Gink! Way Better Social Media!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Unfortunate Facebook

Juxtaposition can sometimes have unfortunate consequences. This appeared as a Facebook update in my feed. Blurring to protect the innocent.

How Foursquare Changed My Brain

Last weekend I attended a fantastic Second Saturday with New Media Cincinnati. The panel included D.G. who touted the wonders of Foursquare, elucidating about the ability of it to take social media and turn it around and foster real-world relationships.

Hey! That's what I talk about all the time!

So I had to jump on - finally. I downloaded the app for the Pre right then and there and as soon as I got home, I set up an account and started digging in.

And then my perception changed in an interesting way.

When I was in college, I worked for a few years in television production and the result of that was a change in how I saw news fonts and graphics on air. Soon after college, I acted in an independent film which changed my understanding of how films were organized and shot as opposed to how they showed up in the final cut. This was a much quicker and less monumental change, but a noticeable one nonetheless.

As soon as I was set up, I checked in for the first time - at a location I had to create: The Irish Heritage Center of Greater Cincinnati. And something lit up.

My thoughts moved to what was coming up in the next few days, where I had to stop, where I could check in, and my plan for stops on a daily basis went from a list to a mental map with little glowing nodes that signified where I'd check in and the glowing lines between them.

Gas station, eye doctor, Dilly Cafe. Mexican restaurant for dinner, bar for drinks, Kroger for shopping.

I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Foursquare is a website with app companions that help you "unlock your city." Sign up for an account, download the app, and when you load it, the GPS in your phone will alert you to venues people have created. Check in and you earn points. You can see who's been there, who's there now, and if you check in at least twice and more than anyone else at that venue, you become the Mayor of that venue. As you progress, you also unlock badges like "checked in 10 places" or "3 places in one night" or "Local: same place 3 times in 1 week." You can also add suggestions to each venue to give someone a heads up on something they should try.

Granted, there is also potential danger - someone could use Foursquare to see that you're not home and go rob your house. Then again, as an article I recently read talked about, an answering machine pickup or even a funeral announcement in the paper can do the same thing.

A week later, I hold two mayorships, have unlocked 3 badges, and am just getting started.

From a marketing standpoint, the more a business gets involved, the more visible they can be by promoting themselves and even posting deals on their Foursquare venue page.

Like I said, I'm a n00b, still trying to figure it all out. So check out Foursquare for yourself when you get a chance. Add me to your friends. And have fun with it!

Oh, and here's a Foursquare rap I found: Badges Like Us

Northeast Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce

In my business, it becomes necessary to participate in triage: if I'm spending time out networking I'm spending time I'm not working for a client and vice-versa. Time is of the essence and doing a weekly cost analysis is an integral part of spending that time as best I can.

Even blogging can become cumbersome, so I hope you take this recommendation to heart.

I belong to a couple different networking groups and chambers and just today joined the Northeast Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce.

The Northeast Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce offers many of the things other official "Chambers" offer to small businesses, but the thing I'd like to focus on is their Leads Meeting. It happens every Wednesday at the Clarion off the Fields Ertel exit off I-71.

Delicious! And I don't mean that just because Taz Restaurant catered the meeting today (Lebanese, Greek, and Awesome!).

Any time you get a chance to get in front of other people, tell them what you do, pass some business cards, and network before and after, it's a win. Social media is not meant to keep us in front of our computers but to apprise us of opportunities to meet and shake hands.

As I say, a smile and a handshake is worth a thousand Tweets.

And I just wanted to thank the Northeast Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce for offering such a meeting and say I'm glad to be a part of the organization.

2010 is going to be an amazing year and this is going to be a solid piece of it.

Stop by, say hi, shake a couple hands and see if it offers you the same. I look like the guy in my profile pic :)

Have a great day!

Holiday Inspiration

I don't mean to get all Bill Murray on you...



...but Christmas was a special time for me this year. Not because of any specific event, but because I got to spend a wonderful few days with an amazing family. And my favorite part was the ability I have to give to them and the ability I have to give to others.

Not everyone has that time. Not everyone has the family I (or you) may have.

But everyone has the chance to experience that spirit of giving.

It doesn't have to be Christmas or any other holiday. It doesn't have to be yesterday or tomorrow or any day but today. Give. Give your time. Give your wisdom. Give your heart. Help someone. Now.

"You can make them a sandwich and say 'By the way: HERE!' ...then the miracle can happen to you too!"

I guess I did just get all Bill Murray on you.

Give.

You'll be better for it. All of us will.

Friday Vids: FFXIII, Iron Man 2, Toyota Sexist? (+ Stoned Cats)

Another Friday, another bunch of videos, and always more to love. To keep the streak going, we're going to continue to geek out on you, starting with some video games:

IGN Daily Fix

Final Fantasy XIII has been released!

...in Japan. Check that fanfare!



So pleased it will be coming to Xbox360.

And the Jessica from the Fix was right...


Iron Man 2 Trailer

...is frickin' awesome!



Noms for the eyes.


Toyota Yaris: FAIL or WIN?

So Toyota Australia had this idea: jump into the social media bus and try to steer it a little in their direction. They solicited user-generated entries for ads for the Toyota Yaris AND let the world decide which one would win.

The following video, the winner, is safe for work, but the language is VERY double-entendre and has been called worse things than sexist. And they're Australian.



And a barrage of bloggers and tweeps and "opposition" popped up and had that winner pulled before going to air.

So, the question is: fail or win? I think their idea was a win, but the result of the idea was questionable. But not a fail. It's a lesson learned for anyone trying to exploit social media. You're herding cats. It can be a win and a fail. And when you're dumping something onto the internet, you're not just dealing with your consumers. You're dealing with every single person who has nothing better to do during the day than become offended by something and write letters.

But in a way, this is a huge success. Lots of coverage, lots of media - at least on the internet. And if you think about it, when user-generated content generates more content, you've arrived. I present a parody of the marketing initiative that led to the Yaris experiment:




Random: Catweed

So here's something relatively random: cats getting high on plants. Weird thing is, it was in my search results for the Yaris. Not so weird it turns out: the clever bugger listed the video description as:

Fresh Organic Chronic Catnip @ www.catweed.com .Toyota Yaris - Clean Getaways commercial rocks, now catweed rocks.

See? SEO isn't exactly magic ;)

Now, for those stoned kittehs!



Have a great weekend!

Twitter Wed: 2009 Trends, Chris Brown, Contributors, Games?

So in 2009 --

Beat Down n Quittin'

No, sorry, let's just get this over with. Chris Brown quit Twitter. He flipped out online at Walmart when he didn't see his album. It looked like this:

im not biting my tongue about [expletive] else… the industry can kiss my [expletive].
 … yeah i said it and i aint retracting [expletive]

Oh noes! Boo hoo! Perhaps beating the snot out of Rihanna wasn't the right publicity move.
</celebrityGossip>

So in 2009...

Twitter's main trending topics for the year have been released. People topping the list were Michael Jackson, Susan Boyle, Adam Lambert, Kobe, and that guy we already talked about above. In topics, Swine flu picked up two slots in the top ten thanks to the hash tag and Iran-related pulled three, including the #1 spot. Harry Potter beat out New Moon in movies (hehehe), "Super Bowl" took sports, and "Google Wave" took the tech category.

Twitter Contributors

Twitter's branching out to business appeal by testing a contributor feature where multiple users could be included under one corporate or business entity. They've had teams of bloggers on one blog for years now. Not entirely surprising it's coming to microblogging. But Mashable has some great screen shots to round out the experience.

In a completely unrelated yet equally unsurprising move, Facebook is prepping to allow public updates to go to Twitter. Um, Linkedin went dual wield over a month ago, Tweetdeck already hooks me into Facebook, Linkedin, and MySpace, and Ping.fm is the one ring to rule them all. Is this really news?

Game Killers - this was going to be bold until I realized it really just fit into the same category. Again, unsurprisingly, your favorite annoying genre of Facebook games is coming to you through Twitter. Great. Maybe now I can get Farmville from both sides. W00t!


So that's it for this week's headlines. What Twitter news have you heard? Let me know your fav's and I'll probably use them next week. Have a great day!

Networking: Do the 1-on-1

Often times, as a social media evangelist of sorts, I get the question: "Okay, so I'm on all these sites, but what now? Where is this all supposed to lead?" And because generally I hear this question at a networking event, my answer is "You're already here."

Social, online media has the unfortunately intuitive feel of something that is supposed to distance you from people. However, I always argue that the opposite is true: social media is a tool that you can use to extend your presence, enforce your branding, and - perhaps most importantly - get out there and meet people. You may have a killer product and great marketing plan, but without action, without shaking hands and interacting in the real world, you are but a cannonball without gunpowder.

So my comment about networking events being the end of that road, while appropriate, is not entirely accurate. Getting out there is great and if you're lucky you get a chance to pop a 30 second commercial and add awareness of your product and/or brand. But let's go one step further: The 1-on-1.

What's That?

Getting in front of 30 or 50 people and dropping spiel is the shotgun approach, and it works fine for getting a rough idea of what everyone in the group does. But some of those shots in the air should look to you like flares. How so?

For example, EJM Designs Limited is all about web design, SEO, and internet marketing. A great way for me to grow my business is to get to know people who run or work for collaborative enterprises, such as a public relations company who might not have a dedicated web person or a print company or a marketing company. But it doesn't have to be limited to those relationships.

I get ahead of myself. If someone has piqued your interest, simply approach them and see if there's a time to get a coffee or have lunch together to learn more about their business. If you're shy, don't worry too much about it. It's not a date. It's a business 1-on-1.

So What Happens Then?

You get together for lunch or coffee (I prefer coffee; not a huge fan of eating a meal while trying to have a discussion) and you talk about yourself and your business and the other person talks about their business and you see if there's any way to help each other out. The conversation is about trust and comfort while at the same time learning about the other person and their business. It generally takes about an hour and ends with a "Thank you" and a much fuller understanding of what that person does and how you can help.

In the way that a networking event is social, a 1-on-1 is personal. You're both investing time in understanding the other to develop a stronger business bond.

A Couple Tips

• This is not a sales call - This is about building a business relationship, not selling your 1-on-1. There is no better way to turn OFF someone to being another champion voice for your cause than to push them into buying what you're selling


• LISTEN. This is a two-way conversation. Another turn-off: someone who won't pause for a second to ask for feedback.


• Ask questions - The only way to make sure you have a clear understanding of what that other person does.


• Ask if they have any other questions - make sure they understand you.


• When discussion your business, always mention your target customer or client, and ask about theirs if they don't.

And that's about all there is to it. Do this at least once a week and before you know it, you've got many, many advocates for you and your business and the growth will show for it. Just remember to offer yourself as a resource first, to focus on giving, and you'll be surprised at what can happen.


So what about you? Have you had a 1-on-1 recently? How did it work out for you? Do you have any questions if you haven't done this?

Do You Have Video in your Linkedin Profile?

Simply Zesty provides an excellent tip on adding video to your Linkedin profile.



Well, get on it then!

Twitter Headlines Wednesday: Gaming, Lists, and CSRs

Okay folks, let's make this quick. I've got to get to my DVRs of Heroes (yeah, I'm still doing that), CSI: Miami, NCIS, and V.

Looks like the mass integration of every social media interface to every other social media interface is almost complete. I've got my Tweetdeck pushing to Twitter and Facebook, my Linkedin linked in to Tweeting, and my ping.fm as the one site to rule them all.

And along comes Microsoft and Sony. Facebook and Twitter for everyone! (Okay, so the PS3 still lacks Tweet capability but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.) My biggest question is: Who wants to pause a battle with a Big Sister (reference to forthcoming Bioshock 2 - yay!) to txt a tweet about how you're going to have to reload your last save file? Interesting integration, but not sure how well it'll be received.

Twitter's doing some things to refine the lists process. Biggest complaint I have on the lists bit is: You rolled this out when I had almost 1000 followers? Now I need to categorize them? Argh.

Here's something happy about how a company can use Twitter to make customer service that much better.

And on the side: some sports pros angered their coaches, everyone's goofy over "New Moon" (Read some Anne Rice!), and something about Lady Gaga. Or something.

Until Next week, hold on to your Tweets! (or let them go, and if they come back they love you; if they don't, it was never meant to be.)

Social Networking: Check the Politics at the Door?

I attend several networking events every week and for the most part I've been wonderfully pleased with the interactions, meeting people briefly, getting to know the face to the tweet, setting up some 1 on 1's. All very on the level, always a step in the right direction.

But I was at a networking event last week attended mostly by business owners and service providers and listened as someone used a good deal of their time to promote the Tea Party Movement. And I was quite surprised.

Cincinnati has always been described to me as leaning conservative. Hamilton County went for the Democratic candidate in the last presidential election. There is a good mix of people on both sides of the political spectrum in this - and most - cities around America. And right now, politically, people all over the country are very polarized. And to take a solid stance on one side of the political arena might be off-putting to those on the other ideological side.

I'm not going to dig into my own personal politics here, but I would have been just as surprised if someone had announced something as polarizing from the other side. Actually, I was. If I remember correctly someone else took some time to promote the idea of ending all war.

It all gets quite messy. But the purpose of this post is more to pose a few questions than anything. I respect anyone who has a passion about politics, a drive to change things for the better. But is a business networking meeting the right place to do that? Is it better to alienate a portion of your potential clientele or business contacts in order to build a greater respect from others? What do you think about mixing politics and business?

Is there a solid answer?

Social Media Tuesday: Ping.fm

No, it's not a radio station or a ping-pong website, or a ping-pong website that works as a radio station that adjusts on how you play the game and your aggregate score.

Ping.fm went public a little over a year ago and hadn't been of much interest right away for me. What is it? It's a simple way to organize your updates if you just need to blast something out.

For example, I signed up for Ping.fm and linked my (deep breath) Twitter, Facebook, EJM Designs Facebook Page, MySpace, TBN Ning, Google Talk, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Plaxo, and Yahoo status.

I probably hit my Twitter 2-5 times a day, Facebook and LinkedIn every day or two, and ...wait. I still have a MySpace? Exactly. As a part of so many social networks, I don't really have the time to dig into every single site and update each status. And because stagnancy and silence is the death rattle of social media credibility, Ping.fm rocks out to that purpose. I'll still personalize my Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn more often, but to keep the rest fresh, I love this for a simple solution every couple days or so, or if something that important needs to be passed on.

The best part? Simple. Email, password, name if you choose. The rest is just setting up logins. One post and BLAMMO - everyone knows your business.

Let me know if you've had any experience with Ping.fm and if you have if it's been a positive or negative one.


Bonus Trivia: the top-level domain name ".fm" is for the Federated States of Micronesia. Awesome!

Networking Cincinnati: Do It In Person - Positively!

Those of you who have been reading along have noticed that one of my running themes has been the "in person" aspect of networking (a couple months back I got a great response from an overview of Cincinnati's social networking events).

As I mentioned in a few past posts, a smile and a handshake is worth a thousand Tweets. And then some.

Whenever I encounter someone who bemoans that their Twitter account is not making them money, my first question is: What value do you add to your followers?

Because it's not about what services or products you offer - not right away, and never for some followers - it's about what value you add. Who is going to pay attention to you if all you're doing is tweeting a product and linking to your site 3 or 10 times a day? Who's going to even keep following you?

And it goes further than that. Even beyond the value you add to your readers is: how well do they really know you? After you've done what you can to add value and gain genuine followers and connect to the online community, what are you doing to connect to the local community in person? What are you doing to be the face of your brand, the smile, the handshake in the living flesh?

You need to get out there. In the post above I mentioned several of the in-person types of groups or ways to find groups.

You need to stick it out there, both online and in person, risk flowing into reward. Especially for small businesses, social media almost requires that your face is now a recognizable part of your brand. Brand is not just a logo or the crafted copy of your website; it's the personality you inject into your blog and Tweets, it's your avatar, and it's the attitude you show when you meet someone else. Again: risk and reward.

Plan accordingly. We'll cover some other issues in online etiquette in another post, but if you're a grump in the morning, don't attend morning networking events. If you go to bed at eight or have a personal grudge against anyone who raises a beer, don't attend after-hours events. Play to your strengths, show up your best, and that's what people will remember.

Just remember to smile. And keep that handshake firm.

Eric Marschall on That Marketing Show

This week I'm featured on Rodger Roeser's That Marketing Show!

That Marketing Show is the official broadcast of the Public Relations Agency Owners Association.

My discussion with Rodger centers around how we handle the discussion of public vs. private and personal vs. professional when it comes to social media. What happens when your personality is part of your business or you want to inject some personality into your blog? How far do you stick it out there? Is there a line?

These are just a couple of questions we address in this excellent and informative marketing conversation. Take a listen!

Portability: Who Really Owns Your Website?

In the past couple months, with clients and potential clients and friends and some folks I'm just advising, I was both surprised and horrified that the topic I'm going to be addressing here actually needs to be addressed. But I guess there are those businesses out there that need to make the extra buck and/or need control and really don't have the client or end-user in their best interest.

The question is: Are you portable? In other words, if your registration or hosting or even development company folded, would you be able to switch without a complete crippling of your website?

Who really owns your website?

Here are 4 things you need to check.


1. Domain Name

What's your website domain name? You know, that WWW thing, that branding that you can recite in your sleep. Excellent, you're doing great so far.

Now: do you know exactly where it lives, how to access it, and who actually did the purchasing of that name?

Your domain name has a home. That home is a registry or hosting (or both) company. Through that account, you can renew the ownership of the name, control where the name points to go for the website files, or redirect it somewhere else.

I have seen very recently an instance where a non-profit group had an internal spat and the person who originally purchased the domain name logged into the registration site, renewed the site for 7 years in his name, and changed the password.

I've also heard tales of companies like AT&T doing the registering on the client's behalf but maintaining control to guarantee a service contract.

Take-Away: You need to guarantee from inception that you have control over your own site name, that either you or someone you trust registers that domain name - in your name - and can (they should immediately) provide you with login information.


2. Hosting

The hosting service is where the files for your website live. This can be the same company (like GoDaddy.com or namecheap.com) where the domain name lives and was registered. And that's fine. Problems arise in the same way as they do with the domain name issues.

I spoke with a client I'd just begun working with a few months ago when they forwarded me an email from their dual registry/hosting company. The dual company claimed that if my client did not renew their previous registration at some $50/yr that when it expired they would hold the website in default until a $200 fee was paid to them.

This is fraud. Quick 101: Domain registration can be found reasonably from $8 to $15 per year, depending on how many years you're renewing. If someone is threatening a hostage act like this, they fully intend to wait for the second of expiration and buy the domain name themselves, as any person in the world could do. Then they point it wherever they want. And when you pay, do you get control back? Or do they maintain ownership?

Take-Away: Often said is "Possession is 9/10ths of the law." That may not be fair, but it is true. Unless you have full copyright on your business and paperwork that you've purchased your own domain name and hosting through your company, fighting for control could be expensive in both time and dollars.

Do you have all hosting login information? The login to the hosting account and FTP information? Who else has it?


3. Programming

There is a city on the East Coast that I do some newsletter work for from time to time. They awarded their government contract for a website to a company that built their site in a proprietary content management system. The company also maintains the site. When discussion began about the city doing their own updates to the site through the CMS (which is - generally - the intent), the company said "Sure - as soon as you go through our 80+ hours of training on how to use the CMS."

Their website is being held hostage by this company and their only options are to continue paying the ridiculous monthly fee, paying a great deal more money to this company for training, or paying about an equal amount to go somewhere else and have the site reconstructed.

Take-Away: if something goes wrong with your service provider, are you able to walk away with those files? If you are, will another programmer be able to take those files and understand how to change or manipulate them?


4. Pay Per Click and Social Media

Pay Per Click campaigns, whether Adwords or Yahoo or Bing, can either be created separately and managed at a central location or created within one account. If you have someone create an ad campaign, do you have access to it? If you don't like the job someone is doing with that account, can you take it with you?

The same login issues exist with Social Media: Do you control the account? Did you create it? Was your Facebook fan page created and administered through your own Facebook account or someone else's?


This is the essence of portability when it comes to a website: regardless of who you have doing the design and build and programming and optimization and social media, you should have logins and administration ability for everything, even if you don't want to touch it.

That way, should anything negative happen, should anything unexpected happen, and you have the need to change service providers or just get rid of the one you have, you control all the assets.


As owner of EJM Designs Limited, that is one of the most important aspects of how we work, and a subtext of guarantee for any client we work with: we build on best practices and portability.

Make sure anyone you are currently or eventually going to work with does the same. It's good business.


As always, feel free to ask any questions in comments, or directly at eric (at) ejmdesigns dot com or any of the other connections you can make through the website.

Inspiration Monday: Excuses and Others and Bill Murray

I'll kick off this Monday's inspiration with a quote from the newest entry in the Whedon-verse, "Dollhouse," from the first episode of the second season.

Everyone I know is pretty poorly constructed. Everyone has an excuse for not dealing. But eventually, that's all they are. Excuses.

The take home on this one?

Stop making excuses. You are tired, you are worried, hundreds of things are going on in your life. But you have amazing potential. For the most part, why have you not achieved? Excuses. Stop making them, take control and open yourself to success. Excuses never cut it, especially now.


I also heard something this weekend that made me think of this post:

What you do for yourself will die with you. What you do for others will live on forever.

The sentiment is solid. Give to others first.

Today's lesson? Stop making excuses for why you're not succeeding and succeed. And do something - today - that is completely selfless, completely for someone else, and realize that you are not wasting time but gaining personal satisfaction. Talk to someone... and I am reminded of and revert to the end of Scrooged with Bill Murray.

Enjoy, don't just do this today but every day, and if you haven't seen Scrooged, see it. Now. Have a great week!

Inspiration and Social Networking Tie-in: Selflessness

I snagged this quote from somewhere on the internets late last week and it has stuck with me every single day since:

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

Og Mandino (1923-1996) essayist and pop psychologist

For me, it's one of those bits of wisdom that sticks with you, word for word, and it will influence every day for the rest of my life. It's giving first, a certain degree of selflessness.

And since we missed yesterday, that's today's inspiration point: Worry about giving and the getting will take care of itself.

How does this relate to social networking? How doesn't it?

I attended the Tristate Business Network's Tuesday meeting today and smiled to myself as I thought about that quote, knowing I was going to post about this today. TBN's mantra is: Focus on what you give.

If you enter with the intent to give, to help, to be a resource to others, then everything will take care of itself: others will notice your giving nature as inspiration; others will want to help you; everyone will benefit from a single seed.

So the take-home lesson here is to eschew the tone of the ever-salesman. Granted, if an opportunity to sell your product or services arises, kindly take it. But it's all about attitude. Genuine attitude. Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross focuses on "Always Be Closing." I say Always Be Giving.

Go in giving and that attitude starts a flow. Go in taking and people will take notice. And avoid you.

Be a giver. "Your life will never be the same again."


NOTE: I can't say enough about the Tristate Business Network. I'm a member of probably a dozen different networking groups, and the focus on both networking and giving, reasonable price, and frequency of gatherings is something I've found a real affinity with. All scheduled events are guest-friendly. Get involved!

Wednesday Twitter: Tennis Balk, Emergency Use, Surgery Window

Roddick Tweets Back

From the NYT:

It did not take long for Andy Roddick to respond to rules posted by the Tennis Integrity Unit regarding players’ use of Twitter during the United States Open. His vehicle? Twitter, of course.

“I think its lame the U.S. Open is trying to regulate our tweeting,” he wrote Friday night. “I understand the on-court issue but not sure they can tell us if we can’t do it on our own time … we’ll see.”

Another sports figure being Tweet-blocked by the governing body of the sport. It's only a matter of time before every sport has some written policy about Twitter and social media. He goes on to state that you'd "have to be a moron to send ‘inside info’ through a tweet." But that's the problem and reason in and of itself: rules and guidelines like that are in place to rope in the lowest common brainpan.

But I can also understand where Roddick is coming from. Especially in tennis, every player is a free agent and you're as valuable as two things: your record and your PR campaign. For anyone with an agent worth their salt, they recognize that Twitter is a part of the popularity package and limiting it could literally hit in the wallet.


Tweet in Case of Emergency

The Safe America Foundation:

a national safety group working with the U.S. government, announced yesterday that text messaging, social networking sites, and Twitter could help families stay in touch in the wake of a disaster. Although Twitter hasn't always been known for its stability, in emergency situations when phone lines and other traditional communication avenues are down, social networking sites like it and others could turn into reliable backup methods for reaching loved ones.

While I wouldn't necessarily rely on Twitter alone, it is an interesting idea to - extrapolated - keep in touch during a disaster by using various social media. GMail went down earlier this week. Where was the confirmation? Twitter.

Unfortunately, all of my forms of communication rely on 3 things: landline, cell signal, and electricity. Electricity going out (and it seems the most fragile) knocks out the router, therefore any access to the internet. Cell signal and data package would still allow for internet access and phone calls, but with no internet at home, most of those channels would be packed, leaving the most reliable communication to the tiny SMS packets that can pop through much more easily. If that goes down? I may be one of the only people in my family that has both a corded phone (no electric dependency) and an active land line, but I'd be calling people without corded phones or through the clogged cell network.

Good advice to expand resources, but how realistic is it, really?


A Window Into the Surgical Process

This was a heartfelt story of one of the hundreds/thousands of ways Twitter can be used, from the AP:

[Monna Cleary] underwent a hysterectomy and uterine prolapse surgery, had given her OK for hospital spokeswoman Sarah Corizzo to post a play-by-play of the operation on Twitter, a social-networking site that lets users send out snippets of information up to 140 characters long using cell phones or computers.

Corizzo sent more than 300 tweets over more than three hours from a computer just outside the operating room's sterile field. Nearly 700 people followed them. Eight tweeted questions to Corizzo about the procedure and a Cleary family member commented on how fascinating it was to follow the surgery.

When the haters sneer at you and say "Yeah, but what's it good for?" you can link them to this article.

Friday Internet Video: Wedding Proposals and G4

I must apologize that I missed you all yesterday. While I did not post on tech fun yesterday, I did spend about an hour with Daniel Johnson, Jr. and Don Sceifers discussing the upcoming New Media Cincinnati Second Saturday. The theme is Colleagues or Competitors and we talked about the WHY behind New Media Cincinnati's attendance and the spectrum between trolling for clients and showing up to offer your knowledge up for the betterment of the group. September's meeting will be an interesting one and I can't wait to hear insights from all the attendees.

But do not fret about yesterday's missing post; you can expect some gravy tomorrow as I've got a backlog of bookmarks, stories that need some commenting. I've also got to update everyone on my Palm Pre love and the wonder of homebrew and the announcement of a new project I'm beginning. Stay tuned!

But on to the Friday videos! We start today with a video from Mashable and the Social Good conference from NYC. The video is 2 hours long and very good, but if you click to forward it to the last few minutes (1:58:00 or so), you get to see a marriage proposal. Tasty.



No, he did not utter the words "will you marry me," but I speak from experience when I say that proposing to someone in front of a couple hundred people makes reality turn into jell-o and supposed plans are left to a higher universal order. I applaud him.


And since I always enjoy Attack of the Show on G4 and their Around the Net segment and Kevin and Olivia are on vacation this week, let's take their most recent bit and enjoy a bevvy of internet lovin'.

Video Games - E3 2009 - Attack of the Show

Wink pants: Do Not Want.

Wednesday's Tuesday's Social Media Post ...on Time Management

Last week I got a great response from an overview of Cincinnati's social networking events, and one of the comments that came back was:

And people say it's hard to network in Cincinnati! I actually have heard that several times per month. I can't get to everything I want to do because, well, sometimes I actually do have to do work. :)

And I chuckled out loud and gave Lappy (my laptop) a little fist bump. And then I looked at my calendar for this week and it made my face scrunch up in a way that made me quite happy that Lappy's built-in webcam was not broadcasting me live.

Right now, on Wednesday evening, I have had 8 different appointments (a couple fam-related that don't even appear on the calendar) that while both necessary and rewarding have nothing to do with me actually working on current projects.

And while the magic that is striking that balance will be a future writing (doesn't do me much good to say "FAIL - but, um, here's how I would do it..."), this post has a different crux, point, and/or apex.

You may have read the originating post about the EJM Designs Blog schedule and shouted "Rah!" and looked forward to what was coming and yesterday mumbled "WTF?"

And I'm here to say "Yes, a blogging schedule works! It does!" But it does not do so without a daily schedule. I may have a great idea already set up for me when I get to blogging, but if I don't have a time every day set aside to address that issue, then I may as well be posting Wednesday evening about my Tuesday topic and thinking about the forthcoming Wednesday post as well.

Lesson: If you're serious about doing something every day, you need to set aside time to do that thing every day. Period. No excuses.

(And it doesn't hurt to nail down a rough schedule of other important daily items like exercise or meditation.)

So today(yesterday)'s response question is: what is your daily event? Your daily chore? Your daily necessity? How do you do it and are you successful?