Too many people immediately dismiss something new. Facebook is a waste of time. Twitter is even worse. Any file or screen sharing application is too much of a hassle.

Dismissers have fought technology since its commercialization. They have been dragged kicking and screaming into the Internet Age. They probably still use AOL email addresses, browse with Internet Explorer because they know of no alternative, and never moved anything to “the cloud.” To paraphrase the Genesis song, they know what they like and they like what they know.

The Curious take the opposite approach. We want to know if that new thing can actually help them or their organizations. We figure that there’s always a better way. Always. We enjoy learning new things, especially if they can produce immediate results and save time. We can fiddle with settings and research workarounds, but ultimately know that work shouldn’t have to be so much, well, work.

Which one are you?

These people were smiling.

They weren’t struggling with command prompts, driver errors, and inexplicable error messages. They were creating videos, surfing the web, and playing around with different applications.

Now, had I spent time at the Genius Bar, I’m sure that I would have seen different facial expressions and even a little profanity. After all, that’s where people go when they have problems. But there’s a tangible energy in Mac stores that I have not seen in any other retail outfits. Ever.

Questions are more likely to be “How do I do this?” rather than “Why can’t I do that?”

And, in a few words, that is the genius of Apple.

Common? No, but not unprecedented.

Dangerous? I don’t think so.

The most successful companies today are increasingly run by their founders. They are not democracies. Committees don’t rule the land.

And it is the passion of these leaders that motivates others. Key employees stay because they believe in what the founder is doing. It often keeps soon-to-be millionaires from cashing out although, in Facebook’s case, expect more than a few “regretted departures” in the near future.

I wish Scott Thompson of Yahoo! all of the best, but I lost count of how many people have run the company over the past ten years. Founders bring something different, something special to their companies. Their visions are often the right ones. Witness Steve Jobs, Larry and Sergey, and Jeff Bezos.

I’m hard-pressed to think of too many examples in the last five years of a savior CEO who flew in to resuscitate a moribund company.

Humanize the interviewer.

Maybe Mr. Reporter or Ms. Talk Show Host is just swamped. Maybe the dog ate her homework or an emergency prevented him from reading your book or article, test-driving your product, etc. View the person asking the questions as an actual person. Empathize.

Do not get upset.

You have a right to be a little miffed. After all, you took time out of your schedule and the interviewer could have at least spent five minutes checking out your web site, right? I couldn’t agree more, but getting upset serves very little purpose. Go to a bar later…

In the meantime, remember that potential listeners, viewers, and readers may very well have the same questions as your interviewer. That is, you can still educate the interviewer’s audience–as well as the interviewer.

Answer the questions asked.

Perhaps you didn’t show up to talk about events in China, AOL, the Boston Celtics, the most recent Twitter redesign, or how to monetize a website. Being evasive or completely non-responsive is only going to irritate the interviewer and, trust me, things are likely to spiral downward from there.

Do your part, especially if you’re live. Play ball. Remember the previous rule.

But steer the answers and conversation into the direction in which you want to go.

Even with oddball or not totally relevant questions, you still have an opportunity to influence the conversation. Many if not most questions have a great deal of wiggle room. For instance, I was asked on a recent TV appearance about the “stickiness of websites.” Now, I can talk about this ad nasueum, but it wasn’t terribly germane to the supposed topic of the interview. And it can open Pandora’s Box.

No bother.

I said a few things to answer the question, but related it on the fly to platforms and, in this case, Facebook.

Once I moved the conversation closer to my heart (intentional Rush reference), the interviewers improvised and started asking me questions related to the book.

Know when to say “I don’t know.”

Even chatty types like me occasionally get stumped. In fact, you could write several libraries filled with large books about what I don’t know. And that’s an important limitation to understand. You’ll do a few things by being honest when stumped. First, you will communicate to the interviewer that you respect his/her time. More important from your perspective, though, you’ll save valuable time. You can then hopefully answer the questions that you were supposed to answer from the get-go.

Feedback

What say you?

Enjoy this post? Click here to subscribe to this feed.

The lesson, to paraphrase Bill Maher: Get someone to disable your Facebook Fan Page before you attempt a last-second kick.

Update: It didn’t take long for the “Billy Cundiff Sucks” FB Fan Page to reach 50 fans.

At least it’s nice to be in six-digit world.

Thank you all for reading, commenting, tweeting, watching, and listening. The good stuff will continue to flow. I still type fast, don’t sleep, and have way too many opinions.

For more tech tips, see The New Small App.

For me, though, two years is a long time. The web is different now than it was back in 2009 and, as such, it’s time for a revision.

My friend Todd Hamilton is in the process of making my site a bit less, well, bloggy. I’m running a business and it’s high time that my site reflected that. The improved site will still contain the same content but it will be presented in a more contemporary manner.

Stay tuned.

Once again and for the last time, the app is free. I’m doing this until March 1st so I can build a user base. After that, the price goes back up. My hope is that enough people will download it that I’ll be able to get some sponsorships.

Spread the word. You have to love the price.

Click here to download the app.

Enjoy this post? Click here to subscribe to this feed.

Count customer service channel among them.

More and more, companies are responding to negative tweets. Twitter is becoming a way to circumvent IVRs and get an actual human being to call you. No CEO wants his or her company drawing the ire of vocal tribes.

While tweeting alone may not get you the answer you’re looking for, consider it another club in the bag when fighting the good fight.