I don’t believe I mentioned this yet, but in November I was laid off from my job. It’s one of those things that you either definitely know is happening, or you just don’t see coming and it hits you like a brick wall at full tilt. For me, unfortunately, it was definitely the latter.

I would have loved to stay in Vancouver however the prospects of finding new employment at the time weren’t looking very good and Employment Insurance just wasn’t going to pay the rent AND allow me to feed myself on anything other than canned soup and peanut butter sandwiches. So in an effort to save money I moved back to my hometown of Chilliwack and picked up my old job at McDonald’s as a Swing Manager while I continue the job search.

I can’t say working at McDonald’s is my favourite thing in the world, however I learned a lot of things about leadership and customer service there and since going back I have been reminded of many of them. I’ve also been reminded of what that kind of work environment is like (like how that hot guy from Chem class totally dumped that chick from English class by text message on her birthday, like OH EM GEE) and how much I appreciate my career.

One of the most important lessons I think I learned from McDonald’s is “Give ‘em the Pickle“. The basic principle is going the extra mile for your customers. It looks different to every business, but the customer feels valued and will continue to return in nearly every situation. At McDonald’s it could be as simple as replacing food for a dissatisfied customer and adding in an additional free meal or dessert to show you actually care about the business they’re bringing to you. Giving the customer the pickle means not arguing. If they say they ordered something and didn’t get it when you are 100% sure you gave it to them already, it doesn’t matter – give them another one.

So folks, for Pete’s sake give ‘em the pickle!!!

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Canadians are robbed blind by the high cost of the things they pay for. We pay more for food, alcohol, gasoline, clothing, and telecommunications than many other countries, especially the United States. This is one of my biggest peeves about Canada – maybe we’re just too nice, that we just take what they give us without a fight.

I for one, though, will not take internet metering lying down.

The CRTC just decided to let your Internet Service Provider put a meter on your Internet.

Bell Canada and other big telecom companies can now freely impose usage-based billing on independent Internet Service Providers (indie ISPs) and regular consumers. Big Telecom companies are obviously trying to gouge consumers, control the Internet market, and ensure that consumers continue to subscribe to their television services.

This means we’re looking at a future where ISPs will charge per byte, the way they do with smart phones. If we allow this to happen Canadians will have no choice but to pay more for less Internet.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO STOP INTERNET METERING

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I’m sure the majority of web users only use the web, image, or map search functions of Google. However there are many tools that Google offers which aren’t necessarily advertised on the main site, or even in their ‘more Google products’. They’re usually found in the Google Labs and one of these tools in particular can help one in the beginning phases of an SEO upgrade – and it’s called Google Trends.

Google Trends allows you to view search trends by multiple terms and compare them. This allows you to see where the trends lie for your specific industry in terms of keywords and what your target market is looking for. This tool can be very powerful depending on what you use it for. It can allow you to see seasonal trends and steady traffic patterns that you otherwise may have missed. For example, you can search for yearly events like “xmas gifts” that you think may have seasonal trends:

It’s also possible to browse trends based on calendar dates rather than searching for them by viewing the Hot Trends. For example, by browsing the top 100 hot trends of November 4th, 2008 it’s obvious you’ll see the majority of results circle around the 44th presidential campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain.

It is important to remember that just because a certain search term is a ‘hot trend’ does not mean that you should put into your keywords or website content if it doesn’t fit with your topic. If it isn’t already apparent to why it’s a bad idea to incorporate content that doesn’t fit your topic or audience I strongly suggest you revert back to either my post on copywriting for SEO or Jess’ post on building the right audience.

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I read this news story today and found it slightly humorous. I heard the morning radio DJ I listen to say that apparently all American Apparel stores carry this magazine and sell it. I’m still trying to figure out what the marketing strategy must be behind it or why on earth a popular clothing store would be selling these magazines.

I still get a kick out of the name of the magazine, BUTT. Could you imagine having to tell someone where you worked or interned? “Yes, I had an internship at BUTT.”

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Facebook announced that they’ll be releasing a new tool called ‘Facebook Connect’ and it’s a way for web sites to ask users for their Facebook username and password and offer the ability to import their list of friends from Facebook, rather than other websites creating entirely new indentity verfication systems.

This means that certain companies, like the mobile service company Loopt, can use Facebook Connect so users do not have to re-enter their connections to friends when they want to track through Loopt’s service of finding friends and seeing what they are doing on a map with their mobile phone.

Facebook Connect goes two ways — information about a user’s activity on other web sites will go back and appear on the “news feed” on Facebook, where it is seen by that person’s friends on the service. However, learning from their previous mistake of Beacon advertising, Facebook is going to give users full control of what they share.

Mark Zuckerberg also mentioned that Facebook would be introducing a new “Great Apps” program as an incentive for developers to create more meaningful and useful tools or applications for Facebook. Certain applications such as Causes, a charitable giving tool, and iLike, a music sharing service, have already been given the priveledge of being part of the “Great Apps” program. As a result, applications given the designation of being in the “Great Apps” program will have better visibility and recieve a graphical “badge” to display their participation in the program.

Peronsally,  all this “Great Apps” talk makes me happy. I’m so tired of seeing stupid useless applications like ‘zombies’ and ‘buy your friends’ that clog up my profile or my requests pending channel. Some are fun yes, but I really don’t see the fun in either of the two above mentioned applications or any others like it.

And as for Facebook Connect – I wish Mark Zuckerberg luck for success with it, but we shall see how it works and if it’s accepted by users.

For now, Peace.

View the original article on Facebook Connect.

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