Oh No! Facebook fan page rating plummets to One Star! (But number of fans more than doubles!)

Early in November, while on Facebook, I noticed that my Peak Performance Philanthropy fan page had attained a 5-star rating and a very high post quality score.

I proposed an experiment and promised to report back. The results are in.

The 5-stars rating has dropped to a measly 1-star. Why? Lack of interaction on the part of the fans. I guess the subsequent posts haven't been very engaging. Thus, the rolling 7-day average caused four of the stars to disappear.

What apparently created the "high post quality" score was a flurry of interactions in response to postings on Sesame Street and the election results in Maine. Over several days, there was an abundance of comments, likes, and wall postings. Together, they drove the quality score up to 112. Today, it's zero! On the chart at left, you can see several days' worth of interactions that elevated the post quality score ... preceded and followed by a flat-line. Not that I take this personally, but would it hurt you to click on like? Or jot a comment? Or even scrawl something on the wall?

What's really revealing is how few people need to do something to move the score. Less than eight people total "interacted" over a three day period to create the sky-high 112 quality score. Imagine if LOTS of people "interacted"?

Some of you did what I asked, and invited some of your friends to join the fan page. You can see the spike in total fan count that occurred just after the November 5 posting (in the red oval). That growth curve has continued at a slightly accelerated rate, so that, as of today, there are 64 fans of the page ... more than double what there were just 25 days ago!

So, not only was there an immediate bump in fan count ... but the "natural" growth was steeper after the experiment than before, perhaps attributable to the viral nature of social media. (Also, the fans are now from all over the world, including Canada, New Zealand, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. Before the experiment, you were all from the United States. Now, we have a multi-national audience!)

At this rate, there will be 100 fans by New Year's Day!

What's also interesting is to compare the makeup of the fan base, before the experiment (top chart as of 11/4) and after (bottom chart as of today). Or maybe it's not all that interesting, because the percentages didn't change all that much. Still slightly more male (53%) than female (45%).

Age-wise: not a striking change here either, but there's been a swing toward older fans.

Age 25-44:
Before, was 52%, now only 41%.

Age 45+:
Before, was 44%; now 56%.

So, what does this all mean? Beats me. What do you think?

And, if you're so inclined, I also invite you to visit the Peak Performance Philanthropy fan page (click here). Click on Suggest to Friends, carefully select some friends who might be interested in how people experience the joy of giving to their favorite causes (plus a smattering of other stuff with dubious relevance). In other words, invite some of your friends to become fans of this page.

My take-aways:

• I need to post more frequently.
• The posts need to be more relevant to your interests.

Let's see where this takes us.

Brand name power: Motorized DWI chair for sale on eBay (but it's not a La-Z-Boy!)

OK, now, this is just plain weird.

A Minnesota man pleaded guilty for driving while intoxicated in a recliner.

The man who built the machine, Dennis Anderson, 61, was driving it from one bar to another in late August in Proctor, MN. He hit a parked car while in the chair, and he then tested .29% on a breath alcohol test. He was arrested for DWI and sentenced to 180 days in jail when he pleaded guilty.

The jail time was stayed providing for a 2 year probationary period, but Anderson forfeited his chair and forked over $2,000 to the state in fines.

The chair is a traditional recliner, but it includes a converted gas-powered lawnmower engine. The engine is connected to a steering wheel, and the chair is also outfitted with headlights, roll bars, a stereo and cup holders. The chair is reported to run about 20 miles per hour at full throttle. But, to fully disclose its condition, I must share that the seat cushion is missing.

Apparently having no internal use for the vehicle, the Proctor police department put the chair/vehicle on eBay for auction, calling the item the DWI La-Z-Boy. The closing bid on Friday was $37,300. Sadly for the police, the La-Z-Boy people invoked their VERO (VErified Rights of Ownership) with eBay, which pulled the item for inappropriately using the La-Z-Boy name.

Exhibiting remarkable perseverance, the Proctor police have re-posted the recliner without the La-Z-Boy name. As of the date/time this posting was made, 45 bids had been placed with just 2 days and 4 hours left to bid. At the moment, the current bid is only $5,800, which just goes to show the power of a good brand name!

If you want to place a bid, go here.

Now, don't you think you've squandered about as much time as you can afford on this? No??

Well, then, waste just a bit more by watching the video below.



Did I mention that the chair's builder/former owner is now selling autographer photos of him sitting in the chair on eBay? Is this the greatest country in the world, or what?!

Big Shout Out to Our Friends in Cyberspace

It's gratifying when people read your blog. It really is. Sometimes, one wonders: "Is anybody out there?"

Well, recently, traffic has been really picking up. In just the last 24 hours, look who has dropped by!

In California, visitors came from Cypress, Irvine, Los Angeles, Oakley, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, San Leandro and Vacaville.

From elsewhere in the US, people visited from Atlanta, Brooklyn, Buffalo Grove, Canton, Cheshire, Chicago, Dallas, Duncanville, East Longmeadow, Fairport, Glendale, Greenbrier, Houston, Jacksonville, Kissimmee, Louisville, Lyndhurst, Manhattan (the one in Kansas), Milwaukee, Mohawk, New York, Pella, Plano, Portland, Provo, Raleigh, Richmond, Seattle, Syracuse, Troy, Washington, DC and Yonkers.

Then there are the globetrotters who stopped by from Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Netherlands, and Switzerland.

All in the last day. Whew. I hope you found something useful here.

Isn't the World Wide Web wonderful?

09-09-09

In case you haven't noticed, today is September 9, 2009 -- the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth year.

Some numerologists feel that the date is an auspicious omen. But, for most people, it's likely to be just another day, and it will be what you make of it.

Still, today is the 252nd day of this year. Add 2+5+2, and you get "9." Ooooh! That's weird.

We're at the end of a run here, that started with 01-01-01 (that was January 1, 2001) and continued through:

• 02-02-02 February 2, 2002


• 03-03-03 March 3, 2003


• 04-04-04 April 4, 2004


• 05-05-05 May 5, 2005


• 06-06-06 June 6, 2006


• 07-07-07 July 7, 2007 and


• 08-08-08 August 8, 2008

This cycle won't repeat itself for another 100 years, and I won't be around.

So, I'm going to enjoy the day. I invite you to do the same.

Happy May Day!

April showers bring May flowers -- says the cliche. And it's now the merry month of May!

In Europe, today's the day they celebrate the onset of spring. It probably dates back to a pagan celebration. By the time of the Middle Ages, the Church had usurped the festival, and a virgin was selected as the May Queen. (Side note: One of the life highlights of my sister-in-law, Gail, was being the May Queen as young child in parochial school.) In the olden days (further back than when Gail was MQ) they'd carry the May Queen over the fields, trying to transfer her fertility to the soil.

Somehow or other, all of this morphed into the May pole dance that you might be familiar with.

And then there's other May Day references:

Of course, there's the pinko-commie connection. The socialist labor union declared May 1 as International Labor Day in Europe. This was in 1889. Seven years earlier (1882), our American labor movement had already decided Labor Day was the first Monday of September. We were ticked off that the foreigners had chosen a different day, so we retaliated. In 1894, our Congress made the September day a national holiday. Relations between socialists and red-blooded Americans haven't been the same since.

And then there's the May Day (or mayday) that is the distress signal for aircraft and ships. That one has nothing whatsoever to do with the others. My exhaustive research shows it is an adaptation of the French expression (venez) m'aider "(come) help me!"

I share these tidbits in order to demonstrate my ability to share information of dubious relevance. Can you tell it's Friday? Can you tell I'm avoiding real work?

Enjoy the flowers of May!