “free customer service consulting”–this is info of great value, not an interruption of your day. What could be better than to get information directly from your customers? And yet, responding to it, reviewing it, acting on it can feel like an interruption of our work if we don’t carefully check our attitude. Also: Don’t batch your surveys and then review them at the end of the month—scan them right away to see who needs to hear from you now. 13. Reward and Recognize. Acknowledge the contributions of individuals and teams with formal and informal recognition. 14. … But don’t think that’s why they’re working for you: Incentives for your customer-facing employees can’t replace the general value of hiring people who like people, and treating those people every single day like the professionals who they are. 15. Benchmark outside your industry. If you sell furniture, don’t just benchmark other players in the furniture industry to figure out how fast, easy to use, nice your company should be. Your customers’ expectations for manners, timeliness, quality… come as much from Starbucks, Apple, and other great consumer brands as they do from the others in your particular field. 16. Commit to continuous improvement. Ask yourself at the end of the day, “What is the thing you are going to do tomorrow to make your team better.” 17. Language matters. It is extremely easy to say the right thing, but to say it wrong. Actively work on the language that is used in customer interactions 18. Standards matter. For example, a doorman at a great hotel is rarely blindsided by a guest trying to enter while the doorman’s back is turned. How can that be? Standards. In this case, the standard is usually that ‘‘doormen work in teams.’’ They simply face each other and subtly tip each other off if someone is coming from behind. They quite literally have each other’s back, leading to a consistently comfortable, welcoming, hospitable experience. 19. Empowerment matters. You can’t write a standard for every eventuality. Your employees need empowerment–autonomy–to deviate from it if the case, the customer, requires a different approach. 20. Fight actively–every single day, every single shift–against getting in a rut. The principle of hedonic adaptation means that your hundredth day on the job, naturally will not be as intense–as exciting, stressful, and so forth– as the first day. This is good to some extent, but it means that you have to actively strive to remember that this same day is the first interaction your customer has had with your company, and you need to keep your attitude fresh to match theirs. [Credit where credit's due: In addition to the tips that lurk in my own mind, I want to thank Bill Quiseng for helping me brainstorm this list; you should follow Bill at @billquiseng for more.--Micah] Micah Solomon is a customer service consultant, customer service keynote speaker and the bestselling author most recently of High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service Couple leaves $100 tip for bad service to thank overwhelmed waiter
When Makenzie Schultz and her husband, Steven, sat down to a sushi dinner in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for their sixth anniversary, they were looking to have a special night out. But things didn't go as smoothly as they'd hoped. First, they waited 20 minutes for water. Then, they waited 40 minutes for an appetizer. And then they waited an hour for their entrees. So, what did they do? They left their server a $100 tip, and a note that read, "We've both been in your shoes. Paying it forward." Schultz posted a photo of the receipt to her Facebook page on Sept. 27, and it went viral—racking up over 1.3 million likes (and counting) and mentions in blogs such as Eater. She says she and her husband, who met while working as servers in a restaurant eight years ago, just wanted to do something to show they understood what it was like to be in their waiter's position. "No matter how much you apologize to tables, there are going to be people rolling their eyes," she told TODAY.com, of life as a server on a night when nothing goes right. "Throughout the dinner we were like, 'We've been in his position.'" Rather than posting an angry review online or blasting the restaurant on Facebook, Schultz and her husband decided to take a negative situation and make it positive, recognizing that "he probably isn't going to get tips." So Schultz wrote the note and the two left before their server could see the tip he probably was not expecting to receive. "This definitely was not the largest tip there ever was," Schultz said. "We thought it could make his night a little bit easier." Schultz said she posted the image on Facebook for family and friends, and never expected it to go viral. She and her husband wanted to keep the name of the venue anonymous, but TODAY.com was able to confirm the authenticity of the receipt with the restaurant itself. "This is more about being kind and being generous," Schultz said. "We just wanted him to know that we've been in his shoes." "I'm just sharing this as a friendly reminder to think of the entire situation, before you judge," her Facebook caption concludes. "And always always always remember where you came from." --By Jordan Melendrez, TODAY.com/money. See more Money News from The TODAY Show at our Facebook andTwitter. Dear Hotel, As you can see, I am on a service mission this month! Here are some Good and Bad examples of service... and some traps we so easily fall into, yet can avoid! I know it is a long blog - but you MUST read these - Wilna
Bad Hotel Trends We Hate By Karen Tina Harrison Luxury Travel Expert Bad: Charging for every amenity in your room, save the sheets Better: Hiding it in a “resort fee” Best: Including the wifi, water, snacks, and shoeshine in your room rate Bad: Faux "pet-friendly" restrictions and fees that penalize your pet and you Better: If you’re a hotel that doesn’t want pets, don’t give mixed signals; just bar them entirely Best: Welcoming pets (cats too) with no restrictions or fees; that's a pet-friendly hotel policy (as at The Point in the Adirondacks Bad: Paying on top of your room rate to use the hotel gym; or being told “the gym is under renovation” (and "here's a voucher" to a gym 15 minutes away) Better: The gym is free, but closes at 9 or 10 p.m. Best: The gym has free entry (and is 24 hours, with a fruit bowl, cold water, and iced towels) Service Gaffes (this section contributed by Eric Weiss of ServiceArts Inc.) Bad: Waiting an hour for your luggage to arrive in your room Better: Your luggage arrives in your room within a few minutes that you do Best: Your luggage gets to your room before you do and is placed out of the way Bad: Your wakeup call never comes (I give it no more than a 50/50 chance, even in a top hotel) Better: You get a mechanical wakeup call Best: You get called on the dot by a real live human being Bad: All staff uses the same exact greeting Better: A neutral and appropriate greeting (time of day, weather, etc.) Best: An individualized and appropriate greeting that seems spontaneous and authentic (as in, when you're carrying a briefcase: “Good morning ma’am, have a great meeting!”) Bad: "What would you guys (referring to men and women or just men) like to drink?" Better: "What can I get you to drink before you start your meal?" Best: "May I tell you about some of our house-made cocktails?" Bad: "Just one for dinner?" Better: “One?” Best: "Nice to see you, let me find you a great table" Bad: Knocking on the door when the Do Not Disturb sign is up Better: Calling your room during Do Not Disturb Best: Least intrusively, slipping a note under your door Bad: Staff's clothing is either indistinguishable from guests', or cheap institutional uniforms (please, no vests for women, ever) Better: Clean, pressed, well-fitting uniforms that identify staff as staff Best: Definite uniforms, but designed to harmonize with the surroundings Bad: No card in-room that instructs staff to greenly reuse your sheets and towels, so you have to make this request by phone Also bad: A card is offered, but housekeeping disregards it and changes the sheets (sadly, the usual) Best: A card that is respected by housekeeping Bad: Charging outrageous fees for room wifi Better: Charging a minimal fee for fast wifi or comping a basic connection Best: Fast and free room wifi Bad: Room service indifferently served and hardly better than fast food Better: A tasty room service meal taken off the metal trolley and served as a waiter would Best: Room service as good as the hotel restaurant, served with distinctive flair Bad: A poorly informed concierge of the "least effort" school, or one who seems to be judging you, or one whose default recommendation is tourist traps Better: A concierge who appears to be up on things but whose restaurant recommendations are the Top Ten on every website Best: A concierge who finds out your tastes and does extra research to give you the best experience Bad: No chocolates at turndown! Better: Chocolates, but commercial kisses or wafer mints Even better: High-end commercial chocolates like Lindt Lindor truffles Best: Locally or house-made fresh chocolate bonbons (as at MGallery Hôtel de la Cité in Carcassonne, France) Bad: No gift amenity in your pricey room Better: A gift, but it’s another baseball cap or logo-ridden tote Best: A nice bottle of local wine, or something you want to take home, like a straw hat or elegant beach bag (as at Mexico's NIZUC) Room Features Bad: No dresser and no drawers or even shelves anywhere for your clothes; you can only hang them on hangers in the closet or pile them on the desk Better: An all-in-one closet with at least shelves and maybe a drawer or two under the safe Best: Plenty of shelves and drawers, or an actual dresser (like at The Grand Del Mar) Bad: No slippers or bathrobe in the room Better: A robe but no slippers Best: Two pairs of slippers and two robes Best of all: Two pairs of slippers and two pairs of robes: one for beach, one for bath (as at Phulay Bay, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Thailand) Bad: Flimsy, generic white terry slippers Better: Handsome cloth slippers Best: Fashionable slippers to take home, like the black elastic-strapped sandals at Regent Bali Bad: Jungles of electrical cords; as architect Mies van der Rohe said, "G-d is in the details" (he designed the iconic tower that now houses The Langham, Chicago) Better: Electrical cords neatly shortened by twisties Best: Nearly invisible cords Bad: Motel-style non-removable hangers Better: Nice wooden hangers, but typically not enough of them Best: Ample wooden hangers made from the same wood as the closet (as at Regent Bali and Regent Phuket Cape Panwa) Bad: Packets of chemical-laden non-dairy creamer beside your coffee maker Better: Single servings of Half-and-Half Best: Real milk for coffee in your fridge (as at Four Seasons Rancho Encantadoin Santa Fe) Bad: Wood or stone floors with no rugs (and a girlfriends’ getaway in stilettoes above your room) Better: Hardwood floors with a lot of area rugs Best: Dare I say it? Quiet-enhancing wall-to-wall carpeting, beautiful, of course Best of all: You requested and got a room on the top floor, or below an empty room Bad: Noisy fridges in room (second thing I do, after removing the bedspread, is unplug it) Better: Noisy fridge, but basically out of earshot in the vestibule Best: A quiet fridge positioned where you can’t hear it at all Bad: Minibars that are sensitive to touch: you move it, you buy it Better: A small munchie threat delivered with turndown (as at Four Seasons Baltimore) Best: Free minibar, as in all-inclusives Bad: No bottled water in room Better: A couple of bottles, replenished on the house Best: Earth-friendly glass bottles of purified water (as at Four Seasons Rancho Encantado in Santa Fe) Bad: No ice waiting in room, so you have to call and wait for it Better: An ice machine not a long walk away, so at least you can get it yourself Best: Ice is always in your room Bad: Windows that cannot be opened (common in city hotels) Better: Windows that can open, but you needed to call for help Best: Easy-opening windows (as at Loews Philadelphia) Bad: Noplace to hang your hand laundry (washing your own UW is a lifesaver forcarryon packers) Better: Lots of hooks and racks for drying your scanties Best: The hotel does your laundry gratis (a frequent feature of club floors) Bad: No full-length mirror in the room Better: A mirror on your closet door Best: A heavy wall mirror (like at Four Seasons Nevis) or freestanding dressing mirror Bad: A clock-radio (welcome to the Eighties!) Better: A clock on a modern device like the Bose Wave Best: A room with a view of a clock tower like Big Ben (Corinthia Hotel London) or Kowloon Station Tower (Peninsula Hong Kong) Luxury Travelers' Obsession: Bathroom Bad: A generic porcelain throne Better: A generic john in a partitioned area Better still: A john and a bidet Best: A Japanese-made TOTO toilet (as at Palace Hotel Tokyo) Bad: It's a tub! It's a shower! It's a tub! Better: A separate tub, but not generously sized Best: A deep soaking tub made for two, with water jets (as as Corinthia Hotel London) Bad: And that tub-shower has a depressing sliding glass door Better: The shower is separate, with a stone bench inside Best: The glamorously lit, marble-lavished 'throom feels like a spa suite (as atHazelton Hotel in Toronto) Bad: No wall-mounted makeup mirror for Madame Better: A makeup mirror without a light Best: A mirror lit in non-Halloween fashion Bad: Outsourced made-in-China toiletries Better: Global luxury brands like Bulgari and Bliss Best: Locally made bathroom toiletries (like Byredo at Nobis Hotel Stockholm, soaps made in the Yucatan at Viceroy Riviera Maya), or custom-made (like Rosemary and White Tea potions by Natura Bissé at Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace and Lady Primrose's Piñon-Eucalyptus at Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe) Bad: Those toiletries are either too masculine or flowery Better: Unscented toiletries Best: Genderless herbal aromatherapy scents or green fragrances like L’Occitane Verveine Bad: Micro sizes of toiletries (Ace Hotels’ soap is the size of a matchbook) Better: Wall-dispensed, Earth-friendly refillable bottles like at Viceroy New York) Best: Take-home sizes close to the TSA limit of 3.4 ounces for carryon packing (as at Le Negresco in Nice) Bad: Arty, raised, bowl-shaped sinks that splash everywhere Better: Deep porcelain sinks Best: A pair of capacious sinks side-by-side Ready for Your Tech Challenge? Bad: Electric control panels that are ultra-high-tech and so hard to figure out, not even the staff know how Bad variation: You program your room and service controls on the remote screen – hey, you're on vacation, not a competitive corporate team-building challenge Better: When you check in, your valet or butler shows you how to use the overcomplicated electric panels Best: The room's tech aspects are familiar enough for you not to need a tutorial Bad: It's nice to offer a tablet in your room. But no one wants a knockoff brand that requires instructions Better: An iPad you can borrow from the front desk Better: An iPad in your room (as at Regent Phuket Cape Panwa) Bad: An old-style coffeemaker with packets of inferior java that create, basically, hot brown water Better: A basic coffeemaker with good choices like Starbucks Breakfast and Blonde Best: A pod coffeemaker that's easy to use (no programming, please!), with a choice of strong brews Bad: Nothing to plug your iPod or iPhone into, so to hear music, you have to play it on your laptop Better: A player device with only an aux jack, so your iPod plays but doesn't charge Best: an iHome device or similar style of iPod/iPhone dock and charger (as atFour Seasons Resort Nevis) Bad: No in-room safe Better: An off-brand safe with obscure instructions, or any safe too small for your laptop Best: An Elsafe-brand safe sized for a laptop, with a charger outlet and a jewelry tray inside (as at The Pierre New York) Bad: A room phone that requires a master's in engineering to use, and whose voicemails are impossible to retrieve Better: A phone that doesn't give you a headache Best: Free local calls and free international calls to the US and Canada (as atLe Blanc in Cancun) It’s All About the Bed! Bad: A dated, fusty, maybe even synthetic bedspread that’s not only potentially viral but ugly Better: A handsome bedspread with natural fibers Best: No bedspread but a fine cotton duvet with a newly laundered, spanking-white cover (as at InterContinental Montreal or Mukul Beach, Golf and Spa in Nicaragua) Bad: Puffy, foam-filled pillows Better: A pillow selection on your bed or in your closet, or a “pillow menu” you can choose from Best: A pillow concierge offering a range of therapeutic pillows (as at The Benjamin in NYC) Bad: Heavy down quilt in a tropical hotel, forcing you to blast the AC Better: An appropriately chosen down quilt Best: A choice in your closet (in case you like to blast the AC) Bad: Wrinkled linens or any other remnants of past guests Better: Pressed and clean sheets, made with military precision Best: A well-made bed with sheets from Frette, Pratesi, Delorme, Dr. Porthault, or Frette (as at Hotel St, Francis in Santa Fe and Windsor Court in New Orleans) and embroidered by Lesage (hopes Eric Weiss) Thank you for paying attention, hotels! Some more info on Millennials - the little video is also great. Wilna The Key Facts: written by Jeff Fromm
Based on our research we know that:
If you’d rather learn about the findings another way, you can watch this handy video: ![]() ... I am fascinated about how to communicate to Millennials -and here are some trends to look out for. - Wilna Top 10 Hospitality Industry Trends in 2014 By Robert Rauch, CHA
Robert Rauch serves as President of R. A. Rauch & Associates, Inc. He is a nationally recognized hotelier serving clients in all facets of the industry. Rauch has over 35 years of hospitality-related management experience. Widely recognized as the "hotel guru," Mr. Rauch maintains a blog where he expounds upon insights and trends in the hospitality industry at www.hotelguru.com. Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation, are the demographic cohort following Generation X. There are no precise dates for when Generation Y starts and ends. Commentators use beginning birth dates ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s (decade).
Millennials are sometimes called Echo Boomers, due to the significant increase in birth rates during the 1980s and into the 1990s. Millennials are mostly the children of baby boomers or Gen Xers. The 20th century trend toward smaller families in developed countries continued, however, so the relative impact of the "baby boom echo" was generally less pronounced than the original boom. Millennial characteristics vary by region, depending on social and economic conditions. It is generally marked by an increased use and familiarity with communication, media, and digital technologies. In most parts of the world its upbringing was marked by an increase in a neoliberal approach to politics and economics; the effects of this... Source: millennials on Freebase, licensed under CC-BY ![]() I recently attended a seminar and a lot was said about Klout.com and how to use it to grow your social presence... so I thought I would find out some more (My score is only 23, looks like there is some work to be done!)- Wilna Clout Vs. Klout: They're Not The Same, And Never Will Be Guest post written by Tony Greenberg Tony Greenberg is founder and CEO of RampRate Sourcing Advisors. There’s been a lot of noise lately about Klout, which creates a single numerical value designed to encapsulate your online influence. Marketers trying to connect with social-media “influencers” love this idea of One Number to Rule Them All. Klout explicitly tries to emulate for individuals what Google’s PageRank system does for website reach and reputation. But lots of people complain vociferously about Klout, even as its corporate partners dish out “Klout Perks,” such as free entry to events and early peeks at hot products, based on its scores. Complaints include:
“I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don’t have as many people who believe it.” – Geroge Carlin But I’m not here to slag Klout, whose CEO says the company is constantly trying to improve. The real issue is the true nature of influence, and what that means for marketers and others trying to leverage it. Klout outrages some in ways Nielsen, comScore or other media-measurement services never have. Why? Because, in this era of self-created media/social networks, Klout isn’t measuring some distant and massive media corporation. Rather, it’s measuring you. In The Search, John Battelle details the Google Dance, the Darwinian tech tango caused every time Google tweaks its ranking algorithms. For site owners, such algorithmic shifts can make the difference between living on a yacht and living on the street, fueling an endless evolutionary minuet of action and reaction between Google engineers and SEO gurus. Klout makes this tango personal. In Your Brain at Work, David Rock describes how neural circuits and brain chemicals influence our capabilities for status, connection and fairness, resulting in inexplicable behaviors such as why people spend so much on designer items, or battle ferociously to be “mayor” of the corner coffee shop. Mix the Google Dance with the hunt for status, and you can see why Klout conjures such strong opinions. As Cloudonomics founder Joe Weinman observes, Klout combustibly mixes rational economic decisions with “lazy, hazy, and crazy” behavioral economics. “The history of American politics is littered with bodies of people who took so pure a position that they had no clout at all.” - Benjamin C. Bradlee But why are we online, tweeting and posting and sharing? What’s ourmotivation? Are we trying to influence others when we post about our life, or products we like, or stuff we find interesting? Are we shilling when we’re sharing? To put it another way, is the most influential and powerful person in a room the one with the most keys (or most widely shared social-media posts), or the one who can get the most doors opened for him/her? At the heart of these rather cosmic questions is a really important truth that a Klout score can’t quite capture: other people grant power and influence toyou. You only have influence when someone else gives it to you.. cont. Article from Forbes...read more ![]() Singles - the ones to market to in the future? Is your marketing strategy up to it? - Wilna Faith Popcorn has made the following predictions regarding singles and the future It is a long read - but well worth it.... It's official. The nuclear family has had a meltdown. In the last decade Single households have increased by 30% worldwide. By 2020 there will be 331 million single households globally. The US will lead with 36.3 million followed by Japan, 31.6 million, and China, 18.2 million. Singles come from every nationality, age demographic, religion, sexual orientation and gender. But they have one thing in common. Living uncomfortable and ignored in a married person’s world. In 2013, it’s changing on every level. Read the whole fascinating article here... |
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