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The Social Annie-versary Experiment

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Jeff

Today, my wife Annie and I celebrate 9 years of wedded bliss. Okay, so it hasn’t been all bliss, but if I had it to do over, I wouldn’t change a thing. And hey, that’s more than a lot of people can say these days (my wife included, I think).

Photo courtesy KC Brock

As the saying goes, opposites attract. That’s certainly true in a lot of areas for us. One of those areas is the internet and social media. I’m heavily involved in both while my wife may occasionally send a friend an e-mail. She could certainly do more in the space, she just chooses not to.

Still, sometimes I find myself wishing she’d stumbled upon my latest witty comment or random musing on her own instead of having to ask her to pause the DVR long enough so that I can read them to her out loud. Sort of loses a bit of its magic that way, you know?

In comes the Social Annie-versary Experiment, an idea I came up with just yesterday (far be it from me to avoid last minute anniversary ideas now).

Watch the video for the whole scoop. And let me know your thoughts regarding social media and the experiment itself. Is she better off staying away from Facebook and Twitter, et al?

You can help by commenting and/or spreading the word on Facebook and Twitter – use the hashtag #nothings – when you tweet/update ‘sweet nothings’ to your significant other. I’ll peruse them throughout the day and may use my favorites on my honey (feel free to do the same). Maybe before the day is over, you and I will have a crowd-sourced list of great ‘sweet nothings’ we can save for just the right moment.

Oh, and I may as well kick off the sweet nothings right here:

Honey, I love you more and more every day I’m alive.

Filed under: Facebook, Social Media, Twitter, Web 2.0, YouTube | Tagged: anniversary, experiment, Facebook, social, Social Media, Twitter | 2 Comments »

The Only Book on Social Media Marketing You’ll Ever Need

Posted on November 30, 2009 by Jeff

Several months ago I promised Tamar Weinberg I’d do a video review of her book The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web. My apologies to her for taking so long to get around to it. After all, how hard can a video book review be, right?

After being sidetracked with other projects shortly after reading the first two-thirds, I finally got around to finishing it recently. If you buy one book on social media, do yourself a favor and make it this one.

For the ultimate review of Tamar’s new book, check out this video from Polar Unlimited.

Filed under: Books, Marketing, Reviews, Social Media, YouTube | Tagged: book, delicious, Facebook, Marketing, review, Social Media, StumbleUpon, Tamar Weinberg, Twitter, video, YouTube | Leave a comment »

Sales and Social Media: PB & J or Oil and Water?

Posted on November 4, 2009 by Jeff

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of delivering a presentation to our company’s Business Development Directors on the benefits of considering certain social media tools to reach their goals.

Mixing sales (or marketing) and social media is, of course, done by companies and individuals all over the world every day. But, if your social media approach is lead by what you’re going to get out of it (ulterior motives) as opposed to shining the spotlight on other people (altruistic motives), make no mistake that people will see right through it.

My main point then was two-fold. If you’re not participating, that doesn’t mean the conversations aren’t happening, they simply go on without you. And, once in the game, are you there for the right reasons? If it’s primarily to add value to whatever community you’re in and to help whenever possible, then the answer is yes.

Thanks to Brian Solis, Olivier Blanchard, John Haydon, Chris Brogan and everyone else who inspires me every day to aide those around me in their quest to make sense of all this stuff. By the way, I tried embedding the presentation here but apparently wordpress.com doesn’t like Prezi. At least they’re not playing well together. Instead, I’ve included the public link. I hope you like it.

Sales and Social Media: PB & J or Oil and Water?

Filed under: Business, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, WAY-FM, Web 2.0, YouTube | Tagged: Bob Garfield, Brian Solis, Chick-Fil-A, Chris Brogan, Dan Schawbel, Geek Breakfast, JetBlue, John Haydon, Marketing, Olivier Blanchard, sales, Social Media, Southwest, Tamar Weinberg, Toni Birdsong, WAY-FM, Zappos | 4 Comments »

Chris Brogan, Trust Agents and Social Media: Old-Fashioned Common Sense

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Jeff

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of sitting in on a presentation made my Chris Brogan. Through Thursday you can purchase a DVD of the event. Christine Taylor and JTMar partnered with Stage Post Studios to not only make Chris available in person to several hundred Nashvillians, but they also streamed the event online, including incorporating questions via Twitter and by phone all in real time. Everyone in attendance also receive an autographed copy of Chris’ new book Trust Agents, written with Julien Smith.

Chris Brogan, co-author of Trust Agents

Photo credit, affiliatesummit

The name Chris Brogan has become synonymous with all things social media. Many consider him to be the authority on the subject and the single best example for individuals desiring to be viewed as thought leaders and influencers and for companies hoping to more intimately connect with customers.

Needless to say, none of us were disappointed. However, I did find myself continually thinking, “This all sounds so familiar.” Chris himself mentioned more than once that so much of what works in the online world is truly nothing more than good ol’ fashioned common sense. Help other people first.

I think Zig Ziglar said it best years ago: “You can get everything in life you want, if you can just help enough other people get what they want.” You could even go back a little further. Remember the Golden Rule? To paraphrase, it says, in essence, treat other people the way you yourself desire to be treated. Or, as Chris so succinctly puts it, exercise some “common sense.”

Julien Smith, co-author of Trust Agents

Photo credit, affiliatesummit

It shouldn’t be hard, right? Yet every day, each of us finds ourselves interacting with someone who has either failed to understand it, or understands it and is simply choosing to ignore it (maybe, heaven forbid, it’s that person in the mirror). The best illustration I’ve ever heard that really helped to put this into perspective came from Chris yesterday.

Imagine someone you’re being introduced to for the first time has just reached out to shake your hand. You oblige and then waste no time as you stick your tongue in their mouth.

As extreme as that sounds, it’s essentially what so many who don’t “get it” are doing every day. How many times do you receive a friend request on Facebook (or a “follow” on Twitter or, name your platform) from someone you don’t know – and who hasn’t taken the time to even include a personal message of introduction – that is soon followed by a note about what services or product they offer that you might be interested in?

If you’ve ever chatted with someone with experience waiting tables, you’re likely to find they view the Sunday “after church” crowd as one of the worst group of tippers around (at least that’s what my anecdotal research reveals). In some cases, the waiter or waitress is more likely to find a tract (a plan of salvation) than a tip once the table empties (just what the world needs: Christians who go around sticking their tongues in people’s mouths).

I’m embarrassed to admit that 25 years ago, as a young believer, I actually did this. Mind you, I left a tip too, but apparently had no problem with leaving a stranger’s eternal destination up to a piece of paper. As far as I was concerned, I’d fulfilled my obligation. If the message didn’t sink in, that was their problem. Investing in people’s lives was hard. This was so much easier. “Hurray, I planted another seed,” I told myself.

Did any of them take root? The evidence is weak at best. Let’s just say that if and when I get to heaven, I doubt there will be anyone eager to shake my hand.

This post is dedicated to my grandfather, William Otis Holladay, who, at 91, passed away earlier today. A veteran of World War II, he was the epitome of common sense. I have no doubt that in heaven, there is a long line ready to greet him.

Filed under: Books, Branding, Business, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, Web 2.0 | Tagged: Chris Brogan, Christine G Taylor, common sense, JTMar, Julien Smith, Social Media, Stage Post Productions, Trust Agents | 7 Comments »

Geek Breakfast!

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Jeff

In March 2009, I attended my first Podcamp Nashville. While there I got to meet, or hear speak, a couple of people I’d been following (and admiring) on Twitter for a little while.

One of those folks was Dave Delaney (@davedelaney on Twitter). Soon after, I discovered Dave had organized what he referred to as a Geek Breakfast group on Facebook. He describes the group as, “A casual monthly meet-up over coffee and breakfast to discuss new media, podcasting, blogging, programming, open source, social networks and more.” I quickly joined. Later, I discovered a group had also been created for Hendersonville (a community north of Nashville) by Bill Seaver (@billseaver on Twitter).

I soon realized though that, while joining these Facebook groups would no doubt bring into my life many new and exciting friendships, the proximately of my home and work to both of these areas would make it difficult to make one of the monthly gatherings any time soon.

I proceded to check the Geek Breakfast headquarters and saw that, while there was a Murfreesboro group in addition to Nashville and Hendersonville, there wasn’t a south of Nashville, Franklin/Spring Hill group of any kind. If you know the Franklin and Spring Hill, Tennessee areas at all, you know that over the last 10 years Spring Hill and the Franklin area of Cool Springs have grown significantly.

It just didn’t seem right for there not to be a Franklin – Spring Hill Geek Breakfast Group. So, I did what anyone else would’ve done in my situation. I formed my own. Honestly, I did it without giving much thought to preparation and planning, the investment of time, recruiting people, any of that. I just did it.

So, now, here I sit eagerly anticipating the development of this new group. As soon as I can secure a location and date, I’ll pass the info along both on Facebook and here on my blog under the Geek Breakfast tab.

I hope if you live or work near this sprawling area of middle Tennessee you’ll consider joining us. And, if you have any suggestions on how to make it better, don’t hesitate to let me know.

Thanks!

Filed under: Blogging, Geek Breakfast, Podcasting, Social Media, Web 2.0 | Tagged: Blogging, blogs, Conversation, Facebook, friends, Geek Breakfast, podcasts, Social Media, social networks, Web 2.0 | Leave a comment »

Why Are You Thumbing Your Nose At Twitter?

Posted on January 15, 2009 by Jeff

As you’ve no doubt heard, earlier today a US Airways flight, in a losing fight with a flock of geese, ended up in the Hudson River. Miraculously, not one of the 155 passengers or crew was seriously hurt.

You may have noticed, if you watched the news or read about it online, that one particular photo continued to turn up just about everywhere.

Passengers stand on the wing waiting for their turn.

The image was taken by Janis Krums on his cell phone which he then uploaded to TwitPic, a Twitter client that makes it easy to broadcast, or “tweet,” your photos. You send a picture mail to TwitPic and it automatically syncs it with your Twitter account, broadcasting a message (or tweet) based on what you put in the subject line of your picture mail, along with a shortened link directly to the image itself. Twitter, by the way, gives you a maximum of 140 characters to state your message.

In Janis’ case, he tweeted this message:

http://twitpic.com/135xa – There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.

This afternoon before I left to come home from work, over 40,000 people had clicked that link – just an hour or two after it was taken. At the time I’m writing this (almost midnight) that number has more than doubled.

I’m not sure how many followers Janis began the day with (he’s at just over 2100 now), but suffice it to say, some of them “Re-Tweeted” (RT) or forwarded the above tweet, sharing it with their followers as well.

In fact, before today, I’d never heard of Janis, but one of my followers mentioned the image and the link and before I knew it, I was “tweeting” about Janis and his snapshot to all of my other followers as well.

It is utterly amazing to me how fast this kind of thing can move on a platform such as Twitter. I even heard Janis being interviewed on CNN, made popular, no doubt, by his now widely-seen photograph. According to his twitter page, he’s on MSNBC next.

Interestingly, Janis himself commented on Twitter in a post on his own blog just three days ago. In it he says:

What can you say in 140 characters or less? Can you be effective with less words? There is no room for wordiness. You need to be on point with your message as quickly as possible.

I don’t know about you, but I think he followed his own advice pretty well.

And wouldn’t you know it, just last week, I argued via Twitter with an industry colleague of mine on it’s effectiveness and future. In a direct message (DM) to me he stated:

I wonder how many people are twittering? I guess this will have jumped the shark when I see a sitcom episode around it.

Needless to say, we didn’t see eye to-eye – or should I say tweet-to-tweet – on the usefulness of Twitter. However, I believe if you’re not participating in the conversation and attempting to engage your customers and those you care about in this environment, people may soon be saying it’s your company that has “jumped the shark.”

For a great example of one company’s use of Twitter, check out @comcastcares. Their approach may not apply to your industry in every way, but I’ll bet you still find plenty of take aways.

Filed under: Social Media, Twitter, Web 2.0 | Tagged: Crash, Flight 1549, Hudson River, News, Social Media, Twitter, US Airways, Web 2.0 | 6 Comments »

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