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#1 You Need to Learn from This Post:
Like many human gatherings, Twitter has moved past the novelty stage and into a new, uncertain period.
A More Detailed Exploration:
Twitter has changed dramatically in the past six months. Not only has the number of registered users skyrocketed, but the nature of interactions have changed, too. I’ve been around Twitter for a year now (it’s my paper anniversary, so please send paper my way – preferably something from the US Treasury) and have had a few conversations with others of similar, if not longer, tenures.
The unanimous consensus is that Twitter is a different creature now. In the “early days” of Twitter, it felt like we had all just arrived for the start of a great party or conference. We were eager to find out as much as we could about each other, freely sharing, and eager for new connections. Now, we’ve found our circles of people we like hanging out with and eagerly seek them out from the crowd.
To me, Twitter has become like the party or conference that’s gone on too long. The excitement of meeting new people has given way to a growing weariness of seeing the same bunch of people everywhere. The panels and speakers are beginning to say pretty much the same thing as the previous ones. I’m getting tired of my hotel room, going out on the town, and eating out at restaurants all the time.
Yes, I’m aware it’s mostly my perception, but I know I’m not alone. This doesn’t mean I’m leaving Twitter. It means my frequency of using Twitter will go down and I’ll maintain the relationships with those I find to have enduring value to me.
What do you think? Has Twitter become like the party or conference that’s lost its novelty? How will this impact Twitter? Will Twitter become as irrelevant as the telegraph? Or as critical as the telephone?
Find me on Twitter (just less often):
@scottyhendo
I don’t want to be negative about this. I’m trying to change my ways when it comes to posting negative comments and blogs. It’s not that I’m going to take away “FAIL” but I’m going to try and offer constructive criticism and maybe an idea or two on how they can change.
So the beef today is with DIRECTV and Sprint. I’ve been a customer of both for a long time. DIRECTV for the past five years and Sprint since I’ve had a cell phone (back in 1999). That’s a long time, right?
I’ve defended both to naysayers and I’ve also pushed a lot of customers their way but I’m done. I have to be and let me tell you why.
Earlier this week, I was in Dallas, Texas, for the delivery of the fourth Tyson Truck for www.pledgetoendhunger.com. I was glad that my friend, George Dearing, joined me for the delivery to represent his company, Telligent.
Telligent was one of the campaign’s Corporate Champions and played an important role in making sure Texas was one of the top three states in terms of number of people signing the Pledge. As active bloggers and Twitter users, George and Lawrence Liu brought great energy and enthusiasm to the team
While George and I were together, George broke out his Kodak video camera and shot this interview of me. It’s probably the most detailed back story to date of how everything came together. Hope you enjoy it and learn something useful from it.
At MediaSauce, we have a fine tradition of celebrating quality cheese. It all started with a random “get-to-know-you” meeting of a few new Saucers. The question “What is your favorite cheese?” was posed to each person.
While the typical answer was cheddar or Velveeta, we found a couple connoisseurs in our midst. Scotty Hendo couldn’t pick a single cheese and gave us the description of what his board would include. We later found out that Époisses truly is INTENSE! In my wife’s family gatherings, we had started a tradition of bringing random cheeses to meals. During this same MediaSauce meeting, I mentioned that my favorite was a French Morbier.
Noticing the shared passion, Scotty Hendo and I took it upon ourselves to create a club where we might share great cheese with our co-workers and learn a little in the process. It has been an ever-growing group of fromaggiers.
Editor’s Note: While the MediaSauce Cheese Club is a proud customer of Whole Foods Market, we receive no compensation or preferential treatment for the recognition of that fact. It’s not out of ethical reasons. Rather, it’s because they haven’t offered any yet.
Thanks to Beth Kanter and David Hessekiel, I have the opportunity to lead a half-day workshop at this year’s Cause Marketing Forum on May 27 in Chicago. The session is entitled “Social Media for Cause Marketers” and will be a lively exploration of best practices, horrible failures, and a demystification of social media and cause marketing.
We have four great sponsors who not only are making the workshop very affordable but also will be sharing their expertise and ideas. Much thanks to Steve Croth from Better the World, Carol Schrader from GiveZooks!, Michael Hoffman from See3 Communications, and Beth Eisenberg from iugo. I’m looking forward to our explorations!
In addition to all this great content, I’m looking forward to giving everyone a very inside look at the recent www.pledgetoendhunger.com campaign. With the help of the my co-architect, Mitch Maxson, we’ll consider the strategy, tactics, results, lessons learned, and other relevant insights. We baked a lot of analytics into our campaign and will share some surprising results with you – this will be our first public presentation of these findings.
If you are anywhere near Chicago that day, it’ll be worth the modest $125 registration. You can register here. Be sure to let me know if you plan to attend! I’d love to hear from you.
Two Things You Need to Learn From This Post:
1. We will see more and more cause marketing campaigns use social media (for better and for worse).
2. The successful ones will put the cause first and the brand a distant second.
On Wednesday, May 13, Ford will be stopping in Indianapolis to host a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid “open house” starting at 10 a.m. at The Westin Indianapolis, Capital One Room, 50 South Capital Avenue. It’s part of a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid cross-country tour – 33 cities over 60 days.
The all-new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid is getting a lot of buzz lately. In recent news, the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid achieved an astounding 1,445.7 miles on a single tank of gas driving a total of 69 hours. It is the precursor to Ford’s planned line of plug-in hybrid vehicles, which Ford plans to place on the market in 2012.
Speaking at the open house will be Lisa Drake, chief engineer, Ford Sustainable Mobility Technology, to talk about and demonstrate the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid including Ford’s state-of-the-art SmartGauge technology. During the presentation Lisa will discuss Ford’s goals to have best-in-class MPG ratings for all vehicles in the Ford lineup as well as new Ford technologies like EcoBoost, which will be available in half a million Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles over the next five years. She will also touch on the importance of sustainability and working jointly with environmental stakeholders.
Following the presentation, you will then have the opportunity to take the new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid for a test drive.
I really hope you can come out and join us. Please let me know, I would love to have your feedback!
I thought “Wow, this is pretty cool.” I wonder what I’m doing on Wednesday. Crap, I have too much work to do but maybe I can find some time to go.
But here’s the interesting part. I don’t know Janine – we’ve never spoken before. She found me – like many others in cities across the nation – by researching my blog and Twitter feeds. more
Listen, these technologies are just tools. Just like your fax machine (if you still have one of those) or your email.
It’s a tool for communication with other people. When email came out (does anyone remember life without email?), some people embraced it. But others, you know, struggled, they fought it, but then they finally had to give in. And, of course, there were those that got confused and accidentally spammed the entire company. That still happens. But it doesn’t happen so much anymore. And what companies do actual training on how to use email? It’s just a part of life in the office environment and you should know how to use email.
Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter can all be the same thing – even if it isn’t called by these specific brand names in a few years. Think companies won’t have an internal Facebook for communicating. Think a Linkedin type tool won’t hold all your business and personal information. What we are seeing is just the first shots at these tools. Email has come a long way in a short time. Don’t think that these tools won’t evolve as well. more
The #1 Thing You Need to Learn from this Post:
Focus on running your own race and you’ll win it every time.
A More Deeper Exploration:
Regardless of your passion for horse racing, the Sport of Kings provided an inspiring lesson from this weekend’s running of the 2009 Kentucky Derby.
Never mind that Mine that Bird was a 50:1 horse. Never mind that he was trained by a cowboy living in New Mexico and didn’t have a jockey until just before race week. Never mind that he got bumped coming out of the gates and pushed to last place. Never mind that he was so far back halfway in the race that you might have mistaken him for a horse warming up for the next race.
All that matters is that Mine that Bird won the 2009 Kentucky Derby by one of the largest margins in its history. He did it because he ran his own race and played to his strengths throughout.
If you haven’t seen the race, take two-and-a-half minutes to watch. Notice the horse in the way, way back (1:10). Notice him turn on the afterburners during the final turn (1:35). And see him thread the needle on the rail (1:52) before crossing the finish line far ahead of the crowd.
