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DJ Lein

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His world is round

His world is round

# July 9, 2011

Trust me, you know social media

Social Media. What do we want to do together?

The following is an article I originally wrote for the Woodmark Times, a company newspaper distributed quarterly to 3,000-plus employees.

Tell me you know nothing about social media and I’ll quickly disagree with you.

In fact, I’ll bet most of you regularly use social media. How many of these sound familiar: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, blogs or forums? They’re all under the social media umbrella.

What is social media?

Ask Google what social media is and you’ll get 131 million answers. It’s a phrase that means many things to a lot of people, but it doesn’t have to be that complicated. Quite simply, social media is the use of technology to shift communication from a one-way to a two-way street.

Amazon’s true value

Let’s look at an example you might not have thought of: Amazon.com. They are an online shopping site that sells hundreds of thousands of items at fair prices, but that’s not what sets them apart. The real value isn’t what they provide–products that buyers can find anywhere–it’s what their users provide: Reviews!

By allowing users to review products and provide feedback, true value is created for everyone involved. Amazon learns which products people like, manufacturers learn ways to improve, and potential customers learn whether or not they should buy.

Technology can’t do it all

While technology can do a lot, it can’t make decisions for us (yet!). Remember to communicate with people, not at them, both on social media and in the real world. But you already knew that.

Told you so.

What’s your definition of social media? Was Amazon a good or bad example? Let me know in the comments!

Photo credit: Jeff Milner

# April 16, 2011

DJLein.com redesign is underway

Redesigned. Allianz Arena in Munich.

It’s that time of year where I relaunch DJLein.com. Last year I made the switch to Tumblr and, well, it sucked.

Not that there was anything wrong with Tumblr itself, but transitioning from WordPress left me missing a lot. So I’m back to WordPress. And I’m awfully excited.

Look for DJLein.com to be under construction for the next week or so.

Photo credit: Dirk Loop, www.dirkloop.com

# January 16, 2011

The Process: Design by Committee

Design by committee is a bad idea.

# July 4, 2010

Who’s the bigger dick: Comcast or DirecTV?

I just finished emailing the following letter to versus@directv.com:

To whom it may concern,

I joined DirecTV last year, just in time for the start of the NHL season. The availability of NHL Center Ice games in HD was the primary reason I made the switch from Comcast. It was great — I thoroughly enjoyed my hockey experience last year.

Naturally, I signed up for the same programming and eagerly awaited tonight—the start of the NHL season. Plus, my team, the superstar Washington Capitals had a premier matchup against the infamous Boston Bruins—how awesome! (I think you know where this is going.) It’s only on Versus, which isn’t a problem since I get 500+ channels thanks to DirecTV, except, it is a problem. Ten minutes before the puck drops I find out that Versus is no longer available on DirecTV. Ummm, what?! Not cool!

You say in your guide that Comcast (owner of the Versus network) is being a dick and making demands you don’t want to comply with. Comcast is acting like a dick? I can believe that—big conglomerates often tend to think they’re too cool for school and, as a result, do stupid things without regard for others.

Sound familiar? You’re a big conglomerate. You think you’re too cool for school. And you’re being a dick to all us NHL fans that already pay way too much money for your product.

Stop being a dick like Comcast and let me watch Versus.

Thanks,
DJ Lein

# October 1, 2009

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