Inbound Internet Marketing

I want my News now!

As I have posted before I don't like to be plugged into the Matrix 24/7.  I have a dumb phone.  I try not to go near the internet on the weekends.  I am a family man and it is very important to me to spend time with them.  I had my own internet company in 2000 and I was internet 24/7.  It almost killed my marriage.  But I do have a problem with not getting the news now.

There is no reason why I should have to wait for breaking news.  We have Twitter, FriendFeed, many blogs and news sites.  If something happens anywhere around the world I want to know about it ASAP. Waiting for the next day's edition of the Boston Globe is just silly.  Plus I read the Globe online.

The dying newspapers are still not considering Twitter, certain blogs and websites as unreliable sources of news.  As I have posted in "Pride goes before the Fall" this is makes no sense.  I am in the advertising world and I can tell you that the muck racking days of investigating reporting are over.  It is all about politics and the bottom line.

So there is no excuse why I should not expect to get my news just as it happens.  We are in the new information era and either be a part of it or get out of the way.

Monday Mishagoss: The Left needs to easy up on Obama

Not since the first few seconds of the first Clinton Administration has a President been so socially progressive as President Obama.  Now he has even passed this mark and continues to bring smart progressive change to the Federal government on a massive scale.  

This summer the President will tackle Health Care Reform and present a new Energy Bill.  We have never been closer to passing a historic Health Care package.

But I still hear some rumblings on the Left.  The Obama's administration argument to keep the "don't ask don't tell" policy in the Armed Services raised some leftist eyebrows.  Lest us not forget when the Clinton's tried to allow open gays in the military and it was a set back that cost them a huge amount of political juice.

President Obama (and his team) are very smart in picking their battles.  They are in a position to make sweeping changes that will last for generations (and they know it).

We on the left have to make sure that we show support for Obama even though we are not getting everything we want we right this second.  But we are getting a huge amount of change.

The Republicans are reduced to wheeling out Sith Lord Cheney and Darth Gingrich as a pitiful response to Obama.

We have them on the run lets not forget chances let this come once a generation and we have the President in office that not only knows it but is doing something about it.

Why I am not following you on Twitter.

Going over the rules again about following people on Twitter.  If you are following 2,000 people and 500 are following you and you have posted five times I will not follow you.  This is not a game to see who can get the most followers.  This is about having a conversation.  Adding to the collective brain of the internet with interesting information is the goal.  And for god's sake we have enough "social media gurus".

Talk about sports, talk about woodworking, talk about fishing, I don't care.  But please realize that 80% of us on Twitter are Social Media Gurus.

You don't win a prize when you get to one million followers.  Know one comes to your house and gives you a big check.  It is about quality over quantity.

I really hope Twitter starts charging all $4 a month to use the service.  This would clean out a lot of spammers (and it is surprising who is doing the spaming) and maybe keep the conversation going.

As I have blogged before the Golden Age of Twitter is over and now we are in the Industrial Age.  But for please don't think 50,000 followers is joining the conversation.  It is just a number and working hard to get it is silly.

I love my dumb phone!

I love my dumb phone.  It doesn't get email or the internet.  I love the fact that I can unplug from the matrix and no one can track me (GPS).

On the weekend I like to spend time with my family (and even the weeknights).  Nine years ago or so I traveled a lot and had a Blackberry.  I was always using the phone.  Taking calls or emailing someone.  It didn't matter if it was at my son's soccer game or I was out to dinner with my wife, I was always on the phone.

Finally, everyone (my wife) got sick of it.  It really cost a problem in my relationship.  After the internet bust and I returned to planet earth I started using dumber and dumber phones.  Then I got the dumbest phone of all.  It was great.  I left work and really left work!  I went home on the weekends and played with my kids and didn't care if someone emailed me.

Now I am General Manager of a small Advertising firm in Boston plus I have my own Internet Marketing Company (letshaveaconversation.com).  All my clients have my cell number in case of an emergency but really in Advertising what is an emergency?  Did the TV spot run at the wrong time?  Did the creative get to the printer on time?  For the most part it can wait.  I can't do anything about these problems on the weekend or at 9pm on a Tuesday.  It will have to wait...and that is just fine.

In fact when someone call me and I don't recognize the number I let it go to voice mail.  Let them tell me the problem and I can call back with a answer.

Now don't get me wrong, I pride myself on customer service.  But I find that over 95% of my clients fully understand that if they leave me a message during non-work hours that they we get a call back the next business day.

If my wife and daughter didn't like texting I would have taken that off my dumb phone.  I am really trying to get my phone as dumb as possible.  Thank God my son uses email.

So I sit on the train watching everyone answering their emails.  Or wonder if they should get the new iphone or pre.  I am reading a book.  Happily.  Ignorance is bliss!

#dumpcashman

As a loyal NY Yankee fan I am sick and tried of all of the spending coupled with the lack of performance that has been going on with the Yankees for some time now.

In the off season the Yankee's got big time free agents  AJ Burnett, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeria.

Now I have to give credit to Cashman for the Nick Swisher deal.  Nice job.

But now the three top free agent pick ups are not playing anywhere near the level they should be playing.

CC Sabathia has showed some signs of life but still has a way to go.

Teixeria is hitting home runs but his average is below .200.

AJ Burnett has been OK but as I write this the Blue Jays just beat him.

Wang is slowing making his way back.

Jeter was out with a oblique strain.

Joe Girardi has turned into some bad Joe Torre clone.  I mean is this the guy that won Manager of the Year and got fired the same year because he flipped the bird to the owner?

As I writing this we are 6.5 games out of first and 5.5 games behind the dreaded Red Sox (who have taken five in a row from us this year).

There seems to be some activity in the Farm System but for years the Yankees have not taken the time to build up the system.

There is such a thing as chemistry and throwing all these "superstars" on one team does not dedicate a Word Series win.  Just ask some of the Olympic Basketball "Dream Teams".

Enough is enough.  Hank has to either be like the old man and fire Cashman and take control of the team or take a different route and fire Cashman and replace him with someone he is will to let the Yankees grow.

The Yankees have not won a World Series in this century and I am sick and tired of Red Sox fans saying. "We have won two World Series this century....how many have you won?" 

Nine years without a championship is like 90 years in Yankee time.

Major changes have to be made.  Bring back the ghost of Billy Martin.  At least he will seem upset by the situation and not asleep like Cashman and Girardi.

Special shout out to www.pinstripealley.com.  A great Yankee blog.

UPDATE MAY 19th, 2009:

OK you got me.  I wrote this post last week.  I am hoping that last week was the bottom of the Yankee season.  We have seen some rays of sunshine in sweeping the Twins.  Lets hope we are now on the right track.  I still have a lot of questions (Posada for one).  What do you think?  Will we make the playoffs?

Post 100!

This is my 100th post.

I so glad I found blogging.  It has brought back to me the joy of writting.

In college I wrote for the school newspaper.  I wrote the editorials.  As one of the five liberals on campus during the Regan administrations it was fun writting leftist editorials and quoting Howard Zinn.

I now find the same joy writting about Social Media and having my Monday Mishagoss (where I can write about anything I want).

Do I have many followers.  No.  But I have found something that makes me happy and I like to think I am adding something to the conversation.  Plus it is basiclly free.

There are very few things in life that can incorporate all those factors and I am glad I found it.  So keep reading (or not) I promise to keep typing.

Monday Mishagoss - Obama, the coolest President ever!

I am really impressed with President Obama.  As a Hillary supporter I was concerned if he was ready to lead on "day one".  Well he was and is.  He is using a combination of intelligence, perseverance and toughness to get accomplished what he needs to get done.  One example of this is the Chrysler bankruptcy.

No question that the Obama administration was not thrilled with the Chrysler bond holders when they didn't take the deal he put on the table to try to stop Chrysler from going bankruptcy.  The bond holders forced the bankruptcy and said they will take there case into court.

Well the Obama administration (and we are guessing here) made some phone calls to the companies that held the bonds and reminded them about some very scary Federal Agencies such as the IRS.  And how the IRS would take a very close look at their dealing over the past five years.

Well that is nothing short of gangsta!

Sure enough the bond holders backed off and the bankruptcy should be done quickly and Chrysler can go about their business.

Conservatives on Wall Street screamed foul!  They said that Obama violated the rule of law.  But these are the same people that broke the world and are taking (and took) government bailouts to save their ass.

No empathy here.

Obama has been a laser on the economy and with the help of the Fed they have almost successfully turned the total melt down of the world's financial markets to a recession that should be over before the end of the year.

But he is not stopping there.  Now he turns to the healthcare crises.  So many Americans don't have health insurance or are just being able to afford it (like myself where both my wife and I work and the insurance payment of nearly $2,000 a month for a family of four is a very high expense).

With Arlen Spector turning to the Dems and Al Franken waiting to be seated the Senate Dems will have 60 votes and basically get whatever legislation it wants passed.

FDR created many programs that caused massive controversy.  Obama is not afraid of controversy and is also not afraid to use the power of his office to insure that his agenda will remain intact.

All the while being very cool!

When we sit down and talk about Social Media the first questions I ask are not going to be about Social Media.

When I get a call from a possible client about joining the Social Media I find myself having to stop the client and go back a few steps.  They want to join Twitter today!  I want to find out how their business works.

So the first questions I going to ask you have nothing to do with social media.  First of all I want to know who your customers are.  You should have at least five buyer personas concerning who is buying your product and who you are targeting to bring in new customers.  Go here to find out more about Buyer Personas.

With your buyer personas in place we can focus on what product and services would work by using Social Media and how to use Social Media to enhance the sales of these products.

Not all your products or services may be best served by using Social Media.  So we want to pick the ones that can and become a "trust agent" (Chris Brogan) for these items.

You become a trust agent over time and a lot of hard work.  There is no short cut to this.  Using Social Media is cheap but it takes a lot of time.  And if you are not willing to put in the time then maybe social media is not for you.

We have to hash out all these questions and more before you place your first Tweet.  Because it is much easier going down the right path the first time then becoming just one of the many out their just randomly screaming for attention.

Twitter Spam, some people should know better.

As I mention in a previous post we are entering into a new age of Twitter.  I like to call this the industrial age of Twitter.  Many companies, celebrities and other notables are joining Twitter in record numbers but are forgetting the Twitter rules.  They are following 2,000 people but only have one post.  This is not joining the conversation. I written a post on who I follow and who I don't and why.  Twitter's new tool of letting see the profile of the person that wants me to follow is a big help in seeing if they have more then one post and it they are trying to grow their Twitter followers organically.

Tweets should be geared to increasing the group consciousness not just constantly spamming about what new project you are pushing or what event you are trying to get us watch.  I Tweet when I post a new blog entry because I like to think my posts are adding something to the conversation.

Some people know about Twitter spam but continue to engage in it.  Two examples are @guykawasaki and Hubspot.  I tweeted @guykawaski about his never ending pushing of his project Alltop.  I didn't think he was joining in the conversation as much as just pushing his own project.  He replied to me. "Go check my posts and see how wrong you are."  Well I did and found that 70% of his post where pushing Alltop.  I would consider this Twitter Spam.

Hubspot has been called on the carpet by other bloggers about their Friday afternoon onslaught concerning their "TV" show.  Every Friday afternoon Hubspot uses it many Twitter accounts to spam the community about their up coming "TV" show.  I have unfollowed all of Hubspot's Twitter accounts (along with @guykawaski) but if a tree falls in the forest and you are not there does it still make a noise?  Yes it does.

I would hope that such high profile Twitter users would set an example for new Twitter users and Tweet about information that can enhance the community instead of using Twitter as a platform for their own benefit.

I found a mortgage on Twitter!

I went looking for a mortgage.  I need a Jumbo loan and those rates have not come down as far as conforming loans.  So I turned to Twitter.  I typed in I need a Jumbo loan with no points at a good rate.

@keithstonehouse replied. "contact ted.edginton@usbank.com - he'll take care of your jumbo loan...".

Sure enough I did and Ted was very nice and gave me some great options.  We not sure if we are going forward by Ted gave me the best rate I have seen.

So even though I have admitted I am having an "affair" with FriendFeed I still think Twitter has not reached it's potential.  David M Scott has referred to Twitter as "the consciousness of the internet".  I think it is a better Google then Google!

What happens if there is a lost child.  You can tweet #lostchild and the last location the child was reported and I am sure a flood of tweeters would be out helping you to find your son or daughter.  This is one of a million ways Twitter can help us.

So stay tuned the Industrial Age of Twitter may not be so bad.