When this happened with DirecTV they gave me a new promotional offer to keep me loyal. What does Comcast do? They send you to customer retention only to be told good luck with your new service. If they can’t upsell you then they don’t care or want to know you. So, I’m going to move over to a bundle with DirecTV. At least I know they will take care of me.

BTW Comcast, just because your customer service people talk sweetly to you, that doesn’t make it great customer service. Good luck Comcast, I’m going not paying you $110 for internet and phone when I can bundle with DirecTV for a slightly slower internet and landline for $45 a month.

I’ll walk you through a really simple example:
Step one: Go to Google Docs — You need a Gmail account.
Step two: Open a spreadsheet
Step three: In one of the tables add the following:
=ImportHtml(“http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?tabSeq=0&statisticCategory=PASSING&conference=null&season=2011&seasonType=REG&d-447263-s=PASSING_YARDS&d-447263-o=2&d-447263-n=1″,”Table”,1)
I know its a lot. It is actually the top NFL passers taken from the NFL.com. See the page here.

The magic is in the =ImportHtml
You can find the Google Functions information about it here.

It’s an amazing tool to pull information from tables or lists.

Here is my Google Doc with the information.

Although its not foolproof, Tynt is a start. It’s a service that automatically puts a link at the end of the copied text so if someone puts it in an email or on their website (and don’t delete the link) then you can track it. Tynt puts a tracking code at the end of the url and gives you a dashboard to track.

I’ve just started to use Tynt so more to come, at least for now it automatically puts a link at the end and I don’t have to hope someone does that extra step. All you have to do is go through the steps and paste the javascript in between your tags.

Cut and paste some text from this article to give it a test.

The WP-to-Twitter plugin posts a Twitter status update from your blog. URLs can be shortened using a variety of services; the focus is on services which provide statistics for the link. Available shorteners are Cli.gs, Bit.ly, Yourls, and WordPress.

The plugin can send a default message for updating or editing posts or pages, but also allows you to write a custom Tweet for your post which says whatever you want. Both custom Tweet texts and your default message supports a variety of shortcodes to substitute your blog title, post title, etc., in your tweeted update.

Any status update you write which is longer than the available space will automatically be truncated by the plugin. This applies to both the default messages and to your custom messages.

Download it here.

Here is how you install:
Upload the `wp-to-twitter` folder to your `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
Activate the plugin using the `Plugins` menu in WordPress
Go to Settings > WP->Twitter
Adjust the WP->Twitter Options as you prefer them.
Provide your OAuth integration keys.
Optional: Provide your URL shortener API key if you want to have statistics available for your URL.
That’s it! You’re all set.

Spotify Premium allows you to wirelessly sync all your favorite Spotify playlists to your phone and listen . Listen wherever you like without being connected to the internet. Just log in to Spotify once every 30 days to prove you’re still a Premium user.

Or go online and stream any of the millions of tracks in the Spotify library. You can use Wi-Fi or 2.5G/3G to use Spotify just as you do on your computer. Access your account and all your playlists, or go track-hunting.

If you have an Android watch this video:

IF you have an iPhone just watch this video:

The bad part is that the person was probably too nice to say anything. And that is a problem too. One person accepting that kind of behavior makes him think its okay and then if the next person does the same and the the trainer believe its a proper thing to do. And that is part of the problem at most companies. They start out meaning well and hoping to provide good service, but over time it slips and slips and those who use the service just build a tolerance for decreasing service quality. It happens all the time and it has grown more and more acceptable. But for those who never let their service slide will find themselves on top. Service still counts and if you provide great service then you will win in the end.

How in the digital age can our remote controls still do so little. All the cable companies have feared the DVR so much that they have castrated it. And in doing so they have hurt the advertising industry even more. How? Well wouldn’t it be cool if we could actually interact with a commercial? Click something for more information? What if before we zipped past all the commercials the DVR stopped for one second and showed an a image of each commercial that you were going to miss. And if you had any interest you could watch one of them. If not you’d just go right to the next part of your television show? And what if at the end of the show the commercial companies made special offers just for you because you gave them a second chance?

The cable companies have hurt their own programming, too. How hard would it be for the cable company to allow me to set up recording for a new show that I saw during a commercial? Your telling me they can’t figure that problem out? I’d probably have a half a dozen more shows set to record if I knew how to find them. The cable company could have made it easy and just let me click an info button during the show and go over and set up recording for the future.

When cable companies go the way of the newspaper they will only have themselves to blame. Sorry Comcast. Sorry Time Warner. Sorry Cox. Sorry you laid all that line and wasted so much time.

Need a place to start? Here is an amazing resource by SEOMoz.com. Give yourself a weekend and come out an internet marketing brainiac.

It made me think immediately about agencies that I know and work with. There are agencies that do great things. But some might be lagging in certain areas. Do you hang on to those lagging areas because they bring in incremental dollars or do you go after what you do best? It seems obvious, but its a hard questions for many agencies. And there are many non-agencies that do the same.

How much effort or cost does it take to keep hoping a small part of your business will take off? How much of a distraction is it? There are endless questions, but they are all necessary. It’s hard to take a look at your own company and make a tough decision, however the payoff could be much larger in the end.

So what is the new time of caring?

It’s when you tell someone they need something–like a new web design–and it becomes the most important thing in the world to them. On a few occasions a company ask for my opinion on their web site or other interactive needs–and I’ve told them they weren’t very good. Suddenly they can’t present their old website at an upcoming event and they are in a rush to get a website up to save face.

It’s interesting to ponder the many reasons. Did they suspect they had issues already and want feedback? Did they think they were okay and were surprised by the feedback? Certainly there are many variations–but it makes me wonder why anyone would ever let any product suffer that represents their company. Every piece of a company represents itand they should all be held to the same standards.