Graeme Thickins on Tech

Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Tag: Twitter (Page 1 of 6)

Blogging Gone Wild

February 13, 2011 / / 0 Comments

TechSurfBlog-post1 People who've been reading this blog for a while may know I started it in 2005. That's a long time in blog years, and it's resulted in a monstrous archive of what people now call "long-form blogging" — at least it is for me, as one, lone writer.  My quick tally is about 400,000-500,000 words (several books' worth), and I can't even begin to guess the *time* I have into it. Let's just say it's been countless thousands of hours that I've spent filling this space — planning, thinking, writing, editing, covering events, managing comments, and, not the least, all the time spent in the behind-the-scenes (pain in the ass) administration of the site. That last part is especially a challenge with Typepad, the platform I chose way back when. Unfortunately, it hasn't kept up with bloggers' needs, especially from a UI/ease-of-use standpoint. (But the time to convert my blog to WordPress, as I might like, has just been way too much of a time hurdle to consider if I want to keep paying the bills with the income I have to generate in the non-blogging part of my business life.)

The whole notion of "micro" blogging wasn't even in our minds back in 2005. But, of course, those of you who follow me regularly know I've been posting the majority of my online content for the past few years on a certain site that starts with a "T".  Twitter-logo With 11,000+ tweets there, at 140 characters each, that works out to some 200,000 words. And to say that's cut into my long-form blogging frequency here on this blog would be a gross understatement. Twitter, as it turned out, opened the floodgates on short-form, real-time blogging. But "blogging" almost seems like the wrong word these days, doesn't it?  Seems like it's really just about "content sharing" anymore, in the age we're in of never-ending "status updates." Speaking of which, yes, I'm of course on Facebook, too — here and here. Friend me at the first (my personal page) and fan me at the second (my company page). Or is it all about "Likes"? Whatever! Just click something there, will ya, and I'll be happy… :-)  [Note you can also now hit the little "Like" icon at the bottom of each of my blog posts here, as well as "Like" my blog overall in the sidebar to the right. We all *so* need to be liked these days…]

Where does it all end? Well, it doesn't. Which is the reason for this post. It's not to bore you with stats about my huge trove of blog content (which, along with $3.00, will get me a nice cup of coffee anywhere), but to tell you about other places where I'm now doing even more of that shorter-form blogging thing, in case you haven't run into me there yet. Flickr-GraemeAt least I'm having fun (I think). Just gotta keep sharing! These other domains of mine are more for my personal, random thoughts — and for sharing photos when I have some text to go along with them. Sure, I can share photos on Twitter (and I do, often, from my iPhone, with various Twitter apps) — but there are times when 140 characters just won't do. And then I have my Flickr account, which I think I've had about as long as this blog, where I can share anything I shoot — and I've done that with some 4500+ images, all neatly organized into sets.

Medium-Form Blogging?

But I like to say these other blogging places I'm about to tell you about are "somewhere in the vast expanse between my long-form and short-form blogging."  Here's one of them: my Posterous blog, which I've actually had for several months now. PosterousBlog-GraemeOn a site like this, I put up all kinds of stuff — I don't think much about it (unlike this site, which is really all about my serious, professional life). I can even email something to Posterous that instantly becomes a post. So, you'll see a whole array of…stuff. And maybe you've heard of PicPlz? It has an iPhone app I've started to use to share photos. Well, I've set those pix to also show up on my Posterous blog as individual posts.

TumblrBlog-Graeme As opposed to Instagram, another iPhone photo-sharing app (which I like even more). I have the pix I shoot with that app set to show up on my Tumblr blog, where I also post…other stuff. Just kinda started that one. Actually, there's no telling what posts will show up where, really. They just kinda happen, I guess, which I 'spose is the whole idea of real-time content sharing, right? I even did a kind of long post there recently (at least for Tumblr), a rarety — most people on it are just blogging a single photo, or maybe a video. But what is blogging, I say, without a little text, huh?  Words, baby! They make the world go round, don't they? (But, hey, that's a blogger talking.)

Like I say, blogging — it's gone wild.

Gist Gives You the Context You Need for Meaningful Engagements

May 13, 2010 / / 0 Comments


Gist-diagram Today, I had an opportunity to meet with a couple of the good folks
from Gist, a startup based in Seattle that helps you "Know More about
Who You Know."  It's a neat app that I've been using for some time, and
that includes their native iPhone app — which is a great way
to stay in touch when I'm on the go with what my network is up to.  I
also love the daily email updates I get from Gist that give me all the
latest content from my most important contacts. 

I sat down for breakfast with Robert Pease, VP of Marketing, and Jenn Pitts, Marketing Operations Manager, who were in town for a conference. My friend Buzz Bruggeman in Seattle was nice enough to give me a heads-up that Robert and Jenn were coming to Minneapolis, and I thought it would be a great
Jenn+Robert-Gist opportunity to get an update on the company.  I had previously met the CEO, T.A. McCann, last year at a couple of conferences I attend in Denver, Defrag and Glue, where I had first learned about the company's app.

Here's the audio interview I recorded of our conversation, which is about 22 minutes long. Excuse the sound quality, because we were in the very large lobby restaurant in the Hyatt downtown, and there was a fair amount of background noise. At one point, there was even a loud clap of thunder outside that interrupted our chat! But it was good to hear about how this startup is doing in advancing its mission of helping people improve their relationships with the people and companies that matter most to them.

• Download or listen to Graeme's interview with Gist (MP3)"

My Talk on Blogging and Social Media at ‘Club Entrepreneur’

February 14, 2010 / / 0 Comments

I gave a presentation on blogging and social media recently to the monthly lunch meeting of our local "Club Entrepreneur," which was launched within the past year by Rick Brimacomb. ClubEntrepreneur-logo About 60 people attended, more than they'd had at previous meetings, so we got to meet in the larger, main dining room of the Minneapolis Club — which is just awesome (quick iPhone photo included here, which I shot afterwards).

What a treat to present in such an historic place!  MplsClub The date was February 4, 2010.  After the event, I uploaded a pdf of my 64-slide deck to SlideShare: I titled the talk, Why Launch a Company Blog and Use Social Media.

I originally created the presentation in Keynote on my Mac, with lots of nice transitions and builds, which you can't see on the SlideShare pdf, of course.  You can in the QuickTime movie of the Keynote file that I also created, but that's 238 megs, so I won't expect you to download that… 🙂

(Note: A shout-out to authors David Meerman Scott, Debbie Weil, Brian Solis, Ann Handley, and Tara Hunt, whose work I cited in parts of this presentation. They are all heroes of mine.)

Also, I audio-recorded myself making the presentation, with my little whiz-bang podcast machine — my Olympus LS-10. So, if you'd like to listen as you go through the SlideShare pdf, here's the MP3 file:

• Download or listen to Graeme's presentation at the Minneapolis Club, "Why Launch a Company Blog and Use Social Media (MP3)".

The talk was 45 minutes, with about 12 minutes additional of Q&A at the end. You can't hear some of the audience questions very well but, overall, the recording turned out better than I thought it would — I just tried it as an experiment, setting the device on the projector table (mounted on a mini-tripod), about 12-15 feet away from me.  It worked well, though next time I'll get closer to the LS-10, so the volume level will be a little better.

If you'd like to have me give this presentation, or a variation of it, at your company, or as part of a workshop for a group of employees, please hit my email link at the top right. Thanks!

The Book That Rules in Marketing & PR, Now In Its 2nd Edition

February 7, 2010 / / 3 Comments

NewRules-Mktg+PR-2ndEd Without a doubt, David Meerman Scott is one of the people I most respect in this business. He's also my favorite author and speaker, and a great friend. (Heck, he's even a surfer, and sends me cool pix of some of the beaches he visits in his world travels!)  David is the guy that inspired me to finally realize that what I am is a "content marketer" and "brand journalist." He's the ultimate champion of people like me — and my hero, for sure.

I was lucky enough to get David to speak at the October 2008 meeting of our Social Media Breakfast-Twin Cities (which, by the way, has grown to be the largest SMB group in the country). We offered a free copy of the first edition of his book The New Rules of Marketing & PR to all those attending, thanks to a generous sponsor.  David packed the house, was a huge hit, and the Twin Cities became an even hipper PR and social media town than it already was… 🙂

So, I was delighted to hear that the Second Edition of the book is now available. "It's gone through an extensive rewrite," said David. "Of course, I've checked every fact, figure, and URL. DavidMeermanScott But I've also listened. In the past two years, I've met thousands of people like you who have shared stories with me, so I've drawn from those experiences and included many new examples of success." 

He said these new stories and examples are even more valuable and timely than the original ones. Thus, even if you've read the first edition, he promises you'll find many fresh ideas in the second edition.

"When I was writing the first edition of the book back in 2006," said David, "Facebook was only available to those with a .edu email address (students and educators), so I didn’t feature Facebook. And Twitter didn’t even exist at the time I was researching the first edition. So I have added extensive new information and examples on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites." Since the term social media has become so strong in the past few years, it's not surprising to now see it in the book's subtitle.

The power of the ideas David talks about in The New Rules of Marketing & PR propelled the book to the BusinessWeek bestseller list and kept it there for six months. Another stat that blew me away is that it's been the number one public relations book on Amazon for approximately 910 days. My gosh, that's more than two and a half years!  David still says he's stunned.

(A few links: David's blog, Web Ink Now, is ranked in the AdAge Power 150 as one of the top marketing blogs. Also, here's the direct link on Amazon to the Second Edition of "Rules"… and a page with links to all the online bookstores where David's books are available.)

When David launched the first edition of The New Rules of Marketing & PR (via Wiley), he pioneered a tactic that attracted the attention of hundreds of bloggers, typically overlooked by marketers at the time. Since then, the book has garnered numerous awards, been adapted at universities and in politics, has been translated into 24 languages, and even sparked the idea for a series, "The New Rules of Social Media." More importantly, as his Wiley publicist points out, the book has provided a hands-on manual for new marketing. "Marketing campaigns have never been the same, and a new decade brings new opportunity to connect online with buyers and communities."

The New Rules of Marketing & PR explains how to harness the power of the Internet, how to identify the right audience, create compelling messages, and get those messages directly to your targeted community — with powerful new tools such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and more.

David says the underlying message of the book remains the same: "The tools of the marketing and PR trade have changed. The skills that worked offline to help you buy or beg or bug your way in are the skills of interruption and coercion. Online success comes from thinking like a journalist and engaging as a thought leader."

Right on, David!  I can't wait to dive into my copy of the second edition.

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What I’ve Been Doing for the Last Month and a Half…

December 31, 2009 / / 2 Comments

…because I sure haven't been posting here.  Wow, I can't believe it's been 45 days!  My last post was soon after I got home from Defrag.  It's a long story.  First, I got sick right after I did that last post, coughing and hacking and generally feeling lousy, which went on for — I kid you not — four weeks!  Never had anything like that.  I think it was something I picked up on the plane.  Then, to top it off, I was really busy with new client work during this time … for BusinessCard2, VISI.com's ReliaCloud, three Skyya Communications clients, and others yet to be named — so, I was basically hunkered down at home, trying like mad to keep things moving forward. (We self-employed don't get no stinking sick days!)

Anyway, I just noticed that, although I didn't post here on my Typepad blog in those 45 days, I did post, count' em, 19 times on my Posterous blog! … pictured here in all its (semi)glorious splendor.

Posterous-GT


I remember doing a post about a year ago here explaining that I'd been gone so long because I was micro-blogging (Twittering).  You see, for us long-time bloggers, there's these huge guilt feelings we get for not blogging more often on our main blog.  So that was my excuse last year.  This year, it's Posterous that's to blame.  For me, it's a site I subtitle "somewhere in the vast expanse between his micro and macro blogging."  So, first it was short-form blogging (Twitter) that was taking me away from my long-form blogging.  Now it's, what, "medium-length" blogging?  Anyway, I find it pretty easy and non-time-consuming to post to Posterous (which I do fairly effortlessly via email). I actually use it more as a quick social-bookmarking service of sorts, when I find a valuable link — as I used to do with Delicious.

So, now you know I haven't been ignoring my contributions to the cause of online content and knowledge-sharing.  I just have too damn many places to do it!  And I've hardly backed down on my participation on Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, and LinkedIn, either.  Oh, and I wrote two posts and participated in four weekly podcasts on Minnov8, too, with my colleagues there.

So, please keep following me here, there… or how about everywhere?  :-) 

Thanks, and Happy 2010!

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