So much going on

This place has been a dead zone for a while. It's the end of the year insanity we all know and love so much. Clients need to get stuff wrapped up before the end of the year. I have multiple campaigns launching before the break. Then there's the notion of getting Underscore ready for the end of the year. Add to that all the traveling and all the stuff going on personally, and that equals no blogging. That said, I have a wishlist I wanted to post:

1. I hope I have six inches of snow on the ground when I get home tonight. And I would like the cops to stay home so I can take a ride for an hour around my neighborhood and blow some donuts in front of my neighbor's house.
2. I hope the FedEx guy leaves my package at home today instead of pulling the "we require a signature" thing.
3. I hope the 10 or so status meetings I need to have before the weekend go smoothly
4. I hope my wife learns to love the new paint color in the bathroom instead of making me repaint it.

That's all I ask. Too much?

If It Ain't Broke

What a conundrum. On Saturday, I decided to change the oil on my Cannondale Cannibal. I dropped the oil just fine, but when I put in a new filter and started to tighten the bolt on the oil filter cover, the bolt broke off inside the motor. Rather than throw a conniption, I simply put all the tools on the garage floor and walked away from it for 24 hours. On Sunday, I managed to find an easy-out at The Home Depot that would fit a bolt that small (6MM). I drilled out the center of the remaining piece of the bolt with some very tiny titanium drill bits, and then managed to get the easy-out to thread in and the bolt to turn after about 45 minutes. I think that if I hadn't taken a step back, I might have screwed this up by attacking it with the wrong tools, and I would have been in a world of hurt having to pull the engine from the bike.

Believe it or not, I also found a replacement bolt at The Home Depot and managed to get the oil filter cover back on. And the bike is ready for the first snowstorm of the year (again). The problem is that almost every time I need to do basic maintenance on the Cannondale, there's a problem, and that leads to wanting to ignore basic things like oil changes, chain tightening, spark plugs and lubrication. Might be time to sell (but only if I can get a new KTM).

Facebook Ads

I'm a bit underwhelmed by Facebook's announcement concerning its new ad programs. I mean, come on, do they really think marketers are going to do things any differently with Facebook Pages than they would with fake profiles on MySpace? A kazillion young people will friend a Wendy's hamburger page, Wendy's will pat itself on the back for being so successful, and it won't mean a damned thing. I am, however, really looking forward to seeing targeted flyers, groups and wall posts blown out. I mean, I was messing with the Facebook Flyers interface the other day, and I got really excited by being able to target people in New York who have "media" or "advertising" in their profile. But what I really wanted to do wasn't yet a capability. I want to be able to target job ads to people who say they work at Digitas or Universal McCann or any of the agencies in New York, or who have worked there at one time. I want to be able to target any interest, not just ones that have critical mass. I want to be able to overlay multiple targeting criteria and have the database tell me every time how many people are in my potential universe.

I'm nervous about Beacon. Unfortunately, I think it's going to come down to perception rather than reality. It all depends on how much of a frenzy privacy advocates are going to be able to whip up about the transfer of things like purchase data, as well as, frankly, how much money the public perceives Facebook to be able to make off of it. Right or wrong, people don't like it when others make money from their information.

I like the concept behind social ads, as long as the targeting criteria drill down far enough. Again, it's all about letting marketers set their targeting criteria, and not about herding them into "buckets."

Facebook Flyers?

I'm interested to know if any readers have used Facebook Flyers. Yesterday, I tried to use the product to get out the word on some job positions we're looking to fill here. Aside from some snags with underscoremarketing.com not fitting on one line, the ad was looking cool. Then I got to the payment page and discovered they didn't take American Express, so I bailed. I don't think we have a company Mastercard or Visa, but if I think the results will kick ass, I might fund it personally and get reimbursed by the company.

Any success stories?

I like the ability to target ads via profile information on the CPC product. I think that can go a long way toward getting the right target audience.