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.

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.

No, I am not shutting down my Twitter feed nor am I totally burned out (as my pal, Gennefer Snowfield, has vented with me before…) on posts about Twitter. I have decided that I will no longer be posting my thoughts on Twitter here.

Instead, I will be posting on Twitter here.

Birdhouse Rules is my new blog, just launched this week and still growing (comments and critiques are most welcome), that will serve as the official home of this book:

Yes, All a Twitter from myself and Que Publishing — and sporting one snappy foreword from Social Media juggernaut Chris Brogan — is now out! You can go into any Barnes & Noble bookstore and pick up a copy.

Birdhouse Rules is the official companion blog and podcast for both All a Twitter and (coming soon) Teach Yourself Twitter in 10 Minutes. The blog and podcast (also coming soon) will focus on developments with the book, new issues with Twitter, upgrades with popular clients, Twitter in the News, and questions & answers asked by readers and listeners. And just like In Your Right Mind, the episodes will be under ten minutes, exceptions being the good interview, round table discussion, or SVEs (Special Video Editions). Since Birdhouse Rules is going to be all things Twitter, I have decided to direct traffic there for people who want to find answers concerning Social Media’s unstoppable (and dare I say, unflappable) network.

Another reason why I will no longer be posting Twitter items on this blog is that I tend to find regurgitation in the blogosphere somewhat questionable and somewhat lazy. What do I mean? I have seem some “professional, successful bloggers” boast that they host several blogs and manage content with a master’s Fu. Visit this “network” of blogs, though, and the postings tend to be links to other blogs, or (I love this one) the same blogpost merely copied-and-pasted into a different location. “Content for Content’s Sake” does not work for me as a sound blogging ethic. If I want to set up a blog for Twitter, then I’ll generate content original and exclusive for that blog. Sure, I can borrow segments and even media from other blogposts, but I will still generate something new and original around the segments I cite from other sources. That is quality content management. Otherwise, I become no better than — to use an example from All a Twitter — the yahoo who is merely retweeting others and defining that as “participation” on a social network.

Before I return to the final two chapters of Teach Yourself Twitter in 10 Minutes,  I did want to bring to light a recent revelation, something that — yes — I did blog about on Birdhouse Rules but wanted to share with you here as part of my “final” Twitter post. In the first week of All a Twitter‘s release, people are tweeting it up and giving it a nice, solid introduction to the world. I’ve been treading lightly when it comes to promoting the book on Twitter as I do not want to become “that guy” on Twitter pushing their latest book/software/hardware/crap on to the network. However, the book won’t sell itself.

Then it dawned on me: hashtags. You know — hashtags? From Chapter Six, page 123? Hashtags (a keyword preceded by a pound sign, such as #allatwitter, for example) are convenient tracking devices for tweets. If enough people use a particular hashtag of my creation, All a Twitter could easily creep into the Trending Topics of Twitter alongside Harry Potter, Firefox 3, and New Zealand. This way, I can promote (and so can you) in a fashion that won’t be considered abusive or obtrusive.

So please, when you are talking about All a Twitter or if you have a question for me concerning Twitter, use this hashtag:

#allatwitter

Thank you again for all the support, kind words, and “At-a-boy’s” for this week’s premiere. Keep talking, keep tweeting, and if you would care to have me on your blog or podcast to talk Twitter, drop me a line!

Say hello to “Flutter.”

I hope this starts out your Monday with a smile. Make it a creative and productive week!

photo by Kreg Steppe

Are you in the Washington D.C. area, within driving distance of the Nation’s capital, or happen to be in my stomping grounds next week? If you are, you have two chances to catch me speaking on Social Media. The Washington Network Group and The Washington DC Write to Publish Group have invited me to come in and speak, and I am thrilled to present:

ANTI-Social Media: What Not to Do in Web 2.0

Thursday, February 26
4:30 PM – 6:30 PM

hosted by
The Washington Network Group
Merrill Lynch Conference Center, 6th Floor
1152 Fifteenth Street, NW

Ξ

Social Media for Writers: Making Web 2.0 Your Marketing Machine

Saturday, February 28
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

hosted by
The Washington DC Write to Publish Group
Arlington Central Library
1015 N. Quincy St., 2nd Floor Meeting Room
Arlington, VA

If you are in the area, I hope you can make it for the discussions. Feel free to pass along the appearance links on your own feeds, and I hope to talk to you then!

If you follow me on either of my Twitter accounts, you might have noticed that my updates averaging 50 – 100 a day tapered off for a while…

Well, okay, they dropped off rather suddenly. Two weeks ago, as a matter of fact.

If you missed at TeeMorris.com my interview on Conversations with Coach Ian Scott, I can sum it up as “the last week of January.” A series of events that week suggested I step away from Twitter for a spell. I needed some downtime, some time online where there was no signal as well as no noise. What was odd about this “Twitter Moratorium” was I remained plugged in to Facebook. I took some time to get to know the networking platform a bit better. (Sadly, this was before Facebook came out with their somewhat broad Terms of Service update. Not sure if there is a blogpost from me in there, but I am now looking at them with a cautious eye.) During my break from the community, I was still working on expending my network by attending Jeff Pulver’s Social Media Breakfast here in Washington D.C. Even with keeping my toe dipped in the Social Media pool, this Twitter hiatus I found liberating. I found it educational. I also found it a bit ironic.

Why “ironic” you ask? The other reason I took a break from Twitter was because I had just closed negotiations with Que Publishing to write All a Twitter. Yes, my next book will be out this summer and it will cover something I am truly passionate over: Twitter. I guess my 28,000 updates on TeeMonster are finally going to amount to something.

Oh, you didn’t misread me — the book will be out this summer. As in June. As in to make sure we have time and ability to polish and edit the manuscript, I have roughly two months to write this book. Two months. Why the rush? Let’s just say, much like with Twitter itself, it’s a personal issue and an accomplishment I would love to achieve.

Back to that “Cone of Silence” I took a brief getaway in…

So I stepped back from Twitter to ask myself if I could seriously do this. A solid resource for both the experienced and novice user, in two months time. Was something like that possible? Could I have that much to say about Twitter? I figured I would find out soon enough as I took a seat in my studio, installed Que’s Word template, and started Chapter One.

In two weeks I produced over 20,000 words and over thirty screen captures, all based around Twitter. Today I turned in 25% of the manuscript to the publisher.

I think I’m off to a good start.

So what this means is that my MOREVI projects, both the podcast of Legacy of MOREVI and the writing of Exodus from MOREVI, have been put on hold until All a Twitter and another creative project (that I had begun developing only a few weeks before this request from Que) have been completed. I will still be on Twitter, taking notes on what’s happening around me as I forge ahead. I will also blog progress reports on All a Twitter, post forthcoming episodes of In Your Right Mind, and continue commentaries on creative solutions and ideas for the workplace. There will also be video and audio clips from speaking events that are starting to come in, and news on a future talk I will be giving in New Zealand. You can expect all that here.

You can also expect me to be ready to celebrate, come Balticon 43, the pending release of what will be the all-in-one-and-all-around-go-to-guide for Twitter.

This is going to be a fun ride, everybody. Strap in and hold on to something.