With over 300,000 fans already, Gap would need to quickly learn how to handle the open social media platform.  Most of the comments on the wall are non-controversial and pro-Gap, like how much people love their jeans and what not.  But a comment from Eileen O’Brien:

“Should Gap Cos stop advertising on Fox which produces anti Obama shows like O’Reilly, Hannity and Glenn Beck? If so let them know now!”

How should Gap respond to that, if at all?  Maybe the comment won’t get anywhere, but what if it does gets picked up by others and starts to grow into a campaign?  How should Gap respond to that?  Social media is a fun place that could very easily and very quickly turn perilous.

Companies need to have a policy in place on how to deal with these situations.  But I am happy to see Gap and other companies (big or small) embracing the internet and starting a conversation with their customers.

You know the new idea as arrived and matured when old-school wakes up and make the new idea their own.  Time for the youngster to create something else.  So what’s the next New?

Ouch!

Do you believe you deliver superior service to your customers AND do your customers agree?  Here’s another question.  Do your competitors’ customers believe they get superior customer service from your competitors?

Seems like an opportunity for you to innovate and improve your service and gain bigger market share?

But that’s not all the news fit to print on Facebook.  They also acquired FriendFeed and launched real time search.  Now even more reasons to glue your Face to the Book.

Facesaerch and CompareCaffine are similar in functionality, but I haven’t been able to compare since Caffeine is down for system maintenance.

But both Caffeine and Regular are too rich for my taste.  For now I will stick to Google Lite.

Matt Cutts claims the search results will still be very close to what they have been in the past.  But believing it to be a big enough change, Google opened a sandbox for users to try the new architecture.  I did, couldn’t spot the difference.  Then again, I was never good at spotting differences.

Give it a spin and if you get bored, surf on over to the hour and a half video of Wave, that would knock your socks off.

A very non-giddy Bartz and Ballmer invited millions of advertisers to the party. Both mentioned the dreaded G word (yes, that would be Google), but no mention of the M word (Marriage/Merger).  And neither were seen in the same room, doing what couples newly in love do.  Hmmmm..makes one wonder.  If you are into celebrity snoop, here’s the tabloid.

More importantly, what does this mean to millions of businesses who are obsessed with getting to number 1 in the search engine ranking? Google is still the dominant player, but Bing (Microsoft’s new baby) is increasing its share. Perhaps time to look into optimizing your site for Yahoo/Bing as well.

But is SEO the be all, end all of online marketing? No. SEO is just one component of online marketing. How important that component is would depend on your particular marketing strategy. But don’t overlook social media, email, press release, media release, coupon, etc. They can bring substantial ROI to your marketing $,£, €, ¥, etc.

But while the national government have been using social media for some time, what’s more exciting is that local authorities are getting in the act. I think that’s where the real power is going to be. Ability to provide real time information to local residents. Hats off to innovators in the government, you don’t see it that often. But when you do, we should celebrate it.

And here is an extensive list of twitters in government (most US based).

Nicely done. Now only if they can make their website a bit more appealing.

Looking forward to working with the IBC members over the coming months.

Within hours the story got picked by the traditional media. That got United’s attention.  A year after the incident, United agreed to compensate for damage.  While the damaged luggage might be compensated for, United’s reputation has been damaged.  But then again, that reputation, due to lack of customer service, was damaged a long time ago.