DISQUS

Not to compare ... but my 1 and a half year old can already answer calls on my Blackberry. Maybe I can send him over as a tech consultant for this guy. ;-)

Thanks for sharing this post - glad you found it useful for you and your team!

Michael,

Thanks for reposting and sharing this idea - looks like it sparked some interesting commentary with your readers. For me, the direct conversations are a big reason why I find Twitter so personally useful. It is also what makes it so hard for a brand to use. As Mat's comment shared, many people in communications roles aren't ready or willing to have this one on one conversation. And for some, that's probably the right decision. I think as more brands continue to evolve their approaches, a tool like Twitter will offer businesses something that they have long been dreaming of, but never had ... a direct way to communicate with customers that are only PASSIVELY satisfied or unsatisfied - but not enough so to contact you or your company. Until today, businesses had no way to reach these individuals, and now they do.

Hey Michael,

Great to see you again at this, as always. It was a fun time and I'm sorry you didn't come out with us afterwards, but hopefully next time we can grab some time outside the session to connect. BTW - you're just being modest ... your favourite part of the presentation was the slide with your photo on it, right? ;-)

Jack,

Great post and a topic I agree with so much I actually recently released a book devoted to the entire idea of putting more personality into all parts of business (including blogging). I've been working with Anissa to try and find a time for us to chat on your show and will contact her again thanks to this great reminder!

All the best,

Rohit

<abbr></abbr><abbr>Rohits last blog post..Personality Not Included Hits #1 On Amazon UK!</abbr>

Chris,

You know I've got lots of thoughts on this one! One thing I a working on now and wish I did earlier was a powerpoint visual style presentation introducing the book in a different way and giving people an intro to it. One example I particularly like is what Dan did for his book (and it helped that he got an influential third party to endorse the book along with the presentation):

http://www.slideshare.net/garr/career-advice-08/

Looking forward to reading this book and of course, I'd be happy to offer up any help I can as you get closer to the time of your launch. Good luck, it's a tough but hugely rewarding effort and I'm sure you'll do a great job with it.

Rohit

Hi John,

Thanks for skimming the book ... two things that might change your opinion about it being run of the mill:

1. Page 185 (in case you're short on time as we all are)
2. Check about 3/4 of the way down the page on copyright/ISBN page for a secret URL to bonus content

R

Thanks Ken! Also, for those who aren't on Facebook, there is also an event page on Upcoming:

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/813237/

Jas - thanks, you're right I do use Summize. And Google Alerts, of course, which is how I found this post! The nice thing about writing a book on personality and authenticity is that I am really challenging myself to live up to the idea of the book. I've got a Facebook group set up for that reason as well. Looking forward to hearing what you think about this - and if you talk to Steve, apologize again for me about the typo ...

Rohit

Jake,
Thanks for the link and mention in this post. I'll be reaching out to you soon about another effort that I would love to get your thoughts on ... so hopefully I can follow those 10 rules myself and do it right!

I'm loving the new design ... you have successfully blended sexiness with lime green - which most of the world before seeing this site would probably have thought impossible. Looking forward to partying with you this weekend at SXSW!

###

Same here, Rohit! Party on! Thanks for the kind words, as you are Jedi and I am a mere padawan :)

Tim

Hi Jake,

Thanks for the book mention, I will definitely add you to the list of people I'll be seeking reviews from ... since you so kindly offered! Also, I love your work with the LEGO community stuff - I'm a fellow LEGO fan and with two young boys I have lots of LEGO purchases in my future, I suspect. Hope we have the chance to connect at an event sometime soon.

Michael,
Thanks for including my blog in your list. It's great to find your blog as well and I will definitely be turning to it as a resource. I need to write more white papers and love to see a blog entirely devoted to this topic. Looking forward to reading more!

I like your perspective on this - and I must admit I noticed the same mix of PR and advertising embedded in this episode of Rocketboom. We have been working with Intel as their PR agency - and often struggle with the mix of PR and advertising as many of our peers do. While most marketing budgets still remain lopsided in favor of advertising, in this world of personal media, we are finding a niche that is allowing us to do more and more innovative work. In my view, the future of advertising is moving more towards engaging audiences in more authentic ways than just buying a thirty second spot.

Eric,
Thanks for reading and commenting. This effort was initially launched within our Digital Influence team as a guide to help our teammates get a quick snapshot of influential blogs in a variety of categories. Some weeks later, we also unveiled this as the We Media forum in NY (Oct, 05) as an external tool - mainly to help our clients have a useful entry point into the blogosphere. My original post about the launch of the Blogfeeds is available here: http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2005/10.... Over time, it has grown into both an extremely useful internal resource, as well as an external client tool that we use to get client to start reading blogs and understanding the world of new media.

Great point Neil - efforts like Yahoo's are giving each of us a chance to have the insider knowledge of places from a "friend" who's been there before. Add in the ability Yahoo offers to tag photos of hotel properties you have uploaded into Flickr, and it's easy to see how this could fast become the #1 resource for online travel information seekers. Looks like the old days of the misleading hotel brochure or website with artistically retouched photos may soon be over ...