Short story version for tonight.

• Tuesday afternoon having chest pains.
• Wife takes me to emergency room.
• Blood work. Xray. Questions (dozens).
• Late late admission.
• Late night blood work.
• Early morning blood work.
• IV.
• Stress test – involves imaging w/thalium, treadmill, more imaging.
• Wait. Wait. Wait. (no water, no food) Wait.
• Hours later doctor comes. “the tests are negative” “if it’s not heart problems, what is it?”
• Me: How would I know?
• Lunch arrives moments after I sign discharge papers. I eat half of it anyway.
• Home.

I could tell you stories though about how wonderful the staff was. There might be some cool things I could tell you about the procedures or the equipment. Heck, there’s always the wheel chair rides.

Love though, that’s what I’ll talk about. The pure outpouring I received from friends via Twitter. I couldn’t get on my computer but I had my Blackberry and Twitterberry. Therefore I had my tweeps.

Offers of prayers, positive thoughts, and more came over the ether. Wow. My wife and I were blown away. Folks offered to come to the hospital even.

To compare? I called coworker last night when I found out I was going to be admitted and left message at work. No one called at all today.

I challenge those of you who think Twitter is just about reporting bowel movements and breakfast to honestly put some effort into building relationships and come back and tell me that you can’t do more than that online.

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• Would you know if your heart was in trouble? (cnn.com)

Listen to the 2 minute audio above. It’s great advice.

Most folks joining Twitter or Facebook today, they’re advised to follow a bunch of folks. Likely these aren’t folks they are not only direct contacts with in the physical world, but not even a friend of a friend.

This sounds like fun until that newbie drowns in the messages, messages with no meaning. Sure, they might make one or two friends out of that mess, but likely they’ll initially just be frustrated.

In the end, the recommendation to follow a bunch of strangers is just bad advice. There’s no relationship building going on. It’s like trying to make instant bake success.

So what works? Organic one relationship at a time growth of contacts. Instead of focusing on stratospheric numbers, focus on one new contact at a time.

How to do this?  Best advice I’ve received is to watch who your friends engage with. Listen in on those conversations. See what those folks who do interact have to say and how they say it.  If you see something you enjoy, friend that person.

New contacts you add, be sure to let them know how you found them. Be sure to mention the shared connection, and considering adding a note about one of the new friends messages. It lets them know you’ve been listening.

In summary, build your network one valued connection at a time. Give them your best. Your network will grow fast enough.

Keith shares his perspective on focus in social networking and media.  Are you just spinning your wheels? Is your company?

Origami Envelopes by Tojosan, on Flickr

Origami envelopes, who knew right?  These were folded according to the Daisy’s Envelope diagram on pg. 81 of The Origami Bible (affiliate link).  Shown are my first four attempts.

Crafted with A4 size paper, these were actually quite easy to pick up.  There are only six folds or so. When completed, you have a working envelope. The picture doesn’t indicate the size well.  WHen done, they are about the size of an index card.

As part of an experiment in practical origami, and social networking, I’d love to send you, yes, you whoever and wherever you may be, a letter inside one of these envelopes.

Complex? Not at all. You simple drop me a line in the comments below indicating you want a letter from me and I’ll contact you to confirm the mailing address. I’ll be taking the first 10 or so folks that jump in.  If those go well, I’ll do what I can to get to everyone that would like one of these.

So jump into the comments, make sure from the comment I can find your email (automatic for Disqus registered users) and I’ll contact you this week to get your address. No promises that the letters will be interesting.

NOTE: I’d love in the first 10 to get at least one person outside the US.

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• Amazing origami mushroom video (makezine.com)

That leaves an inescapable conclusion. Nobody has a million followers on Twitter. And being on the suggested user list doesn’t add value to a Twitter account, regardless of whether you’re a regular guy like me, or one of the biggest brands in the world.

So says Anil Dash on his blog post, Nobody Has A Million Twitter Followers.

Anil tackles the topic of whether a million followers translates to a million people who actually follow what you say and act upon it. He challenges that only a small percent are likely engaged.

Go read the article. He’s giving away $25 Amazon gift certificates for a suggestion on using the wealth of data he’s collected and for someone to program that solution.

Cheers,

Todd aka tojosan

Soon this will be my mother; her face will be glowing to the light of a computer screen.  She’ll be the one checking emails at 5:30 AM and just before bed. Perhaps mom will become addicted to online shopping and I’ll visit to find her house full of Zappos shoes.

Whatever happens, I want to steer mom in the right direction with her first computer and first real time alone on the Internet. Firefox will be the default browser of course, but what should I load it up with. What bookmarks should I start her off with?

I’m asking you, my friends, family and few readers – What bookmarks to start off mom with.

As incentive to answer, each person who leaves a unique bookmark site in a comment and in such a way that I can find your email, will receive a copy of my Sunday Guide to Social Networking e-book in PDF format.

To share this post, please hit the Tweetmeme button at the top of the post, or copy/tweet the following.

Get Sunday Guide to Social Networking for bookmark suggestion – http://wp.me/pfLxC-pC

Thanks and give me your best.

Twitter announced they are upping the anti on geo-tagging tweets.

Twitter has acquired Mixer Labs, creators of GeoAPI (http://geoapi.com/). As
Ev just said over on our main blog (http://bit.ly/88nZ6B), the team from
Mixer Labs will be joining Twitter. We’re currently looking at how to
integrate the work Mixer Labs has done with the Twitter Platform to provide
powerful new possibilities.

Tagging your tweets isn’t really happening yet.  You’re stuck with the location coming from your actual Twitter profile location.  Currently you’d need to change your location and then tweet.

Mixer’s tech and talent is going to bring a chance to send it with the tweet instead of defaulting to the profile.  Will this kill services such as foursquare where folks tweet via reporting their location or will provide even better service?

My predication is it will really open up on the smart phone Twitter clients.  Imagine iphone or Blackberry GPS integration. Bam!

Robert Scoble at Jive in their new offices. He’s talking to their CEO about how Jive stacks up against Microsoft and Salesforce initiatives. They discuss next big challenges, the different approaches, and how Jive fits in.

Warning. There is a lot of buzzword use. You’ll want to listen for the sections on lessons learned, challenges, and the future predictions.

This is not one of Scoble’s best interviews. It’s partially his fault, as he seems to be ill prepared to ask some hard questions. Also the Jive representative uses a ton of market speak and avoids specifics.

This video found at Building43.

Fiesta Agents gathered to celebrate the launch of the Ford Fiesta for 2010.  The night was equal parts launch and party, as the agents came together to receive rewards, reminisce over their missions, and show off their new favorite car.

Hilary M., you’ll see her in the lime green Fiesta and wedding dress, is a long time friend from the online world of Flickr. She made four cross-country trips in her Fiesta, pursuing many adventures.  One of those trips allowed her a night in the St. Louis area, which she graciously spent at my house.

The whole movement takes the idea of selling to a whole new level in the physical world. Books have long been given out early to reviewers and movies screened by critics. Recently the tech elite have even gotten a chance to try out the latest gadgets in betas. This is a first in that these Fiestas were not given to the elite, the critics, or even a select group of rich customers. They gave them to 100 free wheeling and fun agents, selected by contest.

Hilary M. and Tojosan

Excitement was clear to me in the videos and I equally so in person with Hilary. I had to ask her if it was just hype or if it was really all that fun. She told me story after story of fun, adventure, joy, and even sorrow. Her original Fiesta had a problem and she had to take it in to get it fixed.

This is my official ‘props to Ford’ for a job well done on this.  Stay tuned as at the end of the video there’s an announcement about Ford’s future Fiesta plans.

Do you know one of the agents? Were you an agent? Share the stories!

Cheers,

Todd/@tojosan

Bonus:

Agent Hilary M.

Hilary M.’s Ford Fiesta Movement Celebration photos

Seth’s Blog: Can’t top this: “Getting someone to switch is really difficult.

…

So, you don’t get someone to switch because you’re cheaper than Walmart. You don’t get someone to switch because you serve bigger portions than the big-portion steakhouse down the street. You don’t get someone to switch because your hospital is more famous than the Mayo Clinic.

The chances that you can top a trusted provider on the very thing the provider is trusted for are slim indeed.

Instead, you gain converts by winning at something the existing provider didn’t think was so important.”

Winning at something the existing provide didn’t think was important. That sentence captures it all. Too many social media experts but very little to differentiate them. They all claim to be ‘the’ expert.

They can’t all be ‘the’ expert. They can certainly be experts in some area. Sure, there can be lots of folks that are great at recording videos. Maybe another thousand are great at podcasting. Likewise, there are thousands of great photographers.

The ugly truth? As consumers and businesses acting as consumers, we chose who we know. Alternately we chose the most well known or safest choice. That means that you, that person not being Chris Brogan for example, my company, we aren’t choosing you first as a generalist.

The upside? Chris is no expert in video or podcasting. He’s certainly no expert in French cuisine in Portsmouth. That is something you may well be.

The lesson? As basic as it sounds, do what you know. The key is not to get lost in being an expert at making videos in general. Those are a dime a dozen. Be an expert at filming French cuisine in Portsmouth. Make our mouths water with food we can actually have.

St. Louis suffers from this. We have plenty of bloggers. We have several tech focused bloggers. Only a few really stand out. Why? They have given up trying to be the tech experts and instead focused on their passions. They are getting the biggest communities and feedback.

Which are you doing? Challenge yourself today to narrow your focus. Pick your thing to be an expert at. If there are more than a dozen folks with the same focus as your site, consider focusing even more.

Oddly, by abandoning too much, you may discover your get more in return.
Cheers,
Todd