I came across this article while in a Google+ thread started by someone in the web/tech community.

Me, I have my Twitter status synced with my Facebook, LinkedIn and various other platforms. I like saying something once and letting the respective audience in each forum comment or not.

Case-in-point: I asked a question on Twitter that yielded 0 responses. That same question was auto-published on Facebook. Again, no responses. Yet, on my Google+ channel, it rendered over over 7 responses on that one question. It lead to suggestions & recommendations and more.

Who is anyone to tell  you (or me) where and when I can post. What, you have a blog with millions of readers, get paid $10k to speak at events; congrats – you’re a good marketing professional. Don’t presume to think everyone is of the sheep-mentality and hangs on your every rant.

I like consolidation. Yes, I have different; not by much, audiences on my social channels, but I don’t want to ask the same thing a different way for each place. Ask once, collect the data, move on.

collapsed & expanded google reader folders

A couple of years ago I was given a book via a LinkedIn promotion by Chris Brogan; a household name in the social media marketing arena but scarcely known by me. The book, Trust Agents, was a great read; I recommend it if you have it already burned through your copies. In his book Chris teaches the reader some of the finer points of becoming a “trust agent”.

In on of the chapters he describes “listening posts” or an aggregation of data about a certain topic, brand or product. Using these “listening posts” as a tool to not only monitor said topic, brand or product but as a tool for daily knowledge consumption.

Since then, I’ve been using Google Reader. The screenshot shows my categorization/folders of how I consume me data across the net. From a “listening post” for various keywords about the company I work for to web comics, bloggers I can stand to follow & politics.

I’m sure many people are using some form of this technique, so I wanted to share my own. Perhaps you see a category you’d like to add or maybe have some suggestions for me to add. I usually spend a few minutes in the morning while preparing for my day to skim over most of the posts – side note: headlines make the difference, I generally won’t read the full post unless the headline grabs my attention – and look for things that are worth sharing on my social channels.

If you like reading a lot of blogs, web magazines or news, I suggest setting up something like this if you’re not already. If you are doing it and have some suggestions for additional places to review, let me know!

What a year it is has been. Since 2008, I have proudly served as a committee member for the Interactive Strategies Conference. This year I was asked to step up and take on the role of Chair and serve on the board for the Houston Interactive Marketing Association (HiMA); the organization that puts on the “IS” Conference.

I learned SO much this year. That’s an understatement. I booked 3 Keynote presenters (ambitious, much?) and lost 3 keynote presenters in the same week (different story). I, along with my awesome committee, brought in thousands of dollars in sponsorships – and more coming in. We got Hugh Macleod (@gapingvoid) as our new Keynote and that’s just awesome in itself.

Now, we’re about 2 weeks out from the conference date (Sept 16 – register now…do it) and the worst thing that could happen…did. I died. No, I’m kidding, really. Our venue, for the last 2 conferences; the Angelika Film Center, CLOSED. Doors locked. Out of business (for now). My reaction on Sunday morning upon receiving multiple DMs on Twitter, email, Facebook, “hmm, I better put the baby down and email some people.” And, I did. I put the baby down and got started on what I felt would be the most stressful time – for the next 2 weeks.

A few dozen emails, phone calls, scouting trips later (in one day) I was able to get in touch with a representative at the HOB (Holy Open Bar…Batman?). Maybe, if you attend Our new home for IS2010 is the House of (freaking) Blues! Talk about rocking out! This is a step up! We’re doing what we said we would in my interview with The Overtime Show gals! Making Interactive Strategies bigger and better.

We hope to see as many Houston entrepreneurs, designers, marketing professionals and social savvy media nerds! This has been a great experience being apart of and working with a great team like HiMA and my committee members. Check us out! We’ll be rocking September 16!

Will you be rocking out with us?

I’m pretty active on the web. I spend some time watching funny videos as they come to me or as I stumble upon them. But a lot of the time I see an article on Mashable that makes the claim that XYZ video or campaign has gone viral.

That’s when I say, I didn’t see it. Not that I’m the end-all-be-all of viral marketing knowledge. Just because I didn’t see it, doesn’t make it less viral, but ya know. But still, which came first; in some cases, the viral or the marketing?

Is apart of the marketing that asset that makes it viral? Old Spice had a great campaign. One that I saw on TV then the viral aspect kicked in. But some of these stories like Cee-lo’s song goes viral makes me stop and wonder. I would’ve never come across this – most likely – had it not been for Mashable telling me it went viral.

The scene from the Matrix also comes to mind where the Oracle tells Neo not to worry about the vase and he asks, “What vase” then bumps into it and it breaks. She then replies, “…would you still have broken it if I didn’t say anything?”.

Make sense? What do you think?

Photo by: The Wander’s Eye

I’ve been involved with the Knowbility organization since 2007; participating in their annual Accessibility Internet Rallies (AIR) on-and-off. When they invited me to speak, I asked the same question I always get when I ask for someone to speak at an event I’m organizing; what do you want me to talk about. I was very happy learn they wanted me to present on Social Media & Accessibility. I would never classify myself as a “social media guru” due to the negative picture it paints in my self-conscious mind of a social media “douche bag”, but I guess it just comes with the territory, right?

I’ll post my presentation after Tuesday for all to check out. Wish me luck!

Update: Back from the conference and just a wee-bit tired now. It was a physically and mentally draining few days. That said, I had a really great time in Austin with my family and at the conference. Austin, you kinda grew on me. I’m looking forward to doing more of these type of events. The initial feedback I received from the organizers is that the attendees that came to my session really liked what I did. I tend to be overly critical of myself, so that sets my mind at ease Thanks to the Knowbility folks and my class attendees; it was a great experience.

This year’s theme is DiY: Create __________. We want our attendees to take what they learn and apply it to their company, themselves and Create (something) – branding strategy, social networking campaigns, tasty cupcakes (subliminal message).

We hope you all have the opportunity to join your fellow marketers, web professionals, social networking evangelists and designers on September 16, 2010 at the Angelika Theater! IS2010 is a full-day, intimate conference geared toward those who seek to be in-the-know on SEO, Strategy, Social Media, Design That Sticks and our newest area, Fundamentals.

Check out the new site at www.is-conference.com

We still have sponsorships available should your company or brand be interested in helping put on the best IS Conference to date.

What do you want to create?

What a refreshing, inspiring and motivating speaker he is. Straight-forward would be an understatement. I’ve yet to experience a speaker who was that ‘transparent’ and open about their success. I thoroughly enjoyed – not only the great food at the Intercontinental Hotel – Jeff’s presentation and style.

In true celebrity form, his introduction was followed up by another introduction; in video format. The 3ish minute video talked about the transformation of the Kodak brand and company itself. It was hilarious. Very well done and entertaining. Kudos Kodak!

After the into(s) Jeff started right into his presentation. What made this even better for me is that Jeff presents in a way the Kelsey Ruger is currently posting about. He presented a story, with emotions and humor and a feeling of really connecting with what he was sharing.

I jotted down some key points I took away from his storytelling/presentation. One thing that really stood out was the Kodak, a company built on capturing our memories, uses the phrase: Kodak creates emotional technology. Wow – that’s deep and so true!

Recap:

• 40% of commercial printing is touched by Kodak.
• Kodak’s online photo-hosting service has more high-resolution pictures than anyone. Anyone. He noted that if you’re using services like Flickr or some such – you might be loosing out in the end.
• Every Best Picture winner and nominee for the Academy Awards® was shot on Kodak film.
• 70% of their digital business is B2B.
• Kodak’s transformation is the largest turn-around in business history.
• Kodak has 13 products with account for 80% of their revenue. Half of which didn’t exist a year ago.
• Being trustworthy and reliable is their main focus. As should it be for other businesses.
• Quote: “A brand is a promised delivery”
• Kodak’s social media practice uses the 4 E’s: Engage • Educate • Excite • Evangelize
• When Kodak started using social media, they encountered 43% complaint traffic. It’s now down to about 7%
• Business owners/Executives need to understand social media ROI isn’t Return on Investment, rather Return on Ignoring.
• Email Tom@Kodak.com for a free copy of Kodak’s Social Media Tips. I’ll save Tom’s inbox and give you the link.
• What Kodak tries to do – and does well so far is – link the science to the soul (creating emotional technology)

Jeff, if you ever come across my humble blog. Thank you! You get it!

If you get the chance to hear Jeff speak, take it! You won’t be disappointed. Have you been to a Jeff Hayzlett presentation? What did you think?

Note: Banner image is from the Kodak website featuring screenshots of this years Oscar nominees hand-picked by the movies cinematographer’s.

Over the last few weeks, my (very pregnant) wife has been telling me to get her some of her favorite girl scout cookies; Samoas – or Carmel Delights, as they were once known. Since I don’t make it point to go to the grocery store every day, we waited till the weekend to do a little shopping with the ulterior motive being; find us some Samoas!

I took to Twitter and Facebook before venturing out to 10 different places that had some girl scouts posted in the front. No luck there, unfortunately. Luckily, Dreyer’s also makes limited edition flavor of, you guessed it – Samoa!

This brings me to my plea to both Girl Scouts of America and all you awesome Application Developers – I’m a Mac, so iPhone in this case.

I would love an App that allows Girl Scout Troops to ‘check-in’ – much like FourSquare – and then the app itself plots their location and you, as the user can search based on your location. This would be a great tool during this time of year to help frustrated husbands, fearing for their lives, find girl scout cookies on-the-fly.

What do you think? Can this magic I speak of become reality? I sure hope so. And, if it happens..I sure hope I get a little credit

Photo by: Rex Roof

I follow a good amount of people on Twitter and when that timeline gets bombarded with play-by-play tweets, it gets a little annoying. “Stop following them!”, you say. Not really necessary in my opinion. I’m not going to stop following someone because of it; it’s just an annoyance. Most of the time these tweets are verbal outbursts that are then reiterated on Twitter or Facebook for all the world to see. Great! You’re watching a game, now I know. Is it necessary update everyone that XYZ player made a great pass or Team A should have done this? I understand the potential to strike up a conversation is there and that people may comment on your post/wall. I get that. Again, it’s just an annoyance. Same thing could be said about ‘live tweeting’ at a conference. Put it in a post!

Am I innocent of tweeting non-important, mundane rants? No way! Who is? I simply feel that a simple “I’m watching Team A vs. Team B right now” will suffice. Maybe even a follow up like “That was a great game! My team did great/sucks” so we all know your team rocks/sucks.

Telling people how and when to use the Twitter is a touchy subject. I am, by no means, telling people what they should/should not do on their social platform of choice. Just sharing one man’s opinion. As one person put it to me: “Half those people didn’t even go to [name of school]. The bandwagon fans are what piss me off”.

I know I’m not the only person who feels this way, right?

*Required since I was in marching band(football)/Choir(basketball).

Photo credit: kerryvaughan

So you’ll be happy to read that this isn’t a top anything list of last year or even my 2010 resolutions. I’m not really a fan “New Years Resolutions” because it’s a set up for failure. Most people do the “I’ll lose weight” or “I’ll do this or that” and then they fall off the wagon, gain 20 pounds, smoke even more and say “I’ll make it my resolution for next year”. Why wait? Just do it already. I digress.

So what does “The year we make contact…or connections” mean for me? It means I want to do more personal brand development. Speak at more events (on social media, leadership, religion <gasp>) and share more ideas. I want to make more contacts and connections to better not only myself but to help our community grow.

Here’s to 2010, where’s my flying Delorean?!

Photo credit: linh_rom