Sourcing Seattle

Executive Changes and Cash Infusion for Visible Technologies

Visible Technologies made the front page of Wired Online today with annoucement of In-Q-Tel’s, the investment arm of the CIA, investment in the Seattle Social Media Analysis and Engagement company. 

Visible also launched a new corporate website last week, which they quietly made public the hiring of Kelly Pennock, the new Chief Technology Officer, who took over for Bill Baker. Bill came from Microsoft, as a BI Expert and Distinguished Engineer, and was with the company a little over a year (hired in September 2008). This is the third CTO in three years for Visible Technologies. They also finally removed Dean Graziano from the executive management webpage.

Visible has had significant additions and changes in their executive team this year with the hiring of Peter Price as CFO and Dan Vetras as CEO, the above mentioned CTO transitions, as well as Dean Graziano, one of the co-founders, leaving the Company in April. Along with these changes were the marginalization of Jim Webber, co-founder and once Chief Administrative Officer (Now EVP of TruReputation), David Burcham, once Chief Operating Officer (Now EVP of Products and Services), and Adam Selig, once Chief Executive Officer (Now Divisional President of Strategic Alliances). There has also been several other internal Director / VP moves and transitions, specifically of note with the new international focus with In-Q-Tel was Laura Sanders, the VP of International Development, leaving in April.  

The executive turmoil and strong possibility of devaluation were the  primary reasons why I chose not to exercise the stock options I had vested with the Company when I left. Visible is still positioned well in the Social Media space as seen by their strong showing in the 2009 Forrester Wave report earlier in the year. I wish them the best in weathering the changes that have occured. 

Dan Hall

Posted in Startups | No Comments »

Is your website flash heavy?

Is your website flash heavy? If so, you risk alienating iPhone and other non-Flash compatible mobile web users.

I am finding the ratio of time I spend reading content, tweeting, and interacting on the web shifting dramatically from my laptop towards my iPhone. This shift will only become more pronounced in the future as more and more people adopt smart phones with unlimited data plans.

I find is amazing that there are still Fortune 500 companies that don’t have mobile web compatabile sites. I am surprised when popular blogs use flash a video platform.

In this digital age and economy, every percent of market share and every hit on your website count. Don’t you want my business / click through / repeat visit? Build a mobile browser friendly website already.

Dan Hall
Posted via the Wordpress App on his iPhone 3GS

Posted in iPhone | No Comments »

Beware of the Glowing LinkedIn Recommendations

I ran across a great article from The National Law Journal on the legal implications that LinkedIn recommendations might have on employment lawsuits. It is a definite read.

“Management-side lawyers are warning employers about the hidden dangers of LinkedIn, the popular business networking site that posts recommendations for job candidates. Specifically, attorneys are advising employers to be wary of giving glowing remarks about employees on the site because the employers risk having the recommendations used against them in a discrimination or harassment suit. ”

Read the full article here.

I have noticed a growing number of reciprocal recommendations between current and former employees of companies, which is to be expected to some extent. However, the danger lies in supervisors giving glowing reviews of former employees. eDiscovery is all too easy and becoming the norm rather than the exception. Twitter accounts, cell phone data, and social media profiles are now fair game in the legal arena. More and more companies are collecting this data and providing data streams to clients as a service. Lawyers are doing this same research.

Pretty soon we will see articles depicting the impact of a single LinkedIn recommendation on the outcome of a case (or maybe not, if the Company had decent counsel, they would settle out of court with a non-disclosure agreement).

Dan Hall

Posted in Human Resource Practices, social media | No Comments »

Thug Management

Thug management AKA coercive management is where the manager tells their subordinates what to do, usually with threats of punishment or adverse actions. We have all seen or heard about them. I, for one, had a thug manager when I was in the military.

I don’t use the word hate lightly, hate is one of those strong words like love too lightly used. Hate in this instance entailed a strong aversion coupled with desire that evil should befall Thug Manager.  All of Thug Manager’s subordinates wished evil upon him.

An example of his thuglike nature was how he would interact with groups of subordinates. First, the military has a very hierarchical rank system, one that is extremely transparent as rank is worn on the uniform. You know immediately if the person you are talking to you is higher, of equal, or lower ranking than you. There are rules of conduct for how to stand, talk, greet, and address people of different ranks. These rules of conduct are punishable by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which interesting enough in a combat zone include punishments up to death for most infractions, insubordination being one of these.

Now, I never felt compelled in the military to remind a subordinate of my rank or position, that is readily apparent.  If you are in charge, you are in charge and act like it. I never raised my voice or demeaned a subordinate, it was unecessary for the reasons listed above. I was secure enough as a leader, unlike Thug Manager.

Thug Manager would enter a room, single out a subordinate, invade their personal space, put them at the position of attention (imagine standing in one place with your hands at your side), and start a series of retorical questions that included:

“What rank am I?”

“Do you understand English”

“What part of what I am saying don’t you understand?”

“What have you done wrong that you aren’t telling me?”

“Are you stupid or just insubordinate?” ( I always liked that one myself)

This would include forcing all subordinates to do push-ups all the while his face turning deeper shades of purple with vein popping and spittle included.

The problem with Thug Management besides the extremely dehumanizing and demoralizing behavior is that high performing subordinates with any sense of self esteem rebel. Not an outright rebellion but a rebellion none the less. They push back. They do only what was specifically told and nothing more. They do whatever it takes to shut Thug Manager up or make them go away. They create their own priorities of work to procrastinate. They wish Thug Manager dead and spent a lot of time fantasizing about such acts. 

I used to walk around our office with five excuses for everything I was doing, not doing, or was worried about doing or not doing. I learned quickly to not divulge any extra information but to answer as succinctly as possible. No one volunteered for anything. Subordinates would band together and provide alibis for each other. There were many times where I would purposefully set the Thug Manager off, knowing it would send him into an apoplectic fit. That was the only method of fighting back I had.

Threats of punishment? Nope, threats get old after awhile. Once you are threatened and there is no follow through, it becomes an idle threat.

Threat of firing me? Please, I am begging you to fire me.

Unfortuntely, I couldn’t quit, it being the military and all. If I was in an at-will employment position, I would have quit after about two weeks. That’s the problem, high performers know they are exactly that and usually are quite marketable. Once all the people with self esteem are gone, what are you left with?    

The only thing that a Thug Manager has is being a thug. Subordinates quickly learn that their behavior  and performance has no impact on how they will be treated in the present or future. 

The worst part about the whole situation was that Thug Manager’s boss knew he was a thug and allowed the behavior to continue because our team met our performance goals. 

Dan Hall

Posted in Human Resource Practices, Leadership | No Comments »

Visible Technologies Needs to Take a Look at their Meta Tags

Visible Technologies Management Team Google Results

Visible Technologies still has their old CEO on their meta description tag after 5 months of a CEO transition. Really? 5 months? The second search result on Google? No one in the company saw this?

The devil is in the details, even for a Social Media Analysis and Online Reputation Management company.

Dan Hall

Posted in Online Reputation Management, Startups, social media | No Comments »

Why the LinkedIn iPhone App Misses the Mark

First, let me say that I am a fan of LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a great professional networking site that adds value to both organizations, professionals, job seekers, and recruiters alike. LinkedIn does have its limitations but it has done a good job carving out a fairly large niche market in the Social Networking space.

LinkedIn allowed me as a recruiter to directly source senior level executive candidates for Visible Technologies. This  enabled the company to recruit for very senior positions without resorting to the use of a very expensive executive search agency. That is a very valuable resource.

That being said, I recently purchased an iPhone 3GS and downloaded the LinkedIn iPhone App. There are plenty of product reviews floating around on the web, so I won’t go into the actual product specs in great detail. However, I was surprised in doing a quick Google search on “LinkedIn iPhone App”, how positive the reviews were.  See the reviews at AppSafari or  SocialTimes; both of which are in the Top 5 Google search results. I think LinkedIn fundamentally missed the mark on their iPhone app.

First, whenever you launch an add-on product or service, you need to design it in context of your core product or service strengths and value. LinkedIn is not a communication platform whose value relies on connection or status updates, yet half of their iPhone App is dedicated to this. Having even a couple Open Networkers (see my previous posts on Open Networking), removes any desire I have to follow my LinkedIn contact connection updates. Of the current network updates I have in my LinkedIn iPhone App, 49 of the 50 updates are connection updates. Connection Updates are arguably the least interesting type of update on LinkedIn (vs. status updates, question / answer updates, or profile updates). Of those 49 connection updates, Open Networkers comprise of 45 of those updates.

Yes, 90% of my LinkedIn iPhone App updates consist of Open Networker connection updates, which has the same value to me as the phone company informing me that the White Pages just got updated. Even worse, every connection update is listed out individually. Why not incorporate the same feature as in the LinkedIn weekly emails updates where connection updates are aggregated by person? That way I don’t see every new connection that an Open Networker, who 35 new connections in one day, has, I only see they have 35 new connections with the option to drill down further.   

LinkedIn is not the place I go to understand what people in my Social Network are currently up to. I don’t feel a compelling need to check LinkedIn everyday and certainly not with their iPhone App. Twitter and Facebook have a stranglehold on that space. I have a healthy number of LinkedIn connections (238, I am selective in whom I connect with), and of my connections three, yes 3, have updated their status on LinkedIn within the last 48 hours.

LinkedIn’s iPhone App is a useful tool with its connection and search capabilities, a tool to be used in specific circumstances. That is the area that LinkedIn is strong, being a great tool for specific uses, i.e. Recruiting, Finding a Job, Professional Networking, and Researching People and Organizations. Monetize what you do well, don’t create products that service the areas you don’t. 

Dan Hall

Sourcing Seattle

Posted in Adding Value, Consumer Advocacy, iPhone, social media | No Comments »

Editing a Post Using the Wordpress iPhone App

A reader mentioned some issues with the Wordpress iPhone App stripping HTML tags, quotations, and ampersands after editing a post wit the App. So I am testing this out for myself.

“This is a test & only a test”

“This is a test & only a test” (edit with Worpress iPhone App). I am also quite interested in reviewing the meta tags created using the All in One SEO Pack plug-in.

Dan Hall

Posted in iPhone | 1 Comment »

Everything IS easier on the iPhone except…

Making phone calls. Keeping up with Twitter using Tweetdeck? Easy. Managing comments on my blog? Easy. Deleting spam email in Yahoo? Easy. Checking current weather conditions? Easy. Finding a new place to eat with Urbanspoon? Easy. Advocating my favorite service providers and sharing them with my trusted social network? Easy. Develop carpal tunnel? Easy.

Making one phone call without disconnecting with ATT Wireless? Apparently, not so easy. I have not been a fan of ATT Wireless ever since they acquired Cingular and significantly raised my bill overnight with no warning or notice. Big fan of Apple right now, ATT unfortunately has lived up to my expectations of providing poor service.

Dan Hall
Sent from my iPhone using the Wordpress iPhone App

Posted in Consumer Advocacy, iPhone | No Comments »

Using the Wordpress iPhone App

I am writing this post using the Wordpress iPhone App with my laptop sitting a few scant feet away from me. Why?

First, because I can. I received my first iPhone, the new iPhone 3G S, in the mail on the 19th and have been immersing myself in this new delightful world for the past couple of days much to the chagrin of my family. The iPhone blurs all traditional communication platforms. In doing so, my iPhone allows me to stay connected in so many ways away from my computer. 

Secondly, I am previewing the Wordpress iPhone App. I am quite pleased so far. It was easy to connect to my blog using my admin account and start blogging. The Wordpress iPhone App allows me to tag and categorize my posts, which are requisite SEO and organizational features for me. It even saved a draft copy of my post when there was an interrupt (which is important especially since this post is longer than originally planned).

My only concern now is the carpal tunnel that I might develop typing on my iPhone. Good work, Wordpress.

Dan Hall

posted from his new iPhone 3GS using the Wordpress iPhone App

Posted in Adding Value, iPhone | 3 Comments »

Social Media Policies in Government Organizations

In my new positions, I am charged with implementing Social Media practices for a large directorate within a government organization. It is surprising (although not really since we are talking about a government organization), that many still don’t get Social Media. The image below is a perfect example of some of the challenges I face:

National Guard blocks Official US ArmyTwitter Feed

Sigh.

Dan Hall

Posted in social media | 1 Comment »