While chatting with my friend Jason this week he said “…by the way I’m launching a Twitter Game Show site tomorrow called “Find That Tweet“. I think you’ll like it.” Just wish I thought of it! How clever. We were talking about how he used to hide cash for twitter users, like Tony Hawk ended up doing with skate decks. The official launch day was yesterday and I was hooked!!! All I needed to do was find a tweet after watching video clues and I win money. The coolest part is he set it up so when I tweet it out a link is created in my tweet via his system and if someone clicks and starts playing and they win I get some money from them winning too! Crazy sick and so super smart plus a ton of fun.
My new friend @Ribeezie direct messaged me, (also known as “DM”), on Twitter this morning and told me to “Now bring back some of that good stuff and share ” about Zappos Insights inaugural conference. Zappos, a billion dollar online commerce destination, is known for their leadership in customer service. Insights was created as an educational forum to guide entrepreneurs to successfully attain milestones. It was a privilege to be a part of their LIVE event, a revolution in leadership and corporate happiness. One of the speakers at the event, social media maven Brian Solis, said it perfectly, “In the end we’re measured by our actions, not our words.”
Three huge takes aways from the event that will transform the productivity and efficiency in our organizations.
Share….Stop self promoting and start listening. Share information that you know delivers value because you have been listening. Whether it be employees, personal relationships, twitter followers or facebook friends. The way to effectively intrigue people to take action is fueled by being inspired.
Discover your foundation before you start building.… The most crucial component in determining success in a company and in your personal development is first discovering what matters to you most.; Your core values. It starts with you, outside of your professional life. The business owner behind closed doors. When you look in the mirror what do you see? Integrity, Transparency, Adventure… Deceit…? In order to grow we must be honest with ourselves. It is so clear to me now that if I had taken the time to discover, write down, and share my core values with my team it would have reduced management, increased productivity and complimented my company vision. But instead I found ego was something in my company that created road blocks for our success. What’s interesting is ego is so far from my personal values. If I had taken the time to write down what’s important to me, I would have quickly discovered my team mate strayed from our core values and that situation could have been remedied with eloquence and efficiency.
3. Half of the world is searching for the other half of the world, but don’t know how to find them. Brian Solis emphasizes that before even planning an online marketing strategy establish your identity. Most brands don’t even strategize, they just jump on a band wagon. But lets say you are developing a strategy, before that DISCOVER your identity that you plan to communicate in this strategy. I LOVE that Brian reinforced this. I hadn’t even thought of charting out my brand identity before planning. I figured my identity is obvious. Surf brand means you’re a surfer right? No, not necessarily. You must establish your brand to stand for something. A Cause. Something bigger and selflLESS than selling a pair of board shorts.
My Mom always says half of the world is looking for the other half of the world, but don’t know where to find them. I guess that is the “interwebs” definition of finding one another – SEO. I just installed this simple wordtracker plug in I found via Jeremy Morgan from Hash Marketing who has made in his goal to find the most quality SEO tweets.
Here’s an article written by Chris Garret, a professional blogger (whom I don’t know) demonstrating how to best utilize the plug in tool. He wrote the popular book “Pro Blogger” which was recommended to me by my someone I do know and adore, Blog World founder Rick Calvert.
I have stumbled upon WordPress heaven. Blog oh Blog and Best Word Press Themes . I recently switched from wordpress.COM to wordpress.ORG… A lot of you don’t get what the difference is. Basically WordPress.ORG allows way more customization and flexibility.
You do need to know a wee little bit of coding, so for that I found this free 7 day blogging course done by an amazing 20 year old entrepreneur from England. I’ve been raving about this guys blog like crazy called Income Diary. In the first day of the course it shows you step by step how to easily set up a wordpress.ORG blog.
And its absolutley crazy how far we have come on this foreign powerhouse called the internet where a website for your business is the same must as having a business card. So for business presence check out the top 20 wordpress theme for small businesses. So cool! I just can’t believe all these tools and designs are absolutley free. But its all about knowing they exist right. Right now I am on the hunt for a more social theme myself. Keep on the look out for my soon to be blog make over.
A lot of you ask me to quickly teach you social media. It’s not as quick as its perceived to be. Gary Vaynerchuk himself says if you dedicate an hour then you get an hour’s worth of results. If you dedicate 11 hours then you receive 11 hours worth of results. But its not just being on these social networks. It’s knowing how to use them so that fans, members, consumers, engage with you in order to in end create stronger ROI than your current marketing and advertising efforts. Which social platforms are right for you and your brand. Do you jump on Twitter because everyone seems to be on it… Not necessarily.
and now Dave Days who I stumbled across today. 14 Million hits and counting!
What made me want to blog about him though, his quote under his photo, “F college, make a YouTube account.” LOVE IT. It’s not that I don’t support education. I have a college degree. But what I encourage is NOT WAITING to pursue what you are passionate about. Going to college, not going to college. You shouldn’t wait to go after your dreams. I only wish I had more friends like Dave and Dave in high school so we could have conquered the world together.
This post is dedicated to Panda for taking the risk and going after your dreams. Just remember to appreciate the people who help you along the way.
This week was tech mania. Woodstock watch out because LA was transformed. Tech Paintball, Tech Zulu anniversary, Twiist Up 5 and Twestival. Nuts! Gave me plenty of excuses to get out of the house and shmooze with my newfound besties. I ran into Richard from PR Newswire and made the comment that Twitter is the new press release. It is. Consumers, you and me, want to purchase based on our friends’ feedback rather than what we read in an “official” review. And twitter is just that. We follow those we want to hear from, both friends and associates. We trust their opinions. It’s cool. And now the business and friend world has merged with such fluidity that instead of once saying “MySpace me” it’s now “Follow Me”. The transformations in today’s PR world are fantastic. Filled with more truth and opportunity for discovery.
All sites to mark what you like and why you like it. I just don’t know. So far for me Delicious is out. Not into it. I feel like I should read technorati more and StumbleUpon is easier to make your mark with the firefox add on and Digg captcha slows me down too much. What do you guys think?
Check out http://twitter.alltop.com. Its pretty cool if your a Tweeter Head like me. I think I’ll make Twitter its own category on here. These twitter posts are getting to be a bit frequent. Gotta get my fix.
Brought to you by your very own Willy Wonka. Here is a comprehensive resource list from great affordable personal assistants to how to get your new web business off the ground (and not some dumb BS sales pitch, but what I have actually touched smelled and made love too JK) Yea, I’m kinda a business junkie. Anyway, here it is.
"I've got the golden ticket..."
I made it a “page” so it is always right there if you need it. I will finsh it later in the week. I’m exhausted right now.
So Guy Kawasaki posted on Twitter tonight this link to the Top Twitter Toolshttp://www.sociableblog.com/2008/12/29/top-twitter-tools-2009/. Great list. Personally I love micro blogging – it fun fast easy and candid. Anyone who knows me can tell you that being upfront is of of my best attributes. So yea I am a twitter freak. My favorite is Tweet Later but please tell everyone to stop creating auto messages thanking to follow them. It annoying and boring. Very solicity. Why not try being useful. Posting a helpful resource relevant to their expertise or something. Just enough with the automated thank yous.
So just got my nails done. I know I know – don’t judge me. I deserve a break. I even worked on Christmas But the nail technician was sharing how the “VIP”s get “special treatment. And I thought to myself, what makes a person VIP. Of course there are actors and musicians. But why do they really have the power. It’s not simply because of their wealth, (although that does help). It’s because they have the power to influence. That’s why they are chosen to represent causes and political parties. Check out how to be an influencer > you don’t need to be famous.
What’s up with the twitter crazy. It’s pop culture. Anyway if you are a Tweeter here is a little something for ya. Think of it as the Google Trend tool but only for Twitter – http://twist.flaptor.com
This should be a “how to” video rather than a gamers wet dream. So mainly people waste time away without thinking about their market, without setting goals and g-d forbid achieving a result. The guys at Mana Energy Potion have mastered the art of effective viral video marketing.
It's time to believe. I'm sick and tired of people making excuses for not going after their dreams. I'm going after mine and doing just fine. Crazy, sure. Manic, of course. Exhilarated, all the time. If you don't try then well... I am just sorry you missed out.
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