Mayhem & Chaos: The Blog

As it is the common thing to do at this time of year, I’m doing my wrap up of 2008. I’ve seen quite a few “2008 was bad for me…” posts and twitters from various people. So, as not to bore you with what-could-have-beens of my 2008, I’ll just say what I’m thankful for in 2008. Though it’s not a top ten list and it’s quite short, I thought I’d bring some positive vibes to the internets

A Great New Place

A year ago, I was at a job that really didn’t appreciate me or my fellow colleagues. In 2008 I was welcomed at Pop Labs. The last 6 months here have been fun, energizing and revitalizing. I look foward to many more years there and helping my department grow stronger.

A Far Out Trip

I had a very exciting trip to look forward to back in January. My father-in-law, a retired Houston Firefighter, took us (mom-in-law, wife and 2 sisters-in-law) on a cruise and paid for the whole trip (with the exeption of shore excursions). We left Galveston and headed for Jamaica, Grand Caymen and Cozumel for a 7 day cruise. It was a blast! My wife and I had just found out we were expecting our 1st child together, so it was a little less blasty for her. We plan on going on another one…some day, sans the morning sickness.

A New Arrival

As mentioned in the far our trip, we had just found out about our new addition to the family and on August 19, 2008, we welcomed Avalea Jo Baldovinos. I followed in the footsteps of Robert Scoble and twittered the entire birth as it happened.

There are plenty of other things I could touch on, but I think those are some of the best in 2008 for me. I hope you all have a great 2009 and stay positive, stay stress-free and remember, life goes on and don’t dwell on your misfortunes. G-d provides us with what we need and not always what we want. I know, that’s so cliche…but most cliches are true. When you ask for patience, G-d won’t just out-right give it to you, but he’ll put you in a situation where you will need to learn patience. Just watch Evan Almighty. That inspired what I just said.

Here’s to a new year for us all!

After being on 2.2.2 for so long, I finally decided to update to the latest version of Wordpress. This act was inspired by meeting @photomatt (Matt Mullenweg), creator of said Wordpress. I think he’d be proud.

It’s no secret that word of mouth is a powerful tool. Most businesses depend on their customer’s reviews to get more leads and referrals. We’ve all sat around talking about our favorite watering hole or the best sushi you’ve had in years. This is the core of most successful companies. The value and loyalty of their patrons.

Not too long ago, though, most of us depended on the reviews of industry professionals, movie or food critics and so on. Today we’re bombarded by personal and industry blogs, social media reviewing sites and the all important word of mouth tool, Twitter.

For those of you who have, for some reason, not heard of Twitter; it’s basically a micro-blogging medium that allows you to gain “followers” and for you to also “follow’ others. Some people use it to vent, others to let others know what’s happening in their lives. However you use it, it’s a great tool.

An industry friend of mine, Erica O’Grady (#1 Erica in Google — on most days) is a huge Twitter evangelist. She recently gave a presentation at the Interactive Strategies Conterence here in Houston about the secrets of “Twitter Branding”. She can and does go in to much more detail about the advantages of Twitter and how to use it to brand not only yourself, but your company. And that’s what I want to share with you. How I’ve seen, in just a small example, of how Twitter can really hurt a company or organization if they don’t have good customer service and are not aware of the power of Twitter and other social mediums.

Recently, there was a little controversy about breastfeeding in public at Houston’s Discovery Green. According to sources from Twitter, a mother was asked to leave the park or go elsewhere while breastfeeding her child. My wife (@BokehLove) and another fellow Twitterer (@jeremey) used Twitter to give their thoughts to them (@DiscoverGreen).

I believe what saved this from getting too out of hand or even resulting in legal actions (according to Jeremey) , is that Discovery Green saw these replies to them and they responded immediately.

Again, had they not been aware of Twitter, people within the community that follow these individuals could have been very turned off at the idea of Discovery Green turning away breastfeeding mothers. Discovery Green did a great job of communicating to a large audience with a simple 140 characters of less.

Of course this isn’t the only example of how Twitter can potentially harm your business or save it. There are countless examples, which I’m sure Erica could share with all of us :).

Another recent example of how Twitter is being used is Coffee Groundz (@coffeegroundz), a local coffee shop and Twitter meet-up hot spot here in Houston. J.R. Cohen of Coffee Groundz can’t say enough good things about Twitter. They may even be hosting our next Refresh Houston meeting!

Do you have any “Twitter Tales” of a business helping you out? Please share!