Stay N Alive

Why do I Think Marketers That Don't Embrace Google+ Will be Out of Business in a Year?

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:23:58 PDT

(Want to skip all this and get the courses right now? Go to http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/TwitterOffer and sign up now!)

As I mentioned earlier on Google+ (where you'll always hear tech news first from me!), I recently just finished a course on Pluralsight all about how you or your friends can embrace Google+ better for your business or clients (you can see what this course covers at http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/Courses/TableOfContents?courseName=googleplus-business). In a new series for businesses provided by the video training site, Pluralsight, we're doing a new deal that will expire this week where you can get 30 days to watch my videos for free. This is an excellent way to get your friends and family to understand the value of Google+!

In my new, 2 hour, Google+ course, I show why Google+ is about so much more than plus.google.com, and step-by-step demos on how you can link your website or blog to Google+ and instantly improve your site's presence on the web. You'll learn tips and tricks and techniques to get engagement flowing, and how to build your audience on the entire Google platform.

This new training course complements my already existing Facebook Applications course targeted at marketers and businesses to learn how they can do some very simple things to fully integrate Facebook into their existing apps and websites (see the overview for this course at http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/Courses/TableOfContents?courseName=intro-fb-dev). The 30 day free course is a super deal, and gets you 4 full hours of training from me on the subjects I know most about. I've put a ton of time into these!

To get the 30 days free, just go to http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/TwitterOffer, follow me on Twitter (@Jesse), then follow @Pluralsight, and they'll DM you a trial code to get the free access. Go do it now, and get your friends to take advantage as well so they can learn why I think Google+ is such a powerful tool!

This was originally posted on Google+.

Custom Tailoring 2.0 - "Dress Code" is Set to Become the Zappos of Tailoring

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:00:01 PDT

Back in October I had the opportunity to visit Hong Kong for business. While I was there I decided to get a custom suit made. I'm a sucker for a good suit! While Hong Kong is certainly not as cheap as Thailand when it comes to custom-made suits, it is generally much cheaper than the typical run-of-the-mill tailor in the United States. In the United States it's typically "go cheap (as in poorly designed) or go broke (as in way too expensive for the 99% to afford)". In Hong Kong for about $300 I can get a pretty nice suit that is completely custom-tailored for my body type and size, something that would typically cost near $1,000 in the United States. I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

That's why I was a bit curious when +Chase Murdock from Dress Code heard about my trip to Hong Kong, and approached me to consider having them doing a suit for me. He and his partner offered to make a suit for me for free to show off what they're able to do that other tailors aren't able - create a custom suit is typically affordable to the average consumer. A free suit? Why not? I'll bite.

The arrangement through their site is simple. Dress Code has no physical stores. They're a pure e-commerce model. So I just visit http://DressCodeCustom.com, schedule an appointment by filling out some simple information on their site, and soon they're knocking on the door at my home or business to measure and consult with me on what I want them to make for me.

My visit with them was very pleasant. Chase and his partner came to my house dressed in very stylish clothes, and I could tell they knew what they were talking about. We went through some fabric books of theirs, and they gave me all kinds of suggestions and recommendations of things I would have never thought about. My tailor in Hong Kong just asked me the basics and went with it. These guys were much more thorough, and wanted to ensure every step of the way that every little detail was thought of. We went through number of buttons, tapering of the pants, and vents in the back of the suit coat. But they also recommended various linings for the inside of the suit, and even the color of the seam that ties the lining to the rest of the suit. By the end I was relying on them to be my experts, and I trusted their expertise to do so.

By the end of the appointment I asked them what a suit like this would normally cost. When they said "cheaper", I thought they would say in the range of $500-$700. I almost gasped when they told me $250-$300. That's not much more expensive than a typical, non-tailored suit!

I'm very excited to see what comes of this appointment. If the suit turns out as well as the service and simplicity of ordering that I experienced with Chase and his partner, I anticipate I'll be very pleased. The good news is if all goes well I won't have to travel overseas to get my suits any more. I'll just call my "suit guy" and he'll make me whatever clothing choice I want, all at a lower cost, and I barely have to make any effort to make it happen.

My suit is currently being made by their company at the moment. I should receive notice in the next couple weeks that it is done. When finished I'll provide a final review of their service and product for everyone to see.

If you're looking for custom clothing of any kind, these guys are worth taking a look at. They currently service Utah and Nevada/Las Vegas. However, they do take trips to Colorado, as well as the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas on occasion. Contact them and have your company get them to come set up a pop-up location to get your employees all styled up for cheap.

Stay tuned - I'll share more when I get my suit! Oh, and be sure to follow their style blog at http://www.dresscodecustom.com/blog - if you're into understanding the latest styles, this blog really shows they get it!

I got a free suit in exchange for doing an honest review of their services - while certainly biased, I am always truthful and objective in these types of reviews.

This was originally posted on Google+.

You'll Always Hear it First on Google+

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:38:26 PDT

I'm starting a new experiment. From now on every post I make to StayNAlive.com will originate on Google+. This goes in line with my earlier post where I suggested that the Blogging landscape is significantly changing, and the blogs that want to survive will need to embrace social means of publishing and discovery. You'll recognize this trend immediately as you visit my blog and see the ability to automatically share the articles you read on StayNAlive.com to Facebook, and today I'm going to continue that trend with the strengths that Google+ provides.

The Power of Google+ Circles

One of the coolest features of Google+ is the ability to not only target posts by Circles and groups of people, but also the ability to send updates to specific email addresses and people. This opens up the ability for some really cool hacks. For instance, want to archive a post? Send it to your Evernote email address (Evernote allows you to send content to an email address and it archives right inside Evernote).

For all future posts on StayNAlive.com I'm going to use this same hack. One of the advantages to hosting StayNAlive.com on Blogger.com is that I can post to an email address, and it will post automatically to the blog. I'm going to set it to save my posts as a draft so I can go in afterwards, add links and pictures, etc. But you'll immediately receive updates on Google+ the minute I hit share. All other social networks will have to wait for the blog post to go live because I'll need a link to share those with.

The Best of Both Worlds

Now you can get the immediacy of Google+, while at the same time getting the RSS Feeds, and customized interface of the blog. If you want to subscribe via Google+, you can subscribe via Google+ (Go to http://profiles.google.com/jessestay to subscribe). If you want to subscribe via RSS, or receive updates to posts via Facebook or Twitter, you can go to StayNAlive.com. I still have a home base, and you have the option of getting real-time updates via Google+.

So come follow me on Google+ if you want real-time updates from the blog, or subscribe right on the blog - it's your choice.

Wanna Learn Facebook Development? Check Out My New Video Series

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:38:41 PDT

Facebook application development isn't just a skill, and it's not just for developers either - it's a mindset and a culture that you have to understand to truly understand and implement its value. It's something both marketers, business owners, as well as developers should understand to fully have a grasp against the competition in this increasingly social world. That's why I jumped at the chance to work with the popular online learning site, Pluralsight, to do a new series on Facebook application development. My first video went live yesterday, and I hope will be the first in a line of videos you can use to hone your skills both as a marketer and developer to take advantage of the most of Facebook Platform.

In my first course, you'll learn why Facebook is such a valuable tool to integrate with your business or marketing strategy. I'll show you example apps that have seen success on the Platform, and then take you through, step-by-step, on how you can set up a custom Facebook Page tab on Facebook without any HTML knowledge necessary to get started. You'll end understanding the different integration points you can use to build an app, or just integrate Facebook into your existing website or app design. I teach you social design philosophy and the different touch points you should understand no matter what your skill set.

Whether you're a marketer, a developer, or business owner I think you'll enjoy this course. I think you'll be surprised with what you're able to accomplish by the end, and what your understanding will become when you're finished. If you've ever wanted to get your hands dirty with what you can fully do on Facebook, this is a course you can't neglect, regardless of your skill set.

The course is part of Pluralsight's learning platform, and I hope will be one of many future courses you can learn from on these topics. It also joins Facebook's own Yasser Shohoud's Facebook Platform Overview that serves as a great primer for where my course will take you.

When I considered this I thought about just doing my own video series and charging monthly for access to those. I would have likely charged around $100-200 for access to that for it to be worth it to me. I realized though, that by partnering with Pluralsight, you could get my content, as well as hundreds of other courses from other experts that are top at their game. Instead of $200 for one-time access to my videos, you can pay as little as $29 per month (you cancel whenever you like) or $299 per year and get unlimited access to mine and anyone else's courses on their platform. To me I think it's a great deal.

With this course you'll get:

Material for all types to understand - marketers, business owners, and developers
Step-by-step videos taking you through the entire process, which you can step away from at any time.
Assessment to test your knowledge at the end of the course and grade you on your understanding of the topics covered
Knowledge of why you should understand Facebook Platform
Step-by-step tutorials on how to build custom Facebook tabs
Hands-on videos giving you the basics of Facebook's developer platform, allowing all to understand all they need to get started
Access to all future courses on Facebook by me and others.

If you want to understand Facebook in a way your competitors don't, go register for my Facebook development course today! The tips I cover are things not many in the industry know, and you'll have the upper-hand in your industry.

To register, just click here and follow the instructions. Then go over here to my course's Facebook Application Development page to get started in knowing what your competitors don't!

For the first 20 commenters that ask below I'll give a code for a free unlimited 7 day trial to try the service and take my course.

Still Think Facebook's Not Threatened by Google+? Facebook Now Supports "+" Tagging

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:23:59 PST

As a Google+ user (Author of Google+ For Dummies), and also avid Facebook user (Author of Facebook Application Development For Dummies), I often find myself getting my keys mixed up going back and forth from Google+ to Facebook. This is particularly frustrating for tagging friends. When Google+ launched, I found myself constantly putting in the "+" button to tag friends on Facebook, only to realize Facebook's form of tagging was the "@" symbol. It appears some time in the recent past Facebook has now adopted the "+" (plus) sign to allow tagging in status updates.

From the start, Google+ supported both formats. This is no surprise, as Google+ had the most to gain from trying to adopt users that were used to Facebook's tagging format. At the same time, the "+" sign added a level of branding to the Google+ experience making it unique to Google+.

It would seem that some Facebook employees are also enjoying Google+ perhaps a little too much, because someone likely got annoyed enough (or maybe their user testing showed they had a problem) to where they felt the need to support the "+" symbol as well when tagging your friends on Facebook. Now, to tag your friends on Facebook, you can either tag them by starting to type with the "@" symbol followed by their name, or starting with the "+" sign followed by their name.

I think it was awfully nice of Facebook to think of us Google+ users as they integrated this. I wonder how long this has been happening. I only realized it after doing it a few times and not even realizing I was doing it. I always argue Facebook and Google aren't competitors - that would be nice if Facebook's just being nice for this reason. However, I have a feeling Facebook is seeing some pressure from the other Google+ users using Facebook and running into the same issue.

Either way, I'm happy to not have to think twice now whenever I use that "+" sign to tag my friends.

Google+ Marketing For Dummies: My New Book!

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 14:56:07 PST

Today I mailed in the contract for my new book, Google+ Marketing For Dummies. This will be my 5th book and 3rd in the "For Dummies" series by my publisher Wiley. It also marks my second book for Google+, among 3 other books for Facebook.

You may have seen articles recently, fueled by Wall Street Journal, suggesting Google+ traffic is dwindling. As a result you may be asking yourself, "Why is he writing another book for Google+ if it has no traffic?" The truth is, I wouldn't be writing this book if I didn't see such potential for Google+. After articles like Wall Street Journal's, I realized there is clearly a lack of education out there on the value Google+ provides for both consumers and marketers. I'm writing this because of articles like that, and I hope I can convince you of the best secret on the internet right now.

In preliminary tests, engagement is already proving to be a higher-weighted factor now in Google search results. Articles outside, and posts on Google+ are showing to weigh very heavily above even recency of articles in search results on Google. We also see this with Google now integrating Google+ results into Google search results. This is just the tip of the Iceberg. For that reason alone, marketers need to be giving Google+ another look. Google+ is not just about traffic to plus.google.com, but even more about how you rank and appear in other Google products. As I have always said, the future of Google+ is just Google.

Google+ Marketing For Dummies will make a very nice companion to my first Google+ book, Google+ For Dummies, Portable Edition. The first targets consumers and shows them how to get used to the social network, see results and value, and how to make the most of the service as a user. Google+ Marketing For Dummies will then take you, as a Marketer, Brand Manager, or Business Owner, to learn what matters most: how to use Google+ to generate more awareness for your brand, generate new leads, and in turn convert those new users into customers. In fact, you may want to offer the first book to your customers, and use the second book to learn how to market to those customers.

I'll begin writing in the next week, and should have the final manuscript submitted by middle of this year. If all goes well you should see this in print by late summer or Fall. This book will be a welcome addition to your arsenal of books to further your edge against the competition. I'm very excited to get this book out the door as quick as possible so you can learn what Wall Street Journal doesn't.

As a Teaser, here are the currently planned Chapter names (these, of course, are subject to change) - see anything I'm missing?:

Chapter 1: Getting Started With Google+
Chapter 2: Understanding Google+: The "Plus"
Chapter 3: Understanding Google+: The "Google"
Chapter 4: Integrating Google+ Into Your Existing Social Media Strategy
Chapter 5: Learning Your Audience on Google+
Chapter 6: Building a Google+ Presence
Chapter 7: Building a Search Strategy Using Google+
Chapter 8: Focusing on Real People and Relationships
Chapter 9: Utilizing Hangouts to Share Your Brand
Chapter 10: Advertising on Google With Social Ads
Chapter 11: Building Relationships Through Google CRM
Chapter 12: Building Website Authority Through Google+
Chapter 13: Measuring Google+ Activity
Chapter 14: Building Apps on Google+
Chapter 15: 10 Ways You Can Add Value to Your Website Using Google+
Chapter 16: 10 Examples of Good Google+ Business Practice
Chapter 17: 10 Tips For Small Businesses Using Google+

I'll keep you updated on Google+, Facebook, and the Google+ Page for Google+ For Dummies. Or, keep searching for it on Google or Amazon.

How to Replace Your RSS Feed Automatically With Facebook's Like Button

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:11:20 PST

As I seek to make this blog more and more a part of the social networks you participate in (I call this "From Fishers to Farmers" - something I speak about in my talks), I'll be documenting my progress along the way. I just showed how I'm doing this with Facebook's Frictionless Sharing on this blog (just click through to the blog, and click the link over on the right to start adding these posts to your timeline). There's one more piece though which I think is dwindling. Some call this the "RSS is Dead" argument. I actually talked about the RSS Subscription problem here. What's happening is the subscribers to RSS feeds such as the one on this site, through analytics sites such as Feedburner, are either slowing or diminishing.

This process is natural as more and more people receive their news on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, and away from sites such as Google Reader or traditional RSS Readers. Those tools simply aren't social, and much less interesting than a typical social network. Therefore I argue content owners need to be looking towards more social ways of distributing their content. I'm doing this specifically on Facebook with an app called RSS Graffiti.

Enter RSS Graffiti and Facebook Open Graph

RSS Graffiti is a Facebook app (it also integrates with Twitter) that will apply any RSS Feed to a Facebook Page you specify (see why I say RSS isn't dead?). The cool thing about it is on Facebook I can make any website a Facebook Page.

On this blog, if you view the source, do a search for "og:url". This, and a series of other meta tags (og:site_name, og:description, and og:image, as well as fb:admins are all useful for this) tell Facebook that this URL is also a Facebook Page. To register it with Facebook, just make sure the "fb:admins" tag is in place and lists the id of your Facebook Profile as the value, and go to Facebook.com/Insights to register your URL.

Once you do this, your Blog is now a Facebook Page as far as Facebook is concerned. Now all you have to do is add a Like Button Social Plugin to your website as you see at the top of this site above, and people can "like" your website! Seriously - click through to this blog and go click "like" at the top!

Here's where it gets cool though - now that I'm listed as an admin of that URL, I can send posts to the fans of that URL. Every person that clicks "like" above I can send my articles to. It's the same as subscribing, but much more social!

How to Create Your Own Social Distribution Channel Using Facebook and Open Graph

Here's what you need to do to make this happen:

Add the following HTML within the <head/> tags on your website or blog - fill in the "content" sections with the appropriate values for your site or blog:

<meta content='Main URL of your site (http://www.staynalive.com)' property='og:url'/>
<meta content='Description of your site' property='og:description'/>
<meta content='Absolute URL to a logo for your site' property='og:image'/>
<meta content='Name of your site' property='og:site_name'/>
<meta content='Your Facebook ID' property='fb:admins'/>
Go to Facebook.com/Insights and click "Insights for Your Website" (the green button in the upper-right) - enter the domain you specified from the "og:url" meta tag above, and click on the "Get Insights" button. Your site is now registered (and you can go back here to see stats around your domain!).
Now go to apps.facebook.com/rssgraffiti/ and find your website on the left (it will be under the name you specified in "site_name" above). Go there, and add your site's RSS Feed. Save it, and it will automatically start posting content to your Facebook Page for every post you make!
Now you just need some subscribers. You'll do this with a Facebook Like button, just like you see at the top of this blog. Go to developers.facebook.com/plugins - click the "Like Button" link. Now, just fill out the form - be sure to add the URL you specified in the "og:url" tag above! Click the "get code" button, and now copy and paste that code where you want your like button to go!

If you perform the above steps you should have everything you need to allow your site's visitors to subscribe to your site through a simple Facebook "like". Now, when they click "like", not only do they subscribe to your site, but their friends see it too!

If you want to take this further, you can add the above tags to the other pages on your site, with an og:title tag to specify the title of articles. This will allow you to customize how Facebook sees each article on your site as it shares it out to the fans of your website. If you want to get more specific, be sure to see the documentation of the OpenGraph Protocol over here.

What about Google+ or Twitter? As I mentioned, RSS Graffiti supports Twitter, so you should be taken care of there if you wanted to add a "Follow" button at the top of your website. However, there's nothing for Google+ at the moment. I think Google would really benefit from either allowing apps to publish to at least Google+ Pages so apps like RSS Graffiti could do something similar with the +1 button. Google+ currently allows you to tie +1 buttons (through Page "Badges") to Google+ Pages, and if they just allowed apps to publish to Pages you could theoretically do the same with Google+. Maybe if they allow that I'll post how to do that here as well.

Stay N Alive Supports Facebook's Open Graph

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:27:55 PST

Just the other day I got approval from Facebook that the "read" action, available for Facebook's Open Graph "Frictionless Sharing" was approved for StayNAlive.com. What this means is that if you click the link on the right of this blog, under "Click below to post to your Facebook Timeline when you read articles on Stay N Alive", every post you read on this site will be automatically shared to your Facebook Timeline under the "News" section of your timeline. This means your friends will see what you read here, just like anything I were to share to Facebook. (Some day I need to design it so it's more enticing to authorize this - hopefully soon)

You may have seen this done before with other blogs and news sites, such as the Washington Post Social Reader. When your friends see articles you read, they are more likely to click through and read them because they're associated with someone they're familiar with. Then, they can read and participate in the experience with you.

I just wrote about how traditional blogging is dead, and instead needs to evolve to more social models of content flow. This is one way I am trying to make that happen. Like I said, this blog isn't dead. It's just that it will become more and more a part of the social networks you most actively participate.

If you feel so obliged, please click through to this article and click that link over on the right. It's one of the best ways you can spread the word about what I write, and the things I stand for. Or, just click below - I'm embedding the form right below via a Facebook Social Plugin (click through to the article to see it on the blog).

In a future article I'll share how I did this, on a Blogger.com blog, nonetheless!

My Official (and Obligatory) "Traditional Blogging is Dead" Post

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:58:30 PST

I fought it - I even ridiculed people like for moving towards it (for that I apologize). However, I think I'm whooped. My page views are down. Comments and engagement on the blog itself are lower than ever. Looking over other blogs I manage, some with even more frequent content than my own, I'm seeing similar. As sad as I am to see it, I think blogging really is dying. It's a really tough way to make a living, and will become even more difficult in the future, in favor of more traditional news sites and people able to share and post personal opinion on social networks such as Google+, Facebook, and Twitter.

Does that mean that personal opinion and citizen journalism is dead? Does that mean that sharing is dead? Does that mean engagement is dead? In fact, it's even greater than ever. I always preach to use the best tool for the job. The fact is, sites like Google+, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as bookmarking and sharing sites such as Pinterest allow us to share, and engage in ways we never have before! I'm seeing greater engagement than I ever have on my blog. I'm seeing more shares than ever before. My audiences have skyrocketed on social networks! All this while, despite at least weekly posts on my blog, my audience and engagement there has diminished to almost nothing.

Does this mean I'll kill my blog? Of course not - it just means I have to adapt its focus. I have to make it more focused around the social network. I still argue you still need a home base. It does mean I likely won't make much money off advertising like you used to be able to on a blog. It does mean it will be used more and more as a source for SEO, and helping people find interesting and useful content on search engines (which, in and of themselves are using social networks more and more to find content). It means you'll see more howto articles and content-focused posts than breaking news. It means my blog is now becoming an extension of the social networks, and not vice versa.

I predict in the future blogging will be back in a more social form. Right now, traditional blogging is dying, and having fought this for years now as the subject continues to be brought up, I'm finally seeing what the other bloggers out there are seeing. That means something coming from me. Am I sad? Of course. That said, there is tremendous opportunity out there as we move forward. We just need to figure out what that is - I don't know right now.

I can't wait to figure out a solution that can bring it back into a modern state. How do you think blogging should evolve?

(Expect a future post from me on potential solutions for this problem, and where I see blogging still working really well, and where it won't work - stay tuned)

Xydo Pivots to a New, Targeted B2B Content Model for Your Business Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:24:49 PST

If you're reading this, there's a good chance you clicked on a link from my newsletter to get it. If you didn't, go over to the right column of my blog and subscribe now! (or just click here) One thing I haven't been able to divulge until now is that there's an innovative company that I've been using to provide these weekly emails that provide customized news from my social news streams, and today they launched to the world. Today, a company I advise, Xydo, pivoted to a pure B2B model that provides custom, automated email news for a business's customers based on content it is trained to provide.

Previously, Xydo was a consumer-facing product that learned from your social presence and the things you read, providing a customized news feed similar to Digg, or Reddit, for your consumption in a way that was tailored and customized to predict what each individual user would like. Today, Xydo leveraged their targeted news consumption platform, and built a way for businesses to leverage that customized news format to build simple, automated, and customized newsletters that adapt based on the interests of their subscribers and customers.

The way it works is simple - you customize your newsletter, based on social feeds you can configure based on your audience, and it then does the work for you. It determines the most relevant content for your audience, tracks clicks and reads of that content, and adapts your newsletter from week to week based on the things your audience is most interested in.

The result is a highly targeted newsletter that increases clicks by up to 5 times your normal click rate, and 300% more shares on social networks. I've seen this personally on my own weekly newsletter.

If you're in need of providing a customized, targeted, newsletter for your users or customers, go check out the new Xydo.com now.

If you write about it, let me know! I'll be including links back to all relevant articles below:

Techcrunch - "Pivot Smart: Social News Network XYDO Goes Pure B2B With New Content Marketing Platform"
Dain Binder - "XYDO Redefines Newsletter Relevancy And Engagement Performance"

Path's Privacy Problems Aren't Path's - They're Apple's

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:05:07 PST

The world is up in arms about how the mobile application Path, which I covered here as one of the next social networks to watch, has been sending users' phone directory data back to the service. As someone that knows the founders and trusts what they'll do with the data, I didn't give it a second thought, but the concern is valid. I'd like to suggest that the problem isn't Path's though. In fact I warned about this before.

4 years ago, back in 2008, as Apple launched their own app platform and directory for developers to the public, the mobile app Loopt went through a similar controversy where it automatically sent an SMS to everyone in the user's phone directory, without their permission. In this case, just like Path, the service assumed that users would be okay with sharing this data in order to make the service better. In both cases, there were many offended that this was happening.

I responded with an article of my own (again, this was in 2008!), suggesting that Apple needs privacy controls on their devices. Before any application can access phone numbers and other sensitive data from the phone, the operating system itself should be warning users that data is being retrieved, and ask the user's permission. In fact, Android devices already do this to an extent, and services like Facebook do this before any application can access sensitive data about an individual.

It's hard to believe that Apple has taken 4 years, and still hasn't implemented any such controls. It's, to me, not too much of a worry that apps like Loopt and Path are accessing this data, as both apps are good companies run by good people that have good intentions for this data. However, there are many applications out there that may not have such good intentions. In every case, it should be up to the user to decide, and know when their personal data is being transferred to a 3rd party application on their device.

So I'd like to turn the argument back around to Apple, not Path - why are you allowing 3rd party applications to access my data without my permission? It's time well overdue to give users some control over their sensitive data.

The Solution to Offshore Manufacturing is Technology, Not Politics

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:56:25 PST

In The Biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, it talked about a meeting Steve Jobs had with President Obama. Jobs was quoted saying, '“You’re headed for a one-term presidency,” Jobs told Obama at the outset. To prevent that, he said, the administration needed to be a lot more business-friendly. He described how easy it was to build a factory in China, and said that it was almost impossible to do so these days in America, largely because of regulations and unnecessary costs.'

It was clear in tonight's State of the Union address that this particular conversation weighed on President Obama's mind, as he addressed it directly. In the Address, President Obama talked about solutions to fix our current American manufacturing processes. He mentioned possibilities such as reducing taxes for companies willing to manufacture in America, and making it more expensive for companies that chose to manufacture overseas. I argue that this is not enough though, perhaps not even necessary, as in an era of technology and brilliant minds technology itself will replace the need for offshore manufacturing.

Silicon Angle has a great post about "The Era of the Physible", a take on a new category of the file sharing website, Pirate Bay, that shares 3D designs for printers that can print objects in 3D. In it they discuss the future of 3D printing, and how we are getting near the real possibility of Star Trek-like "replicators", which can manufacture just about anything you can imagine.

I believe the future of manufacturing is in these devices. I think we are just years away from replacing entire factory lines with simple, polymer ink-based printers not much bigger than the printer that prints on paper in your own house. Here's the best part: each of these "factory-in-a-box" devices will be in every home in America. (They're already on their way in simple forms - see Cubify for example)

I predict, in the not too distant future, not only will you be able to shop, buy, and order phones, devices, and gadgets online (most likely through a mobile device if current trends have their way), but you'll also be able to print those devices out, right in your home, just like you do a piece of paper right now. That's right - the future of manufacturing exists in the homes of every single American, and every person in the world. We won't need those offshore factories in the future! It's an industry that, just like the automotive industry, just like just about any mechanical, human-powered industry, is quickly being replaced by computers!

Apple's meticulous about its manufacturing processes. Steve Jobs instilled a culture where even the factories of Apple themselves were decorated in pristine white design, beautiful, well-functioning processes that got things out quick. With Apple's focus on end-to-end solutions and control over the entire process, Apple could very well move in this direction.

Imagine a world where Apple, like their current factories, made beautiful 3D printers that created their devices in the homes of every customer, instead of building expensive factories in China. Imagine if Apple could reduce that cost, and give complete, full control to the manufacturing process of their phones in the homes of their customers. What if they put one of these in each Apple Store for customers that couldn't buy their own 3D printers? And guess what? Government doesn't have to do anything to make this happen (other than making it cheaper and easier for businesses to do this). Because it's a cheaper, more efficient process, businesses will do this for Government.

I truly believe this is the future of manufacturing, not factories and jobs of blue-collar workers. We need to be preparing for this, rather than worrying where our manufacturing is taking place. The next President's 4 year term will start to see this major shift in manufacturing, and if they're not prepared it's going to hurt the American economy.

I'm concerned that we're focusing too much on where our factories are located, and finding ways to hire more blue collar workers, when we should instead be finding more ways to get those blue collar workers interested in more white collar jobs, giving them the education they need to do them. In the future, we won't have a need for blue collar factory jobs, period - the trends are showing that. We'll have a need for white collar engineers, software developers, and those that can design the devices, yes, devices, that will manufacture every product created by corporate America.

In an era of the computer, internet, and mobile device, my kids aren't even getting simple computer classes in their schools. Many children aren't even learning how to type. I learned how to program when I was 10, in elementary school (part of this was due to lack of laws such as COPA) - I fear we're losing this focus in America, and that's why we're seeing a severe shortage in high knowledge engineering talent. Kids simply aren't seeing the importance or value of this stuff, so they don't want to learn it.

My hope is the next President of the United States can keep this in mind as they plan their job creation strategy. Instill a love of computers and engineering in our kids. Get rid of laws like COPA that prevent kids from looking things up on their own and take the power away from parents. Bring computer and engineering education back into our school system, from elementary school age! This is a huge wick that has been lit and is heading towards a big stick of dynamite waiting to blow up. Once it does, this whole offshore factory problem won't be an issue any more. I'm afraid none of the current USA Presidential candidates realize this.

See the above video for an example of Cubify at CES this year

Defining Social Product Strategy Within the Organization - a New Role I Think Companies Should Pursue

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:35:21 PST

Over the last several years, as we've seen Social Media grow and mature within organizations, I've been in a bit of a struggle as I've tried to define my role at each organization. As a software developer and entrepreneur interested in product design and growth, I've been forced into this world of marketing, a world where developers typically avoid. I've grown to enjoy it, and I think I've gotten quite good at it - so much that I now see myself as a sort of bridge between marketing and technology. You'll notice that, as the tag line of this blog often changes as I try to define what I do. It's a gap not many cover. Yet I still can't help wonder if my struggle is because my expertise is one that is not yet properly embraced by organizations.

My expertise - a mix of product management and design, marketing, understanding of software development and what it's capable of, and a user experience centered around social interactions between people - is one that a typical marketer just won't be very good at. At the same time, other roles I fill and I think I've gotten good at - Facebook Page and Social Media Account management, social advertising, social media campaign management, are roles the typical product manager or software developer will understand. I've come to think that there is a need for a new executive-level role at organizations where a focus on social within the product can be fully embraced. I'm going to call this role the Social Product Strategist, and it should be at the same level as Social Marketing Strategist (formerly called just, "Social Strategist").

The Problem with our Current State of Enterprise Social Media

One of my favorite bloggers around the role of social media in enterprise is Jeremiah Owyang, a partner at Altimeter Group, who specializes in research in the way large corporations embrace social media. In his writings he discusses the role of Social Strategist within organizations, and the structure an organization should build around social media. They suggest a Hub and Spoke model, where a hub around social media, lead by the corporate social strategist, helps lead individual "spokes" within departments of an organization. This role of Social Media strategist is also likely to fade back into the organization, likely into a marketing department. I love their focus on this effort - I've embraced it in many of my efforts.

That statement around Social Media fading into a marketing department has always bugged me about the role of social media strategist though. I've always seen a strong importance around product and social media in the organizations I work with, and the need to integrate social deeply into the products I work with. Things like finding ways to embrace Facebook and Twitter to bring a user's friends into the experiences that are being built. I think social media is much more than just adding "like" and "share" buttons on a site, and should have an even more important focus around determining what your existing "social network" is, and embracing that for each user using your product. This needs someone that understands social design. It needs someone who understands product design, social APIs, and what can be done with them. I don't think this is a marketing role. It fits more in the product, or technology arm of an organization, if even that.

Defining the Role of Social Product Strategist

I think there's now a need for a parallel focus in organizations around the focus of Social Media. Yes, there should be a social marketing strategist role as is already being implemented in many organizations, with a focus on the marketing elements surrounding Social Strategy. These are the types of roles that will fade back into the marketing arms of organizations. However, there needs to be an equivalent level, parallel role around social Product strategy. This should be a VP or Director-level role around the development and deep integration of social experiences into every product the company develops.

I see this role as figuring out where the current relationships of your customers exist, and determining how to bring out those relationships into the experiences of every product built. The role should seek to build new experiences that are social, as well as embrace existing experiences, and make it easier for your customers to stay on the site, feeling comfortable that their friends and family are there with them.

Google as the Example

Google has done this well as they've tried to embrace social media. Many know Google for taking a developer-centric focus around the products they build. I think they've embraced this philosophy well by hiring Vic Gondutra to figure out their challenge around social product design within Google's organization. Notice that Vic doesn't focus on Facebook ad strategy or Page management or anything else like that - Google's Marketing and PR departments handle those types of investments.

Instead, Vic decided he needed to create a new network, Google+, to get the entire organization on board with bringing out the real relationships their users have, and he made that available to the entire organization to use within their products. He figured out the already existing "social network" that existed in Google products, and found a way to build technology around embracing that social network. It's a pure product design strategy. Other companies should also be considering this approach in their organization, and it goes way beyond the corporate social strategist.

Proposal

I propose that more organizations start considering this role of Social Product Strategist into their organizations social media strategy. The typical "social strategist" won't handle this as well as a product person can. Organizations should seek out product-focused managers within an organization that have strong experience building social user experiences into the products they work with. Someone who has managed Facebook apps and experiences would fit well into this position. Someone who understands the benefit of social design into products should be considered.

I think its time organizations start taking this role seriously as a new role within the organization. This is something that I think we'll start to see develop more and more in the coming year or two as organizations look back to see how they can embrace their own existing "social networks" that exist within their products, and find ways to embrace technology to bring out the relationships that already exist between their customers and users.

There's Plenty of Room to Grow for Enterprise Social

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:34:57 PST

On Thursday Altimeter Group released a report, titled "A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation", on the state of social media strategy in global corporations with over 1,000 employees. The report is quite telling, suggesting that most organizations in this category simply aren't properly aligning business values with social media strategy and lack the proper tools to manage their social presence online. As one of the Domain Experts considered in the report, I thought I'd chime in.

No surprise to me, the report suggests that from their sample of 144 Enterprise-class corporations, organizations of this caliber typically manage an average of 178 total social media accounts online. Managing such a presence, it is quite a challenge in such a large organization to gain a hold, properly inventory, set proper education, and provide all the right tools to manage so many social presences.

From my perspective, there are 2 ways to solve this problem:

Simplify your presence online and instead facilitate, and outsource to community that is passionate about your brand and can help spread further knowledge about your product or message.
Improve the tools for members of your organization, simplifying the process of Social Media Management and educate employees on the proper use of these tools.

Facilitating Community

Oddly, I don't see many organizations, or social media tools vendors working towards this potential solution to the problem. I'm a big fan of using those already passionate about your brand, and empowering them to spread a message. Wal-mart's "Walmart Moms" accomplishes this well, empowering Mommy bloggers to talk about, and share passion for their brand. I'd love to see tools that allow companies like this to empower community to manage Facebook Pages, Twitter Accounts, and other similar presences, as a transparent community member, to talk about passion for the brand. Other tools could provide ways for brands to leverage proven community members in moderation of comments on Facebook Pages and similar presences.

The Altimeter report doesn't fully address the community aspect I mention above, but it does talk about simplifying, by suggesting businesses audit their current social media accounts and only keep those they are capable of supporting. They also recommend establishing business goals for social media - aligning your social media accounts to these goals will help determine which to keep and which to get rid of. This is something not enough companies are focusing at the moment. I know this will be a big focus for many in 2012. As Altimeter Group says, "the party's over".

Social Media Management System (SMMS) Tools

The Altimeter Group report covers this well. In the report, they suggest companies do an internal audit and determine what areas they fall short, and categorize themselves into a series of needs: Intense customer response, social broadcasting, platform campaign marketing, distributed brand presence, and tailored service and support. Identifying how your company fits into these categories can help you pick a vendor that fits your needs - the Altimeter Group report covers which Vendors fit into which categories.

As also mentioned in the report, establishing a proper workflow for your messaging is also vital. This has been one of my big frustrations - while there are solutions that fix this problem, finding one that can fully integrate with internal authorization systems is a difficult process. Individuals in the organization should only have access to your social media accounts that they need - if they only need moderation access, they should only be able to moderate. If they only need to be able to respond on behalf of the company, that should be the only thing they can do. There is big risk right now out there as companies are fragmented in their social media efforts. I fear if this continues someone could easily create a worm or virus that compromises and targets accounts of those that manage large corporate presences, and posts on their behalf. Proper permissions and access control through SMMS tools will fix this.

Yet, I'm still seeing the need for more customized integrations and better ways to integrate with internal systems.

There is Still Plenty of Opportunity

Altimeter Group suggests there are about 30 or so SMMS vendors in the field at the time. As I personally interview these I'm still seeing plenty of opportunity for better integration. For instance, as companies such as Microsoft get in the game you'll see more integrated systems into Microsoft's Dynamics CRM tool and other systems. Facebook itself is rumored to be improving its Pages product, as well as providing domain-specific groups for better communication within the organization. Better authentication and authorization integration and standards are still needed among the various vendors. More platform integration opportunities, and capabilities for developers to build tools on top of SMMS platforms, in a similar manner to what SalesForce has done, will need to be developed. At the same time there is a huge opportunity to simplify and make barrier to entry with these tools even easier, and education amongst the workforce an easier thing to do.

I'm embedding Altimeter Group's report below. I suggest, whether you're a small or large business Social Media Strategist, that you take a look at it, and evaluate where your business stands. Where do you have to improve within your own organization?

A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation

View more documents from Jeremiah Owyang

Disclosure: I am currently a Social Media Strategist for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The opinions mentioned in this document do not reflect the opinions or doctrine of the organization I work for.

Top 10 Rides of Disneyland 2011 (Stay N Abroad)

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca Stay) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:48:51 PST

Disneyland (and Disney California Adventure) cannot be experienced in a single day. The industry standard is at least 3 days, 3 long days. Between rides, shows, parades, and shopping, it is hard to know where to begin and what to skip when time starts running short. Choosing a top 10 list was almost impossible. After three fun-filled but long days at Disneyland and Disney California Adventures, I had each member of our family name their favorite two rides (with no repeats). Here is our list of the best of the best:

Click to read the list over on Stay N Abroad!

Christmas Traditions (Stay N Faithful)

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:17:53 PST

This is a re-post from my more personal blog, Stay N Faithful. I thought due to the timeliness, it was worth sharing this bit of my life with you as well. Please enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

As I finish up the night, stockings all hung, presents wrapped and under the tree, I can't help but reflect back on all the traditions my family has participated in over the years. Christmas, in my family, is about tradition, family, and loving one another as we reflect on all the years we have spent with each other.

In my childhood, we all had stockings, made from patterns from my grandmother that my Mom made. My Dad even had his own stocking, made by his grandmother that he would hang alongside ours. We didn't have much money growing up, so we'd spend Christmas Eve usually as a family, some times going over to someone else's Christmas party and others just enjoying time with each other. We'd always, as Christians, read Luke Chapter 2 and eventually our traditions wound up with us opening up one gift from a sibling that night. I'd then have a sleepless night pretending to sleep when I really couldn't, wishing the night could go faster.

As I got older and even though I knew, in my heart, that Santa Claus wasn't real, the Spirit of Santa Claus was still there, and I still secretly wanted him to be real. I'd imagine all night long, what if my parents themselves had just stopped believing in Santa but he really did come? Yet I still wasn't quite sure how all the presents got there in the morning. I also enjoyed adding to the mystique and happiness, the story of Santa Claus brought onto my younger brothers and sisters faces and enjoyed keeping the story alive for them. Even today I enjoy playing Santa and keeping the story alive in my children's lives, with "visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads." I think the Ballet, "The Nutcracker" sums up that fantasy well - it's the essence of what being a child is all about, and again goes back to traditions, and remembering our childhoods as we grow old and how innocent we were.

As a child, on Christmas day we would wake up, usually way too early waiting for the designated time our parents set to wake them up and open up presents. By that time I usually had scoped out approximately what Santa had laid out for us at night and was eager to open the new presents. Our Mom would always make us eat a full breakfast so all the candy from Santa didn't spoil our meals, and we'd get at least something healthy that morning (even if it was sugar cereal, as we usually enjoyed). For Christmas dinner, we would usually have a ham, some times turkey. After spending time with our new toys and presents, we'd often go see a movie or go do something special together as a family. For us, Christmas really was about family.

Now that I'm older, I find similar traditions permeating my own family into the lives of my wife and kids. Every year we visit my in-laws (my parents live all the way in Boston so we don't see them as often as we would like). We open presents from the in-laws, have dinner, and spend time with my wife's parents and siblings.

We then spend Christmas Eve as a family. Just as a child, we read Luke Chapter 2, and this year we even watched an amazing presentation of Luke Chapter 2 set in ancient Israel produced on the iPad (very few words - really amazing! Go check it out now!) by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I think this itself will become a new tradition for our family.

We then finish the night with a piano recital by each of my kids (they are taught piano by my wife, who plays beautifully), a trumpet solo by me, and a beautiful piano solo from my wife. We end the performance with a couple songs we sing with each other and top it off with "Silent Night." We have a family prayer and everyone rushes to bed, trying to beat NORAD's Santa tracker on Google to when Santa is supposed to arrive.

Then begins the present wrapping and visit by Santa. As we're wrapping presents, my wife and I enjoy watching traditional Christmas shows. Some times we watch "A Christmas Story", with its own portrayal of tradition and youth from the view of a child. Other times we watch midnight mass, enjoying the ancient Catholic tradition that goes back to early days of Christianity and the spirit that is felt there.

Lately I find myself watching a production of my Grandpa's, "Mr. Krueger's Christmas". This new tradition shows the view from an old, lonely man (played by Jimmy Stewart), and his own desire to get the most out of Christmas, despite his lonely circumstances. I like it because it makes me think about others that could be like him in the world, and those that may not have family with them to celebrate these traditions each year.

Even as I write this, I'm starting a new tradition. In the background I'm playing back-to-back episodes of The Mormon Tabernacle Choir's "Music and the Spoken Word" Christmas specials. This has become near and dear to my heart lately as I've had a few opportunities to help out the choir in their social media efforts.

I think Mr. Krueger said it best when he said the purpose of Christmas was to love one another. As a Christian, our tradition is that Christ himself suggested the same. In fact, as I reflect on Christmas traditions and going back to my own childhood, I can't help but remember Christ's own direction, "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Even Christ himself, who in our tradition is the Savior of mankind, came to the world as a child, and asked us all to reflect on that.

May you all remember your own childhood traditions as you go about this Christmas. My hope is that, believer or not, we can all take the Spirit of Christmas to heart, becoming as little children just as Jesus Christ did in Luke Chapter 2, as my own family reads every year. I believe there is much to be learned from each others' traditions, and hope me sharing mine can help instill a little tradition into each of your own lives this Christmas.

May you all have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year this season, and may you all experience wonderful traditions in your lives. Hopefully the videos shared in this post give you more to think about this season of giving, and reflecting back on our own childhoods and traditions.

3 Common Sense Tips for Holiday Travel (Stay N Abroad)

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca Stay) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:22:14 PST

With many of us hitting the road and the skies during the next week, here are a few common sense tips to make traveling a little easier.

Tip #1--Check the Weather

This should be obvious, but many of us get so locked into our plans we forget to take the weather into consideration. One memorable year, an uncle of mine insisted on leaving as scheduled despite a severe storm. The consequence--he was stranded on a shutdown 1-80 in Wyoming. He ultimately made it home a day late--same as if he had waited until the storm was over before leaving. If flying, make sure to check before you leave for the airport and keep in mind that layovers can be problematic because of weather delays.

This and more can be found on Stay N Abroad. Click here to see more tips!...

A Walk Down Path Takes You Home Sweet Home

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:00:00 PST

I'm no stranger to the power of social networks. I have 3 books on Facebook and 1 on Google+, and have built an entire business around Twitter. So far, the majority of my current career is built around bringing attention to people and brands through social media (of course, while making them more personable).

As a result, I've built what some consider to be a considerable audience in the process. When I speak, there's a good chance people hear. When I share, people of all types receive, comment, and share my posts, many that I've never met. This comes at a cost though. Now I have to think twice when sharing pictures of my kids. I have to think carefully the personal, religious, or political posts I want to share, or when I just have a thought I want to get out of my mind. To be honest, I can't really share "me" as much as I like. That's why when Path recently did a Pivot towards being a "smart journal", I listened, and boy do I feel at home!

When I first started using social networks like Twitter, and eventually Facebook when they allowed people to post status updates (yes, Twitter offered that first, technically), I used them as a journal. Twitter, for quite some time, was a way for me to let my wife know what I was doing. I even used it to share the birth of my 4th child to my family. As someone who keeps a journal, but doesn't have the opportunity to update quite often enough, I found these sites a great way to keep an archive of my life, 140 characters or so at a time.

Unfortunately I've lost the ability to do that though. Facebook and Google+ have lists and privacy controls so I can target updates to lists of close friends and family, which I use, but I find there's a barrier there that makes me have to think of just one more step, one more learning curve, to allow me to share my most personal updates with my close friends and family. That's where Path comes in.

Path -- The Smart Journal for Your Life

Path, originally just a photo sharing app for the iPhone, has rebranded to become a journal for your life. There's one caveat though: it only allows up to 150 friends. This makes you think - "before I accept this friend request, do I really know this person?" or, "Am I okay with this person receiving my most personal updates?" With Path, I don't have to think twice before posting - I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that what I'm about to post will only be seen by the people I want to see it, so it's much easier to share.

On Path, nothing is public. Nothing is visible to "everyone". Everything on Path is limited to your personal, real friends network. That's what makes it powerful! It's actually what Facebook originally intended to be!

Path Makes Your Journal Automatic

Path isn't just about sharing though. There are really simple ways to share photos, with Instagram-like filters (even premium ones you can buy!). There are ways to share really short videos of what's happening around you, and even filters for that. You can attach a location or friends that are with you. It's very feature-rich! Path is much more than that though.

Path focuses on automating your life's activities. As you travel from place to place and open the app, it notes the cities and the areas you're in (you can turn this off if you're uncomfortable with it). As I traveled from Salt Lake City to Anaheim to go to Disneyland, it noted that automatically for me. You can note when you sleep, and when you wake, and it will automatically notify your friends and yourself the temperature and weather outside when you wake up. It will also tell you how much you're sleeping. They're even rumored to be working on solutions to integrate devices like Fitbit to automatically track your health, sleeping habits, without any interaction from you.

Path Integrates Into Your Private Circles

I've know Dave Morin, founder of Path, since he was at Facebook and was one of the key players to launch Facebook's developer platform to the world (which in turn likely made Facebook the powerhouse it is today). He knows the power of integration. The cool thing about Path is that when you share outside of Path, it doesn't just share to the world. It uses Facebook's privacy settings to only share with the people that are in your Path friends list. This means only they will see it on Facebook.

I can anticipate many other integration points in the future - there is all kinds of information they could be learning from your various social profiles around the web and adding to your Path journal automatically for you. Imagine photos from Facebook getting added automatically for you, or places you visit being added automatically. Or what about Foursquare checkins? Who knows what they could add in the future - I'm excited to see what happens!

If you're looking for some peace and quiet in the world of public social media; If you're looking for a place you can feel much more secure about what you're sharing online; If you're looking for a way to journal your life, and share with your most intimate friends and family, go check out Path right now. I see a bright future for Path, and it will only take you home!

Path is available for iPhone and Android devices. Go download it and give it a try. If you know me look me up!

Legoland - It's Not About the Rides! (Stay N Abroad)

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca Stay) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:14:17 PST

In case you didn't read the title--Legoland is NOT about the rides. Though Legoland does have enough rides to fill an entire day (and then some), the rides are not unique (with a couple of exceptions), aimed almost exclusively at the 4-9 age group, and frankly your child would be equally happy going to a local amusement park--at least as far as rides go. Also, the ride policy on kiddie rides is borderline absurd. On some rides, children under 48 inches must ride with a guest over 55 inches (that means an adult or teen must ride with a 6-year-old on kiddie rides). This policy is not just for roller coasters (which would make sense), it is for rides like the Safari Trek, a simple jeep car ride along a track. Babies are not allowed to ride in laps on many rides making it particularly difficult for families with multiple young children (we have 3 children under 48 inches). Ironically, our under-48-inches 7-year-old who could not ride Safari Trek without an adult could drive the Volvo Cars by himself on a course that does not have a track. Uh. . .

Christmas Recipes From My Daughter (Stay N Cooking)

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:57:02 PST

The following was just posted on my daughter's cooking blog - try it out and let me know what you think!:

Ho Ho Ho here is some awesome christmas recipes from santa!!!

Awsome frosting tip! frost a cookie ( for starters preferably a oreo) with white frosting and drop 1 drop of red food coloring in the center of the cookie and be carful and make swirls out of it on the cookie.

There's more! Click here to read more of this article over on Stay N Cooking...

5 Different Ways to Tour Disneyland (Stay N Abroad)

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca Stay) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:51:03 PST

It has become an American icon--Disneyland (or Disney World). Even budget conscious large families often plan at least one trip to a Disney property. It's magical. It's memorable. Parades, Fireworks, Rides, Characters that come to life. It is also long lines, long days, and quite a blow to the bank account. Entire books are devoted on how to beat the lines, the heat, a cranky toddler, etc. And I recommend you read one before going on your trip. But to get you started, here are my 5 ideas on picking the right the tour for your family.

Click here to read more on Stay N Abroad!...

Why Corporations Should Pay Less Taxes and Individuals Should Pay More

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 08:47:00 PST

This is a cross-post from my other blog, Stay N Faithful, a blog I set up for Political and Religious posts (be sure to click and subscribe if you want more posts like these). I asked my brother, Ben Stay, if he could comment on the current tax situation of America, and gave him access to post there. The article was so good, and since he used Google and Google+ as examples, I thought it was worth sharing here - it's definitely worth a read if you're worried about the current state of employment in this nation. Ben is an International Tax Consultant and works with taxes on a day-to-day basis. He consults with companies and people that are dealing with cross border transactions and ventures. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did - my eyes were opened as I read it.

Currently the US essentially has the highest corporate income tax rate in the world at 35% and by including state taxes. Many people probably think that because they are big, rich companies, they should be paying at least as high as the individual tax rate. Corporations also do not get tax breaks for capital gains like individuals do, nor do they get a tax break on dividend income unless it's from another US company in which they own 80% or more. This means that US corporations potentially have a higher tax base and thus may be paying even more taxes than individuals. So you may be saying, "So what? At least I'm not paying more taxes." Well...this is what we're seeing because of the taxes on corporations.

To put it conceptually, the government needs to fund itself and needs to get revenue in one way or another. This is not a debate about how much revenue the government should use, just a debate in the method in which they get it. If you think about it, the profits that corporations make are taxed twice: once by the corporation and a second time when distributed to their shareholders. This means that people can get more money if they plan around that. Any US citizen is taxed by the US government no matter where they live, so there's little to be done to avoid the individual taxes. However, corporations and the locations where the income is earned is pretty flexible given how flat the world has become. The result is planning around where the income is earned and in corporate tax planning.

I make a living off of helping corporations plan where their income is earned. Being a US practitioner, my expertise is in US tax law, and given the high US corporate tax rate, my planning is around shifting income out of the US. Globally, any tax practitioner knows that you plan around the US by avoiding pushing any income into the US. The common places to use with planning are Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland which have given great incentives for corporations to move their businesses and income to their countries. They do it through tax rulings. Essentially their tax system is not solidified with rules that are intended to catch everything a company does, so most everything is negotiated with the tax authorities. The tax authorities will give you a lower rate the more income you are bringing into their country. In other words, they incentivize companies to move income out of their home country and into one of these European countries. They then receive tax revenue they did not have before and we in the US lose the tax revenue.

Perhaps this still is not completely clear, so let me run through a common example of how it's done. Google, a US company, was in the news for its 2.4% effective tax rate. That means that based on its billions in revenue only 2.4% is the amount anticipated that will be taxed. The report mentioned that it was using a Dutch sandwich structure and pushing income offshore to Bermuda. I do not know exactly what the structure entails, but I imagine it is something like this:

Google owns all sorts of brands and has operations throughout the world. Only one company can own the brand, so the other companies operating elsewhere in the world will pay a royalty fee for the right to use the license. The company that owns the brand or Intellectual Property ("IP") receives the royalty payments as income. This is where a lot of income shifting is done. Even though Google is based in the US, they set up companies in countries throughout the world and one of those locations is the Netherlands where they probably get a very favorable tax rate from a negotiated ruling. The Netherlands is probably willing to give a really low rate considering they generate billions in IP income. Let's take Google+ as an example. This is a more recent brand that Google developed. If they "developed" the brand in the Netherlands (the details of this can be complicated but it's what companies do globally), then any other company in the Google family that utilizes that brand pays a royalty to the Dutch company. The companies paying the royalty get a deduction just as they would from salary expenses. That means the US company gets a deduction that reduces the amount of US taxes that are charged.

Google also has a lot of cash built up and is generating a lot of new jobs. However, this cash is likely not available in the US and the jobs are likely going overseas. This is because it's too expensive to bring the cash back to the US (remember 35% tax rate on dividends) and the jobs are going overseas to support the development of IP outside the US. The bottom line is it's too expensive to do business in the US, so all the cash and potential jobs that are being created by our huge iconic US companies are going overseas where they can get more profit. This is not about patriotism or pride, this is simple economics. Companies will go under if they don't do similar planning because their competitors will be more profitable and run them out of business.

The solution? I am not completely sure, but I can tell you what the UK is doing. The UK had a 28% corporate tax rate, significantly lower than the US. However, they are lowering the rate further by reducing it by 1% each year until they get to 23%. They are also giving incentives for companies to do business there through some debt schemes and other strategies. Their version of the IRS (HMRC) is working together with my UK tax counterparts on how to give incentives to bring business and income back into the UK. In other words, they are supporting tax planning schemes that will compete with these Dutch, Lux, and Swiss schemes. I would love to sell work to clients on how they can save money and hassle by moving income into the US, but it would require a fundamental change in the corporate tax system.

I love my country, but we are behind the times and perhaps too prideful to lower the rate, thinking that since we are such an economical powerhouse and land of opportunity companies will do business here regardless. However, I think we are losing money and jobs at a tremendous rate and will continue to do so until we make ourselves competitive. If you want domestic examples of what happens economically, look at why Volkswagen moved their US headquarters from Detroit to Northern Virginia...taxes! Virginia has made themselves very business friendly and has given incentives for companies to move here. Companies move among states for tax incentives, so are we surprised that companies would completely leave the US given the disparity in tax rates between countries is even larger than the disparity between states.

Is this a solution to the jobs crisis? Perhaps. In order to lower the corporate tax rate, we can't be afraid of increasing the individual tax rate. The idea is that if we bring more money and business to the US, the number of jobs and the standard of living will increase and offset the cost of an increased individual tax rate. Look at the individual rates in the UK and Switzerland. These countries also have a Value Added Tax which may be described as a federal sales tax that is ultimately paid by the end consumer. We will be paying more in taxes out of our pockets but decreasing taxes paid by our US corporations that are providing us jobs. We will get paid more to offset the cost and over time make our country competitive again. So let's get off Wall-Street and over to the Hill and help Congress enact these cuts to provide future jobs and a better economy for our country. A number of people in Congress have put this on their agenda, but it would require a larger public support to see anything pass. I hope this article sheds some light on the situation and the action that our government needs to take. I think you will find that this is an issue that both sides would agree needs to see some action or we will be left in the dust with everyone moving offshore.

Sign up for Small Business Success Summit Before Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:42:43 PST

Just a quick note - I'll be speaking at Social Media Examiner's Small Biz Success Summit on February 6. Currently, if you sign up before Friday you can get 50% off the price of admission. In full disclosure, if you use my links here I get a commission on ticket sales from your registrations so if you register through me please go through these links.

This will be a great conference (all virtual!) if you want to get the most of how to take your small business to the next level. I'll be talking specifically about, no surprise, Google+ and how you can use it to take your business to the next level. Others speaking will include the infamous Mari Smith (one of my favorite Facebook resources, and she's even bringing her knowledge and expertise to Google+ as well!), and the amazing John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing. If you're a photographer (or aspiring photographer), you won't want to miss Utah's own Scott Jarvie speak about Google+ Marketing, in which I'm sure will be a very graphical display of how he's done an amazing job growing his network on Google+ as a photographer.

If you can make it, register before this Friday if you can! Prices are at 50% at $297 right now, which for the speakers you're seeing is a steal! (I say that as genuinely as I can) Let me know if you're coming in the comments so I can know you're there during my presentation!

Here's the link to register.

Facebook's Need for Consistency in the Competition With Google

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:57:37 PST

UPDATE: After removing everything in the description and any mention of competition, the ad mentioned here that I created was approved. However, there are still some issues of consistency that Facebook needs to get around. Maybe it's just a communication issue? Read on...

When people such as Google and Twitter mention their inability to integrate with Facebook, I traditionally shake my head. Knowing people at all three companies, and being fairly close to Facebook, it's just not the Facebook I know. After all, I see things such as Youtube integrate just fine with Facebook, but Google complains they can't seem to integrate Facebook's platform into Google. And Facebook currently allows users to automatically post to Twitter, so why can't Twitter allow you to identify your Facebook friends on Twitter? It just hasn't made sense. I always thought it was something Google or Twitter were doing wrong - maybe they weren't following Facebook's TOS or maybe they weren't trying hard enough. However, lately after the publication of my book, Google+ For Dummies, I'm starting to understand the confusion. Facebook isn't being consistent, or clear, in what they view as competition, and who can integrate with their network.

Just recently I tried to create an ad for my new book. Of course, the book is about Google+, which according to Mark Zuckerberg himself, is a "little version of Facebook". It's clear Facebook sees the competition. So it was no surprise to me that an ad I submitted that shared a book about Facebook's new competition would get denied. What is surprising however is that they allow me to create a Facebook Page about the book, but don't allow me in any way to promote that Page. There's the consistency I'm talking about.

I mentioned the Youtube example. If you use Youtube you'll notice the Facebook integration prevalent throughout the site. I'm sure Facebook sees great benefit to this - people love sharing videos, and Youtube is a great place to post videos. Yet, when other elements of Google try to integrate Facebook, they get denied with little reason for the denial. Ask Kevin Marks, Google's former OpenSocial and Friend Connect (APIs for building Google apps) lead who tried to integrate Facebook Connect (as it was called at the time) with Google's Friend Connect universal login. Facebook allowed Youtube's Facebook integration, but denied that of Friend Connect, citing claims to the way they were accessing the API, and being unwilling to work with Google on the way they were accessing Facebook. Google eventually gave up. In fact, there was a time Facebook was supposedly, at least according to various claims on Google+, even blocking invites to Google+ in their news feed.

I thought some of these competitors of Facebook may have been blowing it out of proportion, until I talked to a few of them personally. I received pretty good information from close sources at Twitter that Facebook has actively blocked them when they have tried to integrate Facebook into their network in the past. So what? Facebook can integrate Twitter but Twitter can't integrate Facebook? From what I've been told by employees at Twitter, it seems that way. I've heard the same from friends at Google.

Facebook has competition - you can't blame them for wanting to block out the competition. I've heard some of their competitors say they'd do the same if they were in Facebook's shoes. However, what I don't get is the lack of consistency. If I can't create ads to promote my Facebook Page promoting a book on Google+, I shouldn't be allowed to create a Page about a book on Google+. If Google can't access the Facebook API, Youtube shouldn't either. If Facebook can integrate Twitter into their site, Twitter should be able to integrate Facebook into theirs. From a user perspective, I use all these networks for different reasons - to me they aren't competitors, and I shouldn't be forced to pick one or another. It's an extremely confusing place to be when you're actually a part of this inconsistent game. This is getting ridiculous.

Wondering About Google+? Do Me a Favor and Go Buy My New Book.

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Stay) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:00:03 PST

You may have read some of my posts about Google+ wondering what it is. Or, maybe you've tried out the service, and just can't see the point. Or perhaps you're even an active user, looking for tips and strategies to improve your presence on Google+. Whatever your situation, could I ask you a favor? Go and buy my latest book, Google+ For Dummies, Portable Edition now.

Google+ For Dummies, just released on Amazon on Friday (and available for the Kindle, too), aims to show anybody, especially typical Facebook users, what they can get from the service. It goes over how to set up your profile, what a "Circle" is, and why you want to circle somebody. If you've already joined and just can't get any activity on the network, have no fear - the book shows you how to overcome that common problem, and how to gain real value from the service.

In the book, I show how to use the various mobile apps for Android and iPhone, as well as the mobile web. I show how to use Google+ Games for networking and as a productive means to build relationships with people you want to network with. I show you what the etiquette is on the service, and why certain things may be considered appropriate and certain things shouldn't. It is very up to date, and right now the only resource in print showing you how to get going with the service.

The book is currently available on Amazon in both print, and on the Kindle. Both versions are only under $8 - it's a 140 page easy read chock full of information on Google's new service. That's just over the price of a typical value meal at your favorite fast food restaurant!

I rarely sell on this blog, but if you can I'd really appreciate the favor of checking out the book, and leaving a review on Amazon to let me know how it went. Oh, and don't forget to share this with your friends!

If you're a blogger and would like to consider doing a review let me know at my email address on this blog - I'll see what I can do to get you a copy.