Welcome to 33rd edition of The Three Things, the weekly update of three links, podcasts, videos, or books you can’t miss from Michael Schechter (Honora, A Better Mess), Howie Goldfarb (Blue Star Strategic Marketing), and me!

For those of you new to this series, The Three Things arrives in your inbox on Sunday mornings (unless you don’t suscribe, but that can easily be fixed if you hurry over and enter your email address or add to your RSS feed) so you have some extra time to spend perusing the obscure content we’ve curated for you (and one another) before your week begins and deadlines, meetings, and work takes over.

This week we have thoughts on goofing off, Facebook, and company profits. Continue Reading »

Have I mentioned how happy I am cycling season has begun? Pete the Tapeworm is out in full force now. I missed him!

This weekend Mattie Dietrich (the one who brought you H-I-larious) is visiting us and she’s going to be mad I mentioned her here, but didn’t hyperlink her name.

Please someone (other than me) explain to her you need to have an online presence to have something to link to. When you search her name, she only comes up in other Gin and Topics. Not quite the same.

But we have a weekend planned full of fun stuff I haven’t quite figured out yet. Perhaps a boat tour, a museum or two, and lots of eating (I blame Pete).

While we’re off galavanting, I leave you with Gin and Topics. This week’s videos are courtesy of Lindsay Bell-Wheeler, Kat Krieger, Susan Cellura, Joe Thornley, and Mr. D. Yes, it’s true. I did no work on this issue this week. Continue Reading »

I’ve been holding on to this one for a long time because I wanted to wait until her birthday.

Happy Birthday, Aimee West!

For those of you who don’t know Aimee, allow me to introduce you.

She began her career as a printer and then became pretty adept at creating and designing websites. But when social media hit the scene, she dug in to learn some new skills and (like the rest of us) figured out she could use the tools to enhance not only her job, but that of East Lansing Food Co-Op (or ELFCO, as the cool kids call them).

She found her true love in the folds of Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and more. With her design background, she discovered the skills were pretty transferrable and she set about convincing ELFCO to let her take some risk and test some theories.

It’s pretty clear, by looking at the ELFCO social networks, she knows what she’s doing and is having fun doing it. Continue Reading »

There exists a special tool that can comfort people, share both good news and bad, and connect kindred spirits in a way that simply was not possible a few short years ago.

While giving comfort has always been around, the ability to comfort strangers is still new.

Let’s call it human social media.

When my daughter was born 16 years ago, I was young, exhausted, and often alone.

Like my daughter, the Internet was also still in its infancy.

Although there were forums or chat boards for mothers (remember them anyone?) they were new, people were cautious, and it was easy to be skittish about interacting with a stranger online. And yes, there were idiots out there even then. Continue Reading »

In a couple of weeks, I am keynoting Social Capital in Ottawa (love my Canadians!) and my topic is Blogging, Community, and Making it Work.

As I begin to think about what I’ll present during that hour, I’ve been thinking about our community here and how proud I am of each and every one of you.

Last week, we had a situation where you came to the rescue. I hope she doesn’t mind my telling this story. Continue Reading »

A couple of weeks ago, Brian Tudor tweeted DJ Waldow and me and said, “What makes an engaged brand on Twitter?”

We had a back-and-forth discussion about what it entails: Conversation, shares, retweets, and shares of others’s content.

Brian said, “Okay, then. Why does Nestivity say the 25 most engaged brands on Twitter do none of those things?”

We looked at what he was describing and found the top three most engaged brands to be Notebook of Love, Disneywords, and ESPN.

First, let’s look at the numbers: Continue Reading »

Welcome to 32nd edition of The Three Things, the weekly update of three links, podcasts, videos, or books you can’t miss from Michael Schechter (Honora, A Better Mess), Howie Goldfarb (Blue Star Strategic Marketing), and me!

For those of you new to this series, The Three Things arrives in your inbox on Sunday mornings (unless you don’t suscribe, but that can easily be fixed if you hurry over and enter your email address or add to your RSS feed) so you have some extra time to spend perusing the obscure content we’ve curated for you (and one another) before your week begins and deadlines, meetings, and work takes over.

This week we have thoughts on  Continue Reading »

It’s Friday. It’s spring time. Cycling season officially began this week. It’s happy time!

First things first, did you see Iron Man 3 last weekend? If you haven’t yet seen it, it’s definitely a big screen movie. I saw it in 3D (mmmmm…RDJ in 3D) and it was worth the few extra bucks. Also, Gwyneth Paltrow is stunning in it. I have a crush on her, too.

This weekend is The Great Gatsby. Though I loved the book in high school, I didn’t love it as much when I re-read it last year. But I’m still looking forward to the movie, if only for the cinematography.

For those of you who have kids and can’t get to the movies, I’ll make you a deal. Buy me cupcakes from Sweet Mandy B’s and I’ll watch your kids so you can go to the show.

Deal?

Until then, I bring a little bit of Hollywood to your inbox with Gin and Topics. This week’s videos are courtesy of Christina Pappas, Mr. D., Heidi Massey, Bill Dorman, and Roger Friedensen. Continue Reading »

If you spend any times in the comments here (with the crazies), you already know Joe Cardillo.

He’s become a permanent part of the community and was welcomed with open arms. He’s smart, he’s witty, and he’s obsessed with Big Data, which makes him definitely a friend of mine.

I learned something new about him today as I wrote this. He no longer works for PR Newswire, where he’s spent most of his career. He’s now splitting his time between Albuquerque and San Francisco.

Why, you ask?

He just joined Visual.ly in operations and business development. Continue Reading »

I’m going to fill you in on a little secret…I’m an introvert.

*Gasp* I know, weird right?

Like my friend Mack Collier, I’m an extrovert online and in introvert offline.

If you met me in a large crowd, (prior to chatting with me online), I’d be the awkward girl in the corner with her face in her (name random electronic device here) to avoid actually speaking to people.

Sometimes I wear headphones when I’m not listening to music so I don’t have to talk to people. If you see me at a conference, or on the streets of Chicago, you’ve been warned!

Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy interacting with people, but I only talk when I have something to say. Continue Reading »