Mondays are my super busy days. I do all staff and client meetings on Mondays in order to get the week on the right foot and (kind of) prepare for anything unexpected. I’m in meetings or on the phone for 10 hours straight, with little time to use the bathroom or eat.

So yesterday, when Shelly Kramer tagged me on Facebook to read this article and then when Troy Claus sent it to me via email, I knew the title was going to make my blood boil, but I hadn’t read it yet.

And boy did my blood boil!

PR Agencies Are Ruining Facebook.

I love sweeping generalizations like this. Continue Reading »

Everyone is back from SXSW and I think they’re spending some time recovering. It’s been REALLY quiet!

But things are not quiet on the Arment Dietrich and Project Jack Bauer fronts. Our latest newsletter came out this morning and, in it, we give you two big things: An April webinar about building community and our newly released eBook, called “Dear CEO: Letters to the C-Suite from Experts on Vision, Culture, Community, and Integration.”

The book compiles advice from 32 business leaders and I’m really pleased with how it turned out! And…it’s available for your eReader, which was NOT an easy feat.

The beta for Project JB launches on April 4. We had a meeting on Wednesday where we realized we’re only six weeks from launching. Holy. Cow. Nearly three years in the making and we’re six weeks away. Anyone have that puke bag for me?

So not quiet here, but we were happy to learn from those of you who did attend the festival. Thanks for that!

With that, I give you Gin and Topics with Chrysler, Domino’s, pay walls, lessons from SXSW, and an inspiring story from a heroin addict turned serial entrepreneur.

Continue Reading »

It’s Friday! On Wednesday Bill Prettyman emailed me about something we normally do on Thursdays and, when I told him it was only Wednesday, I think I took a few seconds of his life.

Bill! It’s Friday now!

We’re getting ready to launch beta 1.0 of Project Jack Bauer next week and soon you will know what the heck it is, what name we’ve chosen, and how you can get involved. Things are moving really quickly (too quickly) and we have only nine weeks left until launch. After the excitement of launching wears off, I’m mostly looking forward to sleeping.

It’s been kind of a slow news week this week, other than some New York Times blogger making me mad, but we still managed to find some goodies for you!

So, without further ado, the Gin and Topics for the week. Continue Reading »

It’s Christmas Eve so I’m cheating. Rather than do a normal a #FollowFriday for today, I’m giving you a complete list of all of the blogs I’ve recommended since I began doing this in March. Wow! I’ve been doing this since March. You’re going to find Twitter handles hyperlinked to people’s names and their blog URLs hyperlinked to their blog names (or taglines – those darn Canadians don’t follow the rules!).

If I had more time, I’d pull these into Twitter and Google Reader lists to make this super easy on you, but alas! I’ve run out of time. Perhaps I’ll do that next week.

So here they are…the people (with Twitter handles) and their blogs (with links). Continue Reading »

Ahhh. I’m back from vacation. Nine days (including the weekends) of pretty much doing what I want. I read five books. I rode 200 miles. I went to functional training twice. I cooked every day. I planted fall flowers. I raked the leaves and put away the furniture for winter. I got out my winter clothes. I slept in. I wrote when I wanted, what I wanted. I had a glass of wine every night. I spent time with old and dear friends I hadn’t seen in a few years. I watched the Bears lose not once, but twice. And now I’m ready to get back at it…a force to be reckoned with so beware!

Because I don’t have much on the brain right now, besides getting through my inbox (which I am dreading), I leave you with the top 10 blog posts I read during vacation. Not my summer vacation, but a book report, nonetheless! Continue Reading »

In place of today’s Top Five post, we have a special guest post by Shelly Kramer, founder and chief imagination officer of V3 Integrated Marketing, about a new must-have tool.

I don’t need drugs. I just need technology. And technology that makes my life easier makes me swoon. My latest heartthrob is a private, unmineable news reader that combines my social streams with my news streams. And in what is nothing less than a stroke of GENIUS (pun intended) Genieo can do what products like Flipboard and My6Sense can’t – it can tell the difference between ATTENTION and INTENTION.

Why does that matter? Well (she says, rubbing hands gleefully together), let me tell you. Genieo can intuitively sense whether I’m intentionally looking for a new product (like a social media monitoring service) or whether I’m paying attention to the social media monitoring space because I want to know who’s saying what about the industry because I have a client who happens to sell social media monitoring services. Get it? Intention = want to buy something. Attention = paying attention to a particular space because I’m interested in something beyond a purchase. Continue Reading »

Last week Daniel Hindin and I had a Twitter brainstorm while I was in LA and he was in our office. While we were talking to one another, because it was publicly, a few of our friends jumped in to help. The idea? A round-up of five blogs, articles, videos, podcasts, or columns from the week that you should read/listen to/view.

We have decided to do the round-up on Fridays because it’s our non- self-serving day as we already discuss reasons you should #FollowFriday someone on Twitter and on their blog. We figure this is another great way to talk about our smart friends around the globe. Continue Reading »

I started following Shelly Kramer on Twitter, gosh, more than a year ago because she is F-U-N-N-Y! One day I get a tweet from her that says, “Do you know Mattie Dietrich?” Um, yes…she’s my sister-in-law. Mattie and Shelly’s daughter, Katherine Meyer, went to college together. And so endeared her to me forever and that is why today’s #FollowFriday is Shelly Kramer and her fabulous blog (that is part personal, part business, and part pure craziness) V3IM.

Shelly is kind of a big deal, though she’d never tell you that herself. She’s on the Forbes list of 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter, she was named a top small business mom by American Express, and the blog was named by Forbes (it looks as though she and her partner may be paying Forbes – jeez!) as a best social media blog by a woman. Continue Reading »

Are you ready?

@PatrickReyes Patrick works at GM and is the furthest thing you would think when you think marketing and automaker. If he gets his way, he’ll change the way the auto industry communicates…for the better. On top of his demanding job, he blogs at Salt and Light, and quite consistently. AND, his New Year’s resolution was to commit to exercise. He’s on day 31 of P90X and loving it. He talks about his progress and it’s fun to watch. His only negative? He’s a Lions fan.

@dietcokeluvah You know how you meet people who are not scared ONE BIT to jump into a conversation, engage, and endear themselves to you? That’s my Diet Coke friend, who (for some reason), has an avatar of My Little Pony today. She has just started her blog, but I’m already intrigued. Note the Web sites/blogs she has listed…see a common theme? Continue Reading »