I've notice a new pattern forming lately as more and more people are doing so. It's annoying and it's a mistake I made years ago back in the hay-days of the beginning of Twitter.
It's linking your status. Simply put, it's annoying.
Yesterday, I started the day off reading some Tweet's. Followed along with some of them and got engaged in some discussions. After reading a bit on Twitter, I popped over onto Facebook.
A few new conversations existed within Facebook but I noticed a pattern. The tweet's I was reading were also being updated to the individual's Facebook status. Someone was live tweeting and it was updating their Facebook status as well.
So I thought, okay that's super annoying and pointless. But what the heck, I appreciate the person enough to have the individual on both.
Around lunch time, I popped back onto Twitter and then Facebook. Same idea but different person. This person was getting engaged in a conversation on Twitter and all their replies were being sent to Facebook as well. This was notifying their Facebook friends of their side of the conversation. Annoyance #2 for the day.
As you can see, there has been a pattern developing here. So I jumped on both social media platforms at supper and again, the same thing. And finally, at 1am and it's was happening again.
I've come to the conclusion that not only do I have a few (or more) of the same people on Twitter as I do on Facebook. But the point is, it's pointless to have them on both spots as I am reading the same content, twice.
More importantly then being annoying, it's a bad idea. Why? Well, as I've outlined within this post, people don't wanna read the same message all the time on the different social media platforms.
If you're tweeting all the same things you're posting on Facebook, there is no reason for someone to follow you twice. So please, disconnect the two.
One should utilize the two different networks differently. For instance, my Facebook I've posted once in the past 30 hours whereas on my Twitter, I've posted maybe 15 times?
This isn't to say that content is only valuable in one spot. It's moreso, not all content needs to be duplicated.
By having different content, it gives people a reason not only to follow me on one network, but to stay engaged in different conversations on the two different networks which is better then them not following along.
Chris MacDonald Reminds me of this beauty that allows you to selectively pick what Twitter Status' go to your Facebook. It's called, Selective Tweets and only updates your Facebook status when typing #fb.
Community Owned Wind Turbines for PEI? February 21, 2012
When I started this idea, I was thinking it might be a first for Atlantic Canada. It's not. Colchester-Cumberland Wind Field Inc. was first through Nova Scotia's CEDIF program.
It's almost perfect timing to have a discussion on Community Owned Wind Turbines on PEI. The PEI Energy Commission is looking for ideas on the future of Island energy.
My idea is simple. I'd love to see a community owned wind turbine built somewhere in the West Royalty area so that residents can tap into a community wind energy idea.
In August, 2011 the Nova Scotia community of Cumberland-Colchester started their own community owned turbine called, “Cumberland-Colchester Windfield”. The wind mill cost around $2 million dollars and powers about 300 homes. That equals out to be around $6,700 per home to buy into the windmill.
By buying into such an idea, it would allow people to purchase a green energy electricity source. The electricity will then be sold back to consumers at nearly the same rate as Maritime Electric's rates.
The idea of this project would not to be collect a large profit but to pass the profit back to shareholders through dividends. The amount distributed through a dividend would be determined based on the amount of reserves the community owned company would have. Obviously a good chunk of change would be needed for maintenance or emergency repairs.
On top of getting involved in a community owned green wind firm, investors would also receive a 35% tax credit (or $2,345) through the CEDB (Community Economic Development Business) initiative if purchasing in at $6,700.
Alternatively, the idea could go into expanding the wind turbine projects to have multiple wind turbines for other communities as well. This would need to be up to the investors to decide. If expanding into other communities, instead of each household purchasing 1 share at $6,700, the share price could be offered at a lower rate to allow more Islanders to tap into it.
The other issue right now is that Maritime Electric is a monopoly on PEI, except in Summerside. Summerside has a community electricity utility.
I don't have all the answers to this idea, but this is the start to something that could be big for wind energy on PEI.
Facebook's $5 Billion Dollar IPO Reveals Indepth Stats of Company February 01, 2012
Facebook filed it's S-1 today which is one of the initial steps to take their company from private to publicly
traded on the stock market. The filing gives people access to look at the in-depth numbers from the social network
prior to them issuing any shares for public trade.
Facebook intends to raise $5 billion dollars through an IPO which will probably happen within the next month or two.
One of the first things the document makes note of is that Facebook now has 845 million monthly active users as of December 31, 2011. This represented a 39% jump from the previous December's 608 million users. More then half of these (425 million users) had logged into Facebook on a mobile device such as a phone or tablet.
In terms of daily users, the site has 483 million active daily users on average as of December 2011. The total active daily users in Canada & the United States is 126 million users. In 2010, there was a total of 327 million active users world wide, as such this represents a 48% increase in 1 year.
Facebook has stated that only 1 in 2 Facebook users are active on a monthly basis, as such total registrations to the site would be moreso in the tune of 1.6 billion users.
The site also has an average of 2.7 billion likes or comments per day which simple means the total active population is liking or commenting on 3.2 items per day. This figure was only based on the last 3 months in 2011.
The document also shows that 250 million photos are uploaded to the social website everyday.
In comparison Flickr, another social networking site for photographers, had a total of 6 billion photos as of August 2011.
The document also says that there is 100 billion friendships on Facebook.
Facebook certainly isn't hurting for cash either. As of December 31, 2011 the company had $3.9 billion in cash reserves.
| (in millions) | |||||||||
| Year | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | |
| Revenue | $0.382 | $9 | $4 | $153 | $272 | 777 | $1,974 | $3,711 | |
| Net Income | ($138) | ($56) | $229 | $606 | $1,000 | ||||
| Active Users | 1 | 9 | 12 | 58 | 145 | 360 | 608 | 845 | |
Monthly Active Users (MAUs). We define a monthly active user as a registered Facebook user who logged in and visited Facebook through our website or a mobile device, or took an action to share content or activity with his or her Facebook friends or connections via a third-party website that is integrated with Facebook, in the last 30 days as of the date of measurement.
Daily Active Users (DAUs). We define a daily active user as a registered Facebook user who logged in and visited Facebook through our website or a mobile device, or took an action to share content or activity with his or her Facebook friends or connections via a third-party website that is integrated with Facebook, on a given day. We view DAUs, and DAUs as a percentage of MAUs, as measures of user engagement.
What's your digits? December 27, 2011
During Christmas break, my sister and I were out shopping for gifts. It was late and most stores downtown were now closed. As we were by Indigo, we either had to go up by Walmart or head downtown to purchase an item.
I popped onto my phone and looked up the stores website to find out the store hours. Sure enough, there was no listing of the store hours so my next thought was to get the phone number. Sadly that wasn't listed either.
The site isn't complex or that great looking, it is usability that is 1st and foremost for a website. What I did find interesting is that the website does contain updated product information on a regular basis which is great. Upcoming events also looks to be updated too but again, that's not helpful for someone looking for basic information such as store hours. But that's not always important if you are going to provide a way for the visitor to call you.
One of the main reasons people would be visiting your site would be to contact you and if you only provide them with the option to email you, that's not going to help your business. As a consumer, companies need to remember the basic reasons someone is visiting their site.
For some businesses you might want people to visit your site to order products, for others they may just want to give the visitor information. Some businesses don't feel their clients or partners should contact them, for instance, Facebook & Google don't provide easy to access phone numbers or email addresses. Both for retailers, having a method of instant contact is important.
At the end of the day, we went uptown instead of downtown since we did find contact information for the other store online and could call them.
In closing, if you're launching a new website. Check it twice. Look at what's naughty and nice. Not just from your perspective, but from a customer perspective.
Eastlink vs Bell Aliant Comparision December 15, 2011
I've had Bell Fibre Op now for a couple months and in that time, it seems to be creating a lot of buzz in Charlottetown. I've also been asked what the difference is and which is faster a few times over the past week.
Which is faster isn't really a good question to ask when it comes down to it. The speed is moreso determined by the price you wish to pay. I've narrowed it down in the following table from fastest to slowest based on download speeds.
Download speed is important when your browsing the web or playing games vs Upload speed is important when your uploading stuff like Videos or Photos to the web. If you're not sure, ignore upload speed.
(Click the column, in bold, you want it to sort by)
| Provider | Into House By | Download Speed | Upload Speed | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bell Aliant | Fibre Op | 170 | 30 | $249.95 (12 month contract) |
| Eastlink | Coax Cable | 100 | 5 | $164.95 |
| Bell Aliant | Fibre Op | 70 | 30 | $99.95 |
| Eastlink | Coax Cable | 40 | 2 | $92.95 |
| Bell Aliant | Fibre Op | 30 | 30 | $82.95 |
| Eastlink | Coax Cable | 20 | 1 | $62.95 |
| Bell Aliant | Fibre Op | 15 | 15 | $67.95 |
| Bell Aliant | Copper | 7 | 0.6 | $67.95 |
| Eastlink | Coax Cable | 5 | 1 | $50.95 |
| Bell Aliant | Copper | 1.5 | 0.6 | $57.95 |
| Eastlink | Coax Cable | 1.5 | 0.25 | $29.95 |
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