I want you to want me....in 2 parts

So yesterday the fabulous @DannyBrown posted a tweet about re-tweeting someone's praise of you Pride/ego. I could not quite tell if Danny was ticked by the original tweet that he considered either prideful or egotistical or if he genuinely was questioning the protocol. Read Danny Brown's blog inspired by the same Tweet and subsequent conversations surrounding the concept of ego/Twitter.

What is so incredibly amazing about Twitter is that following that tweet was a real time, in depth discussion including people from a myriad of professional, geographical and philosophical backgrounds. People on Twitter are pretty forgiving, most of them saying it was likely this person (the original offender) trying to acknowledge the praise they received. This empathy brought up other conversations addressing inherent issues with tone and intent in things like Twitter, email etc.

I don't really care about these chicken and egg kind of issues, if I offend you, let me know. I still haven't found the rule book or how to (though many are making there way to the market) that really addresses the idiosyncrasies of the interwebs. What I really started thinking about is this virtual world we have all created and what it must look like to those on the outside or trying to get in.

Really we're all taking time to publicly talk about what we think, feel, see and do, which is somewhat self aggrandizing in and of itself. I mean do you really care about what I am listening to all day? Probably not but I am going to click that little share button on LALA every time a killer song comes on.

What I am hearing from friends and reading is that folks aren't really making Twitter their own. They sign up, have no followers, follow some famous people and news agencies but then what? Even though there are millions of Twitter accounts isn't it really an inside deal? Your in the tech world, the entertainment world, the non profit industry (a real power niche on Twitter), or your selling something.


If you are Joe Blow from Idaho and your trying to catch the Twitter craze do you feel a little left out? Like you don't speak the language? I wonder if it's like not being a guitarist but trying to read Guitar World magazine. Sure you know what bands they are talking about and know that (insert your favorite guitarists name here) is the greatest guitarist of all time. But are you really going to get a great experience from reading the magazine? Can you really benefit from the intent of the editors and contributors? Is it worth your while to buy a copy just to look at the Guitar Girls and maybe read the headlines?

Or do you feel like you wasted your $4 because they didn't talk to you? You don't know a Gretch from a Fender after all. WELL....I think Twitter must be a lot like that for people. I think people must register and then get completely overwhelmed. But fear not! It's just in how you look at it, how you make this new world your own.

For instance, my friend set up a profile as over million folks did just to follow Ashton Kutcher on his CNN vs. Ashton stunt that was for Malaria No More. Like most of the people who did the same she never went back, was too overwhelmed. She simply could not figure out how to make it her own. So I talked to her about using Twitter as a real time news feed from both those who report the news she wants such as@people, @cnn,@nytimes and those actually creating the news such as @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher), Sarah Palin @AKGovSarahPalin-looks like she will be changing that handle soon and @johncmayer.

Once you become part of the real time news you start following others, finding like minded folks and eventually becoming part of the conversation. And there are a myriad of industries that will find this an incredible lead generator and resource to enhance your business from Real Estate to Restaurants and so many more.

Really, we all want to be loved-we just have to find the right language to communicate our needs and wants. And for all of us trying to start the conversation and getting wrapped up in the etiquette of it all--don't we all just want to be wanted (for our opinion, ideas, innovation,analysis)? We're the ones eating, sleeping and breathing this stuff so we feel our opinions are warranted right?

Cheap Trick had it right, and this is what makes me lose sleep at night...the innate ability of the internet to allow you to indulge your desire to ramble on while simultaneously rocking out to Cheap Trick. 10 years ago I would have had to put a dime on the needle to make sure Rick Nielsen didn't skip on his incredible guitar solos.

the color grey..

Someone mentioned to me that i put in my title that i ramble on about the color gray yet there is no mention of the color grey in any of my previous posts.

So here is my ode to grey. I should start with the acknowledgment of the ubiquity of the word grey. I mean is it grey or gray. Even Websters doesn't make up it's mind. which is exactly my point about my beloved grey. (I will use both spellings and I'll tell you why.)


From merriam-webster.com
* Main Entry: gray
* Variant(s): also grey
* Function: noun
* Date: 13th century

1 : something (as an animal, garment, cloth, or spot) of a gray color
2 : any of a series of neutral colors ranging between black and white
3 a : a soldier in the Confederate army during the American Civil War b often capitalized : the Confederate army



My 2 favorite colors have always been Purple and Gray. Why? Because I personally identified with them. They hold a perfect balance of two opposing colors. Purple bring the blend of red HOT HOT FEISTY ANGRY PASSIONATE RED and blue cool cool moody calm serenity blue . And they live together so completely and at ease in the color known as purple. Sure red and blue struggle for top billing sometimes blue winning out in lovely lavender and sometimes red ravaging over blue in edgy eggplant and aubergine but they always seem to find a nice balance that ends up beautifying walls and paintings and sweaters worn by pretty girls.

As you may have guessed by now my love for grey and his lovely girlfriend gray stems from the same struggle for balance that enamors me to purple. So why the struggle? well I have always been a bit of a dichotomy; part Sally Field
and partWendy O Williams.



And have struggled to find some happy ground between old fashioned values and a real edge. I have walked this line (in a slight stagger)my entire life. I was a good kid, never in trouble except for telling stories and acting out. Meanwhile, I was very active in my Catholic church and even started a Catholic Youth newsletter at 14 for my entire region. All the while cutting my hair and drawing anarchy signs on my jeans. (see what I mean)

And now, as a grown up *cough* I walk the balance again as a professional striving for excellence but trying to keep that edge that I believe lends me to be a bit more innovative and strategic than perhaps the next guy or gal. Hence the "Riot Grrrl turned Geek Grrrl" you see up above this post. So I may be wearing a demure suit and sitting in a cubicle but underneath it all I am still the rebellious, dynamic, fickle and fun purple and gray girl that I have always been.


So there you have my ramblings on gray...it probably wont be my last. Rock On!

Be Bold & Wear One Glove

I have officially jumped on the Michael Jackson bandwagon. Additionally I have sealed my fate as a Non-Profit Technology geek. I had a pretty strong opinion about Michael Jackson, was pretty convinced at the very least he had been "indecent" with young people. But watching the memorial today I couldn't help but be moved by the work he had done to help, heal and inspire the world. Literally and lyrically to Heal The World.

It's not my fault I watched the memorial-I had no intention to do so but even Mashable was intoxicated by the Michael Jackson moonwalk all over the web.

So in true 2.0 fashion I watch a live feed, while tweeting and doin a bit of work. My little 17" screen fully supporting 4 fully functional windows of social media wonderment (including the project I was working on; I was working i promise.)




So as I am watching Brooke Shields comes on and says a very moving and illuminating piece. I can't help but feel sorry for the type of life they both led as child stars. I also can't help but be a little jealous of how good she looks and remember how badly I wanted bushy eyebrows and Calvin Klein jeans way back when, but I digress. She ends her beautiful speech about MJ with a passage from The Little Prince (one of my fav's) and the insight that Micheal's favorite song was not one of his stellar classics but rather the song SMILE originally penned by Charlie Chaplin and re worked millions of times in a million different movies and commercials.

Well....that made my brain switch immediately into marketer mode. After all, I help create smiles for a living. My daily mission is to inspire people to help Operation Smile perform free surgeries to children around the world. What a perfect tie in to our campaign to raise smiles through Twitter, and an amazing way to honor Michael Jackson. And as my wheels start turning, Jermain comes out with a tear laced rendition of the song. A perfect backdrop to my just crafted Tweet "Honor #MJ by helping a child smile www.140smiles.org". The rest of the ceremony continued to unfold opportunities to help our mission with "We are the World" and "Heal the World" sung while a sea of children graced the stage.

Now, some in the office thought this was in bad taste. Maybe, but my intentions were truly to honor Michael Jackson and to truly help children smile, something I really believe he would love. And why not offer a real time opportunity for those tweeting and Facebook-ing about his life and contributions to help in a real, tangible way. We increased traffic to our sites and I have only received positive responses and tweets in response to my efforts.

So this is a brings me to re-iterating some of my favorite Social Media lessons:

-PAY ATTENTION; opportunity abounds, especially through Twitter so keep up with whats going on, pay attention to what people are saying and how it can effect or be effected by you

-BE FEARLESS; Things go away as quickly as they come with Social Media, so don't be afraid to test something or try something. If it was a bad idea, it will be quickly forgotten and is easily replaced by a good one.

-Have a POV; I was only able to tweet because we have a relevant and easily expressed story and happen to have a Twitter campaign to direct folks to. So it may behoove you to think of your point of view, your hook or engagement piece.
-Is it a story about your brand?
-Is it a special landing page that shows how cool your product or org.is?
-Is it something people can relate to and dissect quickly.?
-Do you have a fast and easy way for folks to give/buy?

Social Media moves fast-those folks who penned "Get it while it's Hot" had NO IDEA!So be prepared, be bold and most importantly BE THERE!

Double your pleasure

While at TWTRCON I had the great honor to sit down with the cool guys from GURU TUBE and record a couple of pieces about my Social Media philosophy and experiences. There are now 2 little videos for you to check out if you so choose--click here.

I am so excited and doing the Wayne's World We're not Worthy thing
because David Meerman Scott who appears a few videos below mine is one of my heroes in the industry. He was one of the first "gurus" that I started following and helped shape how I think about and use the tools.

__________________________________________________________

I also added my 2 cents worth to a thread on LinkedIn and thought I would re-post here as well since I have yet to really outline key points about Social Media strategy--from a beginners point of view:

When asked, I often tell people that you want someone already using the channels and familiar with the format using them for you. That may mean your reception would be better at Social Media strategy than your marketing manager!

Darren, the key to our Social Media strategy is first understanding the philosophy that social media must be used as a communication tool that can by default lead to sales, not a sales tool that leads to communication.

the 3 steps we have used are:
1. Listen/Audit/Follow
-listen to what people are already saying about your brand as well as the ton of conversations around your products or like companies.
-audit; take an audit of where you may already have a social media presence such as facebook groups etc.
-Follow key influencers and resources to learn the ever changing tips and tools

2. Test/Engage/Prepare to Fail
-test various messages and tactics to see what yields the results you desire with your target audience
-engage those currently talking about you and encourage them to continue the conversation-use them as ambassadors to engage more friends/fans/followers
-don't be afraid to try-try-try again; this is all one big experiment and there are no true benchmarks or guides-platforms change before books can be published and your audience is still catching up. So try a ton of different things and don't freak out when one fails---just learn from it!

3. GET REAL!
If your not prepared to be authentic, if you have to run all of your copy through brand marketing; social media may not be the medium for you. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are all about the conversation--people will only pay attention if your tone and information is presented as such. Make it a two way street and don't over analyze. Additionally if you can't devote enough time to keep up with the conversations by responding to people in a timely fashion-beware; that could really work against you much in the way poor customer service would.

Marketing, Road Trips and Hammers

So much has happened in the last 2 months. I launched a killer Twitter based fund raising campaign with the organization I work for Operation Smile. We flew to San Francisco and threw a launch party and then promoted it at TWTRCON, the first Twitter for business conference.

It was so amazing meeting the various personalities and marketing professionals who, like myself are trying to harness Twitter and (for the most part) use it's powers for good. It was also refreshing to discover that one can be valued for their ideas and ability to develop unique and dynamic strategy even while they may lack the technical mastery to fully implement. I was told an analogy of marketing days gone by when websites first arrived and it wasn't up to the strategist or marketing manager to write the code for the site but it was up to them to make it look great and produce.

AHHHHH sigh of relief. Because frankly these web tools are so vast and while I am working hard to master them and reading the masters to do so (you know who you are because you get my dm's and @'s)i sometimes get caught up in the tools and forget that i am skilled at the plans. My husband had yet another great analogy as I fretted in the car on a roadtrip en route to Bonnaroo at my lack of ability to get my apps to work on my Blackberry.

He said-every man has a tool set in their house somewhere, a hammer, a saw some sand paper. But do many of them have the forethought, creativity and drive to use those tools to really create something amazing like a piece of furniture or art?

WOW. pretty heavy stuff. I used to use the pencil and paper analogy but in the tech world this is even more illustrative. (the pencil analogy if you haven't heard me ramble about art is that you can give 50 people a pencil and paper and ask them to do something with it and the artist or creative thinker will create something magical while the others will right their name or play tic tac toe).

So for the rest of the road trip I contemplated the tools I needed to master, read my Seth Godin and Clay Shirky like a good little web marketer and felt excited about the evolution of my marketing and creative mind.

So we've arrived in lovely Manchester Tennessee where we are surrounded by what I can only dub "Faux Hippies". I just woke and started reading my morning blogs, still reeling from my road trip of web marketing exploration and home read this incredible blog post from Mark Olson which seems to echo many of the themes I was contemplating yesterday. "Groovy man"

I am so inspired and excited about this paradigm shift, where finally innovation and passion have equal places in the tool box as experience and technical skill. The constantly evolving and revolving nature of the tools we are using evens the playing field a bit as we're all learning them together.

So I guess for the duration of this "Social Media Strategy" road trip I'm on, I'll make sure I subscribe to the right RSS feeds, maintain a steady watch on the tool makers, keep an open mind and then continue to figure out more creative and incredible ways to use my hammer...

Week-End Review

Whew, I don't know how the bi-coastals do it. It is Wednesday and I am just recovering from the crazy Twitter filled weekend. I took a red-eye Sunday night back from SFO to Norfolk, thinking I would be 100% by Tuesday morning but alas I was still working my way back into full speed yesterday.
I've been trying to get a grip on all of the many wonderful things that happened, the conversations, the connections, the lessons learned and of course the money raised for Operation Smile. If you've been following along you know about 140 Smiles the Twitter based fund raising campaign I helped devise for Operation Smile (who I work for). Having connected with @adventuregirl through Twitter just over 2 months ago, the opportunity to partner with TWTRCON presented itself and so,naturally, we needed a killer Twitter campaign to accompany the opportunity.
We engaged Common Knowledge a killer firm that specializes in web development and strategy for non-profits. They offered strategy and web design pro-bono, got a bit of assistance from the super awesome Chris Carson at Modern Media (who put on TWTRCON)and VIOLA-we had a campaign to launch in under 3 weeks!

So the launch...well we'll chat about that in a seperate post but here's a video snippet

Blog on Connection Cafe

The super awesome Jordan Viator of Convio fame asked me 2 weeks ago to write a guest blog for the Convio "Connection Cafe" blog site. I was so honored and excited and talked her ear off about strategy and philosophy of social media. It was right after NTC so she filled me in on some of the awesomeness from that.

anyway I had just arrived in San Francisco to prepare for the 140 Smile launch and got her e-mail reminding me she needed the blog today. OOPS--time flies when your planning a crazy Twitter campaign. So I wrote it in the back of the airport shuttle and quickly found out that typing while dodging San Francisco traffic is much like riding that spinning thing at the carnival after you've eaten 4 corn dogs, cotton candy and a Slurpee. Anyway, here it is.

Thank you so much Jordan for letting me ramble on about my little baby, can't wait to do the follow up and how we helped over 140 children!