Mitch Joel writes an interesting post Does A Social Media Vigilante Mean Equal Customer Service Justice For All? where he talks about social media vigilantes who name names in trying to build their own brand and obtain some form of resolution, retribution and/or compensation for poor service.

Mitch takes a different path and chooses to use his base to educate through highlighting issues, not companies and the fact patterns, responses and implications of the responses as opportunities for learning. By not creating sensationalist headlines that leverage brand names, Mitch highlights issues which becomes a positive force for change in an engaged way. Screaming at companies “Hey look at me and my crowd” while demanding things is not an easy way to win friends and influence results at a company. Most companies see the result as setting a precedent for others to follow and feel they are “damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”

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We spent the last few weekends looking at summer sleep away camps for next year.  First PA, then Adirondacks and finally Maine.  Besides the fun of road trips with the whole family, it was actually fun to see the different camps, the facilities, philosophies and to see how they were “shown”.  Of course the tours that were kid friendly got high marks from the kids - but what’s not to like? Interestingly every kid we met told us that their camp is the best camp in the world and that there is nothing out there like it.  Cynically: How many camps have they been to at aged 9 or 10? And each genuinely is having the greatest summer imaginable.

While getting the YouTube Video for July 25th: A Sad “BIG” WoM Day , I stumbled upon Diane Sawyer’s interview with Randy Pausch.  As much as the speech is inspiring, the interview video is brilliantly done.  It incorporates parts of the speech and weaves an emotional and inspiring story together.  YouTube has the video in 5 parts (Included below).  I strongly urge you to watch them all.  Sit through all 5 parts and see if you are not somewhat changed at the end.

Here are the remaining parts:

Part 2    Part 3    Part 4    Part 5

Today, the star of one of internet video’s biggest viral stars died.  More than 4 million people have seen Dr Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.  And many more will be introduced to one of the most motivating speeches I have ever heard.  If you have not watched this video, set aside an hour and a quarter and watch it.  You will not be sorry.  Besides all of the great life lessons in this speech, it shows how great content goes viral.

RIP Randy Pausch.

Was flipping channels this evening and caught the last third of Extreme Makover Home Edition where a remarkable young man (and his family) was highlighted.  Patrick Henry Hughes is confined to a wheelchair and he is also blind.  He does not see himself as disabled and when you see him play the piano and sing, or speak about talking to people and hear the scores of poeple who are motivated by him, you will understand how able and remarkable he is.

People on a check-in line and passengers on a plane are part of short lived communities. Shared experiences, common goals and a whole host of other things regardless of whether they are good or bad. One of our Social Media brethren has been off on a “Delta Skelter”. Based on my recent experience where Delta caused me to miss my flight to South Africa, I have thought a lot about the meaning of the power of community, partnership and dialogue.

The headline in the New York Times on Urban Baby’s site redo says “Don’t mess with mom’s chat”. It seems that most of the changes they made left the hardcore devotees furious so they organized a boycott of the site (seems the boycott was not wildly successful). The main complaint and mistake seems to be that the changes appear to have been done with no input from the audience.

Question: What review was done? With whom? How? On the Urban Baby site it says that they posted messages “on the site front door and in newsletters”. Just goes to show how many of the devoted read these. So if a tree falls in the woods… will anyone hear it? In a community environment, not only do they hear it, they find a way to broadcast it - especially if they were not a part of the process.

Maybe my mind does not think this way - but my 9 year old son got it after seeing this photo on a TAG HEUER billboard countless times. He looked at it as we drove past and laughing asked me: “Is that how Tiger now spells his name?”

I am sure that he is in the target market!

So I took my kids to the McDonalds drive-through the other day and as I pulled up to the register window, this sign was facing me covering most of the window:

We are talking about one of the highest margin products and we are being nickled and dimed. Really - If I ask for 32 ounces and pay for the 32 ounce - I EXPECT 32 OUNCES! Not 21 ounces at a 32 ounce price! Instead of filling the 32 ounce cup with ice and displacing half of the drink or more, why not give what you are advertising - a 32 ounce drink! And don’t shove it in my face - train your staff to nicely say what the message is. Whatever happened to hold the ice?? Now we know.

I feel bad for owners when their business fails. Especially for restaurants as it is a tough life with very long hours. But they could be honest rather than put up signs like this: