Normally I do not use my blog to deep dive into politics, but with the impending State of the Union address tonight and some information I've recently discovered, I at least want to express the opinion I'm putting up here today.  Apparently, tonight President Obama's speech is going to focus on two main issues:  Jobs and The Economy.  Meanwhile, it's come to my attention that our government is essentially underwriting and sanctioning the process of overseas job outsourcing by still giving huge tax breaks -- and possibly even government subsidies -- to companies that are also simultaneously outsourcing these jobs.  Talk about a being hypocritical! 

Worse still, this whole process can be masked under a veil of legitimacy, and here's how:  Corporation A contracts U.S.-based Company Z, the company that's doing the overseas outsourcing, to do its dirty work.  This means that on the books, Corporation A looks like it's merely hiring another U.S. company for a project whereas in reality, Corporation A is cutting anywhere from dozens to hundreds of jobs for its U.S. employees and effectually replacing them with cheaper overseas labor. 

Now, if Corporation A wants to cut expenses and outsource their work, that's one thing, but I'm angered by the fact that this very same corporation gets funding (or tax breaks or other incentives) from our federal government.  Though this funding may be for something completely different (e.g. the development of a new manufacturing facility), why is this OK if they're simultaneously adding to the U.S. Unemployment roster??!  To me, this is all about massaging the corporate P&L to make its profits look better for stockholders when in effect it's doing nothing to protect jobs here at home.

If the currrent administration and Congress are serious about improving the climate for job creation in this country, perhaps they should more closely scrutinize the labor practices of any company receiving government funds or tax breaks.  Otherwise, stop talking about fixing a problem when you're only helping to contribute to it.

If you're a Twitter fanatic like me, you're probably already familiar with the use of the hashtag (#).  It acts like a flag or bookmark and allows other users to quickly search for the characters or words following the hashtag to find other tweets mentioning that same content.  In the case of #MarketerMonday, it's a hashtag started by Kent Huffman (@KentHuffman), Chief Marketing Officer at BearCom Wireless, master of juggling many simultaneous projects, and marketer extraordinaire!  Kent uses #MarketerMonday to both "shout-out" to fellow marketers and to bring these marketers to others' attention.  His #MarketerMonday posts appear on Mondays (obviously) like this:

Obviously, being named in one of Kent's #MarketerMonday tweets is an honor, but Kent's a shrewd guy.  He knows that several things will happen from his #MarketerMonday tweets:

1. Since Kent is tweeting fellow marketers, it's very likely that those included in the tweet will retweet the post, which helps Kent get additional exposure;
2. Similarly, each time any of these tweets get retweeted it brings additional exposure to the other marketers mentioned in the tweet (a win-win);
3. Smart marketers will not only retweet the post, but will check out and probably follow the fellow marketers being mentioned in the #MarketerMonday tweet. I've actually met quite a few interesting, helpful and engaging tweeps this way (a win-win-win).
4. All of this retweeting helps Kent build recognition and awareness of #MarketerMonday so the next time the hashtag appears in someone's stream, they might pay more attention to it.

 

Are you a marketer?  You might want to consider reaching out to Kent and introduce yourself.  You might find yourself on his #MarketerMonday list!

Tweetups, for those of you just joining Twitter, are when Twitter users take their virtual relationships off-line and meet together "IRL" (in real life).  Generally, tweetups refer to a gathering of Twitter users, not just a single one-on-one meeting.

To me, tweetups are one of the most rewarding parts of using Twitter.  I get to finally see beyond a little 3/4" square of an avatar and get a little more breadth and depth of the individual I've come to know on Twitter.  Plus, it's a great way to meet new friends who might can then become part of my Twitter community. I've said that I'm the world's worst Twitter user when I'm at a tweetup because I'd rather be talking to friends than tweeting with 'em.  I mean, c'mon people!!  ;-)

Tonight I had a very special tweetup because I got together with a group of people I've known for quite a while on Twitter but who I'd really never get to meet IRL because we're physically located far apart.  I'd like to pay homage to these people with this blog post because they primarily came together because I was in town -- in other words, they were there to meet me, and I couldn't be more grateful or flattered.  Here's how it went down and a bit of what I took away from meeting these great tweeps (I'm not going to give away all the juicy details -- if you want to know 'em, you just gotta show up next time!).

Date:  Monday, April 5th, 2010

Place:  Chicago, IL, specifically NAHA Restaurant

Who & What:

Gini Dietrich (a.k.a. "The Ring Leader") - @ginidietrich - Gini's a fellow female CEO and member of the business group Vistage (which is how she and I met "way back when" on Twitter.  She's a total professional and social media ace.  Gini & I have struck up a really special friendship through Twitter, and I had the good fortune to meet her in person two weeks ago in NYC.  It's she who set up this tweetup for me (albeit, she hosted it at the joint right below her office, though I can't fault her for this -- it was a great place!)  She's got the biggest heart, and I only want big things to happen for her.  It seems like I'm not the only one who feels this way -- just start tweeting about Gini and about half-dozen people will pipe about her before she even has a chance to respond (as witnessed by my recent coining of the term "FOG" - friends of Gini).  So don't mess with "the Gini" because you'll have to duke it out with a lot of loyal followers.  'Nuf said!

Keith Shay - @keith_shay - I met Keith through Gini -- he's also a Vistage member.  Although Keith & I had tweeted a bunch of times, we'd never met in person.  This much I knew about Keith:  he owns his own business and he likes wine.  Well, now I know that Keith is a business stalwart (he's been in business since 1994!) and he really likes wine.  He's traveling to all sorts of parts of the globe to sample wines, and I just think that's the coolest!  Keith is also a super-nice person who's all ready to play "host of the town."  Thanks for coming in to the city just to meet, Keith!

Marivic Valencia - @techpr - Goodness knows how I met Marivic on Twitter it's been so long that we've been tweeting but she's all that she appears to be on Twitter and more. Marivic and her co-hort Tricia Kunz (@triciakunz) drove all the way in from Madison, WI to meet with me!! Marivic is a spitfire and a hoot to hang out with.  She's got some stories, let me tell you!!  And Marivic doesn't sugarcoat anything, which is why I love talking or tweeting with her.  She's "salt of the earth" in the very best of ways.

Speaking of Tricia Kunz, a new friend, I also got to meet another new friend, Chris Martin (@cmpr).  Chris, you were the person I got to speak to the least, and I'm sorry about that!  I hope we get to chat more again in the Twittersphere!  I also got a chance to reconnect with Molli Megasko (@mollimegasko) who works for Gini, and met Courtney Lawrence (@courtlawrence) who works with them both. What great women!!

Juli Barcelona - @julibarcelona - I remember when I first met Juli on Twitter.  I was like, "Who's this girl with a last name that's also a Spanish city?"  Juli is just a total sweetheart, but what I learned tonight that I didn't know is that she's also a closet geek!!  This really became evident when she started geeking-out over her new iPad and how now all her Mac devices & computers are all synced together.  It's a little scary actually.  Juli's carving out a lot of new ground for her family-owned agency and has even delved into the world of starting up a new non-profit on the side.  Juli's a really good egg, and I'm so glad I got to meet her (she hustled out of the White Sox season opener to make it to our tweetup, and then she's got a bit of a haul back home -- thanks to you too, Juli, for making the trek!!).

So just what did I learn from this tweetup that I wouldn't have learned from just tweeting?  First and foremost I learned that some really cool, special people care enough about me to go out of their way to meet me -- wow, that's just awesome.  I also learned -- in the span of 2-3 hours -- so much more than I'd ever learn in a 140 character micro-conversation.  So while I'm ever so grateful to Twitter for helping to initiate these conversations, they wouldn't ever have meant as much on-screen as they now do in real life. 

For me, the face-to-face social interaction still trumps the virtual.

To write this blog I might post,
So I can tweet and generate the most
Useless links or drivelings I think,
People might click, retweet or host.

Most of the information I provide,
If others really read they'd deride,
But such isn't the case,
As this social media thing is a race,
To see how many friends or followers we can abide.

Of these friends I collect,
How I got them I don't object,
Because the more I have
The better I can claim to know this subject.

Original thought of my own I have little,
I like using others' (in fact, like this riddle)
I use news headlines and quotes,
Recycled content and polls to vote,
Just about anything for steady transmittal.

So do you follow my game?
Just hang a sign out and proclaim,
What an expert you are,
Chances are you'll go far,
'Cuz few know enough to finger your blame.

I guess if you've been writing, speaking, and providing online advertising & marketing services as long as I have, it shouldn't surprise me that people want to describe me as some sort of "guru." I'm really not too enamored with that moniker any longer, however. What's the root cause of this dislike? It can be summed up by one word: Twitter. Perform a search for the word "guru" on TweepSearch and you'll see almost 9,000 results for the word. Though some of these gurus have nothing to do with my field, the results are also littered with the kinds of self-proclaimed gurus I really don't want to be associated with -- those who promise to make you rich with their social media or Internet marketing "secrets." I'm neither that kind of person and nor is that my mission...and nor is my mission to make myself rich quick! Call me an idealist, call me stupid, but if I get rich, I'd like it to be from doing honest work for honest people. There's no hidden secret: it's called working hard and smart. Now, for those who mean well, I much prefer terms like "expert," "specialist," or "long-time marketer." But the very best compliments I have recently received ironically have also come from Twitter. With the advent of Twitter Lists, you can get a window into what people think of you...or better still, how they value you. I couldn't be more flattered than to be named to such lists as "toptier" (thanks @CharPennyAnn), "techie-smart-people" (wow @heatherlynn_m) "the-best-there-is" (thanks @justinthesouth), "my-top-picks" (backatacha @eric_andersen), and "theyteachsocialmedia" (so kind @johnwelsh). If this is how people view me, in my mind, I must be doing something right. Yes, I've been evangelizing the online marketing space for a long time, and yes, I would like to think I'm doing something right, but there really is no greater compliment me than when I know I'm successful at teaching others what I've learned. To me that's a sign that though I may not have made someone rich with wealth, I have made them rich with knowledge, and that's just A-OK by me! So please hold the guru, but, as one of my earliest clients once nicknamed me, "Yoda" works just fine! :-)

If you're a regular Twitter user, you know that re-tweeting (RT) is a very common practice. In fact, it's been referred to as, "the highest form of compliment on Twitter," because it means that someone has found your tweet interesting or valuable enough to send out to their network as well. There are even tools like Retweetist that track, measure & rank Twitter users based on the number of RT's s/he receives. All this said, the practice of retweeting is devolving, and I for one don't like what I'm seeing.

The easiest and "most formal" way of retweeting is simply to copy & paste the original tweet with RT + the user's @ handle in front of the tweet. (Some Twitter applications even do this for you in a single step) It's also acceptable to insert some comment of your own in front or at the end of the tweet. Less formal but still ok is to use the person's tweet first and credit them at the end, e.g. "(via @[theirhandle])." This is less "fair" in my opinion because I think readers are less inclined to process the credit to the original source than to the re-tweeter, but at least the originator is credited.

Now, there are a lot of gray areas of re-tweeting. For example, if you're linking to an article but don't mention the source in your tweet, you're not giving 100% credit to that source. Still, you're not really re-tweeting anyone and you're still helping to drive traffic to the article. This is the article's intent for existing in the first place, so this practice isn't awful. BUT, many tweeters use tracking URLs to measure traffic they drive to these links, and what is not cool is when retweeters replace the original URL with their own. This could break the tracking chain for the original tweeter, depending upon their tracking solution, and in my opinion, doesn't give fair "credit" (tracking clicks) to the original tweeter. This is not, however, the worst offense.

The worst tweetjacking offenders, or "Twitter cheese," as my good friend @CarlosHernandez coined, are those who tweet content *as if it's their own* without EVER crediting the source!! This is a real sore spot for me, and should be for anyone who's ever taken more than five minutes to compose their thoughts, opinions or facts into a cogent article. How is this tweetjacking not plagiarism? How is this not some kind of infringement, even if some might argue it can't be copywrite infringement?
 
I say, down with these lowlife tweetjackers!! And if you know better and haven't thought it mattered, think again next time before you tweet something someone else produced or the links they use. C'mon Tweeps, let's give credit where credit is due.

I can't take credit for this. It came in as an email blast, but since I've got a corny sense of humor and liked it, I thought I would share it with others who might too:

 You have to be old enough to remember Abbott and Costello, and too old to REALLY understand computers, to fully appreciate this. If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their infamous sketch, "Who's on First?" might have turned out something like this:

 COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT

  
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

 COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer. ABBOTT: Mac?

 COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.

 ABBOTT: Your computer?

 COSTELLO: I don't own a computer.. I want to buy one.

 ABBOTT: Mac?

 COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.

 ABBOTT: What about Windows? COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?

 ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?

 COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?

 ABBOTT: Wallpaper.

 COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software... ABBOTT: Software for Windows?

 COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?

 ABBOTT: Office.

 COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything? ABBOTT: I just did.

 COSTELLO: You just did what?

 ABBOTT: Recommend something.

 COSTELLO: You recommended something?

 ABBOTT: Yes.

 COSTELLO: For my office?

 ABBOTT: Yes.

 COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?

 ABBOTT: Office.

 COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!

 ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.

 COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need? ABBOTT: Word.

 COSTELLO: What word?

 ABBOTT: Word in Office.

 COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.

 ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

 COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows? ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W".

 COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue "W" if you don't start with some straight answers.... What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with? ABBOTT: Money.

 COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?

 ABBOTT: Money.

 COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?

 ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.

 COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer? ABBOTT: Money.

 COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?

 ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.

 COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?

 ABBOTT: One copy.

 COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money? ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.

 COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?

 ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!

 (A few days later)

 ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you? COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?

 ABBOTT: Click on "START"

Twitter has been likened to chat, IM & SMS (texting) but it occurred to me this evening when at dinner with a group of other social media colleages and we all started asking each other for our Twitter "handles," that Twitter might be more like CB radio than we know.

 CB radio, used by truckers & popularized by the masses in the 70's, is a communications vehicle where the naming convention is identified by someone's handle. Truckers can communicate to anyone listening (a general tweet by Twitter standards) or to a specific individual over an open channel (an @ reply in Twitterese). Unlike CBs though, Twitter also gives us the means to communicate with one another in private a là the direct message (DM).

 Like Twitter too, CB radio has it's own special cues -- instead of @ symbols, hash tags and abbreviations like "RT," CB radio has 10-4, 10-20 & smokies.

 So I wonder if this means that we shouldn't expect to see many truck drivers on Twitter? To them, it's probably no big deal.

I've been on the road more and more lately, and since purchasing my iPhone, I find I'm less inclined to drag my laptop around with me. This, however, has curtailed my ability to really compose "at large" pieces...though for Twitter & email, it's great!

 Right now, I'm out in California from the East Coast for the Web 2.0 Expo, and since I find myself trending towards "mobile production," I tweeted if anyone knew of a solution to my dilemma. I used the #blogchat hash tag (it's what got me thinking about this problem to begin with), and sure enough, to my aid came @justinthesouth who recommended the Posterous email-to-blog post platform.

 Hence, this post is only a test. I repeat, this post is only a test. ;-) Let's see how it works and if I like it.

 More to come...