As many of you know I spend a lot of time on Twitter and have been spending more and more on it. 40,000 tweets later I have finally decided that TweeDeck was not the client for me. Yes it handles multiple lists very well and helps you organize your twitter experience. At one time TweetDeck was king in the Twitter client market. It is time for it to move over since HootSuite has been enhanced and improved. Not only is HootSuite usable via any web browser, it is amazing on the Iphone. I have not had one crash as of yet due to HootSuite.

TweetDeck was a resource hog at times using at times 60% of my CPU. For a Twitter client that is unreal. Hootsuite puts almost no drain on my CPU.

HootSuite does not use proprietary lists but is smart enough to take advantage of Twitter lists. This works out well because I have now started to use Twitter lists to help manage my followers. The integration is amazing and slick. I can even create a new Twitter list from within Hootsuite.

Hootsuite with its built in stats and slick design should make it the Twitter client of choice for most people.

Please see the videos below on How HootSuite works:

A couple of weeks ago I did a Skype call with my good friend John Lusher. We talked tech and social media. Below is the last 20 minutes of that call unedited and has it happened.

Please support John he is a great friend and an amazing resource. John can be reached at His Web Site or on Twitter

John Lusher talks Tech and Social Media With Rob Cairns from Rob Cairns on Vimeo.

Everyone who does not understand the new way of doing things should look at this situation I was in. On Friday morning Kelli and I were supposed to get our rental car at 12pm. We had arranged for this by calling the local Enterprise Outlet days before we needed the car. Well at 11am we received a call from Enterprise saying our car would not be ready on time and their was nothing they could do. I do understand the local outlet’s issues but as far as I was concerned I had a booked reservation.

Kelli then called the 1-800 number of Enterprise and spoke with a “Manager” named Tony. He even gave her his “direct phone number” and said he could do nothing till 12 but please call him back at noon if we still had issues. Well Kelli called back and it turns out their is no such manager and they apologized and said the area manager would call us back with in 3 days. That was not going to do us any good.

So what to do – I did what any Social Media Guru would do. I jumped on Twitter and started posting tweets with the hash tag #Enterprise. Well you know what, complaining on social media actually works. I received an @ reply from Enterprisecares. This is the Enterprise Car Rental Twitter account. Elizabeth from Enterprise contacted me and ask me to email her with my concerns. My email is below:

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi Elizabeth,

The issue we had today was that we had booked a car rental with
Enterprise in Scarborough(Kingston road location). My wife did it
directly with the location. We got a call this morning saying that all
our cars have gone out due to insurance replacements and that we did not
know when and if we would have one. My wife reminded the agent that we
had a sports tourney in Brantford and that is why we did this. What fun
not.

To add to it more the customer service 1-800 number was n o help. A
“Manager” called Tony took the call and gave his number. When we called
back their was no such manager. Not good. I have spent many years in
customer service and I am not impressed at all.

My Wife’s name is Kelly Ellis and our home number is 647-xxx-xxxxx.

We just got a call saying a pickup was coming but it is an hour late. I
am still not happy since I do not like to be lied too and manipulated.

I have mad enough I am prepared on my social media and technology blog
to write an article called customer service that failed.

Thanks

Rob Cairns

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I was upset and told them I was going to write an article. Before I received a response from Enterprise that article would have been totally negative.

The first thing was received was call from the local store manager Gene and he said he had a car for us. This all happened within an hour. He arranged one of his staff to come pick Kelli up ASAP to get the car.

I also received the following email back from Elizabeth at Enterprise:

Mr. Cairns,

Let me begin by sincerely apologizing that your reserved rental vehicle was not available at the scheduled pick-up time. After speaking with Gene, the branch manager of that Kingston Rd. location, he informed me of the situation that led to this problem.

The entire Toronto area is running at a sold-out status, meaning that vehicles are in more than short supply. A vehicle that was out with a customer was due to be returned in time to be provided for your rental – however, that previous customer was late in returning it. As there were no available vehicles in the area to pull from, the branch had to wait for this particular vehicle to be returned. Once it was returned, that’s when we were able to come pick your wife up and get her in the vehicle.

I completely understand how frustrating this is when you’ve made advance reservation and have a function to attend only to have your travel plans delayed. However, I’m glad that we were able to get a vehicle and that Gene compensated the rate of one day of rental in apology for such lateness.

In regards to the service provided on our 800 number, that is of great concern to us as customer service is of the utmost importance. Was this ‘Tony’ possibly a Help Desk agent?

Again, I apologize for today’s incident and sincerely hope that between Gene and I, that we have made a better name for Enterprise with you. Should you need any further assistance, please let me know or reach out to Gene at 416-xxx-xxxx.

Respectfully,
Elizabeth

Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Specialty Services
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

I will tell you that a big thanks go out to Elizabeth and Gene for taking care of these issues for us. They deserve a lot of credit. We need a rental car in a few weeks again and I will be renting from Enterprise. They slipped originally but due to the power of social media everything managed to get resolved.

What do you think of the power of social media?

Lately security online has been all the rage again. I am talking Privacy concerns. Every time I jump on Facebook or Twitter someone is complaining that these sites do not present enough options to secure personal data. They suggest that no one should use these sites because they are insecure. I think we should stop and take a look at what the real cause is before we jump on the gun.

Even the Canadian government has been involved in the last 6 months. They have accused Facebook of not doing enough. They have said Facebook does not guard personal data well. Well this might be partially true but their is only one way that your personal data can be secured. What it comes down to is you the reader. IN this article I am going to talk about what you should do online and what you should not do.

Things not to do. This is an easy one:

1. Do not post your phone number and or address in a public area.

2. Do not post details of your marriage/relationship problems on Facebook. It just sets you up for Gossip.

3. Do not post your financial information in public areas same issue.

4. Please watch what you post. Once it is posted online it can affect job possibilities and even educational possibilities.

5. When using an application like Foursquare never check in at your private residence or other discreet locations.

6. Do not post things that you do not want to share with the world. That private picture should never be uploaded to the Internet.

Things you should do:

1. Think before you post and ask yourself does the entire world need to see this?

2. Be discrete about what you post.

3. Think of the long term impact of what you post and what it will do to your reputation.

4. Be yourself.

5. Have fun

The bottom line is every privacy measure can be in place but the week link in the chain is the Human Element. It is time people start taking some responsibility for their actions. How to your protect your privacy online?

A lot of you might know that I switched to the Headway theme sometime ago. Lately I have been having a lot of problems with my dashboard and upgrading to the latest version of Headway.

The good news is my problem is solved. It turns out that my Web Hosting Provider, uses PHP 4.0 as their default. They provided me with instructions on how to upgrade my version of PHP.

I am technically inclined and I should have never overlooked that I was not meeting the minimum requirements.

This would have never been achieved without the assistance of Chris Howard, Clay Griffiths, Grant Griffiths from the Headway team and my good friend Owen Greaves.

Twitter is my favorite social media avenue of choice. Many people ask me why Twitter instead of Facebook? How do you carry on a conversation is only 140 characters or less? Is Twitter not really a waste of time? The answers to these questions and many more are to come.

Twitter was originally a platform that was developed for mobile devices. It has become all the range on the Internet. It is actually my preferred social media platform. I use Twitter more than I use Facebook, Digg, Friend Feed and all other services combined. The thing I like most is that Twitter is real time. If it is happening now, Twitter is the place to be to follow any major news event or story.

When Michael Jackson died, Twitter was the place to be. The links to articles, comments and insights were amazing. It was all real time. CNN could not even keep up with the news on Twitter. The reality is Twitter has changed the way the news is reported on today. Twitter is now a credible source which the major news outlets rely on for information.

Following major events while you watch them is fun on Twitter. I have watched many a football game and watching the tweets from my friends. It is like you are all in the same room watching the game together. It is great way to share an afternoon having fun together.

Meeting people is one the best experiences that Twitter can provide. I have many great friends on Twitter. They have become an incredible part of my life.

Twitter is an amazing source of information. Occasionally I hit a question I need a quick answer too and can not find it on Twitter. I post a quick tweet and sooner than later I have several ideas or solutions to my question.

Twitter comes on many platforms. Lately my Twitter client of choice is Tweet Deck which I use on both my computer and my IPhone.I often send and respond to tweets while I am on the go as well as at home.

These are some of the reasons I really like Twitter. If you have not tried Twitter, try it out today. You will really like it. If you use Twitter why do you like Twitter so much?

Last week I finished listening to a new audio book about Twitter. Twitter Power by Joel Comm with Ken Burge was a good listen. The book was well read and informative in parts. Parts of the book had something to be desired.

One of the things in the book that Joel does is tells you as the book progresses to follow certain people as he gives examples. I felt at times that I was listening to a big add for someone else’s products. This is not the thing to do in social media and is ironic in a book that discusses how to monetize Twitter. Joel does not declare any disclaimers concerning his recommendations so one has to wonder if he has self serving interests.

Despite the negative, their is a lot of good information in the audio book. Joel spends a lot of time discussing things the novice should know like how to set up a twitter account and how to send tweets. He explains how to gain followers and how to follow people. These are all basic that the seasoned Twitter veteran would know.

Their were several areas that Joel talked about that I really enjoyed in the book. Joel talks about the legal aspects of Twittering and how to protect yourself from being sued. A lot of people say it is just online and Joel reminds the listener that they are responsible legally for their actions. It is a reminder that everyone online should take notice off.

Joel talks about social media etiquette in his book. This is one of my favorite topics which I blog about on a regular basis myself. It is a topic that can not be emphasized enough. Respect goes a long way to making friends, business contacts and long lasting relationships on social networks.

One of the things Joel talked about in his audio book was the Twitter profile and your Twitter page. Unfortunately the Twitter profile is limited but he reminds the listener that you can customize your Twitter page to reflect your brand. This is something I have not done as of yet. Joel has given me some great ideas on how I can do it and how I should move forward. Customizing my Twitter page has made my project list for the next while.

The book is a good review of Twitter. The seasoned Twitter user will not get as much out of the book as the novice user. I consider myself a seasoned user and as I have describe in this review, I came out of it with a couple of tips. On a scale of 1 to 10 I rate this audio book a 7.

What Twitter books do you like?

This week I wanted to share my experiences with a new social media site called Foursquare. Foursquare is one of the new concept web sites and it is actually a lot of fun to use.

The principal behind Foursqure is that all Smartphone have some GPS coordinate locating. As you spend your day going around town, you will “Check In” in various locations in your travels. By Checking in, you basically say to Foursquare I am here. Foursquare acknowledges that you have checked in and then assigns you points for checking in. Bonus points are often assigned if you are the first one to check in at that location, checking in while travelling or this is the first time checking in at that location.

To make things interesting, Foursquares treats this as a bit of a game. By being the person who has checked into a location the most, you are made the Mayor of that location. Currently I am the Mayor in over 10 locations.

Foursquare has a system of badges. This include checking in at many new locations to my favorite called the Super Mayor badge. The Super Mayor Badge is awarded for being the Mayor in over 10 locations.

Foursquare has all kinds of possibilities for monetization. It can be used in many ways such as location based advertising. For example, a bar decides to entice people to come and use their establishment. They offer a coupon for a free drink if anyone can bring their smartphone to the bard tender and show that they have checked in at this particular bar. This is just one example, the possibilities are endless.

Foursquare has the option of aggregating your feed into Twitter and Facebook. Personally I do not always do this because it clutters up my Facebook and Twitter Feeds.

One thing privacy advocates should be aware off, since you have checked in at a location Foursquare knows exactly where you are. This can be a concern for privacy. I subscribe to a a couple of views. I never check in in a private dwelling or location. I never check in when at home. When I am at home, I actually check in at the Starbucks down the street because of my privacy concerns.

Try it out. Foursquare can be a lot of fun and interesting. Below I have included a YouTube video which Steven Rubel did with Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley:

What do you think?

Below is a list of People in Business I Would Love To Meet:

1. Bill Gates

Bill Gates Co-Founded the most successful software company in history, Microsoft. Like him or hate he is truly a visionary in the technology business. To listen to his thoughts and ideas would truly be inspirational. He has also had started an amazing foundation and really cares about the world.

2. Steve Jobs

Steve is the President/CEO of Apple Computer. He has turned Apple into a power to be re conned with. Under Steve’s guidance Apple introduced the IPOD, Itunes store and even the IPhone.

3. Maurice “Rocket” Richard

The Rocket was one of the greatest hockey players of his time. I had the pleasure of meeting him a number of years ago at an autograph signing before he passed away. I would have loved the chance to spend an hour with the man that many people considered the heart and soul of the Montreal Canadiens Franchise.

4. George Lucas

George Lucas wrote and directed my favorite all time movie; Star Wars. I would love to talk to him about who he developed the great Science Fiction story.

5. Sir John A. Macdonald

Sir John A. Macdonald was the first Prime Minister of Canada and a very big part of the founding of Canada. He was a visionary and a big part of the hostry of this great country which I call home.

6. Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon. I have always been fascinated by space travel and it would be a pleasure to talk to an early pioneer.

These are the six people I would love to talk with over dinner. Who would you like to meet?