Apparently everyone who doesn't use it.

A good friend of mine who follows me on Twitter and Facebook suddenly says, "I think I'm going to stop following you." So say, "What? Why?" And she says, "I'm so sick of those FourSquare updates. I could care less. They are annoying. No one wants to know you're 'mayor' of your church." And then Edward says, "Tell me about it. Its even more annoying when you're with her and she's checking in every 5 minutes."

Of course I immediately defended myself saying, "I use it to let clients and other tech people know where I am. Or to connect with people in the same place. Or to find out more about a particular area of town."

But they both just rolled their eyes at me. And then it occurred to me, before I started using FourSquare, I hated it too. I would see all these updates from FourSquare on Facebook and I'd be like, "Who care?" Until I got in on the fun. Then I forget about how irritating it was.

Of course the more I thought about this, the more I realized its true of almost all social media. If you don't use it, you HATE it. People who aren't on (or want to be on) Twitter can't stand that other people use it. They say its stupid and pointless. Same with Facebook. Non-facebook users feel that Facebook is a waste of time. Before that it was IMing, or web-surfing.

I'm not saying the FourSquare isn't just a little bit silly. I'm not saying it will last forever. But I will say, to the people who don't use it: don't knock it til you try it.

And to the people who do use it: if someone just doesn't "get it" don't worry. They'll either catch on or just be grumpy and neither effects you. If you lose a follower or two, you might want to re-evaluate, but I say so what? If you know them in real life, connect there. If you know them online and a FourSquare update offends them, forget about 'em. Be yourself online! (Even if that person is a trend-obsessing, constantly-updating, tech nerd, like me.)

So, I've had this idea for a while now. I've been thinking about putting together a poll just about branding and calling it the brandslam. I see so many companies who do a great job branding in their commercials and other marketing, and just as many who totally suck. I've thought about having guests and friends and filling up maybe 30 minutes. What do you think? TELL ME:

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Last week I recorded my update from Galveston where I was working on Hurricane Ike relief efforts with my church youth group. During that time my poor blackberry took quite a beating. So I decided to blog today about the blackberry's durability. Oh, and I made some snide remarks about the iPhone/iPad (because I can't help it).

In the video I mention how blackberries are selling better in India than the iPhone and how an 18 year old girl would prefer her blackberry to a new iPad.

Do you have any great stories about surviving smartphones? Share.

So, while many of you got to hang out at SXSW, learning new tech, I hung out with our future. I was on a mission trip to Galveston rebuilding homes hit but hurricane Ike. So I spent a lot of time with 11-14 year old kids. They had smart phones, gadgets, knew about wifi and texted constantly. I learned a lot from them, so this week I thought I'd share a little of their thoughts.

They get a little rambling at certain points, but they say some interesting stuff, so take a minute to listen to the tail end of Gen Y.

Give your thoughts!

I'm doing a series of workshops for the Center for Spanish Language Media at UNT.

Register

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Contact Denisse Olivas (denisse.olivas@unt.edu) to attend multiple sessions.

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Glad to be back!

Don't get me wrong, I'm a techno-geek of the purest kind, but I'm a marketer first. The marketer part of me puts a heavy emphasis on human interaction and relationships. My focus on technology is about how people connect to each other, just through a online medium instead of face-to-face. But at the end of the day, for me and for my clients, its about personal relationships and how those translate into business.

That's why I was floored when I read an article last night put out on the BBC tech feed. The article was called 'Action needed' on internet bullying. I have to admit, my first response was anger.

I grew up in a somewhat small town, less than a hundred kids in my class in middle school. I moved there from a bigger city, with nearly one thousand kids in my class. Being an army brat and moving a ton, meeting new people was no problem. In fact, I looked forward to my new residence and friends. Instead, I was ostracized, ignored, made fun of, abused on my bus, enough where my parents finally removed me from the school and sent me to a private academy.

I do not hold a grudge though, in the end, I got to go to a fantastic school with amazing teachers. And I'm aware that kids are meanest during middle school. However, where were the articles talking about bullying then? I don't remember ever reading an article like this one. Does it matter less because harmful teasing has gone on since the beginning of time?

I'm not saying that online bullying doesn't happen, or isn't a problem, but I think the root of the problem is that kids are mean. This isn't an online phenomenon, its a fact of life. Deal with the REAL problem. Don't make it out to be some internet-age disease that only the new generation experiences. If you make websites have certain standards of behavior, you better apply those same rules to schools.

Technology should come second. Its real life that matters more.

What are your thoughts about the BBC article and online bullying?

There are some marketing efforts that just fall into the category of Gimmicks. Marketers use these cheap little "tricks"  to get an action out of people (purchase, share, whatever). These tricks range from taste-testing products to sappy stories made for a few heart-string tugs. Most of us are aware of these gimmicks. We allow them work on us occasionally, but usually we ignore them.

However, there's a reason that these marketing tactics have endured. Sometimes, they work.

Twitter gives us a great example of a gimmick not only used by marketers but by parents of four-year-olds as well. You've probably even said it to someone in the pas month. It goes like this, you tell someone "don't" when you actually mean "do". In other words you tell people to do the opposite of what you want them to do, in hopes that they'll do it just because you said not to.

Twitter hopes by saying don't do it! More people will tweet and blog about their new Lists.

I'm sure you've gotten this little message on your twitter page. I'm not going to talk about lists because Twitter got exactly what they wanted, there's a million blog posts covering it. But do check out the little highlighted section on Twitter's notice.

Yeah, Twitter, way to use the oldest trick in the book.Oh and congrats, since its apparently working.

So what DO you think of Twitter lists? If you blogged about it, feel free to share.

Everyone has a passion that drives them in their day-to-day work lives. For business owners its usually some personal belief or action they want to make into reality. Of course the  little things, the constant paper-work, the unwanted phone calls, and the  persistent bills sometimes cloud over this reason. We get caught up in the insignificant things and forget our purpose. Then, one simple thing reminds us and it all comes flooding back. This weekend an AT&T commercial reminded me why I picked social media as part of my career path.

AT&T reminds us with one of those little feel-good moments, what it means to connect to another person without expecting anything in return. Most people feel a tug at their heart strings when they think of a lost pet. Yet, we feel powerless to help. But now the world is connected. We can exchange information in a heartbeat. Sometimes its an ad, sometimes its a news headline but occassionally its for no other reason than to help someone else.

I can't always help people. I might not have the skills, or the means, but I might know people who do. That's why I try to work with companies who do want to make a difference, be it big or small. And if I can facilitate their message to one extra person who needs it, then I've done my job. My passion is to help people help other people.

What passion drives you in your company? Do you need a little reminder to refocus like I did?

Your brand is not in your hands anymore.

The internet possesses powers that can turn you into a celebrity overnight. But the great god that giveth, doth also taketh away. In other words, deal with your business honestly or you won't own a business anymore. Think this sounds dramatic? It's true.

Take the example of Brian King. Brian is media editor (video mostly) and also a podcaster. He's a freelancer. He lives in LA and does great work. Brian had the opportunity to help someone who needed, more-or-less, a quick and dirty video done. Cheap, fast, you know the drill. Brian had some connections and offered to work on the project. After multiple editing rounds, the client paid. Well... kinda. Brian got a letter from Bank of America saying the client in question had stopped the check. It wasn't for a whole lot of money, but Brian had paid out of pocket to use facilities and now he was in the hole. Of course, the amount isn't what matters, its too small of a check to bother hiring a lawyer, but its the principle of thing. So Brian decided he wanted payment, and he was going to do what it took to make that happen.

Brian turned to the internet. First he bought a domain. It just so happens that his client does not own his-name.com: philconti.com Then he promoted the page to his blog. Then he posted it to twitter. Within 2 days he had over 100 retweets and dozen of people making comments on their own blogs and personal websites. If you now google performers Phil Conti & Marlene Arden, mostly negative press shows up.

I found out about Brian's plight from a webcomic I read: Candi by Starline X. Hodge. She posted about it in her daily update because,

"He's a good friend of mine, so when he posted it on his blog, I decided to help. I just didn't like hearing that he got ripped off. Figured if more people knew about it, then maybe they'd pay him for his work."

I contacted Brian and asked if he'd tell me a little bit about why he chose this course of action (putting pressure on the client through the internet). He said

"They're entertainers, and I know that entertainers' web presence is extremely important. If they realize that the internet dislikes them, and their google/twitter/whatever search results are negative, they're going to have problems."

Which I agree, it'd be a problem for anyone! I asked Brian what kind of outcome he hope for. He said he'd just like to make up the difference, if they pay in full, he'll pull down all the pages he wrote mentioning them.

Brian is just one freelancer in California and he completely changed the personal brand of Phil & Marlene. So the next time you deal with a customer or hire a company, be above board. Make sure you hold the keys to your company's image. Never underestimate the power of the internet and what that means for your brand.

So what do you think? Do you think smearing someone's brand is justified? Is it too much? Not enough? Have you seen the internet eat another business alive?
If you agree with Brian's approach be sure to spread the word, ReTweet, blog, link on Facebook. Show his site some love. And Starline too!

Image by AndYaDon'tStop