Axiom's Going To The Dogs

Despite what this blog may suggest, our biggest passion here at Axiom isn't social media or technology trends. When we go home at the end of the day, many of us are greeted by our pets...especially dogs.

And with today being National Take Your Dog To Work Day, we decided to take some time to show some office-wide appreciation for our favorite furry friends.

But since building regulations wouldn't allow the dogs to run around here at the office, we are meeting later on today at 3pm at Centennial Lakes Park in Bloomington to let the dogs meet and play.

So if you're in the area and want to stop by, feel free to come meet the dogs behind Team Axiom or bring a four-legged friend of your own.

I'm sure it's going to be a fun afternoon, and I'm still thinking of a way to sneak my dog Buck underneath my desk one of these days.

Facebook Gives Twitter An App-Kicking

The story that broke yesterday about Twitter's Facebook app (which allows you to automatically follow your Facebook friends) didn't take long to dominate the social media news headlines.

It also didn't take Facebook long to slap the idea down.

Many social media junkies, myself included, were looking forward to seeing some real integration between the two social networking giants. However, the move by Facebook shows that this power couple is not going to happen anytime soon.

Twitter has yet to issue any sort of response, but my guess is that they won't be pleased with Mr. Zuckerberg. More importantly, we could see Twitter making more efforts to integrate other smaller social networks to offer some real competition between the two.

We'll Leave The 'Like' On For You

Now that more people are taking vacations rather than stay-cations, the hospitality industry is focusing less on just surviving and more on competing and thriving.

And lately, we're seeing more and more hotels working to build buzz and get room bookings rather than worrying about the dollars themselves.

For instance, I just read how the Hyatt Regency Cambridge is offering customers a chance for free Wi-Fi for one night. The catch? You have to "like" them on Facebook.

This move by Hyatt just goes to show the extent to which hotels will go to establish a social media presence. And considering the per-night charge for Wi-Fi at the Hyatt is $12.95, they are essentially paying 13 bucks for a Facebook like.

This could prove to be a good move on Hyatt's part, but considering how many hotels are offering free Wi-Fi already, it's hard to say how this promotion will play out.

What we do know is that the decline of the stay-cation should signal the rise of the hospitality industry.

What's The Next Chapter For E-Readers?

Since it's Monday I thought I'd look at what's going on in the world of technology, and one story in particular stood out to me. Barnes & Noble dropped the price of their Nook e-reader and released an even-cheaper Wi-Fi Nook as well.

Some people are saying this is the beginning of a heated e-reader war, but I'm not convinced.

The major theme in technology over the last couple of years has been devices with multiple capabilities. I mentioned it in a post last week about the gaming industry, and it holds true here.

I think it's a good move on B&N's part that will hopefully push other e-readers to innovate, but I don't know if it's enough to keep the market afloat long term. Tablets have been hailed as an e-reader killer since before their release, and the early success they've had points to that being the case.

I do think that the Nook has the best chance of success versus the Sony Pocket Reader or the Amazon Kindle, because it's being marketed and sold in the stores themselves. That's a smart move because it's capitalizing on their existing demographic that's already passionate about reading and loyal to the brand.

Only time will tell if this move will lead to continued success, or if newer multi-function mobile devices will close the book on the e-reader market.

Axiom's 140-Character Conundrum

For the tweeting masses out there, the thought of having your account hacked is a nightmare.

A couple of months ago that fear became a reality for us here at Axiom when our @AxiomPR account was hacked. Okay, maybe that's a bit melodramatic, but it was still a headache.

So we called in the problem to the Twitter police/tech support and created a new account, @AxiomCom, assuming that @AxiomPR was a lost cause.

Well just last week @AxiomPR was returned to our control, leading to a bit of a dilemma. Do we go back to our @AxiomPR account? Or do we stick with our newer @AxiomCom account and ditch the old one?

Our @AxiomPR has over 3,000 followers, but many of them are spam or inactive. On the other hand, @AxiomCom has a little over 200 followers, but those are all active followers that made the switch when we made the new account.

Part of the reason for creating the Axiom Twitter account was to help promote this Daily Axioms blog (which, on a side note, is approaching it's 15,000th visit!), and it's been successful. But this issue raises an important question that many people and businesses have had or will have to face.

Should we return to the old account with huge numbers? Or should we ditch the old account and stick with our newer account? What do you think?