Random ideas about Twitter

Twitter is my new favorite social media. I like shiny things, so this probably won't last forever, but for now Twitter gets the bulk of my social media attention.

If you're totally new to Twitter, read this.

People I know that aren't on Twitter keep asking me what's the big deal, so I thought I'd share some ideas.

Four reasons why I like Twitter:

1. Twitter keeps you in constant contact with people. Not like a "networking" event where you meet, chat, then don't see them again for another month.

2. Twitter is a great way to meet new people in real life. I've met at least 10 people face to face in the last month that I first "met" on Twitter.

3. Twitter is funny. Two favorites from today (a horribly snowy day in C-bus):
@Jason_WCMH: Did you guys know it snowed today?
@Jason_WCMH: Well if you didn't, watch our news so we can tell you its snowed and traffic was bad. We have 4 people to tell you live.

@InsoOutso: All of this ice and me without liquor.

4. Twitter is helpful. I've learned about new books, news stories, gotten restaurant recommendations, and ideas for stories that I never would have heard about if it weren't for Twitter.

If you're going to start Twittering, here are my four tips:

1. Don't be your company. Be yourself. Twitter is a conversation.

2. Use a real (or funny or creative) picture. Company logos are boring. See point 1.

3. It's not fun without friends. Start following people and join the convo.

4. Answer people. Ask questions. Share interesting tidbits (not sales pitches).

Happy Twittering!

Turn on the light

Last night, at around 3AM, my 3 year old daughter woke me with several pokes to the shoulder.

"Mom!"

"Go back to bed," I told her, still half asleep.

"But mom, there's a spider in my room!"

I tried to convince her that there were no spiders in there, that spiders are our friends (a stretch I know, but I really value my sleep...). She wasn't buying it.

I finally got up and stumbled after her to her room.

"See?" she said pointing up. "It's right there!"

She was pointing to the ceiling fan. In the dim light cast by the nightlight, it did present a somewhat menacing sillouhette.

"That would be a pretty big spider! But see, it's just your fan," I told her as I turned on the light.

I think sometimes fear of failure looks like a giant spider in the dark. It can paralyze us with fear. But once we accept that sometimes we'll fail, it's like turning on the light to find it's just a ceiling fan. It's not as bad as we originally thought.

Don't let fear of failure keep you from sharing your ideas. Some of them will fail. Some of them will be bad. But just turn on the light and push through it.

More ways to get jobs

Here's another quick way to help the people you know who are in the job market right now.

Introduce them to the other people you already know.

But -
how do you know
who you know
that they want to meet?
(what?)

Easy if you're on LinkedIn. Just invite your jobless buddies to browse your connections on LinkedIn. If they see anyone that catches their eye, offer an introduction.

Just be sure you only invite people to do this that you'd recommend for a job. Or it could have a detrimental effect on your rep...

When to kill an idea

Early this morning, I had to get a minor surgery. No big deal, everything's fine (thanks for asking).

What was interesting, though, is what I overheard.

I was waiting in pre-op for about 2 hours. I was separated from other patients only by those flimsy curtains they pull between the beds.

To my right, I overheard this conversation:

Physician Assistant: Do you use any recreational drugs?
Patient: Yes, marijuana.
Physician Assistant: When was the last time?
Patient: Yesterday morning.

Hmmm...

To my left? This:

Nurse: What are we doing for you today?
Patient: A Hemorrhoidectomy.

Ouch...

I'm quite sure neither person wanted me listening in on these or any of their other personal medical history. Thank God for the curtain, because I was embarrassed - I can't imagine how they must have felt.

So this was just 30 minutes or so after I signed a form stating that I understood their HIPAA practices... I'm no expert, but part of HIPAA protects the privacy of people's personal health information. So how is it doing that in this scenario?

This is a great example of a well intentioned idea that, in execution, is not having an impact. Mountains of paperwork have been introduced to protect people's privacy, and still I can overhear the medical history of everyone around me (and they can hear mine). What's the point?

This happens in businesses all the time.

It's certainly happened to me. You come up with a great idea. You get buy in. Then you implement it, only to find that no one uses it. Or no one gets value out of it. Or it doesn't work in practice as well as in theory.

But you keep trying. And making people do it. Because, hey, it's a great idea! And you really want it to work!

Pretty soon, it's just useless paperwork.

Lesson? Don't be afraid to kill great theories that suck in practice, no matter how much blood, sweat and tears went into them up front.

Idea inspiration

I attended a fabulous event last Thursday night. It was Ignite Columbus. Ever heard of Ignite? Neither had I. It's very cool. Basically, it's a series of presentations. The only rules are you only get 20 slides, your slides advance after 15 seconds, and you only get 5 minutes total to talk.

The presentations on Thursday covered so many topics. Here's a sample:

• multimodal interfaces (I'm ten times smarter after listening to that one)
• saving cash (yes, we all need to)
• temperate broadleaf deciduous forests (save our planet!)
• turning Columbus, Ohio into a Hollywood farm team (I think we can do it)
• green urban planning (and keep saving the planet!)
  
• backcasting with Japanese animation (my personal favorite - so funny and creative)

So much fun and so much idea inspiration. When you're in a creative slump, it helps to get out and hear the ideas of others, and what a fabulous venue for it.

Go out and find an Ignite event in your town!

Help a fella out

Hey - everyone's belly aching about the economy now a days. And with good reason. I've got at least five friends whose jobs have been affected. Chances are, you know someone in the same situation.

So what can you do? It's simple. As you're out talking with people and networking, add one standard question to your small talk line up:

"Is your company hiring anyone right now?"

If they are, then this is your opportunity to help out your friends. Offer to send contact info (get a resume - even better) to the hiring company and pass along the company info to your out of work friends. The connection you create might just be the one to get them a new job.

It only takes minutes and could mean all the difference to someone you care about.

So hey - is your company hiring anyone right now? If so, I know some great candidates. Here are their skill sets:

• Exercise and personal training
• Billing and administration
• Marketing communications

For more info, just mail me.

Simple is best

What's the easiest way to get someone to buy in to your idea? Make sure it's simple.

Not that this is necessarily easy. Sometimes it can be difficult to pare things down to their simplest terms. But the easier it is for someone to understand your idea, the more likely they are to believe in it.

The Common Craft Show does this really well. They use short videos to tell you three things:
1. what the idea is or what problem it addresses
2. how the idea works
3. why you should care

They have many very useful videos on serious topics such as social networks, elections, and blogs. This not so serious one is my favorite:



Happy Halloween!