Social Networking Postcards

What did I get?

Mobile post sent by tojosan using Utterz.  Replies.

Courtesy of Jeff Hibbard.

How to become a real Twitter Geek…

Or I’m getting an @ sign from Jeff.

 

TheTruckCam 5/5/2008

Posted to jeffhibbard by jeffhibbard on May 05, 2008

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Yeah, I’m loved. 🙂

 

What do you do?

     People who don’t know you love to ask what you do.  Here in the Midwest that often is asking what you do to earn a living.  With the growing breadth of online tools and toys, more people don’t just ‘do’ their job.

     Ordinary folks like you and I not only do programming, or teach grade schoolers, but we blog, make videos, create social media and network.  We don’t just network either; we inspire, conspire, and admire; we encourage, uplift and share; we are not passive.

     So when I ask my contacts and friends what it is they do, I don’t want to just hear how they bring home the bacon, I want to know all they are in what they do.  I want to know that you write and inspire through your blog, to know that you raise funds for cancer by making videos, or that you raise kids in a digital world.

     In this spirit, I polled my Twitter pals, and here are the answers they gave.  Enjoy.

• I learn, explore, write, communicate, teach, and lead, but I also execute where needed.  Mainly in SEM but also in comedy and music
• I solve mysteries and cure illnesses and create works of art–all done with a keyboard.
• I’m a father and database administrator, and I carry a crazy and frustrating idea that I can be a creative type. That’s what I do.
• I’m the editor of a number of specialist property publications, creative writer, lover of tech and cultural studies, and a gamer.
• i’m a geek, get paid to help content get to people who want to see it and spend my pay on red wine & vodka 🙂
• I’m a creator, a collector, a connector, a communicator, a cancer patient & I help others benefit by what I’ve learned
• run my own ad agency/production company while launching Internet video startup
• I write, read, and think about stuff all day long 🙂
• I help people communicate, which usually involves first convincing them to listen.  All that in a highly niche, technical, market.
• I read, and read some more, and read some more, and talk.
• Try to connect people, enlighten their day. Watch the kids grow and discover their world.  Try to listen and learn. Enjoy life.
• up with dogs, computer, TV, blogging, Twittering, cooking, back to computer, check e-mail, more TV,sleep: my day in 140 characters

     Do you know these folks? Any of this sound familiar? Perhaps one of these is you, or very close.  Note that on one up there does just one thing.  Many have a full life living and doing a variety of things. It’s not a crime to specialize but don’t sell yourself short.  Very few of us wear only one hat.

     Ask yourself today, and be ready to answer when we ask, what do you do?  What do you do?

Social Networking Postcard Project – Week 4

     The postcards have been put out again. As in previous weeks, here and here and here, the opt in was closed on Friday night. The postcards are written, stamped and ready to go out. They should be leaving my local area on Monday, the 28th.

Twitter pals to get postcards this week are:

• Dayngr
• JSpaghetti
• rmsylte
• remarkablogger
• callkathy
• conniereece

     Twitter pals of mine are given the chance on Friday night to DM me and ask for a postcard.  I’ve been of the mind that social networking needs to have more social involved.  In that spirit I’ve been trying to visit in person, talk on the phone, send personal video messages, and doing this postcard project.  At about 6 folks per week, this will take forever but it’s fun.

     I’ve been asking if folks will at least tweet about the postcard or write a blog post.  There’s no obligation though, and I hope no one stops themselves from asking over that worry.

     If you’d like to do the same thing, jump right in.  Whatever you do though, I strongly encourage you to not make Twitter your only social medium.  Get in there and connect with people.  Talk to them, write to them, send them a video or a song, but definitely make the effort.  People will notice.

     What are you doing to connect?

Twitter Search for Bloggers @ St. Louis Bloggers Guild

     Just a quick shout out to an article I posted over at the St. Louis Bloggers Guild, Twitter Search for Bloggers « St. Louis Bloggers Guild.

As Lisa pointed out, Twitter is a powerful tool for communication. It can reach thousands of people in just minutes. Twitter though isn’t just about the instant communication. Twitter is useful even when you aren’t online chatting.

     The article talks about three of my favorite tools for finding cool things and news on Twitter.  Tweetscan, Hashtags and Quotably are highlighted for search and discovery.  There’s a short bit about each tool including examples.

     Please give it a quick look; you might find you like one of those tools.

     *follow me on Twitter.

Twitter Attack?

Social Networking Postcard Project – Week 3

The postcards have been put out again. As in the previous weeks, here and here, the opt in was closed on Friday night. The postcards were written, stamped and dropped off at the post office yesterday. They should be leaving my local area on Monday, the 21st.

Twitter pals to get postcards this week are:

• Hunee
• carseycritter
• moritherapy
• shashib
• revtriste
• gdruckman

Twitter pals of mine are given the chance on Friday night to DM me and ask for a postcard.  I’ve been of the mind that social networking needs to have more social involved.  In that spirit I’ve been trying to visit in person, talk on the phone, send personal video messages, and doing this postcard project.  At about 7 folks per week, this will take forever but it’s fun.

I’ve been asking if folks will at least tweet about the postcard or write a blog post.  There’s no obligation though, and I hope no one stops themselves from asking over that worry.

So how do you get in? Friday night I’ll put out a call on Twitter for folks to DM me and mention postcard and provide an address.  Sometime during the week though, there might be other chances to get in.  I’ve also been taking special requests for friends.

Think you are too far away? I’ve sent cards overseas and to Canada.  Don’t want to give out your home address? I’m okay with a P.O. Box or other safer address.  Don’t want to give your real name? Just tell me how to address it.

I’m anxious to reach out to you too.  How would you feel about an email in reply to your comment? Let me know.

The Inspiration that is Twitter

Quote:

Ironically, it has managed to spawn more innovations and hype—clients, web applications, memes, contests, meetups—than any of the big, bloated social networks. This is interesting because Twitter is not just a “web application”, which, literally, is an application that exists on and uses the Web. It’s an activity taking on many different forms in scattered locations, whose very nature seems viral, and whose openness seems almost unprecedented.

     That was taken from this fun and informative read, The Inspiration that is Twitter at Wisdump. The article doesn’t just mention what Twitter has inspired but shows ton of great links with snapshots of a good deal of them.

     Links to Twitter inspired services, mashups, and even t-shirts abound in the article. Want to poll your friends? Find the hottest links shared on Twitter? See the latest memes? Find the top followers and followed folks?  Then the links are here in this post.

     All this goodness is well organized into groups, with pictures to highlight quite a few of the services.  My favorite stuff is the Twitter related t-shirts.  Now I’ve got to go buy some.  Do you sell any?!  Give us some links.

     Give this great article a perusal and learn more about Twitter and all the things it’s spawned.

Twitter Shakes It Up During EarthQuake

Twitter was first media source again today, and here’s the lead in.

St. Louis residents were awakened around 4:30 a.m. by a 5.2 magnitude earthquake centered several miles from West Salem, Illinois. The forceful shaking which lasted nearly a minute. As the shaking stopped, many St. Louis area Twitterers (and beyond) went to their keyboards to discuss damage. This was nearly 30 minutes before any word from the local media.

     The full article, shared on the St. Louis Bloggers Guild, gives a first hand perspective of new media’s impact. Twitter was the source for folks to find out what the all the shake, rattle and roll was about.  Waking to find pictures falling, windows rattling, and dogs going crazy, the TV and radio had nothing to say.

     Has the world turned on it’s ear when the first place people are going for live and important news is online, perhaps to people they’ve never met?  The Bhutto assassination news came to me with live reports relayed from the scene over Twitter. Now that’s speed. With the contacts I have, I can get the unabridged version of what’s said at many televised speaking engagements.  It’s neat to hear a first had report of Hilary Clinton’s remarks as she’s snuck out the back at an appearance and a few stray reporters are there to see.

     It’s not just Twitter were the news comes.  Many of my contacts have not only written blogs, but video blogs, and can do live video recording on their phones.  Talk about exciting to not just have someone tell me the news over Twitter, but to show me.  What better than pictures captured at an event and instantly transmitted across the world.

     Not only has new media brought us new tools, but a whole new sense of community to news.  No longer is an overly primped strong chinned host the only face on the news.  Becky down the street can bring me live coverage of her first walk for Cancer. Sanjib in overseas in the East can share what life is really like there, free from the cleansing of national and international television rules.  Jim in NY can share pictures of the Pope, pictures you won’t see on the news.  Want crowd reaction, why listen to some guy on NPR report on it.  Get it from the folks in the crowd through Twitter, Utterz, and Qik.

     Downsides you say, what about not coming from a professional? Heck, I’ll trade polished and good looking for raw footage any day. I’ll trade super quality video and sound for fresh and interesting as well.  So no, maybe the guy sharing isn’t briefed in world political history, and can’t comment except about how he feels.  But that guy bringing us a fresh view, and a view not likely tied to keeping his reporting job.

     There’s one thing I forgot to mention though in my excitement to brag about new media.  You can’t just tune in and turn it on and get the news.  You can’t just know which of your contacts will bring it to your door, and not even where the news might be about.

     How to get around that? Contacts and quality = value. Lots of contacts isn’t enough if most of them live down the street, though you might be surprised.  Contacts who never engage in conversation and never share, they won’t be of much news value either.  But you can cultivate great contacts.  I’ll leave that for you the reader to think about how to do it.

     To wrap up, is Twitter and such the end all and be all of getting your news? No, but it’s quickly becoming the place in my day to day life that I find out first about breaking news.

     What about you? Has your online network of friends, contacts, and feeds brought new life into finding out about the world around you? Or are you certain that the only good news is brought through nice safe professional channels, like Fox and CNN? Where do you stand?  Is a bloggers voice good enough? Or do you only read the newspaper?  Tell me where you get your info.