Jun 14, 2010
Left and right brain Martian Venution mind meld:
We talk with KVMR's Poet Laureate Molly Fisk about her use of Facebook & other social media for literally getting the word out about her creative endevours:
Poetry Boot Camps, writing workshjops and more.
Some Comments about computer punctuation, too..
PlaceShifting TV- Watching from Elsewhere via SlingBox Solo- For Example.
netowrk Accessed Server & etc, Raid and ALL! by promise – review. Under $300 wihout drives
Warranty Issues: Above All be Reasonable!
"Availability- affability- ability." You can get mad or get even but not both.
1) "Outage Supplement" They take 30 days to fix it? you get 30+ days
2) "Stonewalling Weaselout"- REGISTERED first date of Complaint.
3) "Not workign as advertised" Buy a boat anchor- expect a boat anchor. merchantability
4) "Lemon Laws" Your reasonable expectation of fixes Done Right (mechanically, at least!)
5) Blinded by BS- YOU should not have to be an IT guy to go figure THIER problem
6) "Inherited Liability". If you company got Bought, the buyer owes you!
7) "Class Action and design flaws": IE batteries and hardware components
8) "Outside Resort"- Home owner's Insurance, Creidt Card warranty extension, etc.
Additional Notes
Editor's comments delimited by < >
Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart
They're tagged with #Zentech
The segment with Molly Fisk, about promoting her work thru Facebook, was more conversational than pedantic, so I'll just hit some of the highlights: Molly's interview ended about halfway thru the show and listener's calls were taken
Molly Fisk operates Poetry Boot Camp poetrybootcamp.com. She's done so since Jan 2002.
It's a intensive 6 day poetry workshop done thru email where people submit poems and are critiqued.
She started using Facebook Feb 4, 2009 when she lost one of her cats.
At Facebook search for molly fisk. She also has a business account — search for molly fisk writer speaker teacher.
On Facebook, you can unfriend someone you don't like or, alternately, hide their posts.
Molly puts her radio essays in the notes section of Facebook, about once a week. She puts them in the notes section, not status updates, because they can then be more easily shared by other people.
She spends about an hour a day finding the interesting content of other people, and putting it on her page.
Facebook hasn't changed the way she works but has changed her social life. It's also increased her interaction with the younger generation who are now more likely to recognize her in public.
She went on to say that being on Facebook has saved her business because she uses it to promote her classes & book. And it's put her in touch with other poets and brought her to social events.
Previous to Facebook, attempts at social networking included a site called Evite. It and other sites had no integration between themselves. Facebook solved that problem.
Coryon Redd & Brenda Horton have been on previous shows talking about marketing using social media.
There was discussion about using Facebook to find lost pets. Unlike using email (which can circulate for years by being forwarded), when the pet is found, it's easier to bring the search to a close using Facebook.
Molly said it's easy to alienate people when using Facebook for marketing. She said you have to strike a balance between being personable and promoting your product.
Molly was asked to define poety and she quoted Samuel Coleridge:
Prose, words in their best order. Poetry, the best words in the best order.
Molly mentioned that she uses a Mac computer.
On Facebook, she said, one can make a list limiting the number of friends you want to follow more closely so as not to be overwhelmed by the volume of comments.
She also said that she uses the chat feature only occasionally but finds it difficult to politely refuse a chat.
Molly can be contacted at molly@mollyfisk.com. And, as mentioned above, on Facebook. And also at poetrybootcamp.com as well as mollyfisk.com and voiceofyourown.com.
Brian called and said the guys had previously recommended Digital Path for internet service over wi-fi. But said his trees aren't high enough for their service and wondered if there were other suggestions.
– smarterbroadband.com may be a possiblility.
– Sometimes a group of people get together where one, usually the highest in elevation, would relay the signal, coming from the commercial provider, to the others.
– You can try using the internet over the cell phone network — AT&T or Verizon. This was mentioned in previous shows.
A caller asked about getting an antenna for using the internet over Verizon's cell phone network.
– You can find one on the internet or from the Verizon store. But she said the store she used didn't carry any.
– Locally, Banner Communications carries antennas. Take your unit with you to the store because it's sometimes hard to find its connector. And check their return policy in case it doesn't work for you.
Listeners were invited to write to the hosts using zen at kvmr dot org.
Paul talked about product warranties.
There's the get out period during which you return your purchase.
The warranty period itself is typically 1 year.
Your expectations for warranty service should be reasonable. E.g. your data on the hard drive you bought is not covered, only the hardware itself.
Paul thinks companies supporting their products should observe 3 principles — "Availability- affability- ability." The company..
. Should be reachable — Availability.
Should be not be rude — affability
Should know what they're doing — ability
Paul talked about the 8 points of warranty support listed above.
1) Paul thinks companies should extend your warranty by the amount of time taken to do any warranty work. If they take 30 days to fix something, you should get 30 more days of warranty.
2) "Stonewalling Weaselout" is when your warranty is about to expire and the company takes so long to process your request that you're no longer under warranty. Get a repair ticket number, get an RMA number to return merchandise, get the name of the person you talked to and take notes to document the timeline of events in your warranty request. The aim is to prove you spoke to someone about your problem.
3) You have the right to a product that does what it's advertised to do.
4) "Lemon Laws" put a finite limit on the number of times the product can be replaced due to malfunction. Software has different rules. See the above link.
5) You shouldn't have to have special knowledge to deal with a service problem. The average person should be able to understand and respond to what the service dept is talking about.
6) When one company buys another, they inherit the responsibility for warranty work.
7) Usually, a company is responsible for notifying you when a product is subject to a "class action" (normally due to a design flaw). But do check for yourself — do an internet search for class action model where for model you substitute the actual model of your product.
8) Keep in mind that something like homeowner's insurance may cover your product. Also consider using a credit card that extends the warranty.
Paul talked about place-shifting your TV programming. Using SlingBox you can receive your TV program in one place (the cable service at home) and have that program sent thru the internet to be watched elsewhere. So you don't have to be at home watch your own cable TV. See the above link.
Last Updated 8:20 PM 6/14/2010