Yesterday, Klout released their new scoring model, which they said would decrease some klout scores while keeping many of them the same or increased.

Read more about klout’s new scoring model here.

Since then, you may have noticed many people complaining about how their influence has decreased and their score is now lower. I have also saw a post stating that they ‘were told by klout that they could no longer talk to those with lower klout scores then their own, or it would lower their score.’ No one knows exactly how the klout score is calculated (certainly not me) but it DOES NOT MATTER.

1. It’s not about klout, it’s about influence – If you truly influence people, YOU don’t need a klout score to know this. If your score goes down and you don’t agree – then *gasp* klout may be wrong!!!
2. If you are influential, you don’t have to tell others, they already know
3. If you believe that in order to be MORE influential you need to eliminate talking to some people, then you perhaps should seek another line of work
4. It’s ultimately about the ROI or MOO (movement of others)- If others spread your message online (or OFFline, which klout has no clue about) and you change or reinforce other’s opinions, behaviors or buying habits, that is the goal of “social” and really all media.Ultimately being an influencer is more about understanding who you are and whether you are providing timely, relevant, informational and personable content to others. Being a quote machine that garners 150 retweets or facebook shares per day does not make you influential about anything. Don’t fall prey to the WWGD (What Would @GuyKawasaki Do) principle. Just because someone floods the stream with content, doesn’t mean they genuinely have a passion for the post that interested you. As my grandmother says, “Even a blind cow can find the side of the barn once in a while.” If you keep these principles in mind, and your klout score goes up, then klout is perhaps a good measure of your influence.

   Did the fact that my klout score is higher or lower than yours influence you? Or was it the relevance of this article? Point me. Thoughts?

The camera button appears at the bottom right of the screen

As a user of the new Apple iOS 5 (currently running on my iPhone 4), I have been discovering and using the various features and functions. One that catches my eye to start is a feature I have long bemoaned the absence of – the ability to take a photo from the lock screen rather than having to unlock the phone and open the camera app.

Also improved:

- Quicker physical shutter release

- The ability to use the volume button (hard button) to snap pictures, which makes self-pics much easier, especially if you need the flash.

- Focus lock feature (AE/AF). This lets you lock the exposure (AE) and the focus (AF) of your image. Tap on what you want to focus on or what you want the iPhone camera to use to determine the proper exposure. Tap and hold to turn on the AE/AF feature.

- If you select HDR as your photo choice, you may choose in the Settings to not save the non-HDR version of photos (no more double photos in your album or stream)

- You may now perform limited editing functions directly from the iPhone. From the photo, select “Edit” in the upper right corner and you have the ability to change 1) the orientation of the photo 2) use an auto-enhance feature 3) tap and selectively remove red-eye and 4) crop photos.

- For Twitter enthusiasts (like me), Apple has finally added the Tweet option to the Share options (accessed by the arrow when viewing the photo). Now you can compose and send a tweet directly from your photo!

- Finally for those who have the iPhone 4S (me too soon hopefully), the camera has been bumped from 5 megapixels in the iPhone 4 to 8 megapixels in the 4S. Once I get the 4S, I will post some comparative pictures between the two.

Ingredients:

1lb. extra lean beef (96/4) or ground filet of chicken breast

2 tsp. garlic salt

2 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. onion powder

8 oz. mostaccioli

¼ cup Egg Beaters

1 16 oz. container fat-free ricotta cheese

1 10 oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 cup shredded 2% reduced fat mozzarella

2/3 cup reduced fat grated parmesan cheese

1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 jar reduced fat pasta sauce

1 15 oz. can petite diced tomatoes

4 gloves garlic

2 tsp. sea salt

Preparation Instructions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. Brown beef or chicken and season with garlic sale, cayenne pepper, Italian seasoning and onion powder.
3. In a large bowl combine the egg beater, ricotta, spinach, 2/3 cup mozzarella cheese, ½ cup Parmesan cheese, and parsley. Set aside.
4. Drain pasta, stir in browned beef or chicken, tomatoes, sea salt, crushed garlic cloves and 2/3 pasta sauce.
5. Layer ½ pasta mixture in lasagna pan coated with non-stick cooking spray.
6. Top with spinach mixture followed by remaining pasta mixture.
7. Cover with remaining pasta sauce.
8. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until bubbly.
9. Uncover and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.
10. Cook five minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

Alternative prep method:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. Brown beef or chicken and season with garlic sale, cayenne pepper, Italian seasoning and onion powder.
3. In a large bowl combine the egg beater, ricotta, spinach, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, and parsley. Set aside.
4. Drain pasta, stir in browned beef or chicken, tomatoes, sea sale, crushed garlic cloves and pasta sauce.
5. Loosely combine spinach and pasta mixtures and pour into lasagna pan coated with non-stick cooking spray and baked, covered, for 35 to 40 minutes or heat in crock pot, on low, until warm (about 2 ½ hours).

Servings: 8 Nutrition Information: Prepared with extra lean beef, 1/8 pan has 322 calories and 7 grams of fat. Prepared with ground filet of chicken, 1/8 pan has 292 calories and 5 grams of fat.

Still, with all that said, my activities and accomplishments for the week ending 4/10/11 were:

• Wednesday, 4/6: Ran in my neighborhood (elevation change of near 100 feet per the Nike+ app). Distance run: 1.08 miles. Total time: 8:56. I set a new personal best average time per mile of 8 minutes and 16 seconds per mile.
• Thursday, 4/7: Rode my new bicycle 2 miles in mt local area. Played with a new app (iMapMyRide) but did not capture valid stats for this ride.
• Friday, 4/8: Off day.
• Saturday, 4/9: Over 45 minutes, hit 75 solid, hard-swinging drives at the driving range [golf]. I love doing this as everything from my calves, glutes, abs and arms will be sore the next day. Often I even hit the full 150 but I showed restraint this day and good thing, because I was spent by the end.
• Sunday, 4/10: Used the iMapMyRide app to record my whole ride. Distance: 2.24 miles. Total time: 17 minutes, 27 seconds. Pace: 7:48 minutes per mile. My pace was slow because (I think) I’m still getting used to a 21 speed bicycle as I’ve never had one before. Plus it was 90 degrees and I was sweating buckets as our subdivision has almost a 100 foot elevation change!

The settings are not yet perfect, but I have begun running this year. According to my NikePlus.com app on my iPhone [Read my blog review of the Nike+ App], I have run 6.43 miles this year and on Wednesday had my fastest average mile ever: 8 minutes and 16 seconds, which I am very proud of given where I was even four months ago. I have talked about some of my plans with some great blogger and fitness/running peers and friends and shared the fact that my goal for 2011 was to show that Parkinson’s Disease cannot defeat my will or my body by running a half-marathon by end of year.

However, I had not stated this goal openly and publicly… until today. Rock n’ Roll marathon series is in St. Louis on October 23 and Los Angeles on October 30 and I will run in one of them! Join me won’t you? I will be sharing my workouts, runs, and overall progress towards this goal.

Are you already registered?

Will you run with me? (in either location – yes I realize the ultimate insanity behind this request)

Join and friend me on NikePlus.com!

Follow my progress on Twitter (or Facebook if you know me). (See top of page for links)

Do you have a 5K race you suggest I run before then?

Training tips or encouragement? Post a comment and I’ll respond to every single one.

Ingredients:

26 ounces cooked, shredded chicken breast
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 15 ounce can black beans, drained
1 4.5 ounce can diced chile peppers, drained
1 14.5 ounce can petite diced tomatoes, drained
8 6 inch corn tortillas
1 10 ounce can red enchilada sauce
2 cups 2% shredded Mexican cheese blend

A new dish we just tried for the first time. Delicious doesn’t even begin to cover how good this dish was! A must try!

Preparation Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Spray non-stick cooking spray on 11×7 inch baking dish, set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, mix chicken, cumin, cilantro, beans, chile peppers and tomatoes thoroughly.
4. Spread half the enchilada sauce over the bottom of the baking dish.
5. Layer four tortillas over enchilada sauce.
6. Cover tortillas with half of chicken mixture.
7. Sprinkle one cup of cheese over chicken mixture.
8. Spoon remaining enchilada sauce over cheese.
9. Layer remaining four tortillas over sauce.
10. Cover tortillas with remaining chicken mixture.
11. Sprinkle remaining cheese over chicken mixture.
12. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.
13. Uncover and continue baking 10 minutes longer.
14. Let stand ten minutes before serving.
15. Garnish with reduced fat sour cream, if desired.

Servings: 8

Calories per Serving: 278 calories

Fat: 9 grams (81 calories or 29%)

The New Social is about Traditional Values

This morning I was reviewing the plan for the day and reading blog posts and twitter updates when I came across a great quote that I immediately agreed with.  The quote was not mentioned within the context of social media, community or customer service, but it started me thinking. The quote was:

“People may forget what you say. They may recall exactly the things you did. But people will never ever forget how you made them feel.”

This struck me as so true when it comes to social media and customer service. That for all the “newness” of social media and technology and gadgetry, the new social is all about traditional engagement and values.

“It is better to be hated than forgotten.”

It is much better to be loved, or yes even hated, than forgotten. Customers who come at your brand with complaints in a fervor, are trying to help you fix your product or service because they like it. If they didn’t, they would simply quit doing business with you.

The rules of engaging customers through social media have not changed. They are no different from what thebasic tenets of effective conversation have always been:

• Be authentic: Customers are smart and savvy and are immediately turned off by anything less..
• Listen: You can’t give a customer what they need without listening, and not just hearing. As Mark Twain said, if we were meant to talk more than listen, we’d have been given two mouths and one ear.
• Be courteous: You can help a customer yet treat them terribly, and you will get negative sentiment from that customer to their social sphere.
• Have empathy: Note I didn’t say “show” empathy. Put yourself in the customer’s place and try to get where they are coming from, and respond accordingly. This will be very evident to the customer.
• Ask questions: You can’t understand the customer’s pain and or true needs without asking qualifying quetions.
• Solicit honest feedback: Ask for feedback on yourself, the product or service, and check back in with them.  Never underestimate the power of reaching out to a customer 2-4 weeks after you have assisted them (“Hi, I just want to see if your problem has not reoccurred.

A customer’s experience has by far the greatest impact on a company’s brand, image and reputation. Implementing the common-sense approach above will make your customers feel more engaged with your company. And engaged customers participate more in discussion about the brand, and drive discussions about it’s products and customer service.

The app is very easy to use, and synchs up to your Starbucks.com account, where I was able to actually move all my various card balances to a single card. Loved that! The app shows you which stores have the ability to take these mobile payments (something like 6,800+ if I remember correctly). I counted 11 locations within ten miles of my house. Paying is easy and fast! You just touch “touch to pay” in the app, hold it down against the reader (pictured below) and voila.

According to the barrista, the “receipt” would be received cater on my app than their receipt would print and sure enough, they were right.  Now, is this app faster than handing them your rewards card? No. But the balance tracking, receipts, rewards tracking and ability to reload from your phone make it the ultimate app for anyone who is a Starbucks aficionado (looking at you Brian Gardner) and iPhone user.

You can read more about, and download the app, at http://shawnmcpike.com/2S.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This review was written entirely on my iPhone, while drinking Starbucks coffee using the WordPress app.

Main Account
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ATTCustomerCare – Molly

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AlexM

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Carolyn | ChrisF | ChrisL

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Emilia

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Jason | Jenn | Jessica | Johnathon | Julie

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Mike T. | Mollica

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Natasha | Nicole

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Susan

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Tammy H. | Tatiana | Tina | Trevor | Troy W.

With these 22 official AT&T Customer Care managers dedicated solely to helping customers through social media, reach out to us if you need assistance.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Update as of March 30, 2011: As promised, the photo has been updated to be an actual image of the soup from dinner tonight. Try this low-fat, healthy recipe … and trust us, don’t leave it out – the masa harina makes a big difference!

This isn’t your mom’s chicken soup, though it may clear your sinuses. A quick hearty and healthy chicken tortilla soup bathed in a sultry selection of spices. Warning: may melt your socks off.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine the chicken, broth, chilies, tomatoes, onion power, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, black pepper, sea salt, cilantro and garlic in a large pot.
2. Bring to a rolling boil, stirring frequently.
3. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Remove about 1/3 cup of broth from the pot with a large spoon and pour into a mixing boil or cup.
5. Slowly whisk the 1/4 cup of masa harina into the broth about a tablespoon at a time. Whisk until smooth.
6. Stir the broth/masa harina mixture back into the soup (NOTE: Don’t put the masa harina directly into the soup pot or it will clump).
7. Add corn and continue to simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Serve with shredded sharp cheddar cheese and tortilla chips.

Serving size: 2 cups
Calories per serving: 314
Fat: 3.4 grams (31 calories or 9.9%)