Facebook Changes: It pays, to pay attention.

Wow, if anyone is left on this planet who doubted the power and impact of Facebook, all they needed to see was the mix of curiosity to plain outrage over recent changes made to the social media engine, with more changes to come.

Topping the list is privacy fears. Fair enough. But keep in mind, Facebook is an opt-in thing. It's free and it's important to realize that with any kind of social media, what you post can and will be held against you. There's an old saying in PR; "If you don't want to be quoted, don't say it." You can replace "post" for "say" in this age. But again, privacy groups continue to be concerned.

One new feature coming soon to your Facebook page, if it hasn't already is something called Timeline. 


Yep, everything you've ever posted on Facebook from the day you first signed up. The good news is you can go in an clean up ill-advised posts done when under the influence of emotion, alcohol or both. At least Facebook claims you can.

When it comes to all these changes I'm just as confused as you are. But then I do my homework. For the impact on my business I look no further than Heather Lutze and her great company, the Findability Group. What you don't know about social media can hurt you. So know as much as you can.

Facebook used to be just a simple and fun way to keep up with family and friends. It's morphed into a sophisticated source of information about you, and for others to find out about you. The current issue of Bloomberg Business week has this article about how political campaigns will be seeking you out, then targeting you based on your interests, friends and posts. You can log off, but you can't hide.

With all these changes come all sorts of scammers and mischief makers. A rash of posts, cut and pasted over and over again claimed Facebook was going to start charging if you didn't opt-out. All false of course, but most folks are trusting in nature and want to share both good and bad news, regardless of it's true or not. The great thing about social media is, everyone has access to it. The bad thing about social media is everyone has access to it.

So, take some time to do a little house cleaning on your Facebook page. You can organize friends and family into lists and adjust security settings to protect yourself. Facebook is becoming more complicated. You owe it to yourself and your personal well-being to keep up with those changes.

All this said, Facebook remains a remarkable, powerful and innovative way to keep in touch, or to market yourself.

And all THAT said, Google+ traffic is surging. It's now wide open for use by everyone and offers some very cool options. I've been checking it out and will write about it more in another blog. Do we need ANOTHER social media site? Well, that's up to consumers. As always, competition is a good thing.

Again, just remember and always be aware that once you post something online, it's out there. Forever. Back in a very analog time, President Ronald Reagan famously said, "Trust but verify." It applies to our ever growing digital world today.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant

Conversation Starters Public Relations

9/11. Remember? Yes. Holiday? No.

This Sunday we mark the 10 year anniversary of the attack on America. Planes became missiles as thousands died at the hands of terrorists. We'll never be the same again. Ever.

There are more than a few people who think that 9/11 should become a national holiday, like Martin Luther King Day.

I disagree.

MLK deserves to be honored and remembered. But the national holiday in his name is only celebrated by some, not all. Federal and State employees get the day off, most schools are closed. Malls are busy, movie theaters are full. But most folks head off to work. Martin Luther King was all about all people having equal opportunity to do just that. Not just some.

MLK day has always seemed to me a wasted opportunity. Schools are closed. Why? Wouldn't this be a great day for this generation of students to look back and study what Dr. King and countless thousands risked their lives for? A day to watch his famous speech at the Lincoln Monument, arguably one of the best delivered and impactful speeches in our nation's history. To talk about it, analyze it and learn more about all that led up to that speech.

I fear that if one was to walk into a classroom and ask students who Rosa Parks was, most wouldn't know about a lady who by refusing to give up her seat, allowed everyone eventually to have a seat.

Instead we simply waste a valuable educational opportunity.

IF, there were to become a 9/11 holiday, some but not all would have the day off. Malls would be busy, theaters full. The rest would head off to work.

We must and always remember 9/11 and remember the lives lost, the heroics of those who rushed towards the carnage instead of away from it, the impact of that day on our nation today.

It seems to me that both days should be seen as opportunities to unite this divided nation. Another holiday will accomplish just the opposite.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations

Raising the bar on Dumb in Washington DC and Austin, TX.

Good morning, two stories have me scratching my head and wondering why people who should know better, just act stupid.

1. The President's latest jobs plan and the announcement thereof. Anticipation has been building for weeks. The President wanted to announce it before a joint session of Congress next Wednesday, September 7th. Fair enough but it's the same night as the GOP presidential debate at the Reagan Library.  The White House of course, knew this all along.

Speaker John Boehner officially gets to decide who speaks in the House of Representatives, although as a rule, you don't turn down the President of the United States. But the President put Speaker Boehner in a bad spot, who in turn asked the President to address Congress, and oh yeah, "We the people" on the 8th instead. It's my House and I'll cry if I want to.

Late night night it was announced the President will now deliver his speech on the 8th. All this creates another issue, the 8th is the opening night of the NFL season. Green Bay vs New Orleans. Cheese, Gumbo and rotten politics. Pass the Tums please. The White House says the speech will end before the scheduled kick-off, my guess without enough time for a response from the GOP.

Frankly, the GOP should have agreed to Wednesday, then just backed up the debate until after the speech. What an opportunity! Run clips from the speech, then have the GOP have at it. Don't like the President's plan? Then tell us how you'd do better.  I think we'd be well served by this sort of thing.

But no, cheap political partisanship by both sides is once again put ahead of the best interests of us folks who live on Main Street, USA and who of course, pay the bills. Wasn't August wonderful? September and beyond, not so much.

Shameful.

2. Let move on to college football. Earlier this year, the University of Texas announced an exclusive broadcast partnership with ESPN to create the Longhorn Network. All orange all the time. Great expectations Texas-style. This disclaimer: I'm a proud Longhorn Dad and we've lived in Texas twice. Everything is bigger in Texas, especially football. We heart the 'Horns.

All good right? Nope, quite the opposite. The season opener has Texas hosting Rice at Austin. Broadcast rights are exclusively on the Longhorn Network. One problem. As of now, other than a few tiny cable outlets, no major satellite or cable provider has reached an agreement to carry the network. Not even in Austin.

So we have a television network that makes it impossible to watch the team it was designed to cover.

LHN and ESPN are demanding lower tier coverage on all carriers and want (according to one report) 40 cents per subscriber whether or not they actually want to watch LHN. When you have companies like DISH Network or Time-Warner, you have customer bases of tens of millions of people and, well, you do the math. Those costs have to be passed on to those customers. But who cares about them?

So here we sit on Thursday morning, game day is two days away and it's quite possible most Texas fans around the country won't be able to watch their team on TV, since TV was invented.

LHN is urging fans to put pressure on the program providers. Flood the phone lines and their social media pages demanding they carry LHN! It hasn't worked.

Come on Texas. Put your money where your swagger is and while you're at it, put your fans first. If LHN is so good, offer it up to carriers at no charge and go out and sell advertising to pay for your $300 million investment. As an aside, most start up networks actually pay carriers to be included on their channel line-ups.

So here we sit, stuck in the middle again. In Washington, the people's needs are put last. In Austin, the fans needs are put last.

It's wrong, but sadly these days, business as usual.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations