The Omni Hotel Understand The Ripple Effect Of Social Media Tools

I think many companies are beginning to learn about how incredibly powerful social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are becoming to manage and monitor the scuttlebutt in and around their brand. I had an opportunity to witness this firsthand this past week.

I arrived in Corpus Chrisiti, Texas shortly after lunch on Thursday afternoon to speak at the South Texas Realtor Conference. After stopping by the facility where I would be speaking the next day and running through normal pre-event logistics I headed over to check in to my hotel. I arrived at the Omni Hotel on North Shoreline Blvd. After some initial issues getting checked in I went up to my room to get settled in.

After putting up all of my clothes and prepping my clothes for the next day (did I mention I am a bit of a control freak about such things?) I fired up my Mac to check out the wifi situation. To my disappointment I discovered that I was being prompted to pay an additional $9.95 for access which perturbed me to say the least. In today's day and age I sort of think that airports and hotels should offer Internet access as a convenience. Given this wasn't an option I reluctantly agreed to have the charge applied to my room - after all I couldn't conceive of being offline! Yes...I am also addicted to being connected...what can I say?!?

After going through the traditional sign-up process I was at last able to start connecting to my email server back at the office, check in with my Twitter peeps and do a little quick searching for where to eat that evening. We'll it seems that I was ready but the wifi wasn't. It was slow as Christmas. I was extremely disappointed. Each website I went to seemed to drag on and on while it loaded of eventually timed out. Given that I usually operate in three to four online environments at once (between email and the various social networks I utilize), I was frustrated.

Though it was slow I finally fired off a Tweet that communicated my disappointment by asking the question (of no one in particular mind you) why I was paying the Omni Hotel for wifi access when it was seemed as slow as dial up? Since my Twitter account is tied into my Facebook account I instantly received a few quick quirky responses from friends about my situation and how it was perhaps a sign from God that I should stay offline or that I had a dependency problem on being so connected. These of course made me smile and relax about the whole thing.

Then out of no where I received a public Tweet from @OmniHotels asking me where I was staying and assurances they would look into my perceived wifi speed issue. It concluded with a suggestion for me to sign up for their Select Guest Program. The first part really impressed me but I didn't pay much attention to the last part about their "program" figuring it was some tie-in marketing effort. I publicly responded to their Tweet with my location and figured that would be the end of it; perhaps my speed would be magically increased but I doubted it. I fired off my response Tweet to them and closed my Macbook Pro.

Twenty minutes later as I was reviewing notes for my upcoming keynote speech I received a call from a Guest Loyalty Specialist (title might be wrong but that is what I remember) named Silvia. She was a delightful energetic woman with a very engaging voice. She informed me that they were looking into my problem and wanted to offer to sign me up for free on the Select Guest Program. She gave me the run down of the features of this free program and offered to waive my wifi charges for this stay altogether. Then, and this really impressed me, offered to move me up to a higher floor where I assume my already great view would be further enhanced. I declined but none-the-less was impressed with her and now solidly with the Omni Hotel and their efforts to make me a happy guest.

I signed up for their program and gave them a little bit of "travel information" which I can assume will be used to cultivate more business from me at some point. I understand marketing after all. However it was the personal touch both on Twitter and in real life that extended the power of Omni's commitment to my satisfaction. Their decision to monitor and respond to my random Tweet clearly engaged me as their customer and overcame a perception issue that ordinarily would have been left unchecked and likely never voiced. Come on you know most of us will say everything was fine when asked during check out how our stay was even though it may not have been. At that point we reluctantly raise the white flag and surrender, certain that a complaint at that point would be a waste of breath. Sad but true but come on you know you've been there too!

The Omni clearly didn't want to leave a potential point of dissatisfaction to chance and took action when they saw there was a problem! They used my Tweet as an opportunity to leverage the power of social media to capture what was happening in a customer's mind in real time and respond. Clearly Silvia and their social media person did an outstanding job and no doubt created a Ripple in my mind that will certainly extend to influencing where I stay next time I speak out of town.

So I have to ask, is your company actively mining the various social media tools to not only take the pulse of your customers/clients but leveraging what it discovers to enhance their overall experience and impression of your company. If not why not? I bet you the folks at Omni could give you a bazillion reasons why you should.

Ripple On!!!

P.S. If my new friends at Omni Hotels happen by this post I would love to know who on the Omni Twitter team responded to my Tweet. Additionally I would love to know Sylvia's full name and supervisor's name so that I could pen a quick note of appreciation for their efforts on my behalf.

Don't Just Sit On The Virtual Sidelines When It Comes To Helping

I first noticed a request from someone I follow but don't know all that well when she posted it on Twitter. It seems she was looking for a very specific set of skills for a project she was working on for her company and had apparently run the gamut of her connections. I clicked on her most recent Tweets and could see a string of frustrated posts about dropped balls, unreliable people and a pressing deadline that was looming. With each Tweet her desperate plight seemed to be more and more magnified as she desperately looked for someone to help her out.

It would have been easy to say to myself...Whew I'm glad that's not me. I've been there sister and man finding good people to do the jobs they say they will can be frustrating. Hmmm I wonder what's going on with my other friends on Twitter and proceed to click away from her and her problems never to think of them again.

It was clear by her cries for help that few if any of her 300+ followers on Twitter were doing anything to really help her. In fact the responses I read ranged anywhere from "man that sucks!" to "you're screwed" to "at least it's Friday...the good news is you won't have to worry about this until Monday." Yeah like I'm that was the reassurance she was looking for...NOT!

Have we as a society become so disengaged that mere connection through online social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook give us permission to poke fun and be sarcastic about someone's problem? It sure seems like it. What spoke even louder was the fact that she only received a handful of tepid responses to her pleas for help. Where were the people who followed her and why wasn't someone offering her more than sarcastic commentary to help her?

To be clear I don't know this women well. In fact I only started following her because she had followed me. Even though we have never met personally I have enjoyed exchanging some Tweets with her over the past few months. She's always been responsive, helpful and friendly when we have engaged one another online. I like her and clearly I could see and feel her pain.

As luck would have it I knew exactly the person she needed to engage regarding her project. I immediately direct messaged (DM'd her for those Twitter purists) her and asked her permission to connect her and my colleague for an exploratory conversation. She pinged me back almost immediately with a "OMG YES! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!"

I didn't need to help though but it's my nature to be helpful when and where I can. I could have come up with my own quippy response to her plight to outwit the clearly dimwitted but that wouldn't help her (and then I would have joined the rank of the woefully dimwitted). I might have easily missed the Tweet she posted as there is literally so much noise on Twitter that it's easy to do. I happen to believe things work out the way they are supposed to - hence it was in the cards that day for me to see what was going on and decide to dig deeper and help if I could. There were a lot of ways this situation could have gone down but it worked out for her and my colleague to work together in the end.

The point in all of this...and I do have one by the way is....If you are going to spend time making friends online, developing virtual connections and engaging strangers from around the world, you have a responsibility. You just can't passively sit on the virtual sidelines when someone is in need; much less make fun of them or their situation. You are responsible for keeping your eyes and ears peeled to help them when and where you can. You have to be willing to put yourself out there to offer up suggestions, ideas and your own connections if you truly want to make and grow your online relationships beyond simple avatars and cute profile pictures.

Just because the people in your followers or friends list are virtual it does not mean your commitment and dedication to Rippling when and where you can for them doesn't have to be.

Think about it and as always....

Ripple On!!!

What Can 9-9-09 Inspire You To Do?

Image by luc legay via Flickr

Well folks it's 9-9-09! How cool is that?

Hmmm what can we do with that? Surely there is something. Let me think, let me think!

AhHa! I've got it!

Make a list of 18 really cool people. Maybe they are friends, business acquaintances or cool and interesting people you've met online through a BLOG (hmm say like this one?) or through a social networking site such as Facebook or Twitter.

Come on you can think of 18 cool and interesting people can't you? Heck my problem is just limiting it only to 18.

So that's step one. Now for step two.

Write all of these people's names on a list. Break that list in half. This is where a little brain power is required. Look at each person individually and determine at least one interesting factoid or creative talent or skill that you know they possess and that will be your Connection Point (you know how I love those!). Now look at the other people on your list and start matching who needs to know who and well....you get the picture.

The final and most critical step is step three. Take Action TODAY!

Introduce, connect or somehow engage each of the 9 people on the first side of your list with the at least one person from the other side of the list. Use the Connection Point as your baseline for why you are connecting them and give a little heartfelt push and encouragement and sit back and let the connecting and Rippling happen from there.

Do you know that if you connected 9 people with 9 other people that your would easily improve your standing with each of those people 10 fold ---- oh wait I had a theme going here! Let's call it 9 fold instead! (Smile)

Heck what if you connected all 18 people with one another! You will have created 81 total connections from this little exercise. And you thought you weren't that powerful! You carry a big rock and have the power to create many big Ripples my friend! Wait a second...my did I sound like Tonto from the Lone Ranger there?

Anyway....you can either sit on your hands today and watch 9-9-09 go by like every other day or you can step up to the plate and use this magical number day to do something with it. It will only come along once in your lifetime so why not give it a go?

Come on people! Let's Ripple!!!

Ripple On!!!

What Value Do You Bring To The Time?

Last week I was on Twitter and shared a thought that apparently based on the emails, direct messages and the emails I received struck a cord. The Tweet went something like this:

You don't get paid for your time.
You get paid for the value you bring to the time.

When I put that Tweet out there I was simply trying to come to grips with some idea of value as it related to my own contributions; contribution to my various business interests, my leadership position, the new material I am adding to my forthcoming second edition of my book and of course the next big thing I need to be creating for Ripple.

Call it one of those theoretical Fridays that found me spending an unusual amount of time in my own head. I started looking at all the various investments of my time and trying to figure out where my input, my experience, my outright effort was best serving those "stake-holders" and projects which I find myself immersed in at the moment.

It is easy to be involved in so many things, which I am, to feel overwhelmed and not really contributing enough to any of them. I guess that's where I was when I started thinking about how I get paid for my efforts. To a certain degree I have never been comfortable with the concept of being paid for something that is not tangible - a product or service in which I directly had a hand in producing. I've always felt a bit uneasy to be paid for just my insight and experience though that is exactly how and why I am paid today.

That's when that little thought hit me. It isn't the tangible output that often people seek to receive from me and dare I say, you either. It's the time, the effort, the insight, the knowledge, the unusual angles in which I may take to examine and solve a problem. And yes...it's the connections. People and companies seek me out to help them identify, develop and grow the key relationships they depend on for their success. They seek me out because of what I bring to the table and the value I deliver for the time I invest in helping them.

I like to think I am a big picture guy when it comes to other people's ideas, dreams and visions. I will admit however, I am often a bit short-sighted when it comes to looking at my own. Friday was a bit of a breakthrough for me and it left my head and my heart more aligned than ever in the work that I am called to do. It also left me feeling more comfortable about how and why I am paid. Thank God for theoretical Fridays as they often lead to relaxed Saturdays.

So I have to ask....are you simply being paid for your time or is there another way you too should be looking at the value you bring to the table? It seems that based on the initial feedback I received from that little 'ol Tweet, that simply little statement got a lot of people thinking. Here's hoping it does the same for you.

Ripple On!!!

Connect In Your Pajamas

I recently attended an event where the question was asked about which was more productive and useful - networking live and in person or networking online? What a great question, especially given the explosion of websites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Finding and making new connections has never been easier thanks to many of the fabulous social networking websites that have literally exploded onto the market the past few years. Many of which are free by the way!

In fact where else could you find out more detailed information about someone you want to connect with than online? Sites like Facebook and LinkedIn offer a plethora of detail about the people you meet, or want to meet. Much of that information being the information those people want to specifically share with you and anyone else who might happen along their cyber doorstep.

Networking "in the cloud" is so much easier than doing it online in my humble opinion. Why? Because the pressure is off. You don't have to make a whole lot of stupid sideshow conversation in hopes of catching some one's attention with your quippy 30 second elevator speech. Instead you can just be yourself and hopefully if you do a little research ahead of time you have something relevant to share and/or ask the people you engage.

Sure there are plenty of do's and don'ts when you look to take your networking efforts online but let us save that for a future BLOG post. Instead I want you to simply start thinking about the incredible time savings that discovering, making and growing new connections online can mean to you and your personal or professional interests.

Here's a few points to ponder:

The average networking event zaps a minimum 2.5-3.5 hours per event.

Rather than get all gussied up and drive down to the next local event, save yourself the time and the aggravation and simply grab your laptop, slide into a comfortable chair (or better yet, find a comfy hill at your local park), and start logging on to sites like Facebook and Twitter and start exploring, sharing and connecting.

Networking events cost money. Sometimes lots of money.

Connecting online is free.

Networking events require that you have to have endlessly mindless conversations to vet potential prospects.

Connecting online requires some due diligence on your part but it's faster and far more fun and productive.

Networking events rarely offer you any insight as to who the person is you've just met.

Connecting online allows you to learn what people want to share with the world. Many of those things become your ultimate connection points (i.e. he's a Cub fan, I'm a Cub fan).

I could name a hundred things that make connecting at home in your pajamas far more appealing than your average networking mixer but I think you get the point. I simply want to show you that the time, energy and effort which goes in to preparing and attending your average networking event could be so much better spent.

The tools that are already out there waiting for you to use them and oh yeah...one last huge point. They are there when you want to use them 24x7. Isn't that so much more appealing than waiting until next week's chamber (rubber chicken) luncheon?

Ripple On!!!

RippleTag Facebook Application Released

I am excited to announce that my team and I have launched our first Ripple Connection Application for Facebook. RippleTag takes the Ripple Connection Question concept to an entirely new level making it fun and easy to connect with your Facebook friends.

In today's online world many of us make new acquaintances at an alarming rate. Whether it be with our latest Twitter post or the old playground mate that we once hug out with at the monkey bars in elementary school or that long lost co-workers of yester year. We still fail to do little more than send or casually accept friend requests. Aside from the obligatory "catch me up on what's been going on in your world" many of us have a hard time figuring out how to engage at a deeper more meaningful level. We still lack the fundamental ability to really connect with our "friends."

That is why we created RippleTag! The app is designed to help you connect and learn more about those friends you want to know or just know bettter. By using questions that are fun to ask and fun to answer, you will hopefully discover what I call Connection Points - those little bite size morsels of information you might never discover on your own. It's through those Connection Points that you find commonalities, shared interests and future dialogue jumping off points which will inevitably accelerate and grow your relationships.

I can barely contain the excitement for what I think is a pretty cool little application. I have high hopes that you will check out RippleTag use and let us know what you think!

Here's the link: http://budurl.com/3tmy

Now go forth and Ripple On!!!

Friday Fun: Twitter Ripple Challenge

So those of you who aren't already on Twitter let me give you a reason to check it out. Twitter is a microblogging site that lets you communicate what you are doing in 140 characters or less. Those of you know me know that I wasn't exactly sold on this concept when it first launched a few years ago. In fact my initial impression was that this was yet another great way to waste time and distract from real work.

Boy was I wrong! Over the past year or so I have come to really enjoy the Twitter experience. I have met people from all over the world that follow me and like to keep tabs on what the Ripple Man is up to. I too follow a number of incredibly interesting people that come from all walks of life - some are passionate BLOGGERS, other authors and speakers and inspiring entreprenuers - many I would never have met on my own so a big shout of thanks has to go out to Twitter for that!

So here's where my BLOG meets Twitter. If you are not already on Twitter go to www.twitter.com and sign up - it's free! Once on look for me by using the menu option find people. My call sign is what else? Rippleon - shocking eh?

Go look at my updates and see if you would be willing to jump into my Twitter Ripple Challenge.

Come on...I know there's a Super Hero inside of you just dying to get out!!!

In the mean time, I am off to speak at an Texas State University's American Marketing Association's region conference. Wish me luck!

Ripple On!!!

Social Media's Potential To Create A Bad Ripple For You - Part 2

Believe it or not the scene that I described in part 1 is happening more and more frequently and employers are beginning to take a much closer look at what their employees are doing out there in cyberspace. Now we could easily get into the debate on both sides of the aisle about whether employers have the right or if they are crossing a line they shouldn't into one's personal and unrelated lives but I choose not to. Let's save that debate for another day shall we?

In the case of the example I used in part 1, you had not posted those Twitter comments on your own personal time but did it while you were at work. If you want to split hairs about it you even used company property and company paid for Internet access to Tweet away. Cyberslacking alone is estimated to consume 2.09 hours of the average American's workday and cost companies billions of dollars of lost productivity. You don't think that is getting some strong attention by your boss? Think again. Whether you agree with it or not, the companies we work for have a vested interest in what we do out there on the web - both during work and now more directly what do after hours.

So how do you avoid getting yourself into a pickle and creating a potentially bad Ripple with your friends, family or employer when you use online social media? Keep these three simple but valuable rules in mind.

1. Take the Grandma Test - Before posting anything is that comment, that BLOG post, that picture or that website something you could feel comfortable showing your little 'ol grandma? If not, post not.

2. Evaluate Before You Propogate - What I mean is scrutinize whatever you are about to put out there on the web before you actually do it. Five years from now when you are sitting down for that dream job interview, meeting with the most important client of your life or starting that relationship with a possible soulmate, will what you put out there be something you will be just as proud of then as you are now? The Internet has a memory and like the elephant it has a funny way of not forgetting what you say and what you do.

3. Don't Ever Assume Your Audience Is Just Your Audience - Your quippy Twitter comments get batted around like a pinata at a kids birthday party and are seen by people you don't know. Your drunked exploits which seem funny as a picture on your Myspace profile likely don't seem so funny when your boss sees you wearing the company shirt at the bar. Your bashing of that same boss on your personal BLOG can and will be found - especially by those who wish to do your career harm. Come on we all have someone out there like that lurking - you know we do.

I've taken some chances out there on the web and I have learned some valuable lessons along the way. Fortunately the damage that I've done with a misplaced comment here or risque BLOG post there is something I have been able to recover from. The blow back fortunatley has never been fatal but it certainly could have been. I say why take the chance?

A personal friend of mine recently discovered that an email joke involving race that he had received and thought funny enough to pass on actually landed in the hands of an important client of his. Hmmm wonder why they won't give him the contract back.

Another close business associate of mine ranted about his boss on his personal BLOG that as it turns out isn't so private and personal. He's now looking for a job.

A former employee of mine who pontificated about the recreational use of drugs on a closed personal group found that to come back and bite him in the ass during an interview. The dude is likely smoking a doobie right now sitting in his underwear on his webcam wondering why the man is trying to keep him down!

A friend of a friend found a picture of his wife hanging out at a party with co-workers and an ex-flame on a mutual friend's Myspace page. The party wasn't the issue it was that she was supposed to be at dinner with an important client that night. Tagging and dating a picture hurts.

Social media opens up an incredible world of connection and interaction for us all. Proceed with caution and use your head before jumping in with both feet. The bells you ring today with your actions, words, deeds and pictures are often impossible to unring and can and will reverberate for a long time to come.

Be careful, play smart and use the three rules. They just may save you from creating a very bad and forever damaging Ripple for yourself.

Ripple On!!!


Special favor request!!!

If you found value in these two posts, please pass them on to your friends and family. If you know a young person in high school or college, I encourage you to pass this on to them as well. The up and coming generation of workers need this advice more than you could possibly imagine. Perhaps if they won't listen to you, maybe just maybe they might listen to the Ripple Guy!

Here's a link to Part 1: http://budurl.com/q3ku

Social Media's Potential To Create A Bad Ripple For You - Part 1

Here's the scene:

Your boss calls you into their office and asks you to have a seat. You immediately know something is wrong. She begins by telling you that something disturbing has been discovered about you on the Internet. She turns her monitor around to show you a listing of your Twitter entries over the past few months. It's like a greatest hits of your best personal observations and quirky remarks.

Sitting at my cubicle doing absolutely nothing. The dude in Office Space is my hero!

My boss just came in and gave us the flavor or the month rah rah speech. Whatever! So Lame!!!

Checking my Facebook and playing this new wordpath game - it so makes it look like I am working and my eight hours is flying by!

I believe that my boss did in fact fall off the turnip truck yesterday. Clearly she landed on her face to boot!

OMG I just found my friend's Facebook photos where I am tagged taking body shots Saturday night. Check it out.

You read through them and suddenly realize you are the only one smiling. Your boss looks at you, her eyes widen and an obscure frown line prominently begins to pouch from her forehead. No she is definiately not smiling.

Then it hits you....Holy crap, she does not find my witty sarcastic comments amusing. Then you realize that most of those Twitter posts were done during the workday. Your heart begins to pound as your mind races feverishly over the many, many questionable posts you made to your Twitter, Facebook and BLOG accounts. Panic sets in like rigamortus to what was once your promising career here at the company.

You wait for it, you hope for it but then it never comes. You know...that ding from the Southwest Airlines commercial that say Wanna Get Away?

Think this is an overblown, highly dramatized description of what might happen? Think again! Here is an example of just how connected this world is and how your very online actions may very well come back to bite you in the hind quarters.

http://budurl.com/j9fd

Social media can and will bite you if you aren't careful. Even if you think you are speaking to an audience of close friends and confidants the reality is that is seldom the case. It only takes one person to discover or forward your funny quip, joke or observation outside your intended core audience to launch a Ripple Effect of not so pleasant consequences. So why take the chance?

Tomorrow I will discuss my three rules to insure that you never have to find yourself on the wrong end of a Ripple when it comes to social and online media. Rules, by the way, that I haven't always followed myself but have become far more in tune with given the various platforms I am using and the potential for reputation exposure.

Ripple On!!!

Twitter Can Kill

I have found the service Twitter to be quite entertaining both as a way to keep up with friends and casual acquaintances and as a way to gage the real time pulse and reaction to news events, product happenings and even the most recent Democratic and Republican convention coverage. The veracity with which some people comment surprises even me.

Last night I was having a side chat with a contact that I have made out on in the valley. We were enjoying direct messaging one another about the various comments that were being posted and carrying on our own internal commentary about Rudy Guiliani and Sarah Palin's speeches. As we both watched comment after comment get posted on Twitter, many of which were my veiled attempt to add some humor to the mix, one particular person began to stand out for the viciousness of their stance. This person was incredibly over the top about the speakers and very opinionated about those who might support them. In fact at one point, this person even began calling the people who support the Republican Party names that I refuse to reprint here.

Now to be fair, Twitter has no rules or regulations about making such comments, or Twits as I like to call them. People get fired up....especially when they talk politics. One of the things I enjoy about this entire Web 2.0 era is the ability to get real time points of view and impassioned impressions of things that are happening out there in the world. With instant broadcasting capability there are going to be points of view I agree with and others I won't - I get that.

What I don't get is the people that jeopardize their own reputation and standing by throwing big rocks in a society that is truly full of glass windows. With instant everything comes one's instant ability to forever damage themselves and in many cases the companies they either work for or run. That to me is a problem.

Case and point. My friend from the valley had made this incredible connection with a designer over Twitter. After weeks of discussion about a project he is needing help on he decided to greenlight big dollars and somewhat open ended creative license for this designer to develop this idea as they saw fit. He was stoked. They were stoked. Web 2.0 had officially created the bridge of connection for these two bright people to work together on what appears to be a fairly substantial and lucrative financial project.

That all came to an apparent crashing and fiery halt last night.

The designer, whom my friend follows on Twitter, became incredibly offended by the hatred and vile nature of this person's posts. As each new Twit was entered it felt like you were watching a trainwreck happening right before your very eyes. My friend's comments to me were both sad and angry. A relationship that had taken weeks to develop was suddenly gone in a matter of minutes. All because this person decided to make some outlandish comments that revealed a disturbing glimpse into their character, values and ultimately who they are as a person.

Though I am quite certain that many of the comments were aimed at impressing this person's friends, I doubt seriously they thought about the consequences of their actions and the impact it might make to the clients and potential clients they may also have out there watching. In a Web 2.0 world those are risks that you simply can't afford to take. Discretion is the better part of valour and boy was it never more apparent to me than last night.

I have no idea if my friend will tell this person exactly why they are pulling the project. If he reads this I hope he will seriously consider doing it - we all need to know when we screw up. It's how we learn and grow as people. Regardless of whether he does or not, he did teach me something last night. He reinforced a lesson that I have espoused right here in this BLOG many times.....

In this world, you are always on stage and impressions are everywhere. Tread carefully!!!


Ripple On!!!

I Twit, They Twit, We All Twitter

So last year at SXSW I started using a service everyone was talking about called Twitter. It's a unique way to keep friends, family, fans, etc. informed of 'what you are doing.' Well I used it several times last year during the conference and to be perfectly honest, never thought about it again....until this year's SXSW Conference.

I dusted off the old log in, requested a new password (I only use three so I was shocked it wasn't one of those) and bam! I was back Twittering with what I found to be a huge community of other people around the world. Upon logging on and seeing all the buzz from those in attendance at SXSW I suddenly felt like the kid left out of the school yard pickup football game. "Hey cool kids..I want to play!"

So I did.

I got back on Twitter and started giving updates every so often. Before long I found I had two people following me. Then three. Then four. Now I have about fifty new people I would never have found nor would have likely found me had it not been for Twitter. I have become addicted to giving updates and to checking in on my Tweet Posse to see what's happening in their lives.

I originally had the question about whether anyone would give a rat's you know what what I was up to on a daily basis but to my surprise....some do and you know what? I care about they are up to too. It's a whole new way to bridge and make connections and I am having a lot of fun doing it. It's a whole new way to Ripple!

Check it out and look for me. My "Tweetal" (I just made that up for handle) is RippleOn. Go figure!

Hope to see you in Twitter land!

Ripple On!!!

Steve

Twitter, Connection, Mickey....As If We Need More Distractions

Happy April Fools Day!

A couple of weeks ago while at SXSW I started playing with this new service Twitter. As if I need another attention distractor! Anyway, it's a new way to keep your friends and colleagues engaged and aware of what you are doing and to see what they are doing through instant messenger, on your cell phone or via their website. It's kind of a cool little service though I haven't figured out how to NOT be annoying with it.

Messages that you can post include:

I need a beer! Anyone game? Meet me at NEEDABEERBAR

I am working and I hate working. Can anyone else feel my pain?

Does everyone at Best Buy have to be 20 and with an attitude?

I have a headache (as if anyone cares) and I am not saying my kids gave it to me...but I am not saying they didn't either.

My wife is in one of her moods (that isn't mine I swear!)

Why on Earth did God not make wives with volume control (hmmm....still denying)

Does anyone know where the hell we are? (Great for when you lose someone at a concert or a conference)

Did anyone else smell that?

Is it a requirement that every dumb ass on the planet has to drive on the exact road I do? (again not mine...I love all (most) people......)

You get the point? You can put most anything out there for your friends to read and either empathize or sympathize with. Like I said, I haven't quite figured out how to use the service yet so as I am not an annoying my pals all the time.

Anyway, check out Twitter and if you want to add me, feel free to do so my user name is what else....but Rippleon

Drew with Drew's Marketing Minute (one of my favorite BLOGS) has a humorious post this morning about how Mickey Mouse might use the Twitter service. Read it here.

Drew references another funny post about what Jesus would Twitter. Read it here. Not necessarily appropriate on Palm Sunday so if you offend easily don't click AND don't blame me!

Enjoy your Sunday!!!

Ripple On!!!

Steve