Meet Michele Price. She queried me before I tweeted!

Michele is the host of Breakthrough Business, and on her BlogTalkRadio show we talk about Twitter, about my job at Intersections Inc (which you will find out more later on this blog), and about approaches that go against the grain of the marketing books. We talk about how “old school marketing” just doesn’t work with Social Media, and how businesses need to understand that Twitter (and Social Media, on a whole) is about people.

We had a blast on this interview, and there are more slated for the month. Keep an eye on my RSS feed for more!

In this posting, I intend to do both. While I never intended to use this blog to wax nostalgic or gaze into a crystal ball and pass along my visions of the future, a tweet did make me stop, think, and write this post.

“I am not a personal brand. I am a person.”

There is a touch of irony in what seems to be a very passionate cry amongst a deluge of noise on Twitter when you consider:

• The Twitter in question is a professional marketer.
• The Twitter in question runs a marketing firm based around online branding through Social Media.
• The Twitter in question tweets under a handle that is the name of their marketing firm.

To coin the iconic, one-word observation from Star Trek: “Fascinating.”

My prediction for Social Media in 2010 is it will struggle against acne, cringe at the sound of its own changing voice, and start to notice the opposite sex. Yes, Social Media will grow up; and its deeply entrenched Snake Oil Sales Staff will be forced to re-evaluate their place in it.

What started as a whisper at the beginning of the year has now becoming quite the trend. Here’s a cross-section of observations my Google-search “Social Media Snake Oil Salesmen” revealed:

• May 26, 2009 from Communications Catalyst. Managed by marketing strategist David Mullen, the Communication Catalyst offered at the beginning of the summer a checklist of things to be wary of when a Social Media Expert comes calling.
• September 21, 2009 from The Buzz Bin. This blog offers commentary on integrated communications (PR, social media, interactive marketing, etc.) and offers their own opinion of “Social Media Experts” and how many of them know very little.
• October 13, 2009 from BillCrosby.com where Real Estate Investor and Social Media Evangelist Bill Crosby comes out and rants about how no one is making any real money in Social Media. (Again I feel the touch of irony that this guy came out against Social Media as an economic fix as he was one of the “brains” behind Twitter Traffic Machine, an application that completely automated Twitter. And this guy calls himself a Social Media evangelist.)
• December 5, 2009 from Logic+Emotion. This sums it all up for me, and is entitled “Life After Social Media Snake Oil”. This is a brilliant post.

These wake-up calls appearing as blogposts, tweets, and rants on Facebook appeared to gain momentum in December, the more vocal being those who led the masses blindly under the Social Media banner. This message (and this is the “I told you so” part of this post/rant…) is hardly a new one as I have spoken internationally on this subject.

After attending a Social Media event in January 2009 (that was nothing more than a tedious exercise of self-gratification), I developed a talk called ANTI-Social Media, a seminar that ruffled a few feathers in Washington D.C. but went on to be syndicated across the blogosphere and served as my audition reel for what would become my 2009 New Zealand tour.  I have struggled against the grain with this message, a message that went to print in All a Twitter. This message came under fire from some “experts” back in the Fall…

Now, only months later, these same experts have cleaned off their respective Looking Glasses and do not like the reflections thrown back at them. And as recent as yesterday, TechCrunch revealed an option that the disillusioned may take in order to truly cope with the Social Media personas they have made for themselves.

Social Media has reached a turning point; and with more businesses stepping into the arena, Old School policies are now coming into play. What does this mean? This means that having a second account focusing on just your business and less on you will be in order. There is something nice about being able to speak your mind freely while preserving your professional identity. Perhaps that footloose-and-seat-of-your-pants approach to marketing (what the gurus label as “rebellious” or “radical”) isn’t going to work so well here. This also means that removing the line between business and casual will carry consequences. Yes, there will be times, opportunities, and moments in Social Media that will allow you to get personal with your audience; but if you are not willing to draw a line between you on-the-clock and off-the-clock, you cannot cry “Foul!” when criticism flies.

2010 will be the year that Social Media will be taken seriously, and those serious about it will remain practicing it while those who have been crowning themselves as experts, oracles and mavens will be called to task. What are they doing in Social Media now? Where are the blogs they manage? What podcasts are they currently producing? What is their presence within Social Networks? Credibility and accomplishments in Social Media efforts will have to extend beyond “Chris Brogan is my friend on Facebook…” or “Robert Scoble and Jeff Pulver are part of my LinkedIn network.” What is it that establishes the expert as an expert? A true understanding of Social Media, or the fact you have a blog and a Twitter account? Finally, Social Media in 2010 will not be implemented simply to be trendy. Clients will want — nay, demand — a strategy, a plan. No longer will the mavens be taken at face value and at their word. Yes, we know Social Media is full of win, but how do you plan to implement this initiative of awesome? There must be a purpose and a goal for what you want to accomplish. Without these changes, changes that need to happen and appear to be already, Social Media will never reach beyond this Not Safe for Work (NSFW) video:

Welcome to 2010. A new year, a clean slate. Good hunting.

To whet your appetites and pique your interests on what I have in the works, I did want to share with you something that I just realized has been available over at Blip.TV but did not make it to the blog…

Why have I kept this presentation a secret? Believe me — it was not intentional. I think between my return from New Zealand, my new job, my completion of Books & Braun, and the completion (and updating) of Sams Teach Yourself Twitter in Ten Minutes, the intent to post this introduction of the New Zealand edition of “Speak Geek to Me” simply slipped my mind. Now, with Christmas looming ahead, I wanted to give you this little holiday teaser of my “Finish Before the End of 2009″ project.

Will I be podcasting the rest of the talk? Oh you can count on it, but right now I am editing over two hours of video footage. I’m going to be releasing this talk as I did ANTI-Social Media and intend to offer up clips on YouTube as well.

So yes, Imagine That! may be quiet, but it is hardly standing still. While others may be looking at Social Media retrospectively at this time of the year, I am looking ahead. The journey is beginning anew and I hope you are as excited as I am on what awaits up ahead.

Come with me.

ATTENTION BLOGGERS & PODCASTERS: We are releasing this reading under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Both Pip and I encourage you to syndicate this episode and point your subscribers to this endeavor of ours. We also would love to hear your feedback on this preview both here and at Pip’s website. Thank you for giving us a bit of space on your mp3 player of choice, and we will keep you posted on what happens with our daring duo from the clandestine organization that is The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences.

I was so very, very wrong.

First, a disclaimer: As you may know, I am a Mac user. I make no apologies or smoke screen my love (on some days, reluctant) for the Apple. I want to make it clear that I’m not criticizing (in any way) Windows 7. So far, I have heard nothing but positive buzz about what it is promising.

My review (or rant, whichever you prefer) is about Windows 7 Launch Parties, the latest marketing effort from Microsoft. Their tutorial, “Hosting Your Party”, makes Battlefield Earth look like Lord of the Rings, and begs the question “Does Microsoft thrive on ridicule?”

This train wreck features a group of friends gathering together for a Windows 7 Launch Party, and…

No, really, these are parties celebrating the launch of Windows 7 where people get together and, well, get on their computers to try out their new OS. “You’re throwing a party with Windows 7 as an honored guest,” one of the tutorial’s perky guests tells you. So, in this video…

I’m not making this up. Seriously. Microsoft came up with this idea of people hosting parties akin to “Party Lite” or “Creative Memories” where the OS is the center of attention and guests gets to tinker and play with it. So, in the vi—

Watch the video, if you still don’t believe me.

The dialogue and reactions from the assembled cast are as canned as the cashews and peanuts in their party platters. I think I could have coped with the actors’ stilted dialogue had Microsoft sprung an extra few dollars for tripods. The entire 6 minute video is shot with hand-held cameras that zoom in, zoom out, and pan left and right as if the cinematographer just mainlined a six-pack of Red Bulls. The end result is Cloverfield without the believable exchanges between characters, situations that you might care about, and monsters. All of which you wish were there.

If you can tolerate the “spaz-tastic” cinematography, there’s the content of the video itself. At 1:03, it is recommended that you call “Customer Service” if you have any questions; because nothing livens up a party like Customer Service!

I wonder how that call would go:

Customer Service: Microsoft Customer Service. This is Stan. How can I help you?

Caller: HEY, MAN! WASSAH?!?

Crowd: *cheering*

Customer Service: That’s very nice. How can I help you tonight, sir?

Caller: HEY, MAN! SO WE’RE SHOWING OFF WINDOWS 7, MAN, AND DIRK JUST PUKED ON THE KEYBOARD.

Crowd: EEEEWWWWWW!

Customer Service: I see. And how many Ballmer Bongs has he done?

Caller: Uhhh…Idunno…lemme check…(off the phone) HOW MANY BONGS DID DIRK POUND?

Crowd: SIX!

Caller: SIX, MAN!

Customer Service: I see. And is Windows 7 still running?

Caller: WELL, WE GOT ONE OF THOSE POP-UP’S, MAN, THAT SAYS IT’S A BEAST.DLL ERROR. WHAT’S THAT?

Customer Service: You’re using beer in the Ballmer Bong that is not Microsoft approved. We’ll have to do some trouble-shooting here…

Microsoft has put a lot of thought into the Launch Party by offering Host Notes, various activities that you can do to make your party unforgettable! Suggestions include taking pictures of your friends working with Windows 7, hosting demonstrations of various OS features, and — again, I’m not kidding — offering to “leave your computer on and running, and you let folks mess around with it.” (Hear it for yourself at the 3:10 mark.)

And you still have three minutes remaining in the tutorial.

No, it doesn’t get any better…

I don’t know what is worse — this mind-numbingly gawky video, or the entire concept of a Windows 7 Launch Party featuring Microsoft-approved party games. While I applaud Microsoft for trying to “loosen up” and show the lighter side of Windows, the entire idea of having friends over to try out a new OS just seem a bit ludicrous…unless you’re switching to a Mac and using your PC as a piñata. As Microsoft Marketing did with Seinfeld & Gates, the door for ridicule (yet again!) has not only been opened, but ripped off the hinges.

Now would be a good time to return to the Mashable column and look at the second version of a video, a two-minute re-cut where bleeps usually heard to mask explicative actions are used throughout the tutorial. The remix not only makes the video watchable, but a whole lot funnier than the Microsoft-approved “witty banter”.

My article about Podcast Authors is up on Wired ! @scottsigler, @sethharwood, @jchutchins, @teemonster all appear. http://bit.ly/Pv53w

If there are true Renaissance Men among us, then Martyn Casserly is one of them. He is an accomplished writer, an accomplished musician, and now he is an award-nominated podcaster with his one-minute Movie Mantras podcast. (Martyn is also a dad and a good mate to boot.) It was Martyn’s tweet that alerted to me Wired Magagine (UK) ran on their site “Novels by Podcast” where he discusses how authors are giving away (yes, giving away for free) their works in audio format and finding success:

Rather than just putting their work online and hoping people would find it, the growing band of authors threw themselves into new media and social networking sites like Facebook, building large followers of fans and talking to them on an almost daily basis. A new website, Podiobooks.com, was set up so that all the authors could host their work in one place and increase the sense of community between them and their audience.

This close relationship enabled them to set innovative ‘challenges’ that helped promote their work. These included fans going into bookshops and slipping home-made adverts into the books of big-name authors, burning CDs of the podcasts and leaving them in public places like libraries, coffee shops, or trains, and co-ordinated buying of small press editions of the books to push them to the top of the Amazon charts.

When it comes to creative thinking, a hint of risk may be conceived as part of the equation; but this article and the success stories featured in it are proof positive that you can win audiences and, most importantly, brand loyalty if you are willing to offer to your potential clientele quality content. Not a sample of quality content, mind you, but the whole thing. Innovators like Earl Newton, Scott Sigler, George Hrab, The International Spy Museum, and Marc Gunn have all given away their hard work and found success on both independent and mainstream markets, and all of them — along with other content producers following this approach — are achieving success on a global market. Podcasting should not be dismissed as simply a hobby, but a viable means of reaching out to potential clientele. Focusing more on the product and less on promotion, businesses can win a new and dedicated fan base by opening a dialogue whether it be with blogging, podcasting, or some other Social Media outlet.

Think about it: You offer to your audiences something of quality and substance, and you say “With my compliments.” What kind of impression would that make?

I can tell you: a lasting one.

And here is the conclusion of my morning at Radio New Zealand and Chris Laidlaw of Sunday Morning. Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand, arranged this interview with Chris, and here we wrap up with the addiction of Social Media and the best way to handle it.

While you can find the audio here, Imagine That! presents (with gracious permission from RNZ) an exclusive video of our morning in Wellington, NZ.

Feel free to share this video, and provide feedback or topics you’d like to hear discussed on In Your Right Mind at 703.791.1701, tmorris (at) imaginethatstudios (dot) com, on Twitter, or here at Imagine That!

With special thanks to Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand, for making this interview happen, here is Part Two of my morning at Radio New Zealand and Chris Laidlaw of Sunday Morning. On the “National Public Radio” for the Land of the Long White Cloud, Chris and I focus a bit on Twitter and Facebook and we discuss when “so much information” is “too much information.”

While you can find the audio here, Imagine That! presents (with gracious permission from RNZ) an exclusive video of our morning in Wellington, NZ.

Part Three (and maybe some pre-interview banter) will becoming shortly. Feel free to share this video, and provide feedback or topics you’d like to hear discussed on In Your Right Mind at 703.791.1701, tmorris (at) imaginethatstudios (dot) com, on Twitter, or here at Imagine That!

Now, take a look at this schedule. This is where I will be in the upcoming weeks:

May 22-25
Balticon 43 in Hunt Valley, MD

May 29-June 1
Conscription in Auckland, New Zealand

June 2
ANTI-Social Media, presented for LIANZA, 12pm-2pm
Room 420 Kate Edgar Information Commons Building #315
2 Alfred Street, University of Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand

All a Twitter, presented for LIANZA, 3pm-5pm
Room 420 Kate Edgar Information Commons Building #315
2 Alfred Street, University of Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand

June 3
Social Media Mainline Workshop for LIANZA, 9am-5pm
Computer Lab Room 433, Kate Edgar Information Commons Building #315
2 Alfred Street, University of Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand

June 6 (JUST ADDED!!!)
Podiobooks: The Best Audiobooks FOR FREE Online for Tararua District Library, 1pm-2pm
Dannevirke, New Zealand

June 15
ANTI-Social Media, presented for LIANZA, 12pm-2pm
Seminar Room, Reserve Bank of NZ
2 The Terrace
Report at ground floor reception no later than 11.45am
Wellington, New Zealand

All a Twitter, presented for LIANZA, 5pm-7pm
Conference Room, Department of Conservation
18-32 Manners Street
Report at ground floor reception no later than 4.45pm
Wellington, New Zealand

June 16
Social Media Mainline Workshop for LIANZA, 9am-5pm
SOLD OUT (Waiting List available)
Computer lab 510, Level 5, WelTec Wellington Campus
11-17 Church Street (off Boulcott Street)
Wellington, New Zealand

June 17

Speak Geek to Me, for Te Papa Tongarewa: The Museum of New Zealand, 10am-12pm
Location: TBA
Wellington, NZ

The June 16 workshop sold out in three days (WOW!) but if you are in New Zealand and looking for a primer on Social Media, you can still sign-up for the Auckland workshop. I could not be more excited about these opportunities the Land of the Great White Cloud is offering and I look forward to what is to come during my stay in New Zealand.

Thanks for paying me a visit here, and I will be talking to you all very soon from the Southern Hemisphere.

Chess, from Lewis Carroll’s classic Through the Looking Glass to the Cold War techno-thriller WarGames, has always served as an allegory for strategy. The real trick in this Game of Kings is to think several moves ahead, considering as many outcomes as possible. This is a valuable lesson we can live by in business. Even when times are at their best, regardless of where you are in the corporate hierarchy, all possible outcomes should be considered, followed up by the important question “How will this reflect on me?”

Is this hesitation? No, this is critical thinking — devising fast, creative solutions as you are looking down the road for what is waiting around the corner. This is why chess is not only good for the mind but good for business. It would have definitely helped out Citigroup as a lack of strategic thinking made their failing business image (a loss of $8.29 billion dollars at the end of 2008, and accepting $45 billion dollars of public bailout funds) even worse.

To sum up the week Citigroup has been weathering, The New York Post released on Monday the financial entity was planning to invest part of their bailout funds on the Dassault Falcon 7X, a luxury jet that seats up to twelve, sports a plush interior with leather seats, sofas and entertainment center, clocks in a top speed of 559 MPH, and can travel 5,950 miles on one tank. All for the low, low price of $50 million dollars.

A tidy sum, Mr. Bigglesworth…

Where chess would have really helped out Citigroup here was on November 10, 2008. The bailout plans were already in motion, a new president had been elected, and change and optimism could be felt in the air. Also on this day, FAA records showed Citigroup reserving a new tail number, N488GS. While there are no confirmations, this new tail number seemed to be set aside for an incoming 7X which would join CitiFlight’s Gulf Sierra Fleet. (Yes, I said fleet. As in more than one private jet.) Citigroup, had they taken a moment to think ahead, could have seen the horrific image this would portray to its current and potential customers in light of a less-than-popular multi-billion dollar government bailout. Without taking consequences in mind, they continued with business as usual; and spent this week circling the wagons while others bandied about arguments such as “The planes were signed off two years ago when things were good…” and “Deposits on the 7X had already been made…” as if these were legitimate reasons to continue investment into a $50M plane with public funds.

This morning, in response to The White House asking them if a Falcon 7X was really a wise investment, Citigroup cancelled their order. Mind you, they did not cancel the order to “make it right”. Based on the actions of November 10 and three days of no comments, it’s clear the order was canceled because they got caught.

Is this the image you want to portray?

The decisions you make, whether for yourself or for your company, are powerful reflections of who you are, what you and your company stand for, and how you interact with your clients and handle their problems. In the lesson of chess, it is good to consider as many outcomes as you can, keeping in mind there will always be surprises (both good and bad). You must also consider when the time to act is evident. Strategy is merely groundwork for when to move your Rook or call for a Castle (hence the need for clocks alongside chess masters); but when you act, you now have contingencies in place in case one of those afore mentioned surprises appear.

And sometimes, the best strategy is to stop and apply common sense. How would Citigroup have saved themselves on taking a moment to ask “Is it a good idea, when we’re receiving bailout money, to go on and purchase a $50 million dollar jet?”

A moment of consideration can decide checkmate, particularly in the corporate world.