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!

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.

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”.

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!