Maybe this is Goodbye

Here's something that may surprise you: I've been thinking about shutting down my twitter account. I've been looking at it a number of different ways. I could go on hiatus from my account, delete the account, or start a new anonymous account following new people.

It's no secret that I am anti-hashtag and that has always been something that aggravates me about twitter. It's also not a secret that I was repelled by AMC's agency's use of Twitter to fanjack and promote the TV show "Mad Men." What's been eating at me lately in twitter is the echochamber. The same social media voices tweeting the same social media cliches. People interested in building "personal brands" rather than just being people. Evangelists who petulantly bang their fists that clients should stop demanding metrics for social media because conversation can't be measured. Really? Conversation can't be measured? Then make it measurable. Attach an action or metric. Setting goals and defining success are part of our jobs, regardless of those who think social media is about winning a Facebook or Twitter popularity contest or gathering the shiniest collection of widgets and gadgets.

Maybe this is part of a Phillies malaise, but it is something that's been on my mind for some time now. I just want a community where people communicate like real people to other people and not as "experts" or "authorities" or as "knowledge centers" doing their personal note-taking using a # sign and an abbrevation. I just want twitter to be what it used to be when I joined in February 2007: a place where I meet people near and far, learn what they are doing/thinking, find or lend support, and sometimes, just a place to escape - like that rabbit hole into Wonderland.

The Wall Street Journal covers Twitter today, covering the same old businesses that always get covered - zappos and comcast. Yes, they both do a great job, so do the tons of other businesses on twitter. Don't know who they are? Check this twitter Brand Index.

And of course, a plug for the Phillies! Go Phils! Check out these shots on Deadspin. That's Broad street, you can see my office building in the shot, at 1am this morning.

1. More. Game.

I'm updating my blog because some people have been harassing me about it.

Honestly, I'm just not that into blogs anymore. They seem some old fashioned and long form now, in comparison to some other formats/platforms online.

That said, I should use this space to thank Josh Hallett for creating and hosting BlogOrlando a few weeks ago.

BlogOrlando is my favorite social media event of the year because it always draws an eclectic group of people working with social media in different ways for different industries or causes. Each year it's a varied group of speakers that consist mostly of the people working with social media and not the academics who study it or write about it. It can be a bit like listening to the engineers who design a car, versus automotive analysts, which is great because the engineers can share some of what happened behind the curtain and the key learnings that followed.

One thing that I observed at BlogOrlando is that a disproportionate number of people interested in social media haven't read The Cluetrain. Because the Cluetrain is 10 years old this year, I guess I assume that we've all read it.

We haven't all read it.

So go to amazon and order the book or go here, NOW and start by reading the 95 Theses. Then go here and read it online, if you're a cheap bastard who doesn't believe in paying authors for their work. I don't care where you read it, just do it!

Go on then. Come back when you're done. I'll be waiting here.

Just saw this post by twitter pal JJ Toothman and had to share. I've been dormant here for a while because to be honest, blogging has become somewhat tedious for me anymore. Now that I am so deeply connected to the microblogging community in twitter, anything beyond 140 characters seems superfluous. Additionally, social media and marketing blogs have become tiresome for me. They seem to be all saying the same thing.

And that's part of what led to my conversation with JJ about the tech/social media conference gamut seeming to become the new Dead Show. If you've never been to a Dead Show, understand that seeing the Dead was started by the music but later housed by the community. Going to see the Dead was about seeing your friends at the next show. Oh yeah, and seeing the band. And a great tailgate. And that's kinda what all of these gnomeblogsocialmediapodbarcampinteractive's have become. A place to gather and see your friends, have a great tailgate and listen to the same songs (or in this case topics/sessions) you know so well by heart that you often karaoke them locally. And when you karaoke them, for the record, all your friends think you sound JUST like them!

Don't get me wrong - I think there's value to gain from conferencing, however, I think there may be even more value to gain by taking what you know and applying it outside the echochamber.

So while I'd love to go back "on tour" and hang with my friends on the SM party circuit (I'm imagining myself screaming "Twitter" instead of "Eyes" here, and I am scared), I'm being very selective of my SM conference attendance moving forward. For the most part, I'll stick to trading (tweets, not tapes) online.

Hey there!

Several weeks ago on twitter, I tweeted about the Red Tettemer retreat. We were given several challenging pre-retreat assignments that we had to complete pre-retreat and were scheduled for review at the retreat, which was held over several days at the Gatsby-esque Shawnee Inn. Being relatively new at the agency, my only knowledge of what to expect at the retreat were the *many* legendary tales I was told of past retreats and my own awareness of the enormous collective of top talent under the roof at 1 S. Broad St. The word "nervous" doesn't cover what I was feeling leading up to the retreat.

One of our several assignments, as provided by our iconic and much-loved leader, Prez Steve Red, was to bring something that represented our badass selves. Whatever concept/form that may be.

Of course, a ton of the representations blew my concept away. What do you expect, we're an ad agency, with effing awesome creatives;)

Some of my friends on twitter, asked me to post my "badass self" assignment when I could, so here it is.

This is what I see/hear when I think of myself as a baddass.



If you want to see some of the other "badass" submissions, you can go here: RT on Youtube. Sorry it's not better organized on You Tube for you. We'll work on that;)

Exciting news today from Social Media Club. I'm delighted to be one of 40+ other social media practictioners/enthusiasts who are serving as part of an interim board created to establish the guidelines of this association.

We'll be working collaboratively to create the framework that is necessary for SMC to take off on a national, local and global level. Once this framework is in place, local boards will be established using local, interested corporate and non-corporate members.

So basically, I guess my favorite work-phone greeting "Annie Heckenberger, workin' on your business," rings true here now for any of you reading this and part of the social media community. I'm working on all y'allz business:)

I'm excited to work collaboratively with the other board members; this is a unique opportunity to work with peers whose work I follow and often admire.

I'm also energized to help set up this framework so that more social media enthusiasts can jump in and have a more defined direction to take our emerging field to new, and probably mind-blowing new places.

There's so much talent working in technology, development, social media right now. Everyday as I surf the web, my officemates hear me saying "oh my god. this is freakin' awesome!" And I mean it. I'm regularly wowed with the products and services launching online and via mobile. My hope is that our work for SMC helps support all of that talent and innovation you are putting out there.

Stay tuned for more to come on this!

So much going on the social media world!

A few weeks back, my favorite new part-time ninja Judson Collier, launched the fun twitter app twitterbash. Check it out, it's fun to rate your favorite tweets.

The much talked about news of the last 24 hours is the launch of potential twitter-killer identi.ca, whose clean, green design is a breathe of fresh air for this social media enthusiast who is tired of social sites weighing themselves down trying to be everything to everyone and designing in blue. Enough with blue already! Use another color! Sadly, identi.ca is already having capacity problems from the legions of twitter users whom have defected, hoping that this will be a microblogging service that may actually *work* rather than be down daily.

Last for now, I'm trying out twitterphone, a phone that lets you phone in your tweets and sends them in text and audio files to your twitter. It's actually working at the moment, I'm impressed, but it should be interesting to see what it does when a user talks over 140 characters. I'll keep you posted on that!

More to come soon...