Tag: review

How Not to Master Social Media!

As many of you know I went to a Mastering Social Media Course a few weeks ago run by @thomaspower of Ecademy.  Some of you found that very laughable, but I genuinely wanted to learn.  I hummed and hawed about attending the session, mainly due to the cost as it was £420 inclusive of vat.  However, I was assured by a colleague of his that it would be well worth the money and I hold her in high-esteem.  I received the course outline prior to the course, there were one or two things I was happy with but I was very keen to learn the rest.

Hubby and I sat down and talked about it, as I would like to go in the direction of Social Media Training, we decided that it would be a good investment.  In the end, the whole day cost me in excess of £500, which we can’t really afford, once you factored in train fare, parking, and child care and I do appreciate the latter is not their issue.

Unfortunately, I don’t feel that they covered what was advertised, which contravenes the Trading Standards Act.  Below is the course outline as advertised.  I have highlighted in red what I ‘feel’ they did not cover satisfactorily.

  • How to grow your Twitter followers –we only sent one tweet and were not shown how to use the search facility to find people.
  • How to blog and grow your blog followers – I was surprised that you opted to use your own subscription blogging platform and not one of the more widely used ones (wordpress, blogger or typepad)
  • How to record and upload Youtube video and grow your video followers –Penny did demonstrate how to take a video using a flipcam, however most of attendees had iphones and we were not shown how to upload them to youtube.
  • How to feed Twitter and all your social networks into Friendfeed so you can watch your own news channel and filter faster – you did cover this, but found it interesting that friendfeed is no longer popular.  In fact, I embarrassed myself mentioning it on Twitter.
  • How to distribute all your content across the web using managed feeds – we did sign up to Google Profiles but it really wasn’t clear how to actually use it.  I was also surprised that 3rd party clients such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck weren’t mentioned.
  • How to set up My6Sense on your iPhone or Android to notice and share the right information to attract and grow your followers – have it on my phone now but haven’t used it since.
  • How to use location services FourSquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places to grow your brand – prior to the course we were asked to register with these but we did not touch any of them.
  • How to build Facebook pages to grow your brand worldwide – We didn’t even look at a Facebook Fan Page.
  • How to build your Linkedin network to find more clients faster – prior to the course we were asked to register with LinkIn but we didn’t touch on it on the course.
  • How to use Quora and realize why Q&A is the hit of 2011 – I now have the app on my phone but clueless on what to do with it.
  • How to use Gmail to radically reduce your email time – yes, this was covered but it took about 30 seconds to show us how to use the priority inbox.
  • How to identify and raise your Klout and PeerIndex online influence score – yes, I have a good klout score but what do I do with it?

I was very reluctant to complain as they were a very nice couple, good presenters, welcoming and very successful as a brand.  Nonetheless, I’ve asked for a full refund unfortunately, they have point blank refused stating that they had overwhelming positive feedback (95%) from the course.

However, I’m having troubles believing this as two people spoke to me directly after the course saying that they were unhappy and I have had four others contact me privately via Twitter saying they too didn’t feel the course met their objectives either.  Is it 95% of the 14 attendees or 95% of evaluations received as I know I didn’t fill one out as I didn’t have anything positive to say?  My maths isn’t too bad but 6 out of 14 is a lot less than 95%.  I have now also learned that one other person has also asked for their money back.

However, he did offer to give me some feedback?????  The bottom line is they didn’t cover what was advertised, as you can see above and I would like my money back.

I would appreciate any advice on how I can take this further?  I will be popping into the citizen’s advice bureau tomorrow.  I did try to deal with this quietly and with dignity but they don’t seem to be listening.  I can’t help thinking if they had any business sense they should have given me back my money and I would have gone away quietly.

In addition, if you attended the course I would appreciate your feedback whether it is positive or negative.  If you feel the course was worthwhile, then please say so and I will drop my case.

Thank you in advance,

Chrissie

Please note: That the views in this post are my own, but the views in the comments section are those of the individual author and whilst I believe in free speech, I take no responsibility for their opinion. I will endeavour to remove any comments which could be deemed as libellous/racist/etc.

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Simply Pure

Madame insisted that I wash her beloved Bunny that she has had since birth.  It’s been in the washing basket for ages but I was reluctant to wash it especially after seing what happened to @missielizzieb’s vintage pooh when she put it in the washing machine!  It ended up costing them £400 to replace or fix the washing machine, I can’t remember which.

After a few hilarious conversations on twitter; one with a surgeon, who, when children bring their teddies into the theatre he always makes sure that the teddy is turned away so it doesn’t see any blood or gore!  Bless! Another attempted to wash a Father Christmas soft toy and it stood bolt upright the whole time, which apparently caused roars of laughter, we decided to brave it and wash bunny.

We used Simply Pure Hypoallergenic washing tabs (£2.89) that I’d been sent to review, which have been dermatologically tested, approved by the National Eczema Society, Phosphate free and Vegan.  I did chuckle at the last one as I couldn’t help wonder why people would eat them.  Don’t worry I do know that it means that Vegan’s don’t wish to consume anything with animal products in them.  The tabs do look slightly suspicious and I wouldn’t want to try and get them through Customs in my luggage.

Thankfully, Bunny survived the wash and I think a picture says a 1000 words.  They were the same colour when I started and Madame says Bunny smells ‘clean’.  Weirdly, I’ve done all of my laundry with the tabs as they are pure there is no scent but they do smell really clean???

I am a member of the Netmums Blogging Network, a unique community of parent bloggers from around the UK who have been handpicked by the Netmums team to review products and brands on their behalf. I am paid an expenses fee to cover my time (and childcare if the fee is big enough!) but Netmums have no editorial control whatsoever about what I blog about. Being a member of the Netmums Blogging Network means that I get to try out products and brands and get my expenses covered but that I retain full editorial integrity.

Polly Parrot, Peppa Pig App

Available from Itunes for £1.79

‘In addition to being a mum of a 3 year old, I used to be a former primary school teacher and I’ve been an ICT trainer for 10+ years (I do software/hardware training in schools). All apps that ‘we’ review are not only trialled by Madame but I’ve also had a good play with them.’

We were sent the New Peppa Pig App, Polly Parrot, from P2 to try out.  Madame loves it just as much as she loved the Happy Mrs. Chicken App. It has 3 activities: The Talking Parrot game, Where’s Polly and Feed Polly. However, as a mum, I cast my eye over it and there really isn’t a lot of educational content.

There is a smattering of numeracy in the Feed Polly game, as the children have to correctly count the number of crackers you give Polly.  However, Find Polly just has kids exploring screens looking for the parrot behind the sofa etc which is a bit random and the Talking Parrot game just has them select 3 pictures and then the parrot says a silly sentence.  Although, Madame did find this hilarious

However, I do like the ability to be able to collect stickers as they go along.  One note for the developers, when you exit the game it would possibly be better to have a smiley face or frowny face instead of an ‘X’ or ‘✔’ to confirm that you want to exit as the little ones really don’t understand these symbols yet.

So overall here is what we thought:

[xrrgroup][xrr label=”Educational Content:” rating=”2/5″ group=”s1″ ] [xrr label=”Fun:” rating=”4/5″ group=”s1″] [xrr label=”Ease of Use:” rating=”4/5″ group=”s1″] [xrr label=”Age Appropriateness:” rating=”4/5″ group=”s1″] [xrr label=”Value for Money:” rating=”3/5″ group=”s1″] [xrr label=”Overall:” overall=true group=”s1″ ][/xrrgroup]

Monster Detector

Available from Itunes for £.59

space
‘In addition to being a mum of a 3 year old, I used to be a former primary school teacher and I’ve been an ICT trainer for 10+ years (I do software/hardware training in schools). All apps that ‘we’ review are not only trialled by Madame but I’ve also had a good play with them.’

In the last few months Madame has developed a fear of monsters and has taken to sleeping with the light on. Apparently they come out of the mirror and go up the chimney, plus, there’s a little brown one that comes out of the toy box and runs over and pulls her hair. It took all my power of control not to giggle out loud when she told me.

For a laugh, I downloaded the Monster Detector App. I personally think it’s crap. There’s only one screen. You push the scan button a few lights flash and then it says ‘no monsters detected’. That’s it, no different screens or different results. Not that I wanted it to say there’s a monster in the room.

However, Madame loves it and she runs around checking all the rooms in the house. So, I guess it wasn’t a complete waste of money if it helps her sleep.

Here’s what we thought:
[xrrgroup][xrr label=”Educational Content:” rating=”0/5″ group=”s1″ ] [xrr label=”Fun:” rating=”3/5″ group=”s1″] [xrr label=”Ease of Use:” rating=”4/5″ group=”s1″] [xrr label=”Age Appropriateness:” rating=”4/5″ group=”s1″] [xrr label=”Value for Money:” rating=”1/5″ group=”s1″] [xrr label=”Overall:” overall=true group=”s1″ ][/xrrgroup]

My New Gadget (Apple TV)

It all started when I wanted to find a way to get movies from my laptop to the TV without having to burn them onto DVD’s.  After a lot of conversation with the lovely Mark (@thelongmile), I decided to purchase an Apple TV and if you’re like me the first thing you need to know is that it’s not actually a TV.  It’s a small device that you connect to your TV which allows you to stream content from ITunes on your computer to your TV wirelessly.  Plus, you can also purchase and rent videos from ITunes and you can also make back up copies of DVDs you already own.

Prior to buying it I did do a lot of research and the reviews were very mixed.  The biggest complaint was the lack of content in the UK compared to what’s available to Apple TV users in the US.  However, I weighed up all the options, including gaming consoles as they will do a similar thing, and in the end felt that since I was already an Iphone and Ipod user and was familiar with ITunes the Apple TV would be the best for me.

The first stumbling block was when I realised that I needed to have a flat screen TV with HDMI ports on it.  We had an ancient telly so it was time to get a new one anyhow.  After a lot of research we settled on a 32″ Samsung Full HD LED TV.

After a quick trip to the local Apple Store I returned home with the New Apple TV (£99).  As usual, with most Apple product the design is sexy and it’s surprisingly small.  For the most part it was fairly straightforward to install, the only complaints I have are down to operator error.  Only two cables, one power lead and one HDMI cable.  So if, unlike me, you read the instructions you should be fine.

A few notes about installation

  • You will need to purchase the HDMI cable separately.
  • You may have to change the source using your remote.  As I had plugged the Apple TV into HDMI port 2 that’s the one I selected.
  • Have your wireless usernames and passwords to hand before you install it.  I did find the remote a bit fiddly.  My wireless password is 26 characters long with a combination of case sensitive letters and numbers, which was a nightmare to enter on the alphabetic keyboard using the ditty remote.   I just about gave up but got it after the umpteenth attempt and loads of swearing.

The good news is you should only ever have to do this once.  Plus, there is a free Iphone App that will turn your phone into a remote for the Apple TV

  • Make sure you have the latest version of ITunes as you need V10.1 or higher…I didn’t and it took me ages to work out why it wasn’t working.
  • You will also have to set up home sharing, both in ITunes and on the Apple TV.

In ITunes:

Advanced>turn on home sharing

Enter your Apple ID and Password

On Apple TV:

Settings>Computers and turn on home sharing.

I’ve now started to make back-up copies of all Madame’s DVDs.  It’s a bit of a long winded process, especially since I’m a PC user and have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m getting the hang of it.  I have to use two programmes (DVD Encrypter and Handbrake).  However, this may mean no more scratched DVDs!

I’ll keep you posted on how I get on. I’m off to watch Inception with hubby which I downloaded earlier.