DISQUS

Unleash your passion –- don’t let things you don’t know or don’t understand get in the way: learn them, join them. This part of the quote is pure Conversation Agent :) The rest is Enzo.

Glad it inspired.

Glad to see that you are adopting a more personal approach. The time we take up front is an investment in the community - whatever that may end up being in the long run. What makes a publication, a company, or a business special is the people who are working to make it so - and that is quite personal indeed.

I thought you were going to write: there are two kinds of people, those who split the world into two kinds, and those who do not ;-) You are very kind (no pun intended), Matt and I see I am in exceptionally good company.

Thank you for the shout, you are very kind. The exchange that occurs with comments is the most valuable part of social media. Love the phrase up top there - flexibility and adaptation are winners.

Now we comment here to get some link love back.

I'm with you on linking when it makes sense, and I tend to gravitate towards those who offer exceptional content for my readers - famous or not. Although many of the conversations that happen because of my posts, happen over time - and not necessarily in the comments of that post - I also know that whenever I mention someone in a post, or a tweet, they get a nice uptick in traffic. Which proves one of the points you were making here. Thank you for the mention, Jason.

Jason,

How do you overcome concerns about confidentiality with tools such as ooVoo? Some of the biggest implementation opportunities for a company may be inside its walls...

When quoting posts, please cite a brief paragraph and credit the source up front. This is a cut and paste of most of my post. Please adjust accordingly. Thank you.

Rodney, do you consider influence also the work one does? I mean, would you employer of customer hire you for the skills you have? Why do companies hire agencies? Why do you do business with certain companies? Isn't it all about influence in some way? Just curious to listen to your take.

Thank you for this concise and extremely valuable list, Mike. I like your "N" - when the things you're doing do not work, don't do more of those, try something else. That was wisdom shared by a friend many years ago and it served me well.

Excellent point about clever. Hey that sign *is* clever. Thank you for the link love, Matt. Hope we can organize something when you're back to the area.

Thank you for linking to Tony's post - one of the best I have seen so far on brand management on Twitter. For many it is an event or a situation where they use Twitter for something they really need and then suddenly it clicks. For others, it does not make sense at all. I talk about it as a presence and listening tool at a minimum.

Thank you for the kind mention, Daniel. In the post that will go up today I mention Louis Gray. His is one of the blogs I read regularly. Funny how these things go, isn't it? You and I must have been on the same wave-length.

Happy Birthday, Jake. The image is a little spooky ;-) The sentiment is well put - and taken. People will and do take the time to celebrate special days. And I cannot think of a more special one than that of a new life.

@Cheryl:

TQM was also a passing fad - yet delivering quality to your process isn't. The point is that whatever the tools, the dynamics have changed. As for negative information, it tends to get the attention when it shows up on the balance sheet. It is much easier to criticize than to step forward and do something. Change is hard.

Good discussion, Matt!

A couple of thoughts, if I may.

I'd be curious to define "pro" in blog parlance. Is that the bloggers who blog about blogging? Are we talking just tech bloggers? Wouldn't a marketer with a track record of results be defined a pro? Is it only those who make money blogging?

In the world of business perseverance, grace under pressure and speed win. Speed is not to be confused with multitasking or lack of focus. I am talking about determination with an eye firmly fixed on the goal or destination. It's good to have a strategy and then to stay flexible on how to get there. If something you're trying does not seem to work for you, try something else. That might be a cure for burn-out.

Change the game. When everyone is zigging, go ahead and zag. You touched upon it. It works. Take a piece of news. What analysis can you do that nobody else can? Is it part of a trend? Can you expand it within a larger context? How about looking at it in economics terms? Etc.

I would beg to differ on keeping score. Sports teams are not as diligent as the whole 'sphere in keeping score.

I'm thinking that you will also want to have a return on involvement from the experience. Thank you for the shout and enjoy the conference(s)!

Thank you for the shout, Matt. This weekend I met your colleague Adam Jewell on LinkedIn. He gave the best answer to my question.

Thank you for the shout, Kate. Enjoy your time at Lake Tahoe.

That is an interesting thought, Matt. Certainly there is a lot more we can do with digital applications. From a product standpoint, it would be costly to do and to buy - especially for those companies that are set up to cater to scale. There is in fact a market of customer goods - luxury goods - where that is applied ;-)

Keep up the good thinking - and writing.

Hi there, Derrick. Andrea is awesome, isn't he? If it isn't too much trouble for you, the post on the question of comments being portable was mine ;-) As indicated in the link. Keep up the great work!

Valeria Maltoni's last blog post..Searching for the Social Search Engine

Good meeting you, Matt. Thank you for the link. Tomorrow I am speaking about career and job search 2.0 (overused, I know) at Strayer U. in King of Prussia for the Career Transitions group of Fast Company, Company of Friends. I think I mentioned it at Blogger Social. Have a great weekend and safe travels!

The experience of a person - in business or otherwise, as you suggest - is always private, different, and in the moment. Although I agree, there are more ways to get to see/read/hear what another thinks today, many a public persona are still small slices of the person in front of you. Aside from the thought that some public info is 'engineered' - even unconsciously - to be... public, one changes depending on the interaction. People also change depending on how we think about them.

Lots here to get into, I recently wrote a post myself about revealing yourself to others.

At some point we had an alphabet going with the 4(insert letter) of blogging. I had the 4A's :D

Testing and analyzing is key -- it cannot be subjective (read from the inside) it needs to be outside in feedback loops. The hardest thing to do is learning how to quit -- yet if you look at it, all successful people (and product lines, etc.) are so *because* choices where made through quitting (one of the base messages of The Dip by Seth Godin).

I've been thinking about the whole issue of expertise as respects companies as that is where I spend my professional time. Bottom line, the companies that have the least to lose (start ups, new entrants) from my observation tend to be more aggressive and casual in their approach to marketing and PR. The companies that are established and have a lot more to lose, including carefully groomed image, practice a higher degree of risk management.

Is it just companies? I think it's human nature.

I'm with Kami on this one, Gaurav. To me the chain is a beautiful thing and nothing at all without the people. Thank you for adding to the conversation. For the record, I'm on the client side.