The IT Nerd

The Senate Judiciary Committee is currently conducting a hearing on child exploitation, featuring executives from Meta, TikTok, Snap, and Discord.

Some of the issues that children face on social media that are being touched on in the hearing include sexual predators, addictive features, suicide and eating disorders, unrealistic beauty standards, and bullying.

This has caused Congress to want tighter regulation and protection for social media.

Alan Bavosa, VP of Security Products at Appdome had this to say:

“The issues raised at the congressional hearings are important in ensuring that more safeguards are put in place by social media apps and platforms to protect children and loved ones. Core to this discussion is protecting consumer privacy and data. This fundamentally means protecting it in every form and every place it’s stored, transmitted and used by mobile apps.”

For reference, Appdome, a prominent mobile cybersecurity automation platform, provides app owners and DevOps teams with advanced protections to proactively mitigate mobile threats.

Social media has become a very toxic place. And if social media were say cigarettes or something like that, there would be regulations either enacted or already in place. So besides protecting data, we have to protect the people from harm from social media before it is too late.

The year is 2015 and it seems that Canada isn’t willing to have a civil conversation about indigenous people. I say that because the CBC announced yesterday that it would be disabling the ability to comment on stories relating to indigenous people because of the vile, hateful, and bigoted commentary that is often left. Note that this only affects stories on indigenous people. Commenting is still enabled on other stories.

So, what does that say about Canada?

First I’d like to say that I would like to believe that not all Canadians are vile, hateful, and bigoted people. But clearly there are many who are, and the echo chamber effect that you often get when you discuss stuff online either through commenting on a story on a media site like the CBC or via Facebook or Twitter likely makes it seem like there are. But at the same time, the fact that the CBC has to go disabling comments for stories on one group of people shows that Canada still has some growing up to do. It also shows that this goes far beyond the bad behavior that exists online which I’ve complained about for years. I say that because if we as Canadians can’t have a civil conversation on a news story about indigenous people, how are Canadians supposed to have a meaningful conversation about important topics such as getting clean water to places where indigenous people live, or having an inquiry about murdered and missing indigenous women?

Canada had a Truth And Reconciliation Commission a few years back to allow both indigenous and non-indigenous people to heal from everything that has gone on over the last century and a half between these groups of people. We got the truth, but based on what’s happened to the CBC, there still needs to be reconciliation. And that needs to happen right now.

I think it’s safe to say that you like everyone else on the planet are horrified about the murder of a TV reporter and a TV cameraman yesterday live on TV. Here’s what horrified me more. I found out about this scrolling through my Twitter feed and having a video that showed the murders take place auto play because someone decided to retweet it. The videos were there because the murderer created Facebook and Twitter accounts which he then used to not only live Tweet the murders, but post videos of him taken human lives and rant about various things that I will not get into here. In short, he didn’t want to take lives, he wanted to take lives in the most public way possible and make a statement.

Needless to say, I’ve turned off the auto play function in Twitter, and the person who retweeted the video was swiftly unfollowed by yours truly. But that does not address the real question. Have we as a society entered a “new normal” where murder is live cast on social media, and we as a society tolerate this as just being part of our social media feeds as well as retweet videos of the killing of innocent people? Because if that’s what we as a society have become, then I want off of social media.

I’m pretty sure that Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, and Biz Stone didn’t have this in mind when they came up with Facebook and Twitter. I’m also pretty sure that we as a society can do better. I would very much like to see us prove that.

Just when you thought this instance of a passenger being kicked off a flight because of a Tweet was an isolated incident, comes this story. Someone made a comment about the sobriety of a JetBlue pilot. This made the airline delay the flight to check the sobriety of the pilot and here’s what happened next according to News.com:

The reason for the sobriety test was allegedly a joke made by a passenger while boarding: “I hope there is a fully stocked bar onboard.” The pilot, however, took the comment as an accusation that he was intoxicated, JetBlue told WCVB-TV.

It’s unclear who made the joke. However, [Lisa] Carter-Knight began tweeting about the incident. Her first tweet, sent yesterday evening, read: “#JetBlue Major debacle on flight 760 in Philly — pilot accuses passengers of accusing him of being intoxicated demands all passengers back.”

The passengers were kept at the gate, while the pilot was tested. Carter-Knight kept tweeting: “Philly Boston flight 760 grounded due to unruly pilot — false accusations by pilot that his sobriety was questioned by passengers.” Another tweet described the pilot as “angry.”

Then, it was Carter-Knight’s turn to get angry, as a later tweet revealed: “Jet Blue just denied me to board the aircraft due to my social media coverage of tonight’s events. The pilot and staff denied service to me.”

That seems to be an ill advised move on the part of JetBlue. Though they don’t think so:

In a statement to CNET, a spokeswoman said its not the airline’s policy to remove customers from flights for criticizing JetBlue: “It is not our practice to remove a customer for expressing criticism of their experience in any medium…In this instance, the customer received a refund and chose to fly on another carrier.”

The JetBlue spokeswoman added: “We will remove a customer if they are disruptive and the crew evaluates that there is a risk of escalation which could lead to an unsafe environment. The decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly. If we feel a customer is not complying with safety instructions, exhibits objectionable behavior or causes conflict at the gate or on the aircraft, the customer will be asked to deplane or will be denied boarding especially if the crew feels the situation runs the risk of accelerating in the air.”

If a Tweet could lead to a “risk of escalation which could lead to an unsafe environment”, then I’m clearly out of touch with reality. To me, this appears to be a gross overreaction by JetBlue .

From the “dumb things to do when using social media for your business” file comes this story that centres around the Union Street Guest House, a hotel about 2 hours outside of New York City. They in their infinite wisdom instituted a policy to charge groups such as wedding parties $500 for each bad review posted online. The policy then disappeared off it’s website. But as you all know by now, nothing disappears from the Internet. One trip to the wayback machine will show you the policy in question. Interestingly, when the hotel was asked to comment by Page Six, this is what they had to say:

Oddly, the hotel didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Look, if you have a product or a service, you’re going to get bad reviews. It’s how you deal with them that shows what kind of company you are. Threats like this usually result in all the bad press that money can’t buy and with you wishing that you took another path. Just like the Union Street Guest House is likely wishing right now.

This caught my attention because of how stupid this sounds. A man and his family were yanked off a Southwest Airlines flight because of this according to The Globe And Mail:

Duff Watson said he was flying from Denver to Minneapolis on Sunday and tried to board in a spot for frequent flyer privileges he held and take his sons, ages 6 and 9, with him, even though they had a later spot to board the plane.

The agent told him that he would have to wait if wanted to board with his children. Watson replied that he had boarded early with them before and then sent out a tweet that read “RUDEST AGENT IN DENVER. KIMBERLY S. GATE C39. NOT HAPPY @SWA.”

Watson told TV broadcaster KARE in Minneapolis on Wednesday that after he boarded, an announcement came over the plane asking his family to exit the aircraft. Once at the gate, the agent said that unless the tweet was deleted, police would be called and the family would not be allowed back onboard.

This seems really over the top to me. While I’m sure Southwest was not thrilled that the Tweet was posted, it’s not threatening, racist, or offensive in my humble opinion. Thus pulling him off the flight and threatening to call the cops if the tweet wasn’t deleted seems to me like a form of censorship. Though Southwest doesn’t see it that way:

Southwest said in a statement a customer was briefly removed from the flight, and as an airline, it has no intention to stifle customer feedback on social media.

“Our decision was not based solely on a customer’s tweet,” it said, adding it offered the customer vouchers as a gesture of goodwill.

I may be wrong about this, but when a company offers something to a customer who’s had a bad experience, they’ve typically done something wrong or they want the issue to go away.

Now I have a personal Twitter account and I have Tweeted about good and bad experiences with airlines and gotten responses within a minute or two. One experience that comes to mind is that I needed to be on the ground in Charlotte NC to meet a customer and it was time sensitive. I had booked my flights to give me a two hour window from the time I landed to the time my meeting was scheduled to account for a delay of some sort. My connecting flight got cancelled due to a mechanical issue and that forced me to take another flight several hours later and I missed the meeting as a result. What irked me was the lack of communication about the delay. I got a $6 meal voucher upgraded to a $100 travel voucher after I tweeted about it. So airlines watch social media and use it to address customer issues among other things. That’s a good thing. What Southwest did wasn’t good. At least from an optics perspective as I think they would have been better off in engaging the customer in a discussion rather than taking the route they did.

Agree? Disagree? Please post a comment and share your thoughts.

A couple of weeks ago, I got Giles Chevrolet of Stouffville, Ontario as a new follower on my Twitter feed. I decided to follow their Twitter feed back and I expected to see a car dealer trying to sell cars via their Twitter feed or a lack of a coherent focus on posting to Twitter. After all, in most cases the person who is responsible for marketing a company on Twitter or Facebook is simply the person who has the passwords for those accounts.

Instead, I found these sorts of examples:

Disable Windows' Annoying Adaptive Brightness Feature on Your Laptop @lifehacker #lifehacks http://t.co/uC7orPM1pQ

— Giles Chevrolet (@gileschev) May 4, 2014

Union Station‰Ûªs massive renovation could be in trouble @Toronto_Life #Toronto #Lifestyle http://t.co/QVw9BbyC6D

— Giles Chevrolet (@gileschev) May 4, 2014

"We Heal The Past By Living Fully In The Present" #PositiveQuote http://t.co/82oIE8kist

— Giles Chevrolet (@gileschev) May 3, 2014

#TorontoRestaurantReview: "Schnitzeland" @BlogTO #Toronto #Restaurant #Food http://t.co/hPv65L1N34

— Giles Chevrolet (@gileschev) May 3, 2014

3 Things You Should Do To Build Better Productivity Habits @MikeVardy #Productivity http://t.co/1jLgPWHbF5

— Giles Chevrolet (@gileschev) May 3, 2014

Posts like the above outnumber any attempt to sell cars or promote their service department. It wasn’t what I was expecting, and as a result it intrigued me. I reached out to them and got in touch with Jamie Tieche of Socialyze Inbound Marketing Solutions who works with Giles Chevrolet to find out why they decided to take this approach.

Q:  What made Giles Chevrolet decide to use social media as part of their marketing?

A: Giles Chevrolet decided to utilize our social media services to help increase brand awareness, as well as build a community of advocates that will ultimately increase word of mouth referrals.

Q: It seems to me that you’re using social media to have conversations with people rather than trying to overtly sell cars. Why use this approach? 

A: We believe that each social media channel plays a very particular role, but none of them are meant to be advertising channels. Users visit social media to connect, learn and communicate, not to be bombarded by sales messaging.

Our strategy with Twitter is to provide an abundance of relevant, useful information in the form of links, quotes, and informative messaging, which helps cement us (Giles) as a thought leader and a reliable source of information.

Q: Besides the obvious goal of selling a few more cars, what’s the goal Giles Chevrolet using social media? 

A: Ultimately, Giles Chev hopes to create a new channel of communication that didn’t exist prior to social media. Due to the “always on” nature of social media, it’s an ideal platform for collecting information from customers and also providing information to them in a casual setting.

Q: Giles Chevrolet made the decision to have you run their social media campaign rather than do it in house. Why is that? 

A: To do social media correctly takes an extreme focus and a keen understanding of the various channels, including what works on each one. Their goal as a business is to be profitable, and so they felt it was more economical to outsource to a company with the knowledge and expertise to get them to a profitable position the fastest.

Q: Do you think companies big and small need to have a social media strategy?  

A: Absolutely!  Without a clear understanding of where you’re at and where you want to get to (using social media), your essentially just “pissing in the wind”! Social media is a tool just like any other form of marketing, and therefore it must be treated as one in order to be effective.

Q: What can we expect next from Giles Chevrolet’s social media presence?

A: The immediate plan is to continue providing useful, relevant content on a daily basis. The long term plan is to grow the audience, and incorporate more original content ie. videos and blog posts, into their digital marketing plan.

When I last talked to Greg Carrasco, he was at Newmarket Nissan setting the automotive world on fire via his brilliant use of social media. Since then, he’s made a significant change. He’s no longer Newmarket Nissan’s dealer principal. He’s instead gone to Oakville Hyundai as their new General Manager. In typical Greg Carrasco fashion, he announced the move on Twitter. That, in typical social media fashion generated some blowback from the trolls that exist in places like Twitter. In short, they accused him of being a traitor for switching from a Nissan dealer to Hyundai dealer. Mr. Carrasco has this response for them. Wayne Gretzky went from the Edmonton Oilers to the LA Kings. Many people called him a traitor. But the reality is that his ability didn’t diminish because he got traded. He simply played hockey someplace else and he was still great. Translation: It’s the same Greg Carrasco with the same skill set, just in a different location. And clearly, the trolls don’t bother him.

So why did Mr. Carrasco make the switch? There’s two reasons:

• Mr. Carrasco was driving 17 hours a week to and from his old job. That’s over a month of driving every year. That takes him away from his family and family has to come first in my opinion. Oakville Hyundai is ideal for Mr. Carrasco as he lives in Oakville.
• Hyundai was the only brand he couldn’t beat in his old job. He could beat Toyota, Kia, Mazda, and even sometimes Honda when he was in Newmarket. But not Hyundai. That gives you a sense of where Hyundai sits in the marketplace. Coincidentally, Hyundai Canada reached out to him to sell their brand knowing the sort of influence he has. One trip to their head office, some discussions and the deal was done.

What’s scary from where I sit is that Hyundai is already a force. Everything I’ve seen from them in the last few years has been straight off the top shelf. Meaning they have a broad selection of quality vehicles that are a good value for your money. Plus I see a lot of them on the road. Clearly they have a big impact in the marketplace already. Now Oakville Hyundai has been around for 30 years. But I have to admit that I didn’t realize that they existed and I have spent a lot of time in Oakville working both for myself and for other people. One suspects that this would be true for people who live in Oakville as well. That’s a shame because one thing that Oakville Hyundai has going for it is that it is one of a handful of Hyundai dealers who are authorized to sell the Equus line of cars which is Hyundai’s luxury line of cars. Yes, I used Hyundai and luxury in the same sentence. Equus is meant to play in same space as the Mercedes Benz S Class as well as the Lexus LS, and from what I know about them, they do a good job of playing in that space. With that sort of lineup, Oakville Hyundai should have a bigger profile. But they don’t. One suspects that this will change with Mr. Carrasco at the helm. His social media presence is going to put this dealership on the map. Not to mention Hyundai Canada as well.

Besides the social media presence, Mr. Carrasco is bringing the same sales process that he pioneered to Oakville Hyundai. His process allows you to buy a car in a pressure free environment which is the exact opposite of what you find in most dealerships. The thing is that, since he’s been through implementing this process once, he can implement the same process again knowing what pitfalls to avoid. That makes life easier in a way as it leaves him time to figure out how to navigate the different systems that Hyundai uses when it comes to ordering cars, quoting service, or doing anything else that needs to be done in a car dealership. Having worked elsewhere with different ways of doing things, it will take him time to get up to speed. But not very long I suspect.

My advice, keep an eye on Greg Carrasco. I suspect that he will not only put Oakville Hyundai on the map, but he’s going to prove that his social media talents as well as his sales methods can be implemented anywhere and others in the car industry, or any industry for that matter, will simply have to follow his lead if they want to keep up with him.

This should be fun to watch.

If you live in the Greater Toronto Area, odds are that you might have heard the name Greg Carrasco who is the dealer principal of Newmarket Nissan and Newmarket Infiniti. You might have heard his voice on the radio as he has a radio show on Saturday mornings. But more likely you’ve heard of him because of his Twitter account:

The first thing you’ll note about his Twitter account is that it has the blue checkmark which means that it is verified by Twitter. What does that mean? I’ll let Twitter explain what that means from their document on the subject:

Twitter verifies accounts on an ongoing basis to make it easier for users to find who they’re looking for. We concentrate on highly sought users in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas.

So that puts Mr. Carrasco in the same league as actors, athletes, and President Barack Obama among others. That’s good company to be in. The next thing you’ll notice is his follower count which is at 28K people. That’s huge for someone who runs a car dealership 40 KM’s north of Toronto. In fact, he has more followers than the Twitter accounts of Nissan Canada and Infiniti Canada combined. Not to mention that his follower count is more than any other car brand’s Twitter account. Now, those who have followed Mr. Carrasco could say that it’s due to the fact that he gives away tickets to the Toronto Raptors or the Toronto Maple Leafs. Or they could also say that it’s due to the fact he gives away tablets and the occasional car. I would say that those play a part, but it would be overly simplistic to say that those are the reasons why he’s so popular. To really understand why he’s popular, you need to understand the man behind the account.

Mr. Carrasco came to Canada from Chile when he was 18 not speaking the English language. He started out in sales but rose to management because he felt that in management you can affect change. From there he moved to upper management because he wanted affect change on a bigger scale. Most of us, your truly included, would call that a great career. But Carrasco thought there has to be something more than that. He started to look for a way to communicate a message that could change “everything.”

One thing that you realize when you talk to him that he is full of ambition. And his ambition combined with a drive to communicate led to him using Facebook six or seven years ago “when Facebook was not cool yet.”  But he soon realized that he needed a platform that allowed him to communicate without a “filter” as that got in the way of the message that he was trying to convey. I’ll come back to what that message is in a moment. That’s when he started using Twitter. He had been afraid to use it because he was afraid of  having “an unrestricted message” according to him. But the second that he stopped caring about that is the moment that Twitter account exploded.

So, what is that message? It’s an extremely honest one that encompasses himself, his personal life to a degree, and everything to do with cars and buying them. For example, he’ll tell you that if you go for a test drive at a car dealership, never hand over your credit card to the dealer to do so. Also if the dealer principal won’t talk to you while you spend tens of thousands of dollars with his or her dealership, then you need to go to another car dealer. Not only that, if you ask him on Twitter for advice on which car to buy, he’ll give it to you and it won’t necessarily include Nissan product. And if that isn’t enough, take a look at his personal website:

The phone number that’s there is one where you can reach him at any time. The logic is that since he’s the dealer principal, he should be accessible and accountable for what goes on in his dealership. Not only that, this accountability extends back to social media as he’ll personally answer customer complaints on social media which is unheard of.

So, let’s recap. Greg Carrasco is person who is the dealer principal of a car dealership is willing to give advice on Twitter to anyone who asks that is honest and sometimes exposes the dirty little secrets of the car industry. That’s clearly something that you do not see every day, and I would say that resonates with people.

Why is that? Greg Carrasco isn’t trying to use social media to sell you anything. He’s trying to have a conversation that is fun and allows him to share what he knows so that it benefits as many people as possible. That conversation is one that is honest, and I would argue that honesty trumps marketing. If he sells a car as a result of that, that’s a bonus. That’s important because most corporate Twitter accounts want you to buy the products associated with the account. They really aren’t trying to build a relationship with their customers. That’s where I think they’ve lost the plot and it’s where Carrasco has the advantage.

I therefore submit that all of this makes it far more likely for people to take a visit to Carrasco’s dealership. That appears to be the case as I have heard stories of people coming from outside the province of Ontario to buy cars from him. That is something that you must take notice if you’re trying to market yourself on social media. Now I could go into how his dealership would treat you once you arrive at his dealership. Such as the fact that he doesn’t employ sales people with prior car industry experience which in itself is a radical move. Or how you can test drive whatever car you want and get the best price in a pressure free environment. But I won’t because that’s not what this article is about. However it does underscore the experience that you see on Twitter carries, which adds to the buzz that surrounds him on social media.

The net result? Newmarket Nissan/Infiniti is ranked #4 in Ontario out of all Nissan dealers in the province which is Canada’s largest car market. Let me point out again that Newmarket Nissan/Infiniti is 40 KM’s north of Toronto and Newmarket could be classified as a bedroom community. Thus it’s not a high traffic area if you’re expecting people to just walk in and buy cars. Not only that, Carrasco doesn’t do any traditional advertising. Thus logic says his social media presence plays a role in this ranking. Clearly Greg Carrasco has something here. And I believe that others can learn from his experience to give their business a better profile which in turn should drive more business. The best way to do that is to keep an eye on him as this is something that you will not find in a marketing or an MBA course.

But I suspect it soon will be found in a marketing or MBA course given how successful he is.

UPDATE: Greg Carrasco has moved to Oakville Hyundai. I have posted a follow up article on him.