Social Media: The New Black

2011-08-21T00:37:00.007-04:00

A few weeks ago my friend Liz Henry posed a question on twitter questioning the trend of "personal branding." I responded with my opinion and later a link to a blog post Geoff Livingston filed ages ago; Liz included both in her blog post on the topic.

I finally had a chance to read her post and reader's comments and they prodded me to share more of my thinking on the topic than 140 characters provides.

By and large, I don't believe in personal branding. And I think that professionals who believe in personal branding are a detriment to the companies and brands with which they partner or service.

Allow me to explain.

If a business person, free agent, or corporate employee is branding themselves, that means they're competing with your Brand. Think about how much time is required to market something. If that person is working for you, they could have spent that time working on your business. How many opportunities for your business did they miss as they shilled themselves?

Liz's post examined the question for mom bloggers. I'd argue that a blog isn't always a personal brand. A blog is a product and potentially a revenue stream, just like other media companies such as the NY Times or AOL. Marketing a blog isn't personal branding. The blog may be personal in nature and content, but it's not necessarily a personal brand. It's just a brand. And a product that you make. And yes, you should market it.

The person behind the blog, the writer or reporter, is not the product. And if you spend your time building up that person as the product, you're putting your Brand and business at risk. Remember what happened to Wendy's marketing when Dave died? KFC and the Colonel? Have you noticed that Johnson baby products fall under a different "brand name" than other J&J products like Tylenol or Neutrogena? A benefit to that strategy is that the revered Baby brand remains isolated and therefore (hopefully) untainted, should anything happen to the company's other products.

A blogger can be a personality. And yes, you can pair and market a personality with a brand - to support the brand, to help shape the brand voice. Think William Shatner for Priceline. Suzanne Sommers for Thighmaster. Martha Stewart for Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart cookbooks, or Martha Stewart bedding. Gary Vaynerchuk for Wine Library.

The exception to the rule, are the handful of household names (often entertainers) who rise above their product to become a personal brand. This elite group includes names such as: Madonna, Cher, Oprah, and Britney. However, even these people started selling a product, creating a personality and then transcended to become the product.

My advice? Make something. Sell that. But never sell yourself.

2011-02-22T11:21:00.004-05:00

I drafted this post in February, meaning to come back and make it more robust, but let's face it, I've been swamped.
~*~
A few things that have caught my eye recently:

Task Ave: This app adds location element to your to do list. So if you need to pick up dry cleaning, the app will push out a reminder when you're nearby.

UnSocial: Connect via your LinkedIn profile, tag yourself, and this app will connect you to business people in your proximity that you'd like to meet.

Intersect: I love storytelling, so this is right up my alley. You enter a location and can post a pic from their and/or tell a story related to that exact location in the world.

2011-02-04T20:01:00.006-05:00

Looking Ahead: User Shared Content

My latest thinking on social is related to the evolution of how we're using it. A few years ago, social media was what some now call "static social". It was text based, updating blogs and wiki's and posting in forums.

Then we moved into the UGC phase, where people discovered the ease of creating and publishing their own content. Regular people and their cats became internet sensations. We loved it.

Today and moving forward, I think social is going to be about USC, or User Shared Content. More and more people are exposed to mass and niche sources for news and entertainment. People are spending so much time socializing and discovering news/information on the web, they don't have time to "create content" anymore and honestly, most would rather read or look at someone else's.

Instead, they can share it. And they can entertain friends and family and their new global social graph, by sharing links/pix/vids with a wider group of friends than ever before, who can like it and comment on it and share it some more.

USC a great opportunity for creatives and ad agencies, whom have the ability and resources to make some kickass content that is irresistibly shareable.

2010-10-03T23:05:00.004-04:00

A letter to CMO's, Brand Managers and in-house Marketers

Hi there:

More and more I hear from brands who've been disappointed by the work (or lack thereof) of a social media specialist. Some of these complaints are about well-known names in social media and practitioners backed by credible organizations like WOMMA, PRSA, and the AMA. With so-called "earned media" there are always going to be successes and failures, there are no guarantees here, but there are ways for brands to better vet who they work with in this field.

A Social Media search checklist:

Define your needs. Do you need a high-level strategist, creative, an educator on the tools, or a day-to-day team in the trenches with you? If you don't know what you need, survey your team or discuss your business goals during the RFP/vetting process and ask for input on a recommended scope of work.
Ask trusted sources for recommended SM specialists.
Find an example of a successful social media campaign that wowed you. Research who executed that and how. Share that example with your candidates so they better understand your idea of success.
Research the SM agency or individual. Check out their pages/accounts/blogs. Find out who they are. Look into their experience in the field.
Ask for case studies. While social media is still young, a lot of great work/campaigns have been done. Ask them what they've done. The proof is in the pudding. Even if they are providing high level strategy, I firmly believe they should have current work under their belt. How can you make a solid recommendation on approach, if you're not actively out there, working and accountable for the success of your ideas?
Ask direct questions about their work/role in their case studies. What was this person's contribution to the work? Who else contributed and how?
Ask for client references. Connect with their clients and seek feedback on the project or campaign.
Agree upon quantifiable program goals.
State clear timing expectations.
Be nimble. If an agreed upon approach isn't working, challenge your SM partner to develop a new approach. One of the best things about SM is that it IS a changing landscape and you can switch gears and try new things without a huge spend set in stone.

Good luck out there.

2010-08-08T20:44:00.008-04:00

Just back from Blogher '10. Here are my observations:

The team at Blogher does an excellent job pulling off a tricky event. Part professional conference, part reunion, part trade show, part retreat, this event is onion-like in layers. It's not easy to produce something that is so many things to so many people. Kudos to the team for tackling this challenge.
I will always love Blogher, if just for the fact this is my Ms. Magazine. I'm young enough to have benefited from the doors opened by the women's movement decades ago, and I'm old enough to have seen the glass ceiling firsthand. Blogher is powerful evidence that Madison Avenue and the C-suite now understand the buying power and purchasing decisions of the WOMAN of the house. That's huge. Blogher is evidence that woman have a seat at the proverbial table, rather than serving it. The awe of having "arrived" always hits me at Blogher.
The community checked itself before it wrecked itself. Last year was gross. Egregiously gross. And some of the blame goes to brands for acting like desperate boyfriends and getting into bed with anyone who had a URL and some the blame lays with community members who fell victim to the gold rush and embraced swag like guest stars on "Hoarders." Hey, it happens. But you know what Blogher's? You nipped that in the bud. Post-conference, you policed yourselves by talking about it on your blogs, acknowledging it and being accountable. This year was a completely different show. Well done.
More than any other year (I attended my first Blogher event in 2005), you felt like a community this year. Last year I felt this, and it was exciting but still new. It was like Freshman coming back to college after Christmas break. This year, it was like college sophomores coming back for Fall semester. You knew each other better - online and IRL, and there was a comfortable and familiar feeling as you ran into each other, hung out and caught up.
PR people. Good lord. I haven't seen that many PR people in one place since CES. Maybe b/c it was in NYC and so many agencies are there, or maybe it's because Blogher now has a seat at the proverbial table, but PR people were everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I looooooved seeing so many old friends, it just surprised me.

Now, here's where I think Blogher can improve:

Session programming needs some work. I attend this show as a blogger, albeit a lazy one, since I rarely dust off this antique (or the 3 other robust blogs I authored under nom de plumes from 1998-2006). I found very few sessions that interested me. Maybe they were poorly titled, I don't know.
Sessions need moderation. While I recognize the "community" and "sharing" aspect of Blogher, some rules need apply to panels. For example, this is not an opportunity for the audience to do improv/stand up, nor is it group therapy. I'm sure 5 of you will argue the latter (e.g. -"But we're bloggers, blogging is my therapy!") - go ahead and take it to my comments. This is a panel. The people on the panel have been chosen because a) they have stories to tell b) they have more experience than you c) you can learn from them d) they are accomplished e) people want to hear them speak and f) they are more important than you. Therefore, when you get the mic, please ask a question. I'm not here to hear your backstory and I don't need you to provide me with your backstory for the question...Just. Ask. Your. Question. Really. And Moderators, you should be on this. You should be setting the ground rules prior to Q&A and gently reminding audience members when they start to riff. Blogher organizers may disagree with me, but without good moderation, the audience is cheated from maximum interaction and learning.
Improve the sponsor experience. Since I knew so many people working booths, I heard lots of feedback. The Blogher team has a ripe opportunity to improve the sponsor experience and like every other company providing a service, they need to listen to their funders/investors/customers/partners and improve service. Blogher charges big money to sponsors for this conference - and rightly so. It's a valuable community to support, and Blogher does a great job integrating sponsors cross channel both virtually and on-site. However, there needs to be some attention to detail in regard to sponsors, after all, they're helping to fund this conference and the community. Why not offer them some good-old fashioned hospitality? Why not provide a few meal tickets to sponsors with booths? How about a small behind-the-scenes sponsor area for them to regroup, get coffee, tea or water? That suite or area could have a flat screen running a live tweet stream of all of the tagged #blogher and #blogher10 tweets so they can see the social interaction and social impact of the event in real time. And how about a bag for the sponsors - even if it isn't the coveted attendee bag (although 1-per booth would be nice) - Blogher could offer their own swag to sponsors (great opportunity for you to market yourselves to your valued partners!).
Sponsors: Be cool. This is a consumer event, even though it feels like a trade show. Educating me on your product or service is cool, I get it, that's why you're here. Overwhelming me when I stop in your booth with a camera crew and amped up host with a microphone to capture my reaction, not providing me with a release to sign nor asking to tape me, is bush league. C'mon son.

Net net, I'm thankful that Blogher hosts this event each year, it's no small feat and is a great service to the community. This year, it re-energized my interest in blogging, gave me face time with people I enjoy who live far away, and exposed me to some fascinating new people I will keep up with virtually.

2010-04-13T12:16:00.004-04:00

Promoted Tweets

Everyone's talking about Twitter's new revenue model called Promoted Tweets. What is it? In plain english, Promoted Tweets are just paid search. A brand buys some keywords from twitter, when the user searches for said keyword in twitter's search function, the paid search Brand tweets will rise to the top of the search queue and populate first, over the community's conversation that may incorporate the same keywords.

Someone like Justin Bieber probably won't need Promoted Tweets. However, this could have been very handy for Motrin, back in the day when the Motrin Moms debacle erupted. Or for Southwest Air when Kevin Smith shook up the tweetstream with his outrage. In instances like that, when thousands of people are chiming in and creating a tweetstorm, Promoted Tweets would help a Brand elevate their POV to high ground rather than drown in the tweet tsunami.

Am I wowed by Promoted Tweets? Not so much. Not yet, anyway. I've got my eye on the next gen of Promoted Tweets, that's gonna be the game changer.

The next gen of this model will change how tweets appear in your personal tweet stream. I have a feeling that's going to rock a lot of boats, which is why that's the next gen feature. Twitter is going to have to do a lot of testing before they roll that out. It sounds pretty invasive and in fact, may be outright disruptive.

According to the NY Times, "In the next phase of Twitter’s revenue plan, it will show promoted posts in a user’s Twitter stream, even if a user did not perform a search and does not follow the advertiser...For example, if someone has been following people who write about travel, they could see a promoted post from Virgin America on holiday fare discounts."

That's going to be tricky for Twitter to implement. Twitter users tend to be finicky curators of their "streams." A lot of people I know approach their tweet stream like a Bonsai project, ever so carefully pruning and cultivating to ensure they don't have spammers in there or people who are "too noisy" or too focused on a specific topic they aren't interested in or if they're like me, cultivating a stream that is the almost-perfect balance of lifestreamers who happen to work in fields related to mine or live in the Philly-area. Tweet streams are serious business for much of this dedicated community, so effecting the individual's curation of it may be a landmine for twitter.

That said, as an advertiser, if I could join a conversation about a topic related to my field or product and share information related to it, that does sound mighty appealing. For me, it's really going to boil down to the integration of the second generation of this product. Am I butting into someone's stream, or am I a blade of grass gently shooting up alongside the stream? Can't wait for the little blue bird to let us know.

2010-03-24T10:24:00.004-04:00

ShePosts.com: Part Gawker, Part Mashable and all Mommy Blogosphere.

Today, at noon EST, ShePosts.com will launch. This online news destination will comprehensively cover "what’s happening in the Mommy Blogging world – from paid PR campaigns to drama with the New York Times. We’re embedded in the mom blogosphere and will share the scoop on the latest posts and events shaping the community. "

Founder Esther Crawford says that the site will include:

Comprehensive coverage of major brand-blogger relationships
Maintain a list of all current brand ambassador programs
Create a ‘brand event’ list which shows who has attended private events hosted by major brands
A complete calendar and map of related conferences, workshops and Twitter parties
Coverage and follow-up of all popular conferences such as Blissdom, Mom 2.0 and BlogHer

Other things to note:

On average, we’ll have 4-6 posts a day tracking the latest news + gossip covering the Mom Blogger community
We’ll feature interviews with well-known mommy bloggers and providing their take on current events as well as hot-button issues such as monetization, privacy concerns, brand evangelism, and the future of the mommy blogging space. And we won’t be lobbing softballs in our interviews.

Last night, Esther was kind enough to answer a few light-hearted questions for me about the site.

What do you want ShePosts.com to be when it grows up?
As ShePosts grows up it'll include a lot more people - there are already a few well-known and loved women from the mom blogging community who are going to be joining the ranks as contributors in the coming weeks.

A lot of sites answer the easy questions like "What happened?", but ShePosts is also going to be a place to find out why it happened.

It'll be journalistic, but with a splash of gossip and irreverent snark thrown in because c'mon - this is the internet and we're living in the age of The Gosselins.

You’ve told us a little bit about what ShePosts.com is. Can you tell us what it isn’t?
ShePosts is not another community site singing "kum ba yah". Disagreements and drama are part of business, as is demonstrated on industry sites like TechCrunch and Mashable each day.

And let's be clear - mom blogging has become a business, which happens to be incredibly lucrative for a select few.

Think about this: major brands routinely fly out a dozen or more mom bloggers to get wined & dined in exchange for a few tweets and links.

While we'll be the first to congratulate folks who get it right, we're not afraid to get our hands dirty while reporting the news - which means calling companies or individuals out when they're involved in shady business.

At the end of the day we believe that accountability & recognition raises the bar, which is good for everyone.

If ShePosts were a cookie (no, silly, not the website tracking kind. The eating kind!), what kind of cookie would it be?
We aim to make ShePosts like Girl Scout thin mints, which are so addictive that you can't help going back for more.

If ShePosts were a Pandora station, what would play?
It'd play strong women who are deep yet know how to rock it. In other words, we'd have Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" on repeat.

2010-03-14T00:57:00.011-05:00

The Heckenbergerization of Foursquare

Well, you knew it was coming. I've done my fair share of bitching about how I think some people I know on Foursquare are doing it wrong (*wink*). And before anyone freaks out, this blog post isn't about suggesting "rules" for Foursquare because no one but the platform (or the law) can mandate how you use social media. This post is about the Heckenbergerization of Foursquare: how I use Foursquare and how I'd love to see Foursquare used by more people.

Background
Foursquare is the 1-year old child born from mobile social networking platform Dodgeball, which my friends and I used religiously starting in 2004. Among my friends in NYC, Dodgeball was our way of life.

When you're young and in NYC, you're generally out every night (your apt is too small to spend much time in it), covering multiple neighborhoods and meeting up with multiple groups of people. At first, Dodgeball was just a great way to mass text friends as you traveled from bar to bar. Dodgeball sent an sms (if they choose to receive sms) to your friends when you checked in, telling them the name of venue & the address and phone number. Super convenient. Genius at the time. (Remember, no twitter & no iphones in 2004)

Soon, Dodgeball started featuring users with the most check-in's on its' website, and that became a status symbol among core users. Later, Dodgeball added a "crush" feature. You could check out the other users on the site, mark someone you thought was cute, and if you ended up in the same bar, you'd be notified of your crush. Until then, all you knew was that someone had a crush and let me tell you - it was compelling. You were dying to know who.

Whoa. Holy tangents. Stop.

Long story short, Google bought Dodgeball, Google dicked Dodgeball, creator Dennis Crowley walked from Google and partnered with Naveen, they built Foursquare, a geo-location based mobile social network inspired by Dodgeball.

Today
And here we are. The basic premise of Foursquare remains the same as Dodgeball - it's a simple mobile way to check-in and let your social circle know where they can meet up with you when you're out socially. On the functional side, it prevents cumbersome mass calls/texts to friends as you dine and/or bar hop. It's also a way to see where your friends are without calling around or texting, if you're looking for something to do.

Bells and Whistles
However, there are Mayor, badges and points systems for the obvious reasons: incentives for people to come back/increase frequency of use and create a B2B revenue model. Obviously, venues want more check-ins from users - that provides viral value (user's check-in and their friends see the venue/tips) and it identifies loyal customers (repeat customers can win Mayorships at the venue, which smart venues reward with a freebie or special).

Heckenbergerization
I check-in to Foursquare when I'm out socially. If I check in at a venue, it's cool for my friends to meet up with me. If I see a friend checked-in'd in on Foursquare, I may stop in and hang with them.

I don't check-in at work. Work is work. I'm busy there. I just don't have time to invite friends to stop by - unless we're hosting a social event. If you're checking in at work, consider this: Foursquare is google searchable. If your boss has google alerts set for the business, your Foursquare check-in's are like punching a clock. Just remembering to check-in at lunchtime? Mmmm. Might not look so good.

I don't check in at home. I'm rarely inviting people over to my place. Mi casa es no su casa. My apt is not a public venue. Sorry.

That's it. Not so complicated. Hope you find Foursquare as fun and functional as I do.

2010-02-08T17:27:00.003-05:00

Oh look. What do we have here? In exploring Facebook's redesign, I spied a new tab under "Account," called "Credits Balance." When you click on it, it opens this:

So here we can guess that soon you'll be paying for all of that virtual clutter people are sending (That's YOU, farmers) and those endless games of free Bejeweled could be coming to an end. But bigger news, if my theory is true, is that Facebook has finally found themselves a micro-purchasing revenue model (which includes buying social ads and likely more to come) and quietly rolled it out buried in a redesign.

Congratulations, Facebook. You just may be all growz up. Your parents, also known as investors, will be so proud. And rich.

2010-01-25T10:20:00.007-05:00

Great little story on rainy Monday morning to share with you. This one is about the real power of social media: connecting with an expanded social graph or social network to make good things happen.

One of our Creative Directors here at Red Tettemer has been collecting clothes to send with his sister and brother-in-law as they go to Haiti with Partners in Health to help in a few weeks. They are partnering with the organization Angel Flights with to transport the donations to Haiti and last week, found out that Angel Flights would only be able to transport the goods to The Dominican - this couple would have to find a way to move the donations from there to Haiti.

Over the weekend, my colleague's wife said, "I'm going to post on Facebook and see if anyone has any ideas of how to get these donations to Haiti." They figured it was a long shot, but why not try?

A short time later they had a Facebook message from a an old classmate in California, A. She has a good friend, D. (also in California), who has family in Port-au-Prince. His brother has a friend named R., who has his own plane in Ft. Lauderdale. R. is commissioned to take people and supplies on a regular basis to and from Haiti. Once hearing their story, he said if they could get the donations down to Ft. Lauderdale, he'd load them on his next flight and fly them to Haiti, gratis.

So Angel Flights is transporting the supplies to Ft. Lauderdale, and then R. will fly all of the supplies ( well over $100,000 worth ) to Haiti. Sometime next week, some of those strangers we watch on the news may be wearing some familiar looking clean clothes.

That's social good.

2010-01-06T16:15:00.001-05:00

RUMOR!

AOL just bought social media industry blog Mashable.

Anyone have confirmation on this? What are the terms of the deal? Do tell.

2009-11-14T21:49:00.005-05:00

If you follow me on twitter, you know a lot about me. You know I have a sense of humor, you know I love the Phillies, you know I love my job, you see campaigns I am working on for clients, and you know my dad's been battling cancer.

There are things I don't share on twitter and keep to myself, but for the most part, I like to keep my social media...social. I try to only follow people who do the same. We don't do business with a company, we do business with people who work for the company, don't we? I buy from and tune in to people I know and like. I think many people do that. Isn't that what word-of-mouth is all about?

Social media isn't the cure for the cancer that is killing big pieces of traditional media. It also isn't the enigma that so many people may think it is. Social media, is just another media channel. A few years ago, my colleagues and I at Red Tettemer illustrated what that channel looks like:

And yes, this channel works a little differently, so did TV when it was introduced.

It's going to be ok.

More than 3 years ago, my friend Chris Heuer shared something the CEO of iProspect said, which I've never forgotten: "The Brand with the best storytellers wins." I love that. That, is the secret to social media - not much of a secret; it's something that advertising and PR have known for years.

The opportunity with social media, for creative advertising agencies, is enormous. No longer is creative chained to :15 or :30 or :60. We aren't limited by 1/4 page or 1/2 page or double trucks. We can create content and tell our stories to massive global audiences and immediately hear back from them, what they think. It's like being in everyone's living room when a tv spot airs - exciting and scary, isn't it? We can launch unfinished content, and let the customer tell us how they want it to end. We can engage our audience and give them option to buy DIRECTLY FROM OUR CREATIVE WITHOUT EVER LEAVING THEIR COUCH. That may make some advertising execs shiver, it gives me goosebumps from excitement.

I see a shift happening within the social media channel. Initially, PR seemed to dominate integration of this channel in their work, naturally, because it connected them quickly and widely with global audiences - press and consumers alike. The channel didn't have that many features and that was ok for PR because they just wanted to tell their stories.

Today and in the future, the channel has bells and whistles. And while PR will continue to work in the channel, telling stories, advertising creatives have the opportunity to stretch the functionality of the channel, create new features with their partners in interactive, and tell the stories with mind blowing creative showcasing new products and services like we've never experienced before.

You want the secret to making social media work for a brand? It's all about integration. A holistic approach to social media in your overall marketing plan, great storytellers and oh...creative that gives you goosebumps.

2009-08-18T16:53:00.004-04:00

It must be an exciting time to be in college or working in secondary education, because the interactive and social web is just exploding. Here's something cool from MIT.

I put my name in it and here's what my online persona looked like.

Simple. Novel. Entertaining. Clean design. B+

2009-07-31T19:13:00.003-04:00

Let's talk about Blogher '09.

First, congratulations and thank you to Lisa, Elisa, Jory and their dedicated team for creating and hosting an event that means a great deal to a growing community of people. From location to sessions to ticketing to sponsors, producing a multi-day event for 1500+ people is an enormous task and I thank them for doing it.

By now, many bloggers have posted their opinions on the swag (yeah, it was pretty crazy), event-related dramas (nikon as the new motrin), and the black hole called wifi at the venue. I'll skip all that.

I'd rather share my observations of the community/event from the business side of the blogosphere.

As you probably know if you're reading this, I lead the social media and PR practices for creative ad agency Red Tettemer. I started specializing in social media in 2005, when I worked for a consumer PR agency in NYC and transitioned from my previous career focus on traditional media. Prior to that, I blogged privately from 1998 on (unrelated to my job as a PR person at the same time).

I frequently work with a wide variety of bloggers on behalf of clients, although that's just a small part of what I do.

When I started working with bloggers, I mostly represented tech clients and the bloggers I worked with were primarily, ex-journalists who left traditional media to blog. Working with them wasn't much different from working with traditional media. The same level of professionalism applied, and they understood common industry things like NDA's (non-disclosure agreements), product loans/review units (common practices to garner coverage), embargoes (agreed upon future date that the journalist will publish confidential information, usually in exchange for exclusivity on the announcement), advances (confidential pre-launch information provided to a journalist to prepare to publish a story on an agreed upon date, which is not necessarily exclusive but shared with limited non-competitive media outlets at the same time), press events, deskside briefings, etc.

What was a wake up call for me at Blogher, is the enormous number of attending citizen journalists who had no knowledge of journalism fundamentals. I wasn't the only one surprised at this observation, a journalist assigned to cover the event ended up standing up and commenting during Geekmommy's session, schooling the much of the audience on these fundamentals (sharing basics like: review units are a common practice, you have to receive them to review the product, don't feel badly about "accepting" free product).

Now, one could argue that the attendees weren't citizen journalists but rather hobbyists. In my opinion, in this economy, if you're paying $200 for a conference pass, plus airfare, and $200 a night for a hotel room for 3 nights, this probably is more than a hobby. For that kind of spend, if it's not a business now, you want it to be.

So here's my advice for the new and inexperienced:

Take a journalism course. Seriously. At your local community college, attend a lecture, read some books. There are best practices, ethics and guidelines. See how they can adapt to your blog if you are reporting on things/people. There are also legal guidelines to be aware of in reporting.
Present yourself as a professional. If you're seeking to generate revenue from your blog, then it's your business. You are your own product. Speak like an adult and with confidence, so that I can believe in your product and walk away feeling I NEED to work with you.
Don't make noise, make a good impression. I can't tell you how many bloggers wasted money on print materials (postcards, flyers, etc) promoting their blog, that they scattered around the venue on tables and chairs like a college band playing a local bar. They generated meaningless leave behinds that just added waste. The real winners were the people who participated, contributed to conversation and connected with the rest of the attendees.

My last observation is for both marketers and bloggers. There were many attending bloggers who were "sponsored" by a brand (meaning the brand covered their travel and/or expenses) or acting as brand ambassadors for a brand. Unfortunately, in many cases, neither the brand nor the blogger were experienced in this tactic, leaving many of us bewildered by friends or new acquaintances shoving brochures or products into our overloaded bags with little to no explanation on what they were, what we were supposed to do with them and why.

I've been fortunate enough to work mainly with Fortune 500 brands throughout my almost 15-year career in marketing, so this next observation completely baffled me. I've always briefed/educated a brand ambassador on our brand or product in advance of an event and had a laid out plan that provided meaning as well as metric for measurement, which was agreed upon by the brand and the ambassador. At the end of the event we both analyzed results and benefit to the brand.

I have no idea how a brand ambassador shoving a postcard or soap sample into my laptop bag intended to deliver a measured ROI (return on investment).

If I were a brand manager that would be the first or second thing I'd be thinking about when fleshing out a sponsored blogger approach.

Additionally, if I were a blogger interested in a long-term partnership with a brand or company, I'd be asking myself what value I could bring to the brand as an ambassador, and how that could be measured as a success to secure an ongoing business relationship/revenue stream with them. Being able to track, measure and prove success is not only the way to advance your own brand, but also something critical for bloggers to do & own during a time of corporate america layoffs and revolving executives. In short, if your marketing contact moves, you need to be able to show the new executive how you moved the needle for the brand in the past, so that you can continue to do so in the future.

Questions? Hit up my comments.

And Good luck!

2009-07-16T22:06:00.002-04:00

It's important to know what you dislike and why.

Today My friend Cecily pointed me to a heated blogosphere discussion about a proposed week-long PR Blackout among mom bloggers.

Initially I guessed this proposed boycott was less of a "PR industry" boycott and more of a stand against consumerism. I can relate to desire to step away from consumerism. I'm not some pitchwoman who thinks everyone should buy, buy, buy.

However, after reading momdot's post, I see that's not the case. She feels that moms have many demands and blogging, initially adopted as a relief outlet, has become another demand in her life because PR people want to connect with her and get her feedback via blog posts/reviews.

Momdot also seems to want to read content by other bloggers that is solely passion driven and not influenced by any brands or paid partnerships.

I can relate to that. Heck, sometimes I even feel the same way.

What I disagree with, is the approach. Boycott, is a strong word and action. I tend to reserve a boycott for someone or something who has committed a heinous grievance against me or my moral code. I don't think a boycott is the answer to the problem of feeling overwhelmed or the way to shape content to be styled the way one person or group wants it styled. In fact, a boycott like this, is very close to a PR campaign of momdot's very own design. Touche, lady! ;)

Here are some alternative suggestions for momdot and the likeminded to find peace of mind:

Create a badge or graphic and place it in your blog sidebar clearly stating "No PR Pitches"
If you chose to accept PR pitches at another time, set up an email account just to receive those pitches. Clearly publish that email as "For PR contacts" in your "Contact" and "About" sections. This way, you can choose when to connect with PR people and when not to.
Find new blogs to read that are solely "passion" blogs. There are plenty out there. For more "journal" type blogs, try LiveJournal.
Take a break from blogging. Step back. Don't let the pressures of writing and having an audience overwhelm you. It's ok to take a break. This is your thing.
You should enjoy it.

Should be interesting to follow this topic at Blogher next week!

2009-07-10T19:34:00.005-04:00

Why I'm blogging again. (Part 2)

I decided to start blogging again because I was tired of listening to people tweet complaints about PR people. On twitter and marketing blogs, it's almost become a meme to bash PR people. Hating on PR, is the new black.

The gripes about PR people range from: bad pitches ("they pitched my blog and they've clearly never read it!"), to inauthenticity in the field or *as* a field (my friend Beth Harte struck a chord on the latter), to my own complaint of SM PR folks doing nothing but shilling on twitter.

Let's talk about PR and shilling.

First, let me disclose PR has been my career. I worked for NYC PR agencies for 11 years, on both the account side and media. The majority of my experience was spent in Media, where I focused on national broadcast and print. Because I worked in Media, I was responsible for generating or shaping the creative/programs that we sold into clients because my department was also setting the media goals and at the end of the program, we were accountable for those goals.

In 2005, I transitioned from VP Media to VP of Emerging Media at Marina Maher Communications (where I spent 8.5 great years), established and led a new department offering all agency clients "new media" services. I still generated creative, set media goals, and led execution but my focus was in new or social media.

In 2006, I moved in-house to a marketing organization to set up shop & lead social media there. Same responsibilities. In 2007, I joined creative indie ad agency, Red Tettemer, to again, set up shop & lead social media. Eventually, I assumed the responsibilities for our in-house PR practice as well. It was a natural addition to my SM job - SM platforms either support or are part of the PR approach and I had a decade plus experience in traditional PR.

I've always worked in consumer product PR, now consumer product advertising, so I'm speaking to those types of clients, not B2B or IR. I've also been always been at creative shops with household name clients, so I've been lucky enough to work with Brand teams consisting of the best marketers in the world (Hi P&G, Amazon.com, Coca-Cola, and J&J - all former clients) with decent budgets to move the needle.

That said, many of the basic PR tactics that SM people complain about today (bad press releases, mass pitches w/o research, outdated press lists) weren't part of our scope of work.

In my world of PR, we learned a client's business, did research/reviewed all the other marketing materials (packaging, R&D, advertising (creative & media plan), promotion, product launch timing), established PR objectives tied to reaching the BUSINESS goals of our clients, developed strategies that would help us reach our objectives/goals, spent time developing hot creative achievable within budget, soft sounded those creative ideas with media "friends" to ensure they were bookable or "mediable" (e.g. - would be something they'd cover) and developed achievable/measurable goals. After the client and sometimes other agencies aligned with our ideas and approach, THEN we did the work.

My approach never included: "draft press release," "develop press list," "pitch bloggers," "byline articles,"etc. Those things are PR basics. They're nuts and bolts. Most of them are ways of the old world. That's not PR in my world. Those are support tactics to help you complete the PR program; teeny tiny pieces that make up the bigger picture. The PR part for me, was always the IDEA. The "happening". The "thing" we created that told the story for the Brand, that provided value for the consumer, that interested media enough to cover it, that got people excited enough to talk about it and be proud to be a supporter or excited enough to be a new customer.

It saddens me that many people are perceiving PR as this DIY profession requiring no skills. In part, it's a Catch 22. One of the reasons PR is so valuable to a company, service or product is because it's relatively low cost in comparison to advertising or promotion/special events. Also, PR's low operational cost is appealing to untrained/inexperienced people who see it as an easy field to break into and make money as a consultant. Because there is little to no cost of entry, and little to no accreditation required, any Tom, Dick or Mary can jump in and call themselves a PR person, much like SM.

Those people, are doing a disservice a to PR as a whole. The people who segue to PR from other professions or having had no profession, are abusing the trust and investment of clients seeking prudent PR counsel.

To truly learn and understand the world of PR, I believe you must work at a reputable PR agency at least once. Why an agency vs. an in-house marketing department? Because at an agency, they live and breathe PR. A corp marketer's time is spent divided among the marketing disciplines (PR, Adv, Promotion) and usually, they are managing the agencies/people who are in the trenches doing the executions. There is a lot of practical experience you earn at an agency that you just won't learn in-house because the agency shields the client from the minutiae - that's part of the agency's job. Also, b/c a PR agency is focused ONLY on PR and not stretched like an in-house marketer covering all marketing disciplines for the Brand, you get a deeper dive into the practice and techniques. Last, at an agency you have the opportunity to work with other professionals of all levels of experience in this specific field. Those professionals are usually very smart because let me tell you, the PR agency world is lean and mean. If you're not producing, the agency cannot and will not carry your dead weight. It's do or die.

I urge people interested in getting into PR, regardless of their age, to intern or work at a reputable PR agency. To research reputable PR agencies, try: PRSA, PR Week or The Holmes Report to name a few.

And if you have questions about PR or getting into the biz, lmk.

2009-07-10T12:24:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week I was feisty and decided to name the SM tactic du jour: giving away random coveted electronics product via a Branded hashtag contest on Twitter.

Now, let's clear the air before you dismiss this entry as one of my anti-hashtag rants.

For any of you who may not know, I am a long-time hashtag protester. If you aren't familiar with the battle against hashtags, go here to quickly catch up. We fought the good fight, however, we lost the war. Enough of the core community latched on to hashtags and the Twitter community grew so rapidly that many knew no other way. For the growing nation of Twitter n00bs, hashtags were a way of life within the platform. Last week, twitter made hashtags legit by hotlinking them, like @ replies.

Ya can't win 'em all.

Lately, adding a Branded hashtag to a tweet is the new SM "viral" campaign. A couple of start up's (and I'm sure there's more than the 2 I'm thinking of) have launched "promotions" (and I use that term loosely) offering to give away iPhones and/or macbook Pro's to randomly selected people who hashtag a tweet with their Brand name.

This is non-strategic marketing for a number of reasons:

This is not a contest to promote or benefit Apple/mac or affiliate programs/services, although you may think it is it, because they are giving away that company's products. Wouldn't it make more sense to give away something specific to the product or service you are offering?

Call entry just requires the branded hashtag on any tweet. So basically, I could negatively tweet about the brand "Yo XYZ company, your service totally blows. #XYZ" and still qualify to win the prize. Or, I could tweet about something unrelated "Checking out the monkey exhibit at the zoo today. #XYZ." How does that shape or improve people's opinion of the brand using word of mouth? Not all word of mouth is positive word of mouth.

I still have no idea who this company is and what they do. Why should I use them? What can they do for me other than win free electronics? What is their VALUE Proposition?

These things don't benefits the brand. They are the equivalent of standing in the middle of a Grand Central Station and screaming a brand name. Imagine standing standing waiting for a train and hearing someone scream "I'm waiting for a train. STARBUCKS!!!" I'd that person was crazy and immediately ignore them. If they continued doing this, I'd get annoyed and move away.

Wouldn't it make more sense to make the call to action a creative reply TO: the brand? Having them follow the Brand in order to receive a DM alerting you to winning? Requiring the tweet to say something positive about the brand and/or service? Customizing the prize to tie back to the product or service that awarded it?

It's great to play with shiny new tools and see your name echo online. However, echoing for the sake of echoing, isn't strategic. It doesn't add value. It doesn't educate people on your brand. It doesn't build loyalists. It's just a blip.

And that's why, since it's not quite spam and not bacn either, I'm calling the branded hashtag promotions/hashtag meme's, Twofu. Not quite spam or bacn. Just a flavored imitator I'll forget tomorrow.

2009-07-06T17:53:00.004-04:00

I can't remain quiet any longer.

I rarely blog anymore for a number of reasons:

The advertising/pr/social media/marketing blogosphere has become bloated. Everyone's got a blog and they're all talkin' about social media. They talk about marketing - whether or not they have experience in any or all of the marketing disciplines.
I don't want to feed the ecochamber. It's rare anyone in this space says something new and maybe that's because many of these bloggers are talking rather than doing. The words conversation and dialogue and evangelists are so echoed anymore, I swear you could find a conch shell, put it up to your ear and hear them instead of the ocean.
I'm not here to teach anyone. You want to learn, get in here and work with me. I'm doing. That's what I've been doing for the last 14 years. From PR agencies, to the corp/nonprofit world, to the ad agency world, I've been working on people's business. A lot of people's business. A lot of times I work on Fortune 500 business. Sometimes, I work on small business. I just work. And I like to work. That's how I learn.
The blog format is a bit tedious for me now. And I'm not saying that in an "I invented the Internet" kind-of-way. I'm just explaining how I feel about it. I started blogging in 1998, vis a vis an online journal I wrote. I blogged almost everyday, sometimes several times a day, for 8 years. I got tired of it.
I prefer twitter. It's mobile, it's quick, it's easy. It doesn't require me to sit down and pound out something coherent.

However, I'm putting those thoughts aside. I'm going to start blogging again.

Now. I'm not back blogging to bitch about adv, pr or promotion. I'm not getting on the hate bandwagon, god knows there's enough of that.

I probably won't tell you much more about the things I'm working on, because I'm bound by confidentiality and again, I'm not here to teach anyone. The secret to how I do my job defines my financial value in the marketplace. So while I'll share information and thoughts here, keep in mind, many of my tricks will remain that...my tricks;)

I will try to speak to the other elements of social media that I don't see the "experts" talking about: advertising in social media, promotion in social media, special events and their efficacy. Marketing isn't *just* PR, although PR is important. The best marketing, is integrated marketing and if you don't look at and speak to the big picture, then success will be a difficult challenge for you. Like the Red Tettemer Trailblazer states, "Success is the Residue of Design."

More to come.

Check out Phonezoo ringtone - Hey, Peter Arthur

2009-06-08T17:05:00.001-04:00

Title: Phonezoo ringtone - Hey, Peter Arthur

Link: http://gotaf.socialtwist.com/redirect?l=-339066901171327126741

Share with Friends

2009-05-08T09:51:00.001-04:00

Share with Friends

Posted using ShareThis

2009-03-27T16:08:00.002-04:00

Hey sleepyhead. Are you a snooze scrounger like me? Got an iPhone or iPod Touch? Check out this awesome app created by my friend, Laris Kreslins...The Snoozebot!

2009-03-27T14:27:00.001-04:00

If you're gonna mash up hot tracks, with dope animation and games, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna play. Someone help me, I can't stop playing with Loud Crowd.

2009-02-28T17:35:00.000-05:00

Ouch.

2009-01-09T17:05:00.002-05:00

groundhog dreams

2009-01-07T18:49:00.003-05:00

I've been meaning to link this essay from Wired for months, but frankly, I rarely blog anymore.

If you know me in real life or if you follow me on Twitter, then you've likely heard me harp about blogs and how passe I find them to be. Who needs blogging when you have microblogging? Why read 500 or 1000 words, when I can get the message in 140 characters?

And yes, I know, sometimes we need more than 140 characters to wax poetic or dissect a particular topic, and that is one of the reasons that blogs are good.

And yes, there are some blogs that I will continue to read, but for the most part, they are webrity blogs that are long established (long for the blogosphere, that is), like: Gawker, Deadspin, Perez, the700level and a few others.

Because I work in social media, I research blogs and keep up with the Jones' out there in the blogosphere, but my daily personal interest reads include very few blogs.

So yes, for the most part, I agree with Wired's essayist. If you're thinking about launching your own blog now, don't bother.

2008-12-20T19:08:00.004-05:00

It's been years since I've been "tagged" in a meme, and that's a bummer because I do love a meme. It's like Mad Libs for Bloggers. Prefab content you customize. Loves it.

So, thank you Brian Branca, for tagging me! This meme requires you to post seven things about yourself that others might not know. Here I go:

I was a Research Assistant in the British House of Commons. I worked for Tory MP Piers Merchant. During one of the IRA bomb scares there at that time, I was sheltered in 1 Parliment St., provided a phone to call my parents overseas to let them know about the situation and shown what to do in the event of an explosion. I was 20 ys old.
I was on MTV's "Choose or Lose" in the 90's. Al Gore was the candidate/guest. During a commercial break, I was able to get Gore's attention. He came over to me and asked me if I wanted to be a politician. I said no and he told me I should consider it because I had a knack getting myself noticed. He also autographed my copy of his book.
I was afraid of men with beards and booming voices when I was a child.
I was removed from a car by the jaws of life after a bad accident in high School.
For most of my childhood, I wanted to be an archeologist when I grew up. My favorite book as a child was a book my parents bought for me in the museum shop at University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology after we saw the mummy exhibit. I was 6 or 7, too young to be able to read or understand all of the adult text, but I pored over the book for years.
Michael Jackson invited me to meet him/take my photo with him when I was 11 (it was "Victory Tour"). In a private event prior to his show at the VET, my family was baffled when I refused the offer to meet him with no explanation why, because I couldn't find words to explain that he freaked me out. I've since learned to trust my instincts.
When I was a child, I swallowed a purple litebright peg. I'd hoped that once inside of me, it would light up my tummy like it lit up the screen. I'm still disappointed that it didn't work.

And now I have to tag 5 other bloggers that I'd like to respond to this meme. I choose:

Valeria Maltoni
Scott McNulty
Dave Parmet
Beth Harte
Leah Jones

(Sorry if any of you have done this meme before.)

2008-12-18T13:32:00.002-05:00

No time for blogging. This should explain everything:

Charlie Brown Ad Agency

2008-12-04T21:17:00.002-05:00

This post details two important causes that you can help support just by using social media:

The first, is a project that my friend Geoff Livingston's agency is working on. Here's what Geoff says about it on his blog:

The Save Darfur Coalition’s "Be A Voice For Darfur" postcard campaign seeks to ensure that Darfur is a top priority for the Obama Administration. Obama has already promised “unstinting resolve” to end the Darfur Genocide. The effort, which aims for no less than 1 million postcards to be emailed, blogged and snail-mailed to President-elect Obama within his first 100 days in office.

The hottest part is the unveiling of a petition application developed in conjunction with Facebook Causes. Other social media components include an influencer relations campaign, and a Darfur Blogger Toolkit with videos, photos, and other resources at http://www.addyourvoice.org/pages/blogger_toolkit.

So please, send a postcard and help encourage the new President to keep his promise to Darfur.

This next cause is a charity that is close to my heart, The Salvation Army. Growing up, my mom always had us donate our outgrown clothing to The Salvation Army. Years later, in college, I enjoyed the spoils of The Salvation Army, when I started vintage shopping there.

But what brought The Salvation Army deep into my heart, was when they helped me and other NYCer's through the terrorist attacks on September 11th. Like many, many other people, I was the immediate on-site family friend filing missing reports for several friends who were killed in the WTC. Those first 24-hrs after the attacks in Manhattan, were darker and more heartbreaking than words can describe, but The Salvation Army was there for us. The news was bleak even in the first 24 hrs, but The Salvation Army was there with blankets, hot chocolate and food - the only warmth we had going through a grueling and cold time. I will never forget their smiles and their unconditional kindness.

So, do a little more for The Salvation Army this year, by starting your own online Red Kettle. I know times are tough, but if we all give a little, it will mean a lot.

2008-11-21T21:29:00.003-05:00

This is a VERY IMPORTANT blog post.

Please watch the embedded digital short created/produced by colleagues at Red Tettemer. It's not often in the world of consumer marketing/advertising that we have an opportunity to work on campaign that is so important, so meaningful, to so many people.

It is my honor and my privilege to be a part of this educational, technologically-groundbreaking campaign.

PS - If you liked this and want to see more, go to RedTettemer.com and click the "droppy" on the home page. Then click thru the icons at the bottom of the next page to see all the interactive fun.

2008-10-28T11:05:00.003-04:00

Maybe this is Goodbye

Here's something that may surprise you: I've been thinking about shutting down my twitter account. I've been looking at it a number of different ways. I could go on hiatus from my account, delete the account, or start a new anonymous account following new people.

It's no secret that I am anti-hashtag and that has always been something that aggravates me about twitter. It's also not a secret that I was repelled by AMC's agency's use of Twitter to fanjack and promote the TV show "Mad Men." What's been eating at me lately in twitter is the echochamber. The same social media voices tweeting the same social media cliches. People interested in building "personal brands" rather than just being people. Evangelists who petulantly bang their fists that clients should stop demanding metrics for social media because conversation can't be measured. Really? Conversation can't be measured? Then make it measurable. Attach an action or metric. Setting goals and defining success are part of our jobs, regardless of those who think social media is about winning a Facebook or Twitter popularity contest or gathering the shiniest collection of widgets and gadgets.

Maybe this is part of a Phillies malaise, but it is something that's been on my mind for some time now. I just want a community where people communicate like real people to other people and not as "experts" or "authorities" or as "knowledge centers" doing their personal note-taking using a # sign and an abbrevation. I just want twitter to be what it used to be when I joined in February 2007: a place where I meet people near and far, learn what they are doing/thinking, find or lend support, and sometimes, just a place to escape - like that rabbit hole into Wonderland.

2008-10-27T10:54:00.003-04:00

The Wall Street Journal covers Twitter today, covering the same old businesses that always get covered - zappos and comcast. Yes, they both do a great job, so do the tons of other businesses on twitter. Don't know who they are? Check this twitter Brand Index.

And of course, a plug for the Phillies! Go Phils! Check out these shots on Deadspin. That's Broad street, you can see my office building in the shot, at 1am this morning.

1. More. Game.

2008-10-10T13:25:00.004-04:00

I'm updating my blog because some people have been harassing me about it.

Honestly, I'm just not that into blogs anymore. They seem some old fashioned and long form now, in comparison to some other formats/platforms online.

That said, I should use this space to thank Josh Hallett for creating and hosting BlogOrlando a few weeks ago.

BlogOrlando is my favorite social media event of the year because it always draws an eclectic group of people working with social media in different ways for different industries or causes. Each year it's a varied group of speakers that consist mostly of the people working with social media and not the academics who study it or write about it. It can be a bit like listening to the engineers who design a car, versus automotive analysts, which is great because the engineers can share some of what happened behind the curtain and the key learnings that followed.

One thing that I observed at BlogOrlando is that a disproportionate number of people interested in social media haven't read The Cluetrain. Because the Cluetrain is 10 years old this year, I guess I assume that we've all read it.

We haven't all read it.

So go to amazon and order the book or go here, NOW and start by reading the 95 Theses. Then go here and read it online, if you're a cheap bastard who doesn't believe in paying authors for their work. I don't care where you read it, just do it!

Go on then. Come back when you're done. I'll be waiting here.

2008-08-28T14:01:00.004-04:00

Just saw this post by twitter pal JJ Toothman and had to share. I've been dormant here for a while because to be honest, blogging has become somewhat tedious for me anymore. Now that I am so deeply connected to the microblogging community in twitter, anything beyond 140 characters seems superfluous. Additionally, social media and marketing blogs have become tiresome for me. They seem to be all saying the same thing.

And that's part of what led to my conversation with JJ about the tech/social media conference gamut seeming to become the new Dead Show. If you've never been to a Dead Show, understand that seeing the Dead was started by the music but later housed by the community. Going to see the Dead was about seeing your friends at the next show. Oh yeah, and seeing the band. And a great tailgate. And that's kinda what all of these gnomeblogsocialmediapodbarcampinteractive's have become. A place to gather and see your friends, have a great tailgate and listen to the same songs (or in this case topics/sessions) you know so well by heart that you often karaoke them locally. And when you karaoke them, for the record, all your friends think you sound JUST like them!

Don't get me wrong - I think there's value to gain from conferencing, however, I think there may be even more value to gain by taking what you know and applying it outside the echochamber.

So while I'd love to go back "on tour" and hang with my friends on the SM party circuit (I'm imagining myself screaming "Twitter" instead of "Eyes" here, and I am scared), I'm being very selective of my SM conference attendance moving forward. For the most part, I'll stick to trading (tweets, not tapes) online.

2008-07-17T22:11:00.003-04:00

Hey there!

Several weeks ago on twitter, I tweeted about the Red Tettemer retreat. We were given several challenging pre-retreat assignments that we had to complete pre-retreat and were scheduled for review at the retreat, which was held over several days at the Gatsby-esque Shawnee Inn. Being relatively new at the agency, my only knowledge of what to expect at the retreat were the *many* legendary tales I was told of past retreats and my own awareness of the enormous collective of top talent under the roof at 1 S. Broad St. The word "nervous" doesn't cover what I was feeling leading up to the retreat.

One of our several assignments, as provided by our iconic and much-loved leader, Prez Steve Red, was to bring something that represented our badass selves. Whatever concept/form that may be.

Of course, a ton of the representations blew my concept away. What do you expect, we're an ad agency, with effing awesome creatives;)

Some of my friends on twitter, asked me to post my "badass self" assignment when I could, so here it is.

This is what I see/hear when I think of myself as a baddass.

If you want to see some of the other "badass" submissions, you can go here: RT on Youtube. Sorry it's not better organized on You Tube for you. We'll work on that;)

2008-07-10T01:17:00.003-04:00

Exciting news today from Social Media Club. I'm delighted to be one of 40+ other social media practictioners/enthusiasts who are serving as part of an interim board created to establish the guidelines of this association.

We'll be working collaboratively to create the framework that is necessary for SMC to take off on a national, local and global level. Once this framework is in place, local boards will be established using local, interested corporate and non-corporate members.

So basically, I guess my favorite work-phone greeting "Annie Heckenberger, workin' on your business," rings true here now for any of you reading this and part of the social media community. I'm working on all y'allz business:)

I'm excited to work collaboratively with the other board members; this is a unique opportunity to work with peers whose work I follow and often admire.

I'm also energized to help set up this framework so that more social media enthusiasts can jump in and have a more defined direction to take our emerging field to new, and probably mind-blowing new places.

There's so much talent working in technology, development, social media right now. Everyday as I surf the web, my officemates hear me saying "oh my god. this is freakin' awesome!" And I mean it. I'm regularly wowed with the products and services launching online and via mobile. My hope is that our work for SMC helps support all of that talent and innovation you are putting out there.

Stay tuned for more to come on this!

2008-07-03T22:57:00.004-04:00

So much going on the social media world!

A few weeks back, my favorite new part-time ninja Judson Collier, launched the fun twitter app twitterbash. Check it out, it's fun to rate your favorite tweets.

The much talked about news of the last 24 hours is the launch of potential twitter-killer identi.ca, whose clean, green design is a breathe of fresh air for this social media enthusiast who is tired of social sites weighing themselves down trying to be everything to everyone and designing in blue. Enough with blue already! Use another color! Sadly, identi.ca is already having capacity problems from the legions of twitter users whom have defected, hoping that this will be a microblogging service that may actually *work* rather than be down daily.

Last for now, I'm trying out twitterphone, a phone that lets you phone in your tweets and sends them in text and audio files to your twitter. It's actually working at the moment, I'm impressed, but it should be interesting to see what it does when a user talks over 140 characters. I'll keep you posted on that!

More to come soon...

2008-06-09T23:33:00.006-04:00

As the 4 (including me) readers to this often at-rest blog know, I have an obsession with Twitter. Fortunately, being in this community is a part of my job, so fueling this obsession is actually beneficial to my career.

That said, for all the time I spend tweeting and keeping up with the 650+ people I follow on there, I never seem to make any of the twitter app stats that my colleagues are on. I'll admit, it's shallow, but when I first started tweeting about 17 months ago, I coveted a position on Twitterholic. I marveled at those with huge followings who seemed to tweet golden eggs with every character. Later came Tweeterboard, which I never made either, but the people I tweeted with made it!

One day last week, my friend Brennen tweeted that I made
Dave Winer's Twitter Spewage List. Honestly, I wasn't sure if I should be excited or concerned about making Winer's Spewage, the word "spew" means vomit and that's really not so nice. That said, Dave's intro made it seem less hateful and hell, a lot of people I respect are on the list; I'm stoked anytime I'm in their company. (BTW: pls note that I am now BEATING Barak Obama on that list. Vote Heckenberger in 2012! w00t!)

Today, however, marks a very exciting day in my shallow social media life, because I made Guy Kawasaki's list of Twitterati on Alltop. Now first, I should note, there is no algorithm to Twitterati. I didn't tweet the most (although some people may contest that), don't have the most followers, don't follow the most people. None of that. Alltop's Twitterati is based on their "gut" and thhe feedback/nominations of the twitter community.

And that's why I'm so stoked about making this "list." Because someone in the community actually took the time to nominate me and somehow, Guy and the people at Alltop listened!

This is what community is all about. Thanks you guys. You made my day.

2008-06-06T14:28:00.001-04:00

Twitter's down again. So now we're all plurking.

2008-06-04T12:21:00.003-04:00

I have a number of blogs and on this one, I vowed that I would keep it dedicated to social media. Today, after being beaten down by Obama supporters in the Obama-dominated Twitter community, I decided to hell with it. This is my blog, under my name and I'm going to write about something that has completely affected my life.

And then I read this. And Amy said everything I was thinking and more. So, without any hesitation, I'm giving her words another screen. My screen.

The following is a post by Citizen Mom:

You're Damn Right I'm Bitter

BY AMY Z. QUINN

Yes, it smarts.

Yes, I'm angry and disappointed today.

And yes, I'll still vote for Barack Obama in November. But you should understand why I'm not feeling great about it this morning.

Now that it's over, now that everybody's been able to run their ecstatic headlines, can we all just admit that the MSM and the Yes! We! Can!-crazed online world had a deep desire to see Obama win, if only so everyone can soak in the aura of the New Kennedy or the first black president or the generational shift, or to have anything but the Clintons to write and talk about for another four or eight years?

Hillary Clinton's announcement in her speech Tuesday night that she would be neither conceding nor endorsing Obama just yet seems to have mystified or angered a lot of people. Even my respected colleague Will Bunch seems to have got it very, very wrong.

Here's what that non-concession sounded like to my ears: Obama may have garnered a sufficient number of delegates to secure a historic nomination for the presidency. He may even beat John McCain, with the support of many Democrats who cast their primary ballots for Clinton -- including me. But he certainly hasn't "won" my vote.

Because for weeks now, I've watched Clinton rack up decisive wins in key battleground states, securing blocks of voters Obama will desperately need in November. Then I listened as each of those victories was called meaningless, simply unneeded because some formula spelled out in the daily Obama campaign email and understood only by cable news anchors had already determined that "mathematically, she can't win."

I heard the voters who chose Clinton in Pennsylvania dispatched with the descriptor "blue-collar whites," which is a polite way of calling someone of a certain socioeconomic status -- my parents, I guess -- some uneducated racist white trash. Or in the case of West Virginia, Dogpatch hillbillies who shouldn't even be allowed to vote.

Was that elitism, or just politics? I can't decide, but I'm damn sure that's what Clinton was talking about when demanded for "the 18 million people who voted for me to be respected, to be heard, and to no longer be invisible."

I watched, with genuine emotion and pride in our country, as women born before women had the right to vote cast their ballot for Clinton, then be lumped in with the rest of the women who were voting with their vaginas. At the same time I read African-Americans only a few generations removed from segregation talk about how moving it was for them to cast a vote for Obama, and saw many black superdelegates who had supported Clinton for years simply switch their allegiance, yet never be accused of "voting race." I read story after story about how the popular vote didn't matter anyway, because the coming tidal wave of superdelegate endorsements would put Obama over the top. How she might as well just drop out now and stop all this nonsense.

I was still waiting for that tidal wave of endorsements Tuesday night when Obama staggered across the finish line, at the last possible second, as the last votes were being tallied in the last states to hold their primaries. This is a mandate?

For weeks I've listened to Clinton be accused of tearing the Democratic party asunder -- of damaging democracy itself -- by winning. I've heard her viciously criticized for attempting to deny Obama, so clearly a special, once-in-a-lifetime candidate, his destiny by being obstructionist enough to win as many, and often more, votes as he. I watched TV pundits driven to near-maniacal ranting because Clinton had the astounding arrogance to inspire as many people to believe in her ability and experience as believe in Obama's magical historical mandate.

Was that sexism, or just politics? I'm not sure, but I do know that Keith Olbermann can bite me.

Last Saturday, I watched the DNC Rules Committee grudgingly give Clinton half of what she fairly won in Florida, and penalize her -- stripping her of delegates -- in Michigan, then give them to a candidate who chose not to have his name on the ballot. I watched startling assumptions, obviously designed to benefit Obama, be made about the true intentions of thousands of people in Michigan who had already made a choice by voting Undecided. Hell, there weren't even any dangling chads to go by, just exit polls and the desire for it all to be over already.

As for former President Clinton, yes, dude was off the hook at times, but be clear about the fact that he was often absolutely correct. Many in the media were already against Hillary even before they fell so giddily in love with Obama. Obama's campaign did allow others to do their dirty work, and Obama's half-hearted attempt to distance himself from the hate being preached at his church was, in fact, pretty damn slimy.

Some of Obama's most passionate (and annoying) supporters refuse to believe -- simply cannot fathom -- that their guy would lower himself to engage in time-tested street politics like good old-fashioned shit talk. Look, when I first heard about that Rev. Pfleger thing, even I was like "Oh come on, where did they dig this one up?" I kind of agreed with Obama's dismissal of the whole thing as gotcha politicking.

Then I realized this wasn't some nugget culled from the nether regions of YouTube: This shit happened two weeks ago. And if we're going by the reaction of Obama's (now-former) fellow congregants at Trinity United who clapped, cheered, leaped to their feet to express their enthusiastic agreement with a Catholic priest who stood in their consecrated space mocking Clinton's ambition as disgusting entitlement, her desire to win as some racist inability to believe that a black man would dare to defy her, well, then it's hardly she or her supporters who are playing any race cards.

Was that sexism at work, or just politics?

It was certainly repulsive to me as a Christian. Offensive to me as a woman.

But mostly today, it's all just disturbing to me as a Democrat, who will now be expected to shut up and fall into line behind Obama. Talk about a massive sense of entitlement.

2008-05-06T23:49:00.003-04:00

While twitter is down for me (argh!), I'll share some content that stole my heart today.

Straight outta Philly, kickin' everyone and everything in its way, is Shmitten Kitten. A friend at work dropped the URL while we were chatting today, thinking I'd seen it. I logged on only to have my mind blown. It's genius. And I'm not just saying that because one of it's creators and bloggers happens to be my friend Anna and her friend, Shannon. I love me some pop culture and these girls are serving it up fresh..

Expect to see and hear a lot more from Shmitten Kitten.
*~*
Elsewhere in the blogosphere...thanks to Dave Parmet for the shout out on his blog for my agency Red Tettemer AND for raving about our client The Franklin, which he had long standing plans & tickets to see their Star Wars exhibit. And that was none of my doing. I swear! He just *loves* The Franklin! And really, why wouldn't you? The museum is outstanding:) In fairness, Philly is filled with great museums, such as: The Please Touch Museum for kids/families (soon moving to a much larger space this fall), The Brandywine Museum (which I *adore* - I am a Andrew Wyeth FANATIC), The Barnes (expected to move into the City of Philadelphia in the next few years), the PMA (immortalized by Rocky), the fascinating medical oddity Mutter Museum, the Rodin Museum and so many more. Visit them all. They are wonderful.

2008-04-30T23:49:00.005-04:00

This new version of Firefox totally blows. It's not showing the background of my twitter page on my PC (works on my mac) and it doesn't pull up my blog (this one right here, if you can get to it and read it!) on either PC or mac.Firefox, please get better! We rely on you!

Today I'm loving the Twitter companion app Who Should I Follow, in which you plug your Twitter username it gives you suggestions of other twitizens who may be of interest to you. (hat tip to twitter pal, Laura Fitton for that gem.)

I'm also one of the beta users of new mobile/web app Brightkite, a "location-based social network" where you "track your friends" (not as creepy as that sounds in real life, I swear!), "see where your friends are and what they're up to, in real time" and "meet people around you."

It is cool. Today I meet via text, someone else who works in my office building. That was novel. What I wish it had, was the functionality of my beloved and much missed Dodgeball, which a huge group of my friends used in NYC and we could see where we all were as we bar hopped or dined and often, meet up later at the same location by texting where hanging out throughout an evening. In NYC, where bar hopping is the norm and the options are endless, dodgeball was a great way to meet up with more and more friends throughout the night, or keep at-home friends posted on our whereabouts and potentially persuade them, via our Dodgeballs, that they were missing out on a great time and lure them out to meet us. In Philly, I didn't find much of a Dodgeball community when I moved here, which was disappointing, but alleviated by the robustness of our tweeters.

I have high hopes for Brightkite as a Dodgeball place filler for me. I'll keep you posted!

2008-04-28T21:25:00.001-04:00

Do you love this SouthPark clip as much as I do?

I will admit, I kept thinking, doesn't anyone in SouthPark have EVDO?

2008-04-23T00:04:00.006-04:00

And local blogger-slash-fellow smores lover (long story), Citizen Mom, captures the photo of the night here in Primary Central aka Philadelphia.

When I was a little girl, my mother tutored me as a toddler so that I would be prepared or even advanced when I started school. She used to patiently show me flash cards of letters and numbers, quizzing me and helping me to start reading and counting. I remember it being hard to sit still for these exercises but she was consistent and patient in tutoring me. It was during this time that I remember my Mom telling me that when I grew up, I could be anything I wanted to be. From a dogwalker to a teacher to President of the United States.

I never realized the enormous significance behind my smart, optimistic mother telling me that in the 1970's, until Hillary Clinton's speech tonight. America has had 43 Presidents in its' lifespan. That's 43 men of various creeds, economic status and ethnic backgrounds. Not one woman. And in fairness, not a black man (that we know of!), either.

Just like social media is a global movement that the US must embrace, so are candidates of change.

2008-04-15T22:25:00.003-04:00

I know, I know, some of you who read this blog may taser me if I write another Twitter entry, but trust me, I have good reason. First, thanks to fellow Philly Blogger and Twitter friend Amy Z. Quinn for including me in a story about twitter that she filed for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

I know that companies big and small are still toeing the waters on connecting with people via CGM and social networks, having heard horror stories of bloggers and their readers that have criticized or bashed corporations online. That said, I recently had a personal experience with a major corporation actively participating in a social network so fluidly and helpfully, that I have to share the story.

Comcast, a major corporation that has taken a lump or two from unhappy customers online. (NOTE: Comcast is a client. However, I did not counsel or work on the tactic I am going to share with you. Comcast did not ask me to blog this. Nor did my employer.)

Recently, I learned that Comcast is actively using social media platforms to monitor mentions of their Brand online, when I read this incredible story by TechCrunch co-founder and blog mogul, Michael Arrington. In the blog post, (which you should read), Arrington explains how his comcast broadband went out, he called Comcast to find out what was going on, only to be told it was a California wide outage. However, when he spoke with other area friends with comcast, their cable was working, and Arrington ended up taking his laptop to work at a friend's place, which turned into a major distraction (read the story!). Frustrated, Arrington began tearing into Comcast on Twitter, and within 20 minutes of his first tweet, an executive from Comcast in Philadelphia, called him to sort out the problem.

It was, big business using social media to connect directly with customers and offer a better user experience. It is, essentially underheard of.

Since this modern day miracle last week, I have been following Comcast Customer Outreach guy Frank Eliason, the person behind the username ComcastCares on twitter. This guy is absolutely incredible. From answering questions to helping resolve appointment and billing issues, using only the 140 characters Twitter allows!, he is speaking with Comcast customers in the Twitter community promptly and like a real person. Comcast, is HEARING and RESPONDING TO, their customers by trusting one smart and reliable employee, to represent the brand and products in community. Even more incredible, is that Frank doesn't just twitter 9-5PM, he keeps the extended hours that many of use in the tech community keep, as we use the tool like our right hands.

This week, I had a comcast issue come up, but it was minor and I didn't want to bother Frank, as word has spread among the broadband-reliant community - many of whom are comcast customers and live in breathe in twitter, so speaking to comcast where they live and breathe is a dream come true. A twitter friend urged me to ask Frank about my problem and I heard back from him in under 10 minutes. He personally resolved my problem in under 24 hours, via 140 characters and a couple of follow up emails.

I applaud Comcast for being an example of how to be a valued Brand/Corp in community. You'll keep my business.

2008-04-12T00:34:00.008-04:00

I am freshly back from Travelcom 2008 in Chicago, where I was invited to join Yahoo's panel discussion of quantifying the social media behavior of online travelers. I was invited by Yahoo's Brad King, who heard about me through Forrester's Sarah Rotman Epps, whom previously interviewed me about Philadelphia's unique uwishunu social media campaign. Sarah analyzed our social media work for uwishunu and wrote about it as a case study for a new social media analysis model she/Forrester created (collaboratively with Compete Inc., I believe). Sarah used the uwishunu case study in this session and I was particularly pleased that she included the point that it was a team of people at GPTMC who made uwishunu and our social media tactics a success. A social media director is a great start for an agency or organization but it takes the dedication of a whole team to make it all work.

Also on the panel were Greg Saks from Compete and Aaron Cooper from Orbitz.

Pretty diverse group of us and it was an interesting discussion all around.
~*~
Of course, it wouldn't be a trip without a travel fiasco for me. I was caught up in the American Airlines debacle en route to Chicago. Fortunately, I had the sense to immediately call their 1-800 number as we all queued up to be rebooked and I secured one of the last seats out of Philly that night. Unfortunately, there was a lightening storm in Chicago, and my flight was forced to move on to Indianapolis, where we touched down for about an hour and eventually headed back to O'Hare for a very late arrival.

I arrived at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, a massive hotel complex, only to find that the day shift had allegedly made some mistakes with bookings that left me without my reserved room with a king-sized bed. Instead, this massive hotel complex told my tired and harried self that they had a sofabed room for me. Huh? Wha..?

Frankly, I was too tired to fight. I was too tired to hit the streets with luggage and a laptop and find another hotel after midnight. I was *speaking* at a conference in *this* hotel in the morning!

Unhappy but resigned, I sighed and asked if the sofabed was at least pulled out and made up for me. The front desk clerk assured me it was. So I schlepped with my luggage - not a bellhop in sight, even when I stepped out of the taxi at the front entrance - over a skywalk and to the West Tower.

Of course my key card didn't work for the elevator, luckily another guest arrived and his worked. I went up to my floor, 36 (the top floor, maybe there's a view!). I arrived at my floor, confused, because I stepped out and saw conference rooms. One said "Chicago Board of Trade" on it. Clearly this is not right. These aren't hotel rooms. Additionally, there was a group of security huddled around the body of a semi-conscious drunk man laying on the floor next to my room door.

Honesty, I didn't care about the drunk guy. I was TIRED. Get me a bed. I keyed into the room, and I found...a meeting room. Yes, you heard me, a meeting room. Two couches, neither are a pullout. Now I was pissed.

I called the front desk, explained my problem and they transferred me to a general voicemail for the hotel. I kid you not. I called back, asked them to please not transfer me again and explained there was no pullout in my room. The woman on the phone gaves me attitude, like I am making this UP! I asked her to just send a cot up.

The cot took about 20-25 minutes to arrive. In the meantime, I stepped into the hall and briefly chatted with security, who were still huddled around the unconscious drunk; then I fell asleep on the couch. The cot arrived with no pillows or blankets. The housekeeping man told me to take them from the closet. I found some musty pillows and blanket, wrapped a towel around the dusty pillow and used it. Basically, I reverting to tactics one might use in their 20's while staying in a European hostel.

At this pointed, I'd twittered the whole saga.

I used my phone as an alarm clock and hit the hay.

I will say, the Hyatt Regency Chicago charged me half price for the room and gave me a voucher for breakfast, but why didn't they find me a room in another Hyatt in Chicago? Or another hotel?

You can bet I won't stay at the Hyatt Regency Chicago again, even though the clerk at check out made me smile. After he apologized twice for the room ordeal, he looked at me and said, "Miss Heckenberger, I can only hope that the Eagles or the Phillies win a championship for you this year." I don't know how he knew I was from Philly, I checked in with my passport which identifies NYC as my hometown, but he won me over for a moment and I twittered that too;)

2008-03-28T15:35:00.001-04:00

What's up, yo? You doing the "Social Media Rap"?

2008-03-26T17:49:00.003-04:00

It used to be you knew you made it when you had a gay rumor spread about you. Now you know made it if you have a firefox plug-in. The latest plug-in to cross my radar blows me away - it's an anti-rickroll plug-in.

Now, this is a godsend if you are one of those people with idiotic friends who rick-roll you regularly, ie - spam you with links disguised as something you want to click on but instead direct you to a video of Rick Astley singing "Never Gonna Give You Up." (Note: you will not be rick-rolled in this post. I am over 30 and over the rick-roll).

Congrats to the sick individual who created the rick roll and rolled it out globally. You now have your own firefox plug-in blocker.

And Rick Astley, once again, retreats to the dusty annals of our minds.

2008-03-25T01:50:00.004-04:00

These links are a day late (and a dollar short?) but who cares, I think they are effing genius!

Now, apparently, some of my twitter friends (that's YOU, Colleen Coplick!) are anti-Peep! I heart the Peeps! And NOT just because the company is based in the town next to where I grew up.

I mean, COME ON. Peeps are marshmellow/sugar goodness. They have a chance to rock it primarily once a year, although the website appears to be marketing other holidays for peep love. I'm down with that.

I'll tell you what else I am down with. Check this photo gallery of Peep diorama's the WAPO ran. Totally rad. But even more amazing? Check the PEEP online FILM FEST that YesButNoButYes hosted. Possibly one of the most amazing CGM brand executions I've seen online and ironically, I can't say Peeps was involved nor spent a single marketing dollar on this. That's Brand equity and loyalty at its finest. F'ing marshmellows! Microsoft or FOX will likely acquire Peeps in 2 days for multi-million, billion, quadrillion dollars;) Vampire bite widgets of Peeps are sure to follow.

But wait! here's the dopest of them all. Check it:

2008-03-20T22:26:00.002-04:00

I started my new job with advertising/interactive agency Red Tettemer 5 days ago. Prior to that, I took a few days to decompress and rest up, which included leaving my computer behind. Just my handheld for contact, I checked in with Twitter and text and otherwise unplugged. Not surprisingly, my carpel tunnel faded and I was able to sleep well at length.

My first week at RT has exceeded my expectations, the agency is an even more seemless fit for how I work than I anticipated. The staff is enormously creative and strategic, which makes work days even more fun as we cook up new ways for our clients to connect with customers.

When I get a chance, I have a few social media items to discuss here. For now, I just want to plug Twitter Karma, the tool many of us on Twitter have been eagerly asking/waiting for! This service shows you who u follow and who follows you or more importantly, who you don't follow and who doesn't follow you! Very helpful, if like me, you view Twitter as a dialogue platform.

Oh! I can't believe I almost forgot this! I'm on the cover of PRWeek this week with my esteemed GPTMC colleagues for our work with new/social media & uwishunu to promote Philly. Very exciting stuff. PRWeek has always been the bible for my industry and it's a thrill for our work to be recognized by the publication and so prominently.

2008-03-06T10:09:00.002-05:00

Some very cool social media news created by my absolute FAVORITE band:

SIGUR ROS
YouTube Global Takeover
Friday March 7

Sigur Ros and YouTube make a little bit of history this Friday (Mar 7) with the band taking over the entire front page of the site around the world for a whole day, becoming the first group to ever have a feature-length music DVD streamed on the channel, with their acclaimed 'Heima' documentary shown in its complete 97-minute glory.

All 12 available slots on YouTube's home page will be devoted to the Icelandic quartet for a full 24-hours, putting them before a global audience of hundreds of millions. The link-up follows the success of 'Minn Heima', a competition hosted by YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/group/MinnHeima) for fans of the band to create their own little version of 'Heima', using audio and video clips posted online. The 10 best entries, as judged by the band, will be featured on the home page, alongside the film itself, as well as a special message from the band, taking time off from recording their new album in Reykjavik.

YouTube has only previously hosted a handful of long form presentations, none for music DVDs. It is the first ever UK home page 'takeover' since the launch of http://uk.youtube.com - the localized home page that allows for country-specific video rankings and comments.
Simultaneous with the YouTube promotion, the band will launch www.sigurros.com, giving away a free audio-visual download clip of the song 'Ny Batteri' filmed live in Reykjavik in the summer of 2006 as part of the Heima tour. 'Ny Batteri' is just one of a dozen additional songs not featured in the film that the band are intending to make available via the site in the near future. Information about the forthcoming album will also be revealed via www.sigurros.com…
~*~
Now the question is, can I view uk.youtube???

2008-03-04T11:42:00.002-05:00

Any designers out there looking for a simple project that will get in-community play/attention? Dave Coustan is seeking a designer to create a cool domain placeholder design. Help him out!

2008-02-27T18:59:00.003-05:00

I have some news.

I've decided to make a change professionally; I will be leaving Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp and joining Red Tettemer in a similar social media position.

This move offers the best of both worlds to me; RT is an advertising agency of record for GPTMC and as such, I will still have opportunity to work on the Philadelphia "brand" that I am passionate about, including our insider-y Philadelphia campaign that includes the community blog uwishunu. I'll just be working on them from 3 blocks away.

I'll also have the pleasure of working with a collection of many of the most creative people I've had the pleasure of meeting. These are the people who brought you iMate just a few weeks ago, just for fun, and yes, those are their REAL employees.

It's been an educational and exciting year and a half working for GPTMC, the only non-profit organization I've known that is so teeming with talent and smarts that they are marketing on the same high level of Fortune 500 companies with 10x the budget.

I'll be at GPTMC for another week and then I'm taking some time off before joining RT on March 13th. Expect to see big things from Red Tettemer in the near future. I am going in with social media gunz a-blazing and we are going to make a lot of noise in the SM space.

BTW, I've been playing around with some ideas for my new title. Digital Revolutionary (Viva La Revolucion!)? Connections Strategist? Or Community Evangelist? I'm open to ideas! Bring it!

2008-02-26T16:42:00.002-05:00

Officially, my favorite new widget, the Snoop Dogg "Shizzolate Your Twitters"! I am worshiping at the altar of Snoop's marketing team right now. Fo' shizzle, bizzle!

2008-02-22T09:56:00.002-05:00

Hats off today to Doritos for taking a big leap of faith and into social media stardom by showing their sense of humor and supporting this "artist". Who woulda thunk Frito Lay could be so cool?

*Video may be NSFW.*

2008-02-22T09:27:00.002-05:00

I'll be speaking here again soon. In the meantime, watch the attached video. This was my favorite show as a kid and I would sit indian-style in front of the tv everyday and stare up, enraptured with Carole and Paula and the chucklepatch. I loved the chucklepatch but my very favorite part of the "The Magic Garden" was singing along to this song at the end. In fact, to this day I often find myself singing it in my head when I'm walking around by myself.

My officemate suspects they may have indoctrinated me into a cult as a child via this program. I say thank God for being a child of the 70's. We need more flower power these days. Three cheers for nostalgia on the internet!

2008-01-17T14:24:00.000-05:00

And today we thank Target, for making the WORST PR decision of the day.

Walmart, anyone?

2008-01-10T21:57:00.000-05:00

Welcome to 2008.

I was thinking recently, about Twitter and how it's really become the only social network that I regularly use. I decided to take a closer look at the platform and think about why I prefer Twitter over Facebook or Pownce or Jaiku. Yes, I like the mobility of being able to connect to it from my phone or the web or aim, and I like the simplicity of communicating in 140 characters but what I *love* about twitter is the community of people in it.

When I thought about it, I realized that Twitter is the first social network or "socnet" as many of us now call them, populated first by people of my own age. And it's not just Gen X, Baby Boomers and beyond in twitter - there are plenty of younger peeps using it. Speaking for myself, I have built a solid following of likeminded professionals that I "tweet" with every day, whom are my peers. That is very unique for a social network thus far. What is it, when you think about it, is a club. A meeting place, a hang out, a group of compatriots - but a virtual club - meeting at any time you choose. A proverbial treehouse where you can always find a friend inside.

These "tweets" or short dialogue conversations among people, have truly differentiated Twitter for me, because it's finally a "socnet" where people seem like, well, *people*. They aren't just bands who automatically "friend" me or profile pages with colorful widgets and photo albums, they are real time conversations with real people.

What twitter has done, is taken the chat room/bulletin board concept and made it accessible to many people globally and portable. Connecting and communicating from anywhere with large groups of people. That is HUGE. It's changing everything, for me. It's widening my circle of friends, contacts, knowledge, interests, thought processes and more.

Today, The Washington Post talked about the power behind Twitter, featuring the Frozen Pea Movement that I previewed for you just as it started. As of this afternoon, The Frozen Pea Fund had raised $7,171 for breast cancer research.

Not too shabby for a buncha socnet geeks;)

2007-12-28T20:19:00.000-05:00

So last night, as I was twittering while reading a book, watching tv and returning phone calls/text messaging I wondered if 10 years from now, there may be cyber-rehab for all of us who are superconnected *allthetime* and addicted to it.

Naturally, I threw this theory out to my twitter peeps and not surprisingly, a few people thought they'd be ready for cyber-deprogramming group. My pal Connie Reece quickly sent a tweet alerting me I'm a candidate for Socnet Rehab.

Now, while Socnet Rehab may be a clever spoof, I really suspect that cyber-rehab isn't far away. Many of us *are* addicted to our communication tools, as crazy as that may sound. Withdrawal from social media communities can result in depression, anxiety and yes, in severe cases, even panic! Even more telling, as more and more entrepreneurs make money via social media and online/mobile platforms, they have more money to spend on access points to their addiction. They also have money to pay for costly rehab programs.

My question is, what do you think the gateway drug is for us cyber/tech-addicts? Was it e-mail? Text Messaging? Will we have to swear off mobile phones (please God, no).

I hope we can get a group rate somewhere. And they'd better have a hand surgeon on-hand. I don't know about the rest of you, but my carpal tunnel is getting worse; I'm going to need surgery upon check in.

2007-12-20T22:08:00.000-05:00

I'm excited to be a part of a new community movement online, that started in Twitter. Last week, two of my Twitter friends, Connie Reece and Laura Fitton, started tweeting about PEA-vatars. The next thing I knew, I looked at my Twitter page and it was populating with Twitter friends who also featured avatars with peas. I learned that the PEA-vatars were being adopted for fellow Twitterer and bloggerSusan Reynolds, whom had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. Susan had changed her avatar to a photo of a package of frozen peas and explained that the meaning behind the image was that she used a bag of frozen peas on her sore breast after several biopsies. To show my support for this member of our Twitter community, I quickly jumped aboard and created my own PEAvatar.

Not even a week has passed and peas abound in Twitter avatars. Connie Reece and Laura Fitton and a few others no doubt, even created a "PEAple" Twitter account, which they are asking members of the community to "follow" and they use to share news about Susan and the PEA-movement. On December 21st, The Frozen Pea Fund will go live, and anyone will be able to donate money via this site to help raise money for breast cancer research.

I'm excited to be a part of this real-life, positive social media movement. I think this is great example of how a global community can connect to support each other for no reason other than helping someone who needs support.

I'll keep you posted on our progress but I hope you'll join in and participate!

Give PEAs a chance:)

2007-12-16T21:10:00.000-05:00

I've noticed a trend among the most popular social networks/communities online that is disconcerting to me; I'm calling it the McDonaldization of social media. Platforms and communities that I have used and participated in because of their different services over the last few years, such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Plaxo have moved away from their initial core services and become everything to everyone. What's even stranger about this trend, is that somewhere during this evolution, they morphed into each other, becoming this MyFaceLinkedPlaxo that I can no longer tell apart.

I don't know if this is a case of a Silicon Valley Meetup gone wrong or if one designer had a great year winning business from all the top communities, but everything is looking the same to me anymore, right down to the common denominator of blue and white templates.

Even worse, this blurring of the product/service line confuses me on the products. I no longer know which community does what, best anymore. When you do everything, can you really distinguish yourself as doing any one thing well?

It's almost as if social media has become the beast that we ran from: mass media. We left mass media because they weren't speaking to "me," they were speaking to everyone about everything. Think of The New York Times "All the news that's fit to print," versus our online news moguls like Digg that started as just tech news. Now, McDonalized social media properties are all offering the same fast food social media products, with different marketing campaigns and Madison Avenue taglines assigned.

"Plaxo keeps you in-touch and up-to date!"
"Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you."
"LinkedIn: Relationships Matter"
"MySpace: A place for friends"

Sounds a lot like: "Burger King: Have it Your Way" or "McDonalds: I'm Lovin'It," doesn't it?

I worry that just one year after Time Magazine Named "You" as person of the year, social networks have forgotten about us.

I also worry that we are ignoring history and the valuable lesson of hubris. It's only been a few years since we were misled and misinformed by MSM's Jayson Blair, leading even more people to cynically defect from MSM media and seek truth by reading more news sources online. Yet, here we are just a few years later, watching Mark Zuckerberg similarly trip up in his own hubris, in what seems to me, his abandonment of his Brand's core audience and product because of greed.

Is social media becoming the new "corporate america"? Worse, are we allowing them to become this? Like sheep, will we simply graze, nod and follow? What's the alternative to a social media world that sells out? Where do we go next? Or, are do we have a chance to save social media and not make the mistakes of msm? I'd love to hear other thoughts on this.

2007-12-12T00:15:00.000-05:00

I attended the Cultural & Heritage Tourism Alliance conference held in Seattle about a week and a half ago. Seattle is a favorite destination of mine, and visiting during the holiday season did not disappoint. They do wonderful job lighting up the city.

I was there to speak about Philly and how we are using social media to connect with travelers, but I really felt like I was schooled by some other smart session leaders.

In the morning, we heard from Glenn Kelman, President & CEO of Redfin, who was a breath of fresh air. This guy is the CEO of a healthily growing business, but he hasn't lost site of what's important: his site's users. He knows which users are cult-like in their devotion to the site and periodically reaches out to them directly and personally, via email, shares things like new features they are thinking about adding and asks for those loyalists feedback. And he LISTENS to their feedback. That's engagement.

Cari Guittard, Executive Director, Business for Diplomatic Action, talked a tough topic, "The State of America's Reputation and How it Affects Tourism." I applaud her for starting by acknowledging Zakaria's recent Newsweek story titled "America The Unwelcoming." If you haven't read it, I strongly encourage you to do so. It is an alarm bell sounding for all Americans and our economy, which is largely reliant nationwide on tourism dollars. The basis of the story is built around the Commerce Department finding that "the United States is the only major country in the world to which travel has declined in the midst of a global tourism boom." This, as the dollar drops against many foreign currencies.

She showed us Discover America Partnership, which is a site targeting businesses and individuals, seeking to connect with them in a big enough way that inspires them to act as positive WOM ambassadors for the US when they travel. I like the idea, the execution underwhelmed me. I felt like the red-white-and-blue of it all was too establishment to win over someone like me, who travels abroad and doesn't politically align with the Bush Administration. Design-wise, I think the header graphic wastes too much of the page and looks like a McDonald's commercial (an image that I would think we'd want to get away from overseas).

They did much better on their "consumer" site, world citizens guide. I like the design, the animation and the content here. Do click on the "100 People" tab - absolutely brilliant educational application. Simple, easy to comprehend and to me, thought provoking about "my" world vs the global world we all share. I can see why they won a Webby. To win another Webby, I think they should refresh this site with a area for a community. A place for people to converse, speak, listen and learn. Or, if they aren't equipped/ready to build their own community, join a pre-exisiting social networking community that will better connect them with "connected" citizens; be present and participate in a NUMBER of those communities. We're already there, so rather than working relentlessly to convert us, come JOIN us. Get in the conversation. Sure, those traditional media hits are great for some people; but many of us employ the internet as our default news source. We're missing your 60 Minutes hits, unless it's recapped on Gawker or you post it on Viddler.

Revolution isn't just occuring overseas. We are in the midst of a global social revolution. The world has changed, whether we like it or not. So marketers (yes, even you, USA), either get up to speed and join the new world or let it pass you by, but understand, the global social revolution is in full swing and there's no turning back now.

2007-12-06T16:06:00.000-05:00

Well, I did it. I finally did it. I deactivated Facebook.

I have been angry with Facebook for a while now. I was angry when they started publishing our feeds; I didn't need all my friends seeing a 2am scribble on another friend's wall. I was angry when they abandoned their core audience and their brand equity by opening the community to everyone and their grandmother.

And then came the widgets. Jesssssuuuuuuuuuuuussssssssss. The first pirate invite was cute. The next 250? Not so much. And the vampire bites? Never cute, never fun. Just. SUPER. Annoying.

And then they decided to split things up: individuals here, bands and brands there. OK. But did you need to delete the pages of Brands that were already in-community WITH NO WARNING, OVERNIGHT, after you made the announcement, Facebook? That's like breaking up with someone you live with and not giving them a chance to pack up - just throwing their shit out the window and on the street!

And then came Beacon. With this, it's almost hard to believe that Facebook started out as an Ivy League community, although I'm Jesuit educated and we believe we're smarter than Ivy anyway, so I guess it shouldn't be that surprising that a bunch of Harvard kids could eff up marketing so hugely in this day and age. Rather than even tiptoe in the stupidity of their "opt-out" answer, I defer to Chris Heuer's excellent post on that topic.

So, I tip my hat to my friend Colin, with whom I've bitched, lamented and threatened to do this for many, many months, but whom beat me to the punch to it earlier today and I bid adieu to my Facebook friends. You can find me on Twitter, here, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo and many other places but you will no longer find me on Facebook.

Good riddance and AMEN.

2007-11-23T20:07:00.001-05:00

Whew!It's been a while since I've posted. I had a spate of bad luck. First my laptop mysteriously died, then I lost my wallet while running around trying to get my laptop repaired. Two days later, I tore my miniscus in my knee.

My laptop is semi-repaired thanks to a colleague in my work web department who patiently sat with it, ran checks, updated it, removed and reinstalled programs. However, I have to call out Dell Customer Service, who, perhaps *because* of Jeff Jarvis's loud voice about his experience with them, have been OUTSTANDING in response to me. The customer service rep was patient with me (and I'll admit, I was cranky and frustrated with him) and has called me everyday for 10 days to check on the machine and see how it is working. I would definitely recommend Dell to anyone looking for a new machine.

My latest social media indulgence has been Firebrand. This is an exciting platform for Madison Avenue. It's a home and community for great commercials. I love it! We were all tired of commercials on TV because it was oversaturation. We were drowning in them, ergo, the fast adoption of DVR. However, that doesn't mean there isn't a place for advertising, especially spots done artfully. Firebrand is that place. I love the idea of giving consumers a CHOICE to view ads rather than force feeding us where we are captive. I have a feeling consumers will embrace this less disruptive advertising.

For now, here's one of my favorite spots of recent years:

2007-11-10T21:53:00.000-05:00

A great literary voice and technophobe, Norman Mailer, passed away today. He lived a full life, so kudos to him. I imagine him, an alleged anti-feminist, being schooled by Dorothy Parker at round table somewhere in the sky.

I love this quote: "Mailer built and nurtured an image over the years as pugnacious, street-wise and high-living. He drank, fought, smoked pot, married six times and stabbed his second wife, almost fatally, during a drunken party."

Well done, Norman.

2007-11-10T14:11:00.000-05:00

I'm at the First Person Arts Festival demonstrating a blog post.

2007-11-07T11:27:00.000-05:00

Further to my point about Facebook in yesterday's post, this video sums up how I'm feeling about the social network (hat tip, Mark):

And check it out, I'm in the Metro today! The story is about a workshop I am leading this Saturday as part of First Person Arts Festival. Please come! It's going to be fun and I can use the hecklers;)

2007-11-06T20:55:00.000-05:00

Happy Election Day. Here's cool and helpful voting Tool that someone twittered to me recently. The company behind it appears to be non-partisan and agenda free. One can hope...
*~*
I had an interesting discussion today with some colleagues about web 2.0 and web 3.0. I know everyone loathes the term, but it's here, so let's get over it for the sake of discussion.

I stand with Team 2.0, meaning, I don't think 3.0 should even be uttered because 2.0 isn't even flushed out or saturated yet. To quote my friend Josh Hallett, "I've been waiting for four years to get to the second version of my social media discussion."

I tend to think it's media pushing for 3.0 here - and I don't just mean traditional media. I mean CGM too. A nice tidy term to coin and bandy about - it's not just attributable and viral, it's wikiable too.

And sure, I've heard the predictions. "Web 3.0 is semantic web." It's "smart web" or "smart search." The internet becomes your personal "database." It's the Internet moving ahead to suggest to us, based on our past participation, which chess piece to play in interactive games or suggesting topics for blog entries based on an analytic algorithm of the news stories we clicked on, that we spent the most time reading, what we posted to our del.icio.us, related blogs we read and commented on, etc.

Perhaps, after all of this participation, web 3.0 means there is finally a payoff coming? Sounds like web 3.0 is simply the ultimate in lazyweb.

If that's the case, I welcome 3.0. Lately, I find that I'm over many of these online communities I've been involved with for years. I mean, does anyone even remember Friendster? I haven't killed my account there because it's my only link to the friends I had in 2002 or 2003. Whenever it was. When I see a MySpace alert in my mailbox, I sometimes groan because it's usually a friend request from some wannabe gangsta rapper or weeping singer-songwriter. And Facebook, the place where I used to volley cheeky comments back-and-forth on my personal friends' "walls" is now populated by everyone I know, including business contacts. Many of whom are now sending me "vampire bites" and "virtual happy hour cocktails." Huh?

Our social world has become an open book, one for everyone to read and participate in all across the globe. Instead of embracing this endless frontier, I find myself retreating from the boundless universe. I find that I prefer communities like LinkedIn, which are function more than form. Or Twitter, where I can lock my account and only converse with people I agree to "follow."

So tell me, what about all of you? Where do you stand on all of this? Are you in a 3.0 world? Are you loving your social networks? Or, are you growing weary of overparticipation? LMK.

2007-10-25T14:43:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Kami for pointing me to her post about the how the Red Cross is using social media to communicate with victims, donors, etc. about the California wildfires. I just added their Twitter account to my list of people to follow and I added their news widget to the righthand sidebar of my page (see it over there?).

Kami's post details how you can donate via text from your phone, one of my favorite features of technology. Smile, dial and donate.

2007-10-23T09:57:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to think back in time to pinpoint exactly when journalism became mean. Because the-magazine-who-will-not-be-named-on-my-blog is promoting a mean-spirited survey about Philly.

I guess I'm ugly. Oh well.

2007-10-17T19:37:00.000-04:00

I just love this post by Todd Defren about the Social Media Release. Go go and read that and remember, social media isn't just about having all these neat tools in our toolbox (although 1-click publishing is nice!. For marketers and for PR people especially, it's an opportunity for us to get back to what our professions started out doing - relating directly to the public where they live and breathe. All those places online and off. Sure, it's a lot of work, but here's the thing some of you might not know - it's fun too;)

2007-10-05T20:59:00.000-04:00

I have so much to cover on here. First, let's talk about BlogOrlando while it's fresh on my mind.

The day before the sessions, our fearless leader and BlogOrlando organizer, Josh Hallett arranged for the lovely people at Delaware North Corporation (a park service tour company) to provide the session leaders with a comprehensive tour of NASA. Personally, I was primarily looking forward to meeting and spending time with the other session leaders, some of whom I follow on Twitter or via their blogs, others I've spoken with via email and never met, and of course, reconnect with those that I count as friends.

Thank GOD for Dave Coustan, whom I met through Josh last spring and did a bang up job leading a session at BlogPhiladelphia last July. I hitched a ride with Dave for most of the unconference - I'm city girl, I don't know the way of these "car" cities.

So Dave gave Tom Biro and I a ride to NASA, during which, they made me laugh several times while trying to record my outgoing voicemail for work and somehow determined that I am a "spacist" because I questioned why we must continue to dedicate billions of federal dollars to continue to send equipment and people into space. In my mind, we landed on the moon, it was an amazing feat, and as suspected, there's nothing there - case closed. Dave and Tom, on the other hand, were excited to see the rockets and learn more about the program.

The tour we were given at NASA changed my mind about the Space program. We started with the IMAX movie that was narrated by Tom Hanks and other actors from the Apollo 13 movie. The 3D aspect of the film was incredible on an emotional level of starting to understand the firsthand experience of the astronauts who've landed on the moon and their jobs there. The explanation of the escalating political situation of that time between the US and the Russia helped me understand the political, societal and patriotic need for the US to have a successful mission to the moon. The physics lessons that came later in other films demonstrated that the minds at NASA have defied the laws of nature and made the impossible, possible. Those scientists, likely too many to name here, not only stretched their imaginations, but carried the weight of knowledge that the fate of astronauts lives, were contingent on them thinking through every step of development - without ever having the chance to truly "test" their work. And all of this with the world watching. That's what I call pressure.

We were treated to a lunch with a special guest speaker, astronaut Bill Pogue. Wow. That guy has some stories. Bill spent 84 days in space aboard the Skylab 4 and he talked us through some footage from his time in space.

Of course, most of us jumped at the opportunity to ride the rocket simulator, which is a remarkable experience. If you have the opportunity, definitely try it. The gravity-less portion is wild.

Thanks to our excellent tour guide, Nick, whom we all agreed must have been the VIP guide because he knew more about the NASA space program than you can imagine and his enthusiasm was contagious. As someone in the tourism industry, I was truly impressed with our tour.

I should also apologize here, to poor Nick, who probably didn't know what he was getting into with a bus of bloggers who communicate in 140 characters and try to make everything into an LOLcats joke.
~*~
But let's get to the event, already! I know, I know.

The incredibly tan Shel Israel opened the event with a great discussion about his background and evolution as a blogger and reinforcing the importance of blogging and social media as conversations among real people. Unfortunately, it was during Shel's keynote that my work kicked in and I had to excuse myself to find a corner and rapidly do my social media magic for the 2007 Liberty Medal, which had been presented by President Bush (41, not 43) to Bono and his charity DATA the evening before in Historic Philadelphia. At least I had the company of my Social Media Club liason, Kristie Wells, who was running check-in. Love Kristie. How can you not? It was fantastic to finally meet her in person.

Although I was working, I tried to take advantage of my surroundings and attend some morning sessions. Connie Reece gave me a few things to think about with her session on "Building Connections and Networking Online." Not all of my social network accounts have the same username, which doesn't help my personal brand.

I caught about two minutes of Alex Rudloff's co-working session with some help from Philly co-worker (and my friend)Alex Hillman, before I had to hop out to connect with work.

I raced against the clock for the entire lunch hour, plugging directly into Rollins College's high speed network in their Computer Repair Services dept. Huge thanks to the both the college for lending their GORGEOUS campus to BlogOrlando and to the guys in the Computer Repair Services room for letting me plug in and literally hole up in a corner muttering curses under my breath as I raced against time to get my work done before my session.

I barely finished uploading the last file when it was my turn to speak. I was a bit disoriented from the frenzy of work I'd been rushing to do that morning, and I wasn't at my best. I spoke about the social media work we've done at GPTMC to promote Philadelphia on both gophila.com and uwishunu.com. I also showed people TubeMogul, a beta tool that I had used all morning to upload the Liberty Medal footage simultaneously to 10 top video sharing sites. People seemed to be interested and asked questions, so I hope I provided value. I had intended to speak about other DMO sites I think are going a good job, like: Uniquely Knoxville, Explore Minnesota, Montreal's Brits Wanted and even Starwood's redesign of the Sheraton site. Fortunately, the group was great and asked questions and before I knew it, I ran out of time.

My pal Dave Parmet did an awesome job of presenting nothing and pushing back on the audience to ask questions about his topic of "Business Blogging and Next Steps."

Someone else I really enjoyed meeting, was Geoff Livingston, and I'm not just saying that because he's a former Philly guy;) I could tell early on that Geoff is a smart guy and a strategic PR counselor - two things I love. I got the sense that Geoff is one of the elite group of high level PR people who takes the time to listen to a client and understand their business first and then works to develop objectives/strategies/tactics that will help them achieve their business objectives rather than "yes" a client looking for the placement on their favorite media outlet or looking to be a part of the social media buzzword of the moment. I say this because that's how his session "Participation in Marketing" felt. It was thoughtful, engaging and an open dialogue. Geoff gave the sense that everything he said had a great deal of thought behind it and his topical questions to the audience made me think more too.

I hopped out of Geoff's session early to catch some of my girl Alicia Dorset's session on "Separating Your Work Life from Your Personal Life," a session that Alicia led for us at BlogPhilly but I wasn't able to attend as the organizer. Alicia and I met at a Blogher conference in NYC last winter and she, along with a few other bloggers, was one of the best takeaways for me from that event. I hope that MS&L knows what a star they have in their agency. Let me just say, I am so glad I made her session. Holy. Hannah. The conversation was en fuego!!! One woman in the online scrapbooking community told us firsthand accounts of some CRAZY flaming that goes on among some members. It's like a Blogger version of "Mean Girls"! Other people shared stories of online stalkers and job opportunities they happily walked away from because of their social networking pages. Again, I heard more people heatedly express the opinion that a client or employer who wasn't cool with their personal/weekend/recreational flickr photos or blog posts, weren't people they want to work with. That's something that I hear more and more and still surprises me. I guess that's because I remember when the bubble burst back in 1999 and we all learned quickly that jeans and t-shirts worn to "cool" dotcom work places with outfitted with fooseball and fridges stocked with beer were memories of the past.

Dave Coustan led a discussion that was very educational for me, "Using Blogs for Product Development." I learned more about applications that can foster creative collaboration and advance R&D. Thank God for wifi, as I had to google a several terms that came up in this discussion.

Finally, we get to Chris Heuer, someone I've spoken with on Social Media Club con calls and emails, and followed on Twitter but hadn't met. Josh warned the crowd that Heuer was returning to BlogOrlando with a fan club that had formed after his session last year and you can count me in as the club's newest member.

If you get a chance to meet Heuer or listen to him speak, run, don't walk to that opportunity. Here are a few of my takeaways from his presentation:

• There’s still value in editorial perspective but some of the editorial is coming from in here (meaning all of us), because we’ve learned to trust one another

• Social media is tearing down the walls that keep us apart and changing the rules from what’s kept us from being human inside our companies or organizations

• People having conversations – it’s messy

• Why would I want to work for a company that doesn’t trust me?

• Companies: make clear your intentions

• Live the life, love the life

• Social media = human organizations

• You can’t rely on just one source (like digg)

• The brands with the best storytellers win – how do they have them – because they have the best products. (When you have great products, you can find great stories)

• Pondering for reflection; who here stops and thinks about what happened this week? Stop. Remember to step off the fast track, unplug and reflect.

Heuer really brought it all home for me. We're all so busy living this life that is our work, but by nature of it being in a community, it requires us to make our work our life. That said, don't forget about YOUR life. Live YOUR life TOO. Don't just use the media tools, be social too. That's something I lost sight of at my last job and much of the reason I moved to Philly. I needed to take back my life and find the joy in living again. I'm happy to say that Heuer's discussion made me realize that I've done just that.

There were so many other smart people at BlogOrlando that I regretfully just didn't have the time to see. I've been reading everyone's recaps about the event to see what I missed and I encourage you to do the same. Google "BlogOrlando 2007." I especially enjoyed reading the recaps about my bus seat partner Jake Mckee, Tom Biro and Jeremy Harrington.

Congratulations are much deserved to Josh Hallett and his team in Orlando who made the event fun and valuable. Thanks to Rollins College, NASA, Universal Parks, the exquisite EO Inn and all of the sponsors who made the event possible.

I will *definitely* return for BlogOrlando 2008.

IMG_4980.jpg

2007-10-01T16:03:00.001-04:00

IMG_4980.jpg
Originally uploaded by uwishunuflickr

This one is for the Phillies. Why do I think we are on the cusp of a regional explosion of babies named Chase, Cole, Shane, Aaron, Ryan/Howard and Brett?

2007-09-27T21:10:00.000-04:00

Ok, September has gotten away from me on my blog. If you want to follow me, you are better off following me on Twitter. It's my lazyweb platform of choice.

I've been so busy, working on things like this live webcast of Bono and DATA receiving the Liberty Medal in Philadelphia tonight (webcast will be reposted tomorrow morning on LibertyMedal.org), that I haven't even recapped yet!

Now I'm really gonna be in trouble, because I'm down here at BlogOrlando, and I still don't have time for a proper update. Come to my session at 1:15PM tomorrow at Rollins College. If you wanted to learn something about new/social media and didn't know how or who to ask, come to BlogOrlando. It's a free event and smart folks who know this stuff AND can speak in plain English, are here and leading a whole day of discussions. Come ready to talk, because this is an "unconference," and not some stuffy line up of powerpoint presentations.

This isn't your grandfather's technology seminar;) See you tomorrow.

2007-09-07T22:31:00.000-04:00

The Band's Back Together! Tonight was the kick off party for Podcamp Philly hosted by the awesome dudes at interactive design firm P'unk Ave. Viddler's Community Evangelist, Colin was on a roll tonight. I think he made me laugh for almost 2hours straight.

I left the party early to try and get some rest. I need to be at Podcamp by 8am tomorrow and it's a full day of sessions, a night of parties with the band, and another day of sessions on Sunday. No rest for the web 2.0-weary!
*~*
In other news, check out this clip of Cate Blanchett playing Bob Dylan. Wow. I have to give it up to her, I bought her as a man and as Dylan. Can't wait to see the film!

2007-08-29T22:53:00.000-04:00

Now here's a great story illustrating how social media can quickly take a bad situation and make it worse by exposing it to a massive, global audience, and how someone then LEVERAGED social media to come back on top - bigger than ever.

During the recent Miss Teen USA pagent, Miss Carolina made a huge gaff on-air. Yes, it was nationally broadcast, but as we know, TV audiences are dwindling, so it's once and done, right? Enter youtube. By Monday, the clip had so much traction, it was even picked up by Gawker Media sports site Deadspin.com. The video on Deadspin alone generated almost 25,000 views. On Youtube, nearly 8 million people have viewed the clip. And those are just two of the many websites who posted the clip. In a matter of a days, a bad interview got much much worse.

Now this is where Miss Carolina (or her management team) proved she's not as simple-minded as she sounded. Instead of allowing herself to be the butt of blog jokes and late night show banter and fade into oblivion, she joined forces with a credible and visible third party, People.com, and poked fun at herself, virally.

Suddenly, she's laughing with everyone.

One of the most important things to remember when responding online via social media is to have a sense of humor. It's important to understand the tone online: irreverent, cheeky, snarky and quirky. While I rarely recommend a snarky tone for a response online, because it has to be done right and can read as defensive in a response, I do recommend being playful and picking a safe channel to host a response, both of which, Miss Carolina did. Well done.

One last note, I acknowledge that not every crisis or gaff is appropriate to respond to via social media and humor. Of exception would be incidents like product recalls of serious consequence to consumers, like the recent toy recall, a pharma crisis or a pending litigation.

**Thanks to Jeremy Pepper for tweeting the the link to the People.com video.

2007-08-22T15:05:00.002-04:00

I'm on vacation! The weather is dismal.

Nevermind that, please subscribe to the new Philly Social Media Calendar. After BlogPhiladelphia, many of us in the local community realized that we had been segmented by our individual networking groups and we wanted continue the momentum of meeting as a larger community. Ergo, the birth of this calendar. Many thanks to my partner in Social Media Club Philly, Steph Fox, who created this tool.

2007-08-16T23:37:00.000-04:00

Who's excited?!?! Mememememe!!!

I'm going to BlogOrlando! Have you registered yet? Well, what the heck are you waiting for???

Knowing Josh Hallett, it's going to be filled with great sessions, smart people and chock full of learnings. Oh, did I mention I'll be leading a session? Yep. I'll be leading a conversation about using social media to market tourism.

I'll be there, Sept 27-29! Hope to see you, too.

2007-08-14T11:28:00.000-04:00

Go Philly! We're the second Bloggiest city in the nation! We rule!

2007-08-08T23:36:00.000-04:00

Here's a real life of example of why it's important for Corporations/Brands/Service businesses to hire PR experts who live and breathe social media.

Last October, I bought the Verizon Wireless PC Card. I had just moved from out of state and even though I made arrangements a few weeks prior to moving, the local cable provider scheduled my hook-up for their earliest available date, about 2 weeks after my relocation. I was prepared to suck up a TV-less life, but no Internet access for 2-weeks???? Not an option. So I decided to try the PC Card.

Verizon Wireless offered the card with a 10-day free trial. The deal was that if I didn't like the product and returned it within 10 days, I would be fully refunded. Sounded great.

Unfortunately, the card wasn't compatible with my laptop. I returned it within the 10 day timespan, the store stamped my receipt as returned, I didn't have a second thought about it.

Until 6 or 7 months later when the calls started on my cell. I was getting calls from credit agencies, which I ignored, thinking it was a mistake. I've had mix ups before because of a duplicate name. I assumed it was an error.

Then my parents called me. They were getting calls at their home, a residence I haven't resided at for 15 years. Now I was annoyed.

I called the debt collector to find out what this was about. After an hour long conversation, we realized that it was a mistake. He had me call Verizon. I spent another 45 minutes on the phone with Verizon. They saw the error in their system and told me it was corrected. They said the credit agencies would be alerted. I called back the credit agency and relayed the information.

For the next two months, this cycle was repeated. Two different agencies continued to harrass me via cell phone. I would call Verizon and they would tell me the error was corrected in their system and the agencies were alerted.

Today, I lost it. I spoke with the credit agency at the end of last week! At that time, I called them yet again, explained that the debt was erroneous and Verizon had cleared the account and alerted the agency. Two separate agencies called me twice this morning. Then I checked my credit report and saw that my score was still low, showing this false claim. I grew irate.

I called Verizon and I demanded action. This time they told me that the paperwork had been sent to the collection agencies on June 27th, so the account should be deleted any day now. The rep explained that it took a week or so after the notice was sent for it to show in the collection agency system. "July 27th?" I repeated several times to him. "Yes" he confirmed over and over. I started to laugh. "Today is AUGUST 8TH. IT'S BEEN ALMOST 6 WEEKS SINCE THIS LETTER WAS SENT. WHEN IS THIS GOING TO HAPPEN?"

There was plenty more to this conversation, but we don't need to get into it. That's not the important part here. This isn't Dell Hell.

What happened next is that I was royally ticked and I wanted to tell someone, so I started to Twitter about my war with Verizon. I even went so far to say that I was so angry, I was going to digitally record the calls with Verizon customer service and start posting the mp3's of the stagnant, frustrating conversations online for my readers to listen to. Then I said I was going to pitch the whole terrible story to consumer reporters on TV.

Here's where it gets interesting.

You see, Verizon Wireless, while ticking me off, had the foresight to hire a smart PR team. Immediately after my twitters, I was directly contacted by Jeremy Pepper, one of the smartest blogger/social media professionals in the business. First he asked me what happened and then he empathized with my experience and noted that if this round of calls didn't resolve the problem (it sounded like it will - finally!), he'd be happy to lend help from his side. I was impressed. If Verizon Wireless hadn't aligned with Jeremy Pepper (Disclosure: we've met via industry conferences) and if he hadn't be visible to me as a blogger and someone to follow online...if he hadn't been paying attention on Twitter, I would have launched a debilitating campaign against the company and it may have been too late for him to manage it.

It's not enough in this day and age of citizen journalism and microblogging to have a online monitoring program. Marketers need to acknowledge that the model has changed and the consumer now has a greater share of voice than ever before. Broadband and mobile have enabled huge groups of global consumers to speak to each other like never before. For marketers who don't have the time or the desire to handle this massive communication task internally, this means finding PR partners who live and breathe in this world to handle it for you.

Although my experience with Verizon has been frustrating, I will continue to be their mobile customer, not just because I think their mobile coverage is the best but also because they've invested in a PR team who "gets it" and "engaged me."

2007-08-03T00:27:00.000-04:00

My new friend Chris Conley is the good kinda crazy. Last weekend he blogged for 24 hours for charity. I was one of the people he interviewed to create all of that content. We talked about social media here.

2007-08-01T15:34:00.000-04:00

Scott McNulty on Blogging from Blogphiladelphia!

2007-07-30T21:00:00.000-04:00

While on my way home from work on Friday night, doing my usual routine of texting, checking emails and hitting refresh on my browser to update Twitter - all on my PDA - I suddenly stopped and looked around me. I looked at my PDA and then I asked myself, what did I used to do before I had a mobile device?

It's not that long that I've been part of the connected generation. I was one of those people who refused to join the cell revolution and was the last person you knew to have a cell phone; the only reason that I finally did get a cell phone was because I worked for a wireless handset manufacturer/marketer. I went wireless in 2001.

So what did I do, before mobile? I realized that I was more aware of my surroundings before mobile. I people watched. I paid attention to where I was walking. I looked up and around me. I looked into people's faces. I looked into store windows.

I don't do much of that anymore. I walk and text. I stand and text. I twitter in taxi's.

Once I realized that, it dawned on me that I am a walking target for crime because of my addiction to technology. I could easily be mugged and never see my attacker. If I passed a business being robbed, I may not be able to provide any information. I'm not paying attention.

Then I wondered about the link between crime and technology. Are there statistics or studies showing a rise in crime and its direct correlation to victims using technology at the time of the attack? I know I'm not the only person out there preoccupied with my devices. Are we at danger because of our constant usage of devices?

Is this a trend for our future? What do you think?

2007-07-26T22:18:00.001-04:00

I'm ready to talk about BlogPhiladelphia. The unconference was all that I had hoped for and then some. Were there things that I would do differently next year, given the opportunity to organize a year two event? Absolutely. Key learnings are to be expected with any event.

The success of BlogPhiladelphia should be attributed to the people who participated. I still can't believe that 270 pre-registered and we had to turn people away. Even better, I am thrilled that more than 250 people showed up. The biggest measurement of success in my mind, is the community that was forged at the event. All of these people who knew "of" each other - or didn't - had the opportunity to meet in person and collaborate, share and learn. That was the real goal of BlogPhiladelphia. Sure, as an employee of GPTMC, I hope that you fall in love with Philadelphia and this region that I love and promote, and I hope that the community embraces our social media tools and content, like uwishunu.comand Sound About Philly. However, as a fellow geek, I hoped that people would connect and exchange ideas and ideally, make contacts that lead to more work or improve their business services with new knowledge.

Selfishly, the unconference was also an opportunity for me to catch up with and learn more from people who have been teaching me for years: Josh Hallett, Dave Parmet and Howard Greenstein. It was a chance for me to reconnect with some really smart people I've met along my path: Alicia Dorset, Dina Kaplan, Whitney Hoffman and Doug Bellenger. It was also a chance for me to learn more about topics that interested me from experts in those areas, like: Dave Coustan, Scott McNulty, Lisa Marshall, Chris O'Donnell, Valerie Maltoni,Tony Guido and Don Bain. Many thanks also to our diverse panelists: Neal Stewart, Caroline Marks, Vince Veneziani, Emily King and the infamousA.J. Daulerio. A fist-pumping "yeaaaaah" to city blogger and friend Joey Sweeney, who rocked the panel with his moderation, and with his awesome Philebrity team, hosted the perfect wrap party.

And that brings me to BlogPhiladelphia's not-so-secret ingredient, the man whose blog couldn't be more aptly named, Alex Hillman of Dangerously Awesome. For as much as the blog world can be filled with snark and feud after feud, the geek world is filled with talented people who are rapidly propelling forward and making industry names for themselves globally with their innovation and yet not getting caught up in the ego that consumes so many. Alex Hillman is one of those people and if you know Alex personally, you're nodding your head right now while reading this. Accolades and rewards (personal and financial) are truly deserving to this smart, gifted, helpful and energetic guy. We connected early in the planning stages of BlogPhilly (thanks, Brian Oberkirk !!) and Alex made the mistake of offering his FREE help with anything I need to make this unconference happen. He was experienced in the world of Barcamps, fresh off the high of SXSW and newly committed to staying in Philly versus moving to SF and joining the well-established (tech) establishment. Alex's passion re-ignited my passion for a project that I was dedicated to but now planning with limited resources that at times seemed overwhelming to accomplish in the less than 3 months we had to organize. Alex didn't just bring ideas (like the open-grid, which was awesome) but he was a tangible resource for me; he was a team member and then a partner.

And then there are all of the new friends I met BECAUSE of BlogPhilly: Roz, the P'unk Ave guys, Philly Tipguys, Marisa, John Bilotta and his bro Vince, David Speers, the insane and brilliant dudes at Viddler who are totally going to bury YouTubeWho? and more!
I could go on forever about the people who pitched in and helped with organizing - maybe that will be a part II to my wrap up?

I hope I touched on all of the core participants in BlogPhilly, if I haven't, I apologize.

Thank you to everyone who attended for making BlogPhiladelphia truly one of the highlights of my life both personally and professionally. The social media community in Philly and beyond is a remarkable community of talented and good people and I am proud to count myself as one of you. Thank you.

2007-07-18T21:07:00.000-04:00

I'm on a blogging break. Blogphiladelphia took the blogger right out of me.

Not to mention, it's just so much easier to twitter than blog.

But I will be back. Until then, look at the "tooned" annie that stan at Toonamation created! What a talent and program this guys has - and he can "toon" entire videos. And this isn't that mac program - it's patented and more So, as someone at BlogPhilly pointed out, we could have him "toon" the spiderman movie so we can watch it the way we *wanted* to see it. I can't wait to work on a project with Toonamation!

(Are the bags under my eyes really that bad? I think I was just very, very tired;p)

2007-07-13T18:12:00.000-04:00

Wow, the last few days have been a whirlwind of activity. BlogPhiladelphia was a blur for me but I'm pleased with the outcome. Our session leaders were all excellent and the participation by attendees impressed me. The social media world has come such a long way since I entered the circuit a few years ago; marketers and citizen journalists are just so *smart* anymore. That's what really impressed me about BlogPhiladelphia. The last few social media "conferences" I attended in 2006 in NYC bored me. The speakers rattled off "tips" that were basics and even outdated. Often, I knew more then them but didn't have the opportunity to contribute.

At BlogPhiladelphia, the session leaders were smart and the participants were just as smart. It was stimulating just to be among the conversations.

More to come soon, but now, I have to head to the Wrap Party (Thanks Philebrity!)

2007-07-06T09:38:00.001-04:00

Yet another reason why, David Pogue is one of my top 5 favorite reporters.

2007-06-30T00:39:00.000-04:00

Ha. I lovelovelove Chris Pirillo's20 Reasons I'm not getting an iPhone today. Granted, I'm not an Apple disciple, but I don't get the hype for the iPhone. Maybe I'm too much of a mobile phone techie to buy in? Maybe it's my displeasure with my video iPod? In my opinion, the only thing great about the iPod is 1)the streamlined aesthetic and 2)the memory. Beyond that, I don't love the product. I hatehatehate the click-wheel. I'm on my third unit (under warrenty, thankfully!) because of unit malfunctions. Apple customer service has been the worst of my life and that's coming from someone who formerly repped a wireless handset manufacturer that required me to switch carriers to activate and test large numbers of new phones for at least two years; I've probably had more than the average person's experience with customer service AND I've worked with just about every carrier in the US. I would NEVER give up my Verizon service.

I guess the other issue is that I don't have a landline. I doubt I ever will again. And I live alone. I can't risk my phone dying or malfunctioning and have to mail it in for a replacement. I don't have that luxury.

It's funny, because I'm a mobile phone junkie. I upgrade ALL the time. I have so many friends in the mobile industry that they may send me a review unit to play with or I'll just see one that looks interesting and upgrade on my own. My friends & family accuse me of having a new wireless unit every two weeks and sometimes they are right.

However, while I admire the design of the iPhone from afar, I have to say, it's unlikely I'd purchase one now with AT&T service. Their coverage blows.

But I'm sure many people out there will snap them up and love that status it gives me. Me, I'd rather have the function and service;)

2007-06-29T20:02:00.001-04:00

Someone pass the codeine - I just gave birth. The labor involved may set a new world record, but we did it for YOU.

Now hurry up and register, if you haven't already. Just one week left to sign up!

2007-06-27T23:34:00.000-04:00

All this talk about the iPhone, enough already! Sometimes I get frustrated with the consumerism element of social media. We in America and the western world continually scramble to buy the next big "thing," but what happens to all of those old-next-big-things as we continually upgrade?? I saw a Twitter today with an awesome link to a blog that recycles the old Merlin Calculator into an MP3 player. How AWESOME is that?!? Man, I always wanted that Merlin, but I went to Catholic school and we weren't allowed to use calculators. We even had to SHOW OUR WORK in math - even in the high grades and more advanced math. I'm still convinced that if I hadn't been DEPRIVED (no bitterness here, folks) of the Merlin I would be a much better math person today.

In other, equally, exciting news, BlogOrlando registration is live! Wooohooo! I can't wait! Hurry up and register everyone, it's going to be AWESOME!

2007-06-25T22:52:00.000-04:00

Enough with the Facebook talk already! Many of my social media friends are now leaping on the site since the all-ages floodgates opened and I can't understand the wonderment. The best thing about Facebook was that it was a private community. Now it's MySpace. Think of this way - remember how hanging out in the student center at college was cool because parents and younger brothers and sisters weren't there? It was you, Joe and Jane College, and the university community. Your peers in a (somewhat) gated and therefore (somewhat) safe community. Now imagine if your lounge in the student center invited the senior citizens center and the PTA and the teen leagues to come and use the lounge.

That sucks. The novelty shall wear off, I suppose.
*~*
You know what I need? I need my Moto Q to 1)Charge when it's connected to a PC and 2)Have better battery life. Love the product, hate the battery life. It's almost as bad as my video iPod. Grrrr.

2007-06-19T21:57:00.000-04:00

Ok, I can't really update right now because I am obsessively hacking my Windows PDA device into an iPhone. That's right. You heard me. My existing Windows unit is going to function much like the iPhone, but not at the iPhone price.

You can download the hacking software right here. Have I mentioned how much I love hackers? Because I do. Mostly white hat hackers because I do believe in using your superpowers for good.

2007-06-18T00:35:00.000-04:00

Apparently, I pressed a hot button when I commented on Mediapost's story last week deconstructing the "new" Facebook. Max Kalehoff took my comment to his personal blog and opined that while he doesn't think that Facebook is "over," he wonders what Facebook will do to retain their loyal base. Lynda Radosevich wonders the same thing. Don Park doesn't have any answers either.

Facebook is in a tricky spot and I'm very interested to see how they navigate this expansion. They cornered a hot market for advertisers with college and then high school kids, and I can understand the temptation they must have to compete with goliath, MySpace. I can also understand that it must suck to have your core userbase turnover annually and have to continually rebuild.

That said, Facebook sits on a dangerous sinkhole. Expansion brings bigger numbers to increase traffic/google juice and consquently increase ad rates, but may repel that core demo that makes them so appealing to the very same advertisers.

I'll be watching closely.
*~*
Last, here's an overdue personal plug. Check out the podcast IncPlace whom were nice enough to have me on their podcast

2007-06-15T13:54:00.000-04:00

I love that right after I publish a bot post, AIM adds 3 awesome bots to their client.
*~*
Hey, anyone out there an expert on widgets? Building them, where to find new plug-in's, different applications for them, etc? We need a widget guru to speak at BlogPhiladelphia. Give me a shout and if you have any demo's I can see - even better!

2007-06-05T20:20:00.001-04:00

So I'm sitting here at home, doing more work (but at home it's so much more pleasant, isn't it?), when I started to look at my AIM buddy list. I have a whole section there for Bots

I realized I haven't used any of my bots in ages and was curious to see if they were still active, so I clicked on the SmarterChild bot. I remember when it came out in 2000 or 2001 and I thought it was so novel. I used it for two months and then forgot about it. I played a few rounds of hangman and then wondered to myself, is the novelty and functionality of bots over?

Has social media like myspace and event sites and small business domains become so prevalent and accessible and that we no longer need Bots for quick searches or answers?

Let me know what you think.

~*~
One more thing: tres cool pic here. You click and drag your mouse up and down and will find yourself Alice in a virtual wonderland;)

2007-06-03T19:09:00.000-04:00

BREAKING NEWS! More than a year of tinkering with skype and my headset/mic, I finally figured it out! So you can call me at AnnieHeckenberger from now on.

Infortunately, only on my laptop at the moment. I need to download it on my work PC.

2007-06-03T17:54:00.000-04:00

As a social media "specialist," I spend a lot of time looking at a wide variety of web sites. As a former PR media expert (and forever a media junky at heart), I spend an even larger amount of time on MSM and CGM news sites. Like a lot of people my age (and younger...and older, too, I bet!) the internet is my default news source.

Here's where I think the news media are going wrong online. Too many bells and whistles. Yes, give me digital video on your site. Do not try to make your site into myspace. I don't need another hub. I don't need to social network on a news site. I just want the news. I want it in real time, I want links to wire stories, I want celebrity gossip, I may want to leave a comment but I don't want to stay and do a mashup. I don't want to shop on my news site. I don't want to auction something off there. And frankly, should news entities be offering services like this that are actually news makers? God knows there are enough Ebay stories out there about crazy items for sale - how ethical is it for news entities to now offer services that may *become* news? Selling local artists or designers' wears and also reviewing them? Who will now fairly report consumer interest stories? Will it be citizen journalists crashing the party and now conducting embarrassing investigations on mainstream media personalities?

Sounds fishy to me.

Maybe I'm old fashioned. Maybe this is what the next generation wants from news entities? But the way I see it, citizen journalism gained audience and credibility as traditional media took a beating for unethical practices like airing VNR's without disclosure that the news segment was a PR tool, paid spokespeople shilling on news and morning shows and more and more reporters like the infamous Jayson Blair who fabricated sources and filed fiction.

Shouldn't traditional media be more carefully drawing the line rather than help blur it?

2007-05-28T23:11:00.001-04:00

Great holiday weekend. I was able to restrain myself from opening my laptop and working - although I cheated and checked twitter nonstop (and a few emails) via my PDA. I'm officially addicted to twitter, which is an embarrassment because I personally trashed the service a few months ago on this very blog. I'm actually thinking about stopping my dodgeball, which isn't that big of a deal since I still subscribe to my NYC version and basically use it now to track my friends in NYC and reminisce about my former life. I wasn't able to get anyone in Philly hooked on Dodgeball - still haven't quite figured out why. This town certainly has the nightlife and the bar crowd.

Before I fled town on Thursday night for the shore, I popped into Junto , a local web/tech networking group, and spoke with the group about BlogPhiladelphia. It was a great opportunity to meet all the cool people whose blogs and twitters I read and respond to daily and to explain the "unconference." Some people were misled by the title "BlogPhiladelphia" and thought it was just a blogging event - I'll be sure to correct that on the site when I start blogging on the home page this week. We'll be covering all aspects of social media - new platforms, mobile applications, virtual communities and more. Definitely not just blogging.

I also met a lot of small business owners in the tech sector, like the guys at P'unk Ave who have the raddest office space in town that I've seen. Talk about being right in the middle of the action! In fact, now that I think of it, I think I'm going to ask Geoff if he'll host a mini-soiree there during the unconference. It's just too great of a spot! Nothing like blogging something first to pressure someone into agreement....muuuuwwwwwahahahaha;)

That's it for now. Back to work tomorrow.

2007-05-17T19:27:00.000-04:00

What the flippin' heck happened to my comments feature?!? Dang inter-nets.

2007-05-16T20:54:00.000-04:00

Not a great day for Apple, according to my contact John Biggs over at CrunchGear.

I've worked with Ryan Block, the blogger who broke the story, a number of times and he has always reported fairly. I may not have been in love with his review of my clients, but it's always been fair. And the guy busts a move everyday to cover a million and one tech briefings and then file them all immediately.

Clearly, there's a new case study coming about all of this, documenting the very real power of email and social media for Corporate America today. I just hope whomever writes it comes to BlogPhiladelphia to present it.

Ryan, I already you sent the invite to you, but SERIOUSLY, you have to come speak.

2007-05-10T16:56:00.000-04:00

I have so much to tell you guys! First, I have to thank Jack Dorsey at Twitter for featuring BlogPhiladelphia's Twitter group on Twitter's homepage! And if you don't believe me, look at the photo that Alex flickr'ed. My phone has been BLOWING up with Twitters and I have to take back my previous position on Twitter - it's been a life saver on keeping interested "unconference" attendees up to date on updates for the unconference while we develop the website.

In other news, uwishunu just launched the first webisode of the new original vlog series "Cheap Dates". Check it out!