Demystifying the web and more. Come join me.

     Whispers make the world go round, not just shouting.  Why? It’s because a whisper is personal and direct. Communication on that level really works.

Often this is lost in the online world. Everyone is shouting these days.  We’ve gone into broadcast mode more than even communicating directly to an audience of listeners.  It’s like trying to use a shotgun to hit a bullseye. Oh you might get it, but not with the full force of what you want to say.

How can we improve? What’s the best way to focus our effort?  Start whispering!

Whispering online is about communicating with your network.  Whispers can be direct, such as direct messages in Twitter, or small audience, such as posting a pertinent picture to a Flickr group.

Another great way is via your blog and your friends’ blogs.  Focusing your posts to talk to with a smaller group often results in a more conversational opportunity and more dedicated listeners.  Also, commenting on your friends and associates blogs is a great attention getter.

Enthusiasm is important as well.  It’s not enough to tell folks there’s gold in them there hills, but you have to say it like you mean it.

What can you do today?  Get your passion out and exercise it.  I’d like to help you spread your idea, your blog post, your cause.

Drop me a line.  Leave me a comment here about what you want to share about yourself or your work, and let me join your whisper network.  Too shy to post here?  Drop me a DM on Twitter, or call me(636-486-4723) and tell me how I can promote you.  It’ll be fun and interesting for us both.

I was tagged by fellow blogger and friend Paisano to write about some best practices in social media. Pai mentioned two best practices, Honesty and Respect. Those are key to any relationship.

So how does someone from a tech point of view look social media?

1. Stop thinking us vs them: Of course you’d say, but often in business to customer and tech to user there is animosity. Those in the tech industry tend to look at users not as opportunity partners but people that won’t fully understand nor appreciate their work. This is not a productive approach.

So how to you turn it around? Don’t talk at them, talk with them. Sounds easy, but the key is to join the conversation, and don’t worry about leading it. If you don’t think there’s a conversation, it’s only because you aren’t taking part. Find it and jump in, but don’t try to tell folks how to think or why they’re confused. Spend most of your time listening. Benefits will abound.

2. Look for the niche and unique: Everywhere in social media is another company doing a video appealing to the technorati. Yeah, lots of blogger fodder out there, but what about the stuff for grandmas with a piercing.

Believe it or not, someone besides another tech geek might be interested in your product. Consider gearing some of your social networking and media for someone besides a web guru.

I know of one large niche, home schoolers, that is aching for all the industries to reach out to them, especially the tech industry.

Part of reaching out to niches is learning their language, or at least de-geeking your current stuff. When I’m reading about the latest genealogy tech tool for example, it’d be nice to hear about it’s features without having to understand how RSS works, or how BlueTooth links this or that.

Not new thoughts I’m sharing, but none of it is. They keys to being successful marketing in the social media world are the same ones that work in day to day life, it’s not the signs, it’s the conversation. Whatever enables and supports that will be what works.

The hottest Republican Meme ever is Sara Palin. The meme is “Little Known Facts: Sarah Palin.” It’s spreading like wild fire. Most of the tweets are positive and fun, in the spirit of the long running Chuck Norris meme.

You can follow the near constant flow of this Twitter meme via Twitter’s own search. They are coming in at a good clip.

What’s the effect? Will this be a passing fancy? Or will this be the Republican’s Barak Obama type effect?

Jump on the bandwagon or ignore it, but in the mean time I’m going back to watching the latest little known facts about Sarah Palin.

(Sarah Palin was announced as John McCain’s VP running mate on Aug. 29th.)

Mamalogues, I’m proud as well.

Yep, that’s me. Believe it!

If you are keeping up, you’ve already read the why. But the short story is it was to raise funds for support our troops. I’m a patriot, what can I say.

Where did this really start though? The final part of the journey was to the stylist at the Hair Syndicate. You might think it started this past Saturday on Twitter. But to me, it’s something that began a couple of years ago, with a commitment to myself to lead a more fun and interesting life.

In February of 2006 I found out I had some health risks. These risks made me stop in my tracks. It became apparent that I wasn’t going to live forever. With that realization came a second one, I wasn’t making an effort to enjoy my life. It had become just routine.

The turnaround and push in my life is still ongoing over two years later. Since then I’ve taken up photography, become a social media busy body, dined on foods from all over, and made friends with folks from all over.

This year’s New Year’s resolutions amounted to one thing, to have an interesting year. So far it’s been more than I could have hoped for. Here are a few highlights:
- SOBCon08 - weekend conference in Chicago
- Austin trip to meet with social network friends and cohorts
- Jeff Pulver Breakfast in Vancouver, BC

Going bald? That’s just the latest in the list of interesting and sometimes challenging things for me this year. It’s not that last though.

Upcoming is the first interactive festival here in St. Louis. Beyond that, who knows. The year isn’t over yet. There are blog posts to write, online worlds to explore, creatures to see, and food and beverages to try.

My regret is not being more involved in the bevy of great things going on. I’m not just talking about things on my list, but your projects as well. There are books you’ve sent for review, blog posts you’ve asked for, and events you’d like help with. Some of you want help with fund raisers, school activities, and few have business ideas.

This post isn’t about bragging but to demonstrate that few things are isolated events, nor are they the end of a series, and almost all are the result of our ongoing choices and commitments.

Where is your life taking you? Are you ready? Is it challenging you?

I challenge you to get up and do one thing today towards following your dreams. If you don’t have money or time to move on it today, then invest in it by getting your friends onboard. Tell someone today.

Tell me.

(PS. If you are interested, you can see the videos of me getting my bald on over on Flickr.)

The Flip Mino from Julia Roy on Vimeo.

Fun and flip video. Enjoy.

Beardless on 12seconds.tv

So how did it come to this, one man losing his beard?  It started with eMail Our Military joining up with Mary Kay for Operation Soldier Care.  Weeks have gone by and the original goal of $500 was passed some time ago.  The parties behind it though, Nancy and eMom, felt they should push for more.

The new goal became $5000 and more funds began rolling in.  Things looked good for a few days as the total approached $2000, but as time draws to a close, the rate of donations has dropped off.  What to do folks wondered?

A bright and shiny idea was hatched to help things along. Rob La Gesse (@Kr8tr on twitter) agreed to shave his head for the cause.  His bravery and soon to be baldness brought in more than $350. What a strong run.  Again those things slacked off.

This is where I come into the picture.  I’m minding my own business on Twitter (@tojosan), when I hear rumblings that the fund raising for our troops has slackened again.  Of course I jumped in to ask.  One thing lead to another and I made a fateful statement.

@Dayngr …  If I thought peeps would put in $300 though, I’d shave my head too.

Oh no, did I really type that?  The next thing I know folks are sending in donations and tweeting about it.

Of course I never guessed even $150 would be raised.  Much the fool, I therefore made the next statement.

I’ll shave my beard for $150 on contributions to Operation Soldier Care

The video above gives you a clue about the results of that little statement.  In a short time that amount was donated, but it would be a long haul till midnight, when my $300 challenge ended.

Is it never going to be okay to be on the heavy side of things?  One wonders.

So my wife has got us dining lighter and exercising more.  I wonder how long it will keep up.  We’ll see.

We are starting off mainly walking.  That’s something with a low overhead and doesn’t require special gear.  Next we are moving up to technology.  But more about that in a follow up post. We’ve yet to really try things out.

What are you doing to stay slim and trim?

Friendfeed is one of the hottest information and networking sites on the net, yet many a sharer languishes in obscurity. Their pictures of cute kittens go uncommented. Their loving diatribes on the social lives of elk go uncommented. And to top it off, no one comments on their blog posts.

Lack of attention totally due to a lack of worthwhile content? Okay, if it’s about elk, probably so. Chances are though that it’s not the content but the copy that’s lacking.

The current focus for lots of blogs is about tuning the copy for search engines. Is your main blog focus elk, then you’ve taken measures making it easier for Google and Yahoo to find your content. Meta tags inhabit your headers, and there’s a liberal use of related keywords. But that’s the wrong strategy for Friendfeed.

Good strategy for Friendfeed is not about catching the random searcher. Friendfeed is about snagging the eyes of your followers. Beyond that, it’s still about snagging eyeballs, the eyeballs of your follower tree.

Interesting pictures is #1. - Here’s a great example

This sort of thing will net you more than a few eyeballs. Most responded to in my experience are women, bright and shiny things, and lastly anything out of the ordinary. Really want attention, include all three.

Exciting headlines are #2. - How about a recent one…

Mentioning a hot online service isn’t enough in it’s own. It’s about presentation. Strong declarations are key, e.g. Love, Hate, Sucks.

New services aren’t the only headline grabbers. Other hot ones include: