Hollis’s posterous

Please Don't Call Me Guru

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! :-)

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Tweetjacking: when credit is not given where credit is due

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.

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If Abbott & Costello Talked Computers

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"

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10-4 Good Tweetin' Buddy!

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.

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Mobile Blogging

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...

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