SOBCon08 Contest Update

SOBCon08 is running a contest for attending bloggers where the payoff is admission and hotel expenses.  The contest works by counting hits to the SOBCon08 website from the competing bloggers.  I’m in that contest.

The contest just posted an update here, and guess who is in the lead? Me!

Yes, you, my readers, have put me in the lead.  But the contest is not over yet.  Far from it, there are 22 days left and I’m not far enough out in the lead to make it certain.  The very fact that people now know whose in the lead will have an affect.

The contest is simple, so if you want to help, all you need to do is click here.  That’s right. Just click there and that’s it. No registration. No sign up. No giving your email.  Just click any link to SOBCon08 and their site.  Every hit counts.  The more the better.  Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell strangers, but please, send them to my blog and have them click through to the SOBCon08 site.

To be transparent:

Convention cost: $450

Hotel cost: $300 +

Getting there: ????

Thanks you again for your support thus far.  Sending me to SOBCon08 will improve my blogging skills, resources and my network of support.

As an added incentive, if you leave me a comment letting me know you click, and provide a link to your blog, I’ll provide a link back on my blogroll and I’ll include you in an upcoming cartoon.

Sincerely,

Todd

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Contacts, Friends, and Meetups

So I’m going today to the 1st meeting of Social Media Club St. Louis and I’m wondering if I should. Oh, not because it won’t be fun, or constructive, and not because I won’t make new contacts, but for just the opposite. I’m worried about making too many new contacts.

That’s right, too many. I’m quickly facing the point in my social networking and media relationships cycle where there are just too many folks to keep up with. Contacts galore, but you say, how many of them do you pay attention to. Too many and not enough.

I’m now following hundreds of contacts on Twitter, some on Utterz, and countless blogs via RSS. That’s not to mention messages and interaction on Facebook and other smaller spots. And today’s meetup is bound to bring me more cool folks to follow and interact with.

So what’s a guy to do? I’ve already talked about social networking contact issues here, here, and here. Still my conclusion is the cliche, less is more. How am I accomplishing this?

There isn’t really one answer for me, but here’s how I’m going to handle it today.

1) Give folks my almost universal ID – tojosan – good for Twitter, Utterz, and more social networking and media sites.

2) Give folks my blog information

3) Accept and note down their universal IDs and add them as contacts

4) Get their blog information – and subscribe on a trial basis

My expectations?

1) Two or three out of a dozen plus will become regular contacts

2) Two or three will have blogs of real interest to me

How do I feel about that? Just fine. Honestly, more of them would just be attention thieves from the others. Will I stop following the blogs? Maybe not, but they’ll be relegated to the weekly vs daily checks for sure. Since they are local, it might be hard to pass them up. The key criteria will be subject matter though. I’m very uninterested in political ranting, and much more interested in articles about restaurants, tech, and movies.

Will you be screening your new potential contacts? Or will you just keep adding anyone that you meet? Is it exclusionary to put off making contacts of folks that you aren’t interested in, if they are interested in following you? What’s your plan for your next meetup?

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Click here to help me win a free ride to SOBCon08. No registration or anything. Just click.

Thanks,

Todd

Frozen Pea Fund is going 501(c)3 Nonprofit!

Susan Reynolds and Connie Reece today announced the move to incorporate the Frozen Pea Fund as a nonprofit.  Congratulations on this move Susan and Connie.

Before this week, Susan and Connie had not met in person.  This video is the culmination of their efforts together on this project so far.  I’m excited to see what comes next.

Cheers!

The Frozen Pea Fund was inspired by Susan Reynold’s personal cancer experience.  It is a fund raising site, working with the American Cancer Society. Please visit and consider a donation.

Have you been to a social media meetup?

Take my quick survey here.

You can see the results here.

Thanks.

Chris Brogan and Social Network Meetup Tips

Chris Brogan, of ChrisBrogan.com, brings us a list of Five Things to Do at a Social Network Meetup.  The tips include both things to do and a couple of advice tips on how to do things.

One of the big ones he tackles is what to do if you need to do business.  That tip alone makes this post worth a visit.  Another one of my favorites from the post is don’t crowd surf too much.

Lots of folks feel the need to meet everyone at the meetup.  My own experience has been that this rarely results in serious or deep conversation.  Along with that, it makes it more difficult to build new or existing relationships.  One surprise of doing that at my last meetup was learning that several of my fellow St. Louis bloggers are Jewish.  This lead to a discussion of how this impacted their lives and their blogs.

Chris ends with this leading question:

“What do YOU do at meetups to make them better, more interesting, a reflection of the value of real space versus online social networking?”

My own bit to add would be come prepared to talk about what you do.  Do doesn’t mean how you earn a living, thought that might be interesting, but do, as in:

1) I blog about technology.

2) I blog about programming.

3) I use Twitter, Utterz, and Facebook.

People will ask, but even if they don’t, you can lead in by asking them what it is they do. Great ice breaker.

Another tip is get to the names.  It’s one thing to be known as the guy from The Broad Brush, but quite another to be recognized as Todd or tojosan. Much more personal.

That’s it for me, but what will you do make the most of your next social networking meetup?

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Help me get to SOBCon08 for free; click through – SOBCon08 – that’s all it takes.

Trademark Tojosan? Is it important to trademark?

Valeria Maltoni, on Marketing Profs, writes about trademark and its importance, especially for those of us involved in blogging and social media. You might ask why trademark is important to you as a social media maven, but as Valeria puts it, “Is someone else reaping the fruits of your hard work?”

That’s an important consideration in this day and age where someone can copy your content in seconds.  Just about anyone can copy your name and rip-off your online identity as well.  Valeria points out what Seth Godin recently went through as well with this.

Linking definitions of trademark in her post, Valeria goes beyond that to highlight what Seth and others had to say about possible copycatting and infringement.  So check it out, and think about whether you should be trademarking your brand.

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Help me get to SOBCon08 for free. Just click here and it gives me a vote. No registration required.

TinyUrl Clone supporting Cancer research?

PEAURL is a TinyUrl clone type service dedicated to http://frozenpeafund.com/.

Been looking for one of those shortened but meaningful URLs? PEAURL has the answer. Just check a box and you’ll have a short URL folks will actually be able to recognize.

So next time you want a tiny URL, think of PEAURL.

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Help me go to SOBCon08 for free. Just click and read about SOBCon08.