Season's Tweetings

Image by thedabble via Flickr

'Twas soon to be #Christmas
#SMBMSP
And tweeters were tweeting
Like @NicoleDeB
Plus @AlbertMaruggi
@keithprivette @rickmahn
@sborsch @mitchellhislop
And @arikhanson
@MegCanada tweets @MrChristopherL
@bstemmler keeps filming
@stremcha rings a bell
@chrisnulty and @philson
@leeodden @gregswan
@quick13 @bradwellman
The tweets just go on:
@mnheadhunter @ThreeDeep
And @desaraeV
And @amysbryant and @davidtc
@timbursch @donmball
Tweet @myklroventine
Who RT's @Kayloire
And @audiencemachine
This tweeting could go on
'Til 2010
So unhand your handhelds
And #MacBooks and then
Eat #bacon and celebrate all that you can
'Til #SMBMSP happens again.

Tweet this

Old dogs, new tricks

Image via CrunchBase

As I've trudged through the mass migration from old media to new, I've trod many paths.

I'm a Facebook failure. Not popular enough.
As a blogger, others are wittier.
As for establishing a personal brand, I have none.
But twittering -- for others -- is a fit.

That's where my ability to clarify conversations shines. Taking useful content. Boiling it down to 140 characters. The years I spent writing ad copy for radio, shrinking messages from :60 seconds to :30 to :15 to :10 prepared me perfectly for tweeting.

For others.

That's the copywriting skill, as opposed to the original journalism or personal branding piece.

I don't have a brand. So my personal tweets have been bland.
But others have brands I can be passionate about. So I am the happy, useful voice of several brands. And that employs my writing, my judgment, my experience, my passion, my marketing, my talent for connecting.

And my sense of fun.

tweet tweet

Image by Zesmerelda via Flickr

Been twittering for several months now and am just about twittered out. Really have nothing to say. Few do. Most of the "peeps" (people) I follow twitter about new media, which interested me when it was new to me. But now it's not. Yes, it's a sea change. Yes, it's a revolution in the way we do business, but it's just a tool. I'm familiar with it now and I use it, but it's just another tool in my toolbox. Time to move on.

Congressional tweets

Image via Wikipedia

My Congressmember, Erik Paulsen, is on twitter. And MySpace and Facebook and LinkedIn and YouTube and pretty much everywhere a person can be networked. Good for him. I'm glad to see my Representative using new media.

But how is he using it, to speak or to listen?

I tweeted him. Impressed with Obama's State of the Union call to set aside old partisan politics, I asked Paulsen how he would work with the President. No response. Paulsen (or someone in his office) had time to continue tweeting, posting a link to a newspaper story about Paulsen. Subsequent Paulsen tweets posted links to new YouTube videos, as well as a request for questions to ask at a Financial Services hearing. So I tweeted, "How will you insure banks don't use TARP money for lobbying?"

The demands of Twittering can be intense, and Congress has important work to do. But if my Congressmember has time for Facebook and LinkedIn and YouTube videos; if he makes time to offer his comments to traditional media, he can use the new technology to listen to and respond to his constitutents. I follow my Congressmember. Should my Congressmember follow me?

All a twitter

Image by Kevglobal via Flickr

Just went to Mr.Tweet, Your Personal Networking Assistant for twitter. Thirty minutes later he (she? it?) had found 200 people for me to follow; people who write and think about things that interest me. I'm not going to follow all 200, but I clicked the "Follow" button for so many that I'll have to switch from my twitter gadget to a tweetdeck. I remember the old days when I thought a gadget was cool;  two, two-and-a-half weeks ago.

When all of this was new to me (two, two-and-a-half months ago) I thought it was funny.    Not any more.  When did that happen?  Two, two-and-half minutes ago? 

Beards+Social Media=Win

Image via Wikipedia

Beards Social Media=Win

Posted using ShareThis


There was a flurry of tweets this afternoon about new media guys and beards, and I thought, "What? Someone is bearding for Mashable??? For Chris Brogan?!?" See, beard has more than a single meaning. It can also mean someone who covers for a homosexual or loosely construed to simply mean someone who covers for someone else. So on seeing famous names and "beards" in the same tweets, my first reaction was that someone was bearding these social media thought leaders; assuming their online identities and faking tweets and posts. But no. I went to the source, the clever Lost Jacket site and read the original. Go to the source. Grow your own beard. And enjoy.

Un-networking

Image via Wikipedia

You can divorce him, but can you keep him out of your social network?

If you've got a blog, a twitter account, or any kind of online presence, how can you keep an ex- out of your network? You can ignore the Facebook friend invites; you don't have to LinkIn, but he can still read your blog, see your public profile, and follow you on twitter. What do you do?

New Media for Customer Service

And how not to use it.

If I were a marketer, a brand manager, or a CEO, I'd want to know when my product or service fell short. And I'd be grateful that I'm living in times like these when I can get instant feedback.

But no. Not at Qwest or ExpressScripts. No way to reach'em.

No twitter account. No e-mail. Nada.

I could twitter. I could complain on this blog and post on my Facebook wall. But I'm no Chris Brogan, with hundreds of followers.

What a missed opportunity for these companies! There are real glitches in their customer service systems costing them time and money. But they won't hear about from me. And they won't keep me as a customer.

To Tweet or not to Tweet

Image by mommy peace via FlickrTo paraphrase Shakespeare, that is the question. Would he have twittered? Would #WillonAvon have sent off sparks all day? What would this have done to his work?

@WillonAvon What light through yonder window breaks?
@WillonAvon Working on new play: Romeo and help! need name
@KitMarlowe Ethel
@DarkLady Pearl
@EssexEarl Elizabeth
@Touchstone Phoebe lol!
@Pyramus Thisbe
@DickIII Constance
@Antonio Maria
@Ben Beatrice
@TheatreLover Liking Ethel. Also Nancy, Margaret, Isabella, Porsche, see my list at tinyurl.xy.co
@WillonAvon Ale with #KitMarlowe, #DarkLady, #EssexEarl
@WillonAvon Twitter. Rhymes with litter, glitter, flitter, titter, bitter. Ah, well, off to sleep perchance to... drool

Could have happened.