A minty-fresh social media success story

Aug 30th

I was spending a quiet Saturday morning doing some blog reading when I came across this beautiful story from my friend Michael Winn (follow!), as posted as a comment on Valeria Maltoni’s blog (also follow!). He’s given me a permission to run it here as an inspirational example of the power of friends and social media. Here’s Michael:

Some argue that the use of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter threaten the depths of our human relationships and separate society’s connection with the real world. Others argue that what began as a social interactive platform is slowly becoming a superficial sea of subversive status updates and covert spamming. I would offer the possibility that while those arguments have valid points, genuine connection is happening between both worlds. Passion is the key to any authentic connection. For me, it started with mint.

Embarrassingly, I recently have found the delicious and refreshing taste of the Mojito. Traditionally made of five ingredients: white rum, sugar, lime, carbonated water, and mint, Mojitos are the perfect blend of fresh and exciting. I was hooked. After hitting three stores trying to find fresh mint, I had to settle for the Mojito mixer. Needless to say, my first attempt to create the sublime concoction in my kitchen was a disaster ending in a shelf bought mixer and a less than top shelf brand of rum.

Here is series of Twitter status updates from between myself (TallyDigitalBiz) and RickOpp whom I had never met in real life, but follow on Twitter:

@RickOpp 2:33 PM May 1st “about to go on a mint run — essential for juleps for Derby Day and mojitos for post-golf @ poolside Sunday.”

@TallyDigitalBiz 2:54 PM May 1st “let me know where you find the mint “goods” i went to three stores and struck out, had to settle for just the mixer:”

@RickOpp 3:33 PM May 1st “Tharpe Publix was out & produce guy said other Pubs may b out 2. Got last 2 pkgs @ Tharpe WinnDixie. Try calling others.”

@TallyDigitalBiz 3:39 PM May 1st “Enjoying free WiFi and a black and white at Starbucks on North Monroe*

@RickOpp 3:46 PM MAY 1st “Raise ur hand & wave right now.”

Suddenly, while sitting in Starbucks, I hear a friendly voice ask, “Are you Michael Winn?” I reply, yes. Reaching out to shake hands, I am handed a small package of fresh mint. Stunned, I had just experienced the incredible power of connection between Twitter and real world friendships. RickOpp, who I personally know now as Rick Oppenheim, and I have a Twitter story that will be told over and over.

In less than 73 minutes, two complete strangers found a common interest. By the simple spirit of generosity and hospitality, two people now have a keystone to building something beyond Twitter updates, mint, and a 50 to 1 shot winning the Derby.

As an addendum to this story, Michael told me that he and Rick have worked on two social media consulting projects together since this “meeting of the mint.”

Through this blog I’ve related some of my own social media connection stories. How about you? Do you have a story like Michael’s?

business relationships, twitter

Why I "block" on Twitter

Aug 29th

53 comments

I was having a deep philosophical discussion on the Zen of Twitter when I mentioned that I frequently “block” porno-teeth-whitening-10,000-followers-make-money-NOW spamaholics.My friend was amazed. “Why take the time?” she asked. I was amazed back. Doesn’t EVERYBODY block? Guess not, but they probably should.

Here’s why I “block and report” the unseemly ones from my tribe.

1) My Twitter Tribe matters. If I follow you, I choose to do so. No auto-follows, ever. Before I follow, I have read your bio, some of your tweets and probably clicked your link. I have a quality audience and it’s staying that way. I could have had 10,000 followers by now. I don’t care about that. I know the folks in my posse are primo.

2) I want an audience to be proud of. This probably sounds old-fashioned but I don’t want to do anything in my life that I wouldn’t be proud to disclose to my children. And if they examined my Twitter audience, I would not want them to see a bunch of nymphs peddling their videos. Anybody can see who you’re following. What does your audience say about you?

3) I want to protect you. If I block the spamaholics I keep them from my tweets and I keep them, in a small way, from you. I see so many of these folks who copy “Follow Friday” lists trying to lure followers. No. Stay away from my friends dammit.

4) Because I just do not want to play that game. I’m not going to be passive and imply that what they’re doing is OK.

Blocking sends a message. If we ALL blocked them, they would have to go away, right? No, they just would find another way to swarm over us. But I can dream, right?

best practices, ethics, twitter

City attacks unemployment through social media

Aug 8th

1 comment

Can Twitter help people find jobs? It seems to be working in Richmond, VA.

Like most cities in the U.S., Richmond has had its share of job losses. As part of its workforce development initiative, the Greater Richmond Partnership, Inc. developed a full-online attack to help address the unemployment problem.

The Partnership put together a website aimed at connecting people to jobs and resources to find employment, including a free online career assessment tool. They also created a Facebook page and a dedicated Twitter account aimed at connecting people with jobs. E-Mail alerts also provide targeted job-related news to subscribers.

Jennifer Yeager, Marketing Communications Manager, said some of the success so far includes:
o 112,00 webpage views
o More than 1,000 registered job seekers
o 1,500 Twitter followers (growing >100/month)
o 6,331 job-related Twitter posts

o 42% open rate on email alerts
o Anecdotal evidece of succes from emails and direct messages:

“This is where I found the posting for the job I got!”
“Your work helped us close that candidate”
“Awesome twitter feeds on jobs in Richmond!”
“The folks at Richmond Jobs Net sincerely care about finding Richmonders jobs in the community.”

The Greater Richmond Partnership is also employing social media applications to support efforts to attract and retain businesses and support small businesses and entrepreneurs.

best practices, careers, economic development, facebook, financial impact, Google profile, measurement, social media, twitter

Social media: Old people rule!

Aug 7th

4 comments

Today I’m pleased to introduce a special guest-blogger, my daughter Lauren, who provides a 20-something perspective of social media. Lauren is an awesome young woman (with a capital AWE) and is a junior majoring in Public Relations at Indiana University. She is also completing a summer internship with a company in San Francisco.

This week, my boss asked me to construct his company’s first Facebook page and establish a presence on Twitter. My qualification? I’m young.

The truth is, I probably know less about social media marketing than he does … Tweet what?

Sure, I am a child of the new media generation. But, the truth is, my generation is still trying to figure all this stuff out too! Granted, there are a handful of SM savvy hipsters who can tweet and blog their way through life, but half of us can’t figure out what to do with all this stuff.

Sure, we all have Facebook or MySpace pages and we love YouTube, but at college, we’re using these channels just for fun and we’re too self-involved to realize that SM can be used by businesses on so many other levels.

The “youth-as-social-media-change-agents” myth got pumped up to a whole new level a few weeks ago when a much-publicized 15-year-old delivered a report on media channels to Morgan Stanley. Not all of us in the under-25 bracket can do that … most of us are just not that precocious!

The only reason I’m on Twitter is because my Dad is there. When I found out he was on Twitter I thought, “Whoa! The old man is on Twitter? I must be falling behind!” Truth is, my whole generation is behind. Nearly every study shows that people OVER 25 are the ones most rapidly adopting social media … not us. And the fastest-growing category on Facebook is over 50!

Here’s my point: For all of you from the generation ahead of me who have been running rampant through SM sites to compete with my generation of “digital natives,” SLOW DOWN. You’re winning a race against a competitor that doesn’t even know the race exists!

The social media finish line looks a lot clearer in your reading glasses, than in my generation’s youthful 20-20 vision.