Accidentally on Purpose Blog

Twitter is one of those things that I CAN see the value in it but, candidly, I’m still having a bit of difficulty extracting that value. You see I’m new to Twitter and while I don’t “tweet” a lot at the moment, I am lurking and learning with the hope and expectation that at some point I’ll be as productive as others — like James Governor for instance.   Last week I was explaining my problem to Susan Getgood and she told me that my problem was normal and that I shouldn’t be discouraged.   You see, Susan believes that the value of Twitter starts to really become apparent once you approach the 120/150 range of following/followers.

Laura Fitton wrote a great post on twitter where she too reaffirmed Susan’s point:

How does Twitter shift from idiotic to amazing? It takes a village - a critical mass of interesting people - to read and write to. When my brain started to connect with the brains (and hearts) of others, it got really, REALLY cool for me. You may be looking for like minds, or you may want to be totally shaken up by new ideas. Both work. One day I suddenly realized this was, for me, tribe-finding. For arguably the first time in my life I didn’t feel as weird and different.

Everyone connects to a different array of tweets and tweeters, so there aren’t discrete villages per se. But, the degrees of separation and connection create layers around each individual that hint at a very sketchy (and Twitter-specific) “social map.” (Often highly removed from who you actually know).

I know I’m not alone in this — I’ve heard countless times “I tried it but I just didn’t get it” or conversely “its the single greatest social network.”  I You can follow me on twitter here, perhaps someday soon Twitter will be my village too.

I’m really very interested in your thoughts:  What makes Twitter so valuable for you?

I was recently tagged for the “8 Things” meme by Thomas and Giovanni.   Thanks guys.   I’ll respond to both here in an attempt to not have to come up with “16 things.”  

1. The last time I was tagged I revealed that I wanted a boat really bad!   Well, today I am happy to report that I now have one!   I’m really looking forward to getting out on the water down at the Jersey Shore!
2. I swam competitively from the the age of 7 until I was 19.  Yes, I wore a Speedo : (
3. My first real job was a bill collector for a very large bank.  That job actually made an impression on me with regard to how to properly deal with people.   Customer Service is all to often just lip service — at MBNA America it was much more than that.   I still keep that spirit with me today some 20 years later — to many a “customer service” rep’s dismay.
4. I ran the product PR team at the Remington Arms Company for a while.   It was an incredible experience for a 29 year old. If you really want to test your PR chops give it a go.   Comparatively speaking, software is a walk in the park!
5. I love getting my hair cut and my shoes shined when I’m traveling.   Besides the therapeutic nature of it all, you get a really good understanding of the local people — its amazing what you’ll learn if you just ask some questions! 
6. I’m a bit of a “Cliff Claven.”  My wife is constantly telling me to go on television game show circuit because of all the useless knowledge I possess.
7. My wife and I love Tennis.  She’s really good and I’m — well — not so much.   Our goal is to attend each of Tennis’ four Grand Slam events.   One down three to go!   We’re watching the Australian Open almost exclusively for the next two weeks.  If anyone has a lead on Wimbledon or the French Open tickets please let me know!  I only need two.
8. Finally, I’m genuinely happy with my lot in life and not a lot of people can say that!
9. Bonus item!   I really do love this commercial:

So in the spirit of this meme, I’d like to know 8 things about: Ed Brice, Dennis McDonald, Etay Gafni, Charlie Wood, David Terrar, Zoli Erdos, Tris Hussey and Niel Robertson.  

A happy and healthy New Year to all!

Well after two plus weeks of vacation plus a week of getting caught up on work and some traveling — things are finally getting  back to “normal.”   I haven’t had the opportunity to post like I had planned despite a well intentioned New Year’s resolution.  Mostly because there are so many things going on that I haven’t had the ability to focus on any one thing long enough to complete it.   Things are finally getting better as these past few days it’s all started coming together!  

Last Thursday I was in Boston at the invitation of Laura Fitton (aka Pistachio) to be a part of the Boston SMC/PRSA event at Bentley College.  As you could imagine, I was on a panel discussion about post 2.0 communications.   With me on the panel were Laura, Ian Lamont of COMPUTERWORLD, Lois Kelly of Foghound Communication and our moderator C.C.Chapman.

After the panel we held “break outs” on various topics like Twitter, Social Networking, Podcasting, blogging and blogger relations, etc.  The audience was incredibly participative and they asked a lot of good questions.   You gotta love that!  Plus the best part of the event was that I made some great new friends in the process –  Susan Getgood of GetGood Strategic Marketing &  Doug Haslum & Todd Van Hoosear of Topaz Partners.

I want to thank everyone from the Boston chapter of the Social Media Club and the Boston PRSA for making me feel so welcome and including me in your program.   Thank You!