I assume Facebook created Pages to address security concerns. Before Pages, the only options available to businesses that wanted a presence on Facebook were groups and individual profiles. If you befriend a business that is using a personal profile, depending on your privacy settings, anyone that’s a friend of that business will have access to everything in your profile.

With Pages, that’s not the case. If you view a profile of a mutual Page fan, what you see is only the information they’ve made available to non-friends. So you and a complete stranger can both be fans of a Page, but neither of you can to see any more than what your privacy settings allow.

Now would be a good time to review Facebook’s privacy information.  Go through the privacy settings on your own profile and make adjustments according to your own comfort level. Then you should go through your list of friends and defriend all the businesses that are in the list. If it’s a business that you really want to stay engaged with, send them a note explaining why you’re defriending and ask that they  create a Page or Group. Most businesses are moving towards this, but there are still a few lagging behind.

Extra storage is cheap too. You can buy more space for 25¢ per GB per year. For example you could keep 100 GB online for $25 a year, which makes this a reasonable backup service too. You can read more details on the Google Docs Blog.

This isn’t a new concept, but it certainly makes it easier for non-technical people since there’s nothing to install. I’ve been using a service called DropBox for about a year now. Free accounts are available that store up to 2 GB. It’s dead easy, but you do have to install an application. There are other similar services, but DropBox has always worked for me so I’ve not tried the others.

And if you want read Mr. Bullard’s post about his project, click here.

If you’re not familiar with foursquare it’s sort of like Loopt or Brightkite. Using your phone, you “check-in” when you visit a business and your location is pushed out to your foursquare friends, and Twitter and Facebook if you choose. What’s different about foursquare is the game aspect. Each time you check-in you get points and if you check-in enough at one location you become the Mayor. I’m currently the Mayor of Kroger, which is a sad reflection of my social life.

Business details in foursquare.

There are a couple of interesting features of foursquare that every small business should be aware of. When you pull up the check-in screen there’s a link to your business listing on Yelp. One more reason why you should claim your business listing on Yelp. More and more traffic is being driven to this review site. There’s also a Tip section for each listing where users can leave suggestions or comments about your business.

If you’re a business owner stop what you’re doing and make sure you have a listing on foursquare. It’s easy. Just follow this link and fill out the form: http://foursquare.com/add_venue. While you’re at it why not claim your business listing at Yelp (http://www.yelp.com/business), Google (http://www.google.com/lbc/) and Bing (https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx).

By the way, here’s my page on foursquare if you want to become friends. http://foursquare.com/user/davesharpe

Update: According to this Mashable article, you can now update your location from anywhere, not just the cities on foursquare’s list.

Ordering has ended for the t-shirts.

A few weeks ago there was a thread on the Sugar List about making a new t-shirt. Since I love a good distraction, here’s what I came up with.

Another member on the list, Bryon Lewis, has agreed to print and ship the shirts through his company, BLTees Screen Graphix.

Bryon will be taking orders through December 2, 2009 so he can print all the shirts and get them out the door before the holiday rush.

Two styles are available: American Apparel Tees are $12 and Hanes Beefy-Ts are $10. Black only. Sizes Small through 2XL. There’s a flat shipping rate of $4, $6 for international orders.

Buy the American Apparel version, $12 each

American Apparel® 4.3 oz. Fine Cotton Jersey T-Shirt, an athletic cut shirt
100% combed cotton; 3/4″ set-in neck; shoulder-to-shoulder tape; 1″ sleeves and bottom hem.

Buy the Hanes Beefy-T version, $10 each

Hanes 6.1 oz. 100% Ringspun Cotton Beefy-T®, fuller-style shirt
double-needle stitching throughout; seamless rib at neck; shoulder-to-shoulder tape.

Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback on the shirt. I hope you enjoy them. And a big thank you to Bryon for printing the shirts.

Well today myLouisville was updated and the price was dropped to 99¢. The update promised “Significant changes, Simplified tab scheme, Improved graphics.” I downloaded the update and was genuinely hoping the app had improved.

Not by a long shot.

myLouisville Share screen

In the world of iPhone apps, this has got to be one of the worst, even with the update. The updates are not “significant.” Here’s a rundown of the app.

The first screen that comes up is Share. You can upload an image and description, but that’s it. No author information is available unless you put it in the description. You can comment on the images posted or flag them for abuse. Not much content here so far, but given the layout if a lot of people post photos you’ll never see the older ones. You’d have to do a lot of scrolling once this list hits 50 or so.

myLouisvile Map screen

The next screen is a map with user generated locations. This is okay I guess, but still pretty lame as far as iPhone apps go. The new version seems to place a limit on the number of tags. So far there are 28 out of 50 max. 50 is a low number for even one of Louisville’s denser neighborhoods. 50 for the entire city is useless.

The Map screen has Center on City button. Apparently the center of Louisville is in the Ohio River. Who knew?

The center of Louisville. Really?

One last thing that really bothers me. There’s a Facts screen, that says Flag until you select it, and they’ve improperly scaled the city’s logo and turned it sideways. What the hell?

I’m hoping that the developer, Splaysoft, LLC, just churns these apps out for any city it finds on a map. I sure hope the city didn’t contract them to make this. That would disappoint me.

By the way, the Courier-Journal wrote a short piece about this app when it was released and mentioned none of this. I’m guessing the writer never even used the app. Sloppy.

This is something to be proud of?

I hope that someone finds this post before they download the app. Save your buck for a quart of gasoline or a Cadbury egg. Spend it on anything but this app. If you want to promote the city and the businesses here there are dozens of better ways than this.

The sign outside of The Comfy Cow.

There’s not much of a Web site yet. Just a newsletter sign up and a job application. It would be great if everyone could sign up for the newsletter. I just sent the first issue today. Click here to see it. To sign up for the newsletters go to http://thecomfycow.com.

Needless to say I was got a bit off guard when I lost my job. I shouldn’t have been. Companies are floundering left and right and I should have been more prepared, but it’s tough to put in nine hours a day and then come home and do the same thing for your own brand. But now there’s no excuse. I have the time and I need a job.

So please pardon the mess as I regroup and refocus my own brand. My portfolio’s not quite current, but it will be soon. I’ve made a resume, which you can download by clicking here. If you’d like to get together for coffee and talk about working together or just shoot the breeze, give me a call. (502) 387-0328. I’m all ears.

I’ve been telling clients about the importance of transparency when talking to customers and the need to be genuine. Let’s see if it works for job hunting as well.

By the way, I’d love to hear your opinions about this. Stupid idea to be so open? A turn off for employers? Career suicide? Let me know in the comments.

A couple of weeks ago I received an E-mail from BMW about the 7 Series High Security. For the uninitiated, High Security means bullet proof. As if the car wasn’t cool enough as is.

It’s BRV 2009 certified. Yeah, that meant nothing to me either. I think BRV means bomb response vehicle. It has a ballistic protection of VR7, again this means nothing to me. As far as I can tell that will stop a bullet from an AK-47.

Bullet-proof glass

There’s several other cool features like a gas detector that shuts off outside air during a gas attack and turns on a fresh-air supply. There’s a external communication system so you can tell your assailants to piss off and if they answer you can hear them over the stereo. If you’re packing heat you can store two machine guns in the center console.

It has everything the a monarch or deposed dictator could want. And it can hit 60 mph in 7.9 seconds. Of course, I’d never need one, but it would be cool to say, “Yeah, it’s bullet proof.”

But enough about that. I’m open for business or job leads. I’m also free for a free lunch, in case you were wondering. Over the next few days I’ll be polishing my portfolio, updating my profiles, editing my resume. If you have any projects I can help with, jobs I would be a good fit for or just want to grab a coffee, I’m here. Send me an E-mail.