DISQUS

Color me jealous, even tho I'm a Jameson's girl myself... still 30 y.o. anything should be fully appreciated! :)

Good sells more with exposure - Bad sells less... Mad Men is definitely one of the most amazingly written shows to ever hit television. The ensemble cast? Also amazing. You'll enjoy the DVDs.

But we're going to end up in a question about how to monetize things successfully in the days of easily copied & transferred information, aren't we? ;)

Only here would a post about commenting receive so many comments! ;)

Now if only I had something interesting to say...

Not me, I always do it... now wait a minute... what was that about following too many people on Twitter? ;)

Seriously, there's only "more likely to achieve your goal" and "less likely to achieve your goal" - but who says our goals have to be the same?

Great post as always Mr. Brogan!

It never ceases to astound me how unresponsive Twitter is to their community... but fortunately, when they fix things for the "bigger users" it usually also resolves it for the "smaller users" so that the solution works for everyone.

But it's just bizarre that one of the premier 'social' networks is so antisocial.

Brilliantly dead on as always... But also the reason that I hear so often "Chris Brogan seems like a really nice guy - normal and down to Earth" after people meet you at a conference. Because when you start believing your own press, or even other people's press, you stop having a conversation and start having a fanversation - and I think those of us who love this space are all about the former, not the latter.

Kudos as usual.

p.s. Hope to see some solid female pirates joining y'all soon - because there's nothing like the element of surprise... ;)

I keep *trying* to get over here to say "woooooot!!" and congrats to all 3 of you - but the internet is about 20 Firefox tabs ahead of me today! :P

Doesn't really seem fair to the rest of us, you guys ganging up like that! ;)

Unstoppable force comes to mind...

I meant to tell you how much I love this post - but I got distracted by non-robotic behavior on Twitter! :)

Adding this to my "oh why bother coming up with a different way of saying it when I can just link to this post so much faster" bookmarks. :)

Great lists - both of them. But I can't promise #1... because I like Twitter and from time to time, there are things I want to write about that concern it.

That said? I think there's a difference between writing about Twitter and writing about Twitter Drama.
;)

There's a pretty simple argument against their logic: @britneyspears has over 12.5k followers - are we supposed to pretend that this means she's going to tweet something important any day now?

"I love Japan! I think all the tiny cars are so cute! -Britney 3:34 PM Dec 14th from mobile web"

When popularity = authority, we're all doomed... Follower numbers mean NOTHING if those followers were 1 time visitors who signed up, clicked the "follow @scobleizer" or "follow @techcrunch" buttons and never logged on again to twitter.

Are 10,000 never-used-it-but-the-once followers more important than 100 really engaged, very involved followers? Not in my world.

Okay, now that I've started, I have to watch the whole thing... but it will have to be later. "Not right now honey, I know it's bedtime, but I'm listening to Chris talk about cows," doesn't cut it with the 5 year old.

That said, the Boston cowpath myth reminds me very much of one about 'organic campus sidewalk design' that I heard back in the 80's... about a college that was redeveloped by an architect who put no paths or sod in for the first term of a redesign - but instead waited until the students had trod paths, then put the sidewalks there and the grass around it. The theory being that students are lazy and will always walk the shortest path from building to building - whether or not there is a sidewalk there - so it's best to wait to pave & sod rather than to have to deal with dead grass and unused sidewalks.

This will be in the back of my mind as I watch the rest of the presentation to see where it goes! :)

Excellent post.

And an excellent reminder of why I both adore you and am envious of you in a way that would be mean and petty if I didn't already adore you so much.
You managed to put into words something I've done for years, but never bothered to put into words.

I absolutely love, love, love connecting interesting people to interesting people. I'd rather introduce someone to someone else than to talk about myself... I guess maybe I need to add connector to my self-defined job description.

The thing is? I've found that I learn so much more about myself talking with others about what *they* do then I ever do talking about me. It's like teaching in that way.

Still though - I think there's a line somewhere that I'm still trying to find - that one where I'm not actually providing the other person with enough information about myself.
I mean, if you and I are both busy asking each other questions rather than giving answers, no information is shared either.

But as usual, you've hit another home run Chris! :)

p.s. I met both Liz & Jason at BWE as well and you are spot on! ;) They rock!

The Cirque folks (Jessica Berlin rocks!) rose to the occasion in a huge way!

I wondered how we hand ended up at Revolution that night - but was very glad to be there. Dan was the nicest guy.

That said - I've been to several traveling CdS shows - including Qidam (my favorite still) and Dralion - but O at the Bellagio is by far my best Vegas experience ever.
I'm suprised you had time to fit Love in, but how cool that you did! :)

GateKeeper: Encyclopedia Britannica
GateJumper: Wikipedia

That's the first one that jumps to mind.

Great post Robert.
I'm not a Democrat - but I think you hit the nail on the head 100%...
When an election devolves to a mud-slinging war, no one votes on the ideas or ideals.

Actually, I'm going to disagree with Mr. Yoskovitz.

Words have power. Ontological maps are well defined. You can't take a word that already has a powerful image associated with it on a societal level and say "well, that's not how *I* am using it - I meant something else..."

Yes, teenagers have a habit of doing it - hence we are left with "bad" meaning good and "phat" meaning really good - but individuals seeking a business audience don't get to take an industry word and try to say "well I've decided that it means something different when applied to me."

Purple Cow may not be defined in a business context but "agent" sure is.

Clearly, the fact that multiple people have negative reactions to the phrase is indication that it needs rethinking. Would you buy an energy drink named "Yuck" just because someone tells you that in *this* context they are redefining it to mean something other than what you think it means? Or if you were the manufacturer of "Yuck" would you refuse to change the name if market research indicated that your target market reacted negatively to it?

Words have power. We know Chris isn't a typist (or simply a typist) but clearly "trust agent" doesn't have the immediate positive impact one hopes for when trying to come up with a pithy description of one's primary role.

I think we used to call it "the Human Face of the Company" - and way back when, before it started being the least valued department with the most underpaid people in any company "Customer Service Agent" - but now that just means someone who makes $8/hr and does anything *but* provide actual services to the customer.

Trust Agent? Kinda sounds like someone who works for the Treasury Department to me.

Not that I'm coming up with an alternative - mine all sound like something out of a Gibson novel that are semi-human:
Human Interface
Dynamic Catalyst
Bridge Agent

Hmmm...

Maybe something more along the lines of Unifying Agent? Someone who takes disparate parts and puts them together so that they function well as a whole?

If you're hooked on Trust - maybe Trust Broker? Because in the end, you really brokering the deal to make the two sides connect in such a way that both benefit.

Well now you've got me off playing with words. I know the book will rock no matter what, but ew on Trust Agent.

You know, you and I don't always agree on everything Robert - but you always make me think, analyze, and learn... so you won't hear any "Scoble Sucks" posts from me - even if I ever got a "GeekMommy Sucks" post/twitter/whathaveyou from you.

That said, even if you didn't hit the nail on the head 100% with that post? You stirred up the anthill and got people talking... and that's *huge*. Getting people talking is the best way to get them thinking and fixing what is wrong or pointing out what is right.

Well, I've used Photrade for a couple of months now... don't know what's up with their site not loading, but it's not a bad site normally.

That said - maybe they all had to take their budget for website design and roll it into the $18k fee for Demo?

Who knows how startups get 18k for that anyhow?

The number of messages I got on Twitter when Rick Sanchez (@RickSanchezCNN) aired one of my Tweets on CNN during his Hurricane Gustave coverage tells me they're doing something right.

I didn't even catch the coverage myself - but I got to relive it thru the eyes of a number of other people who were glued to the broadcast.

Yeah, they're getting it right for sure.

I will TOTALLY make it to these whenever possible - especially if someone nudges me in the ribs over on Twitter about a week ahead of time so I can remember!! ;)

It was wonderful. Amazing people. Amazing sponsors. And I had such a great time!
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think a love of social media often indicates that kind of mind. Because there's a certain glee from following the interconnectedness of it all and seeing how things domino from one place to another.

Then again, I'm biased. I'm the kid that saved my allowance to buy Games magazine rather than the latest hit record, whose social gatherings at home with friends are never really complete unless some game or other is dragged out... be it something as easy but never the same twice like Apples to Apples or something more complex like Escape From Colditz.

The secret to staying young in life is remembering to play. It's how kids learn and it's how we stay vibrant and alert as we get older. Something my 90 year old Nana attests to.

Jealous of the secret in your brain BUT that makes it all the more fun. Can't wait to see where this goes. :)

I'm sitting here wondering if my confusion is due to not being "in the Valley" in either body or mindset.
I read the post and it seemed light-hearted and rather amusing up to the part labeled "Some Quick Question(sic) to Help You not be a New Media Douchebag" - then I simply disagreed with some of it and agreed with other parts of it.

Then I read the comments and felt like I must've missed something else here - because I don't quite get why Robert & Louis are offended. Yes, you used their names, but you know - we all follow them hither and yon for a reason. Mostly, it's because they do seem to have a great sense of what will prove fun, interesting, innovative and useful and what is just kind of going to muddle along.
So yeah, saying "Their patron saints are Robert Scoble and increasingly Louis Gray" reflects a bit more on the rest of us wanting to be 'in on the new thing' than it does say anything negative about those guys.

The 'mom' test? I don't use it as a litmus for whether something is 'good for the company' - I use it for whether something is 'good for a particular target market.' Then again, I use my Dad - who has talked with me about my own passion for technology but doesn't share it.

The thing is? If you are looking at tools for technically enabled companies, you'll have a different yardstick than you do for, say, less technically focused companies. I wouldn't recommend the same tools to Home Builders or Law Firms that I'd recommend to Marketing Firms or Retailers.

But I'm getting annoyed by having to keep arrowing down to see what I'm typing... so I'll wrap it up. The first part of this post is amusing if we're being honest with ourselves. The second part I sort of agree, but mostly disagree with.

But I hope that folks seeing themselves in the 'stereotype' can laugh just a bit. Because seriously? Tell me you don't know someone who fits it to a T? I do!! :)

@Matt - classy responses!
I'll definitely keep my eye on what you are doing...

You may just have found a niche that no one else had the foresight to see. In which case we can all look back and say "remember when Brogan posted about it and we all were skeptical? Kudos to Matt!!"

I certainly hope so. I think there's a great deal of utility for companies on Twitter and similar platforms, but not everyone can step up and figure it out well.

Good Luck!