Tag Archives: Social Media

Social Media Day What A Success!

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Thank you Orange County Register for hosting a Mashable Social Media Day event.

How did you celebrate  #Mashable’s Social Media Day? I celebrated it with my local social media club, Social Media Mastermind of Orange County (SMMOC) at the Orange County Register. For those of you who know me, you know that I love to support journalists and their publications, therefore, it was a win-win for me to be at the OCRegister.

Kudos to everyone who was involved at this local gathering. Employees at the paper, like Kevin Sablan, did an amazing job of lining up speakers, equipment, parking access and food vendors. The content that was provided was definitely “remark-able” and hopefully, a good time was had by all.

YEAH FOR SOCIAL MEDIA DAY

To help give you a flavor of what our day was like, I put some pictures together and produced a short video. The best thing about this day is the fact if you couldn’t make it to any event – you could still participate by following on the dozens of twitter hashtags that cropped up representing social activities throughout the world. It’s now becoming one of my favorite days of the year.

Enjoy!

PR TIP: TAKE A STANCE TO HAVE YOUR VOICE HEARD

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Gray is Never a Safe Area Nor A Marketing Choice

One thing you are never going to hear from a medical doctor is that you’re half-pregnant. A woman is either pregnant or not. There are no other alternatives. It’s black or white, not gray. But, this doesn’t mean you can’t be half-pregnant in regards to business and/or marketing. In fact, in my humble opinion, I feel this diagnosis of late is in epidemic proportions.

How I define half-pregnancy in marketing and business is as such: “Trying to offend anyone or anything by choosing a side, even when a side is presented.” Again, this my definition and is not official.

GO AHEAD AND TAKE A SIDE

Half-pregnancy is a common practice in politics. Politicians are always trying to walk a fine line to please all parties. They are very careful when they make “stands” on issues and subjects that they try to make sure that both political parties will agree to some or all of the parts.

It’s this ‘not wanting’ to offend that impregnates the situation. And, that tightrope places that “said” person or thing in the vast and valueless wasteland of the dreaded “gray area.” Whenever you set out to become like Switzerland (slang meaning – not making waves or taking any sides… being neutral), then you are setting yourself up to not gain attention. Its similar to this saying – ‘When a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make noise?’

Taking a stance, side and position is important in making noise. Politicians want to be remembered and not forgotten because their words lacked opinion or substance.  But in this day and age of transparency (being authentic), it’s very easy for people to find out information. If you want to hold the line that you don’t have a particular agenda, they can find out in a matter of seconds if that’s indeed true.

Hello, I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up! Does anyone hear me?- Flickr Credit: Sage

To make this point a bit clearer, let’s look at this hypothetical situation.  Jane Doe is running for State Governor and she says as a female she believes that women should have the right to choose what happens to their own bodies and that birth begins at the moment of conception. She is referring to both the pro-life and pro-choice abortion movements with her professed beliefs.  But, she has regularly attended pro-life rallies and fundraisers as a part of her Catholic parish, as such it would be easy to figure out she leans more toward that cause. Which to me is fine. I am trying to make the point here that is fine to take sides, in fact its beneficial. Be who you are and make stances. Otherwise, the noise you make maybe only heard by you and that’s not a good PR move.

LEARNING THE HARD WAY

I found this out myself.  Here’s what happened to me. When I entered college I wanted to pursue a career as as sportscaster (don’t laugh too hard). With that, I was able to finagle being the guest on a local radio sports show.  It was my first foray into media and I was nervous, yet excited about the opportunity.  Five minutes into the interview he asked me my opinion about who would win the “freeway series,” between The Los Angeles Dodgers and then the California Angels.  I said something to the effect like “both teams seemed to performed strongly in pre-season” – I was in Switzerland, I gave a valueless “gray answer” and boy I got ripped when we went to the next commercial. The local sportscaster told me if I wanted a future in the business, I needed to have an ‘opinion’ on everything and I had to boldly state it. Otherwise, I would never make it. I needed to take a stance; he was right and that thought has stuck with me ever since.

I also often use this statement that I overheard somewhere…”when throwing a dinner party, it’s best to invite guests of differing opinions. Otherwise, it would make for one boring and long dinner discussion if we all agreed on the same subjects.” I so agree. We all can learn from each other.

So I’m taking a stance against the gray area and half-pregnancy and hope that you will call me out if you see me falling into this common practice. Is this something you have experienced too? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

 

How Hashtags Improve Tweets

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Talking Hashtags with Darin, Lisa and Kate McClure. Photo Credit:@Amykimesdesign

For those of us who are involved in the television industry, the rule of thumb has always been to put titles of TV shows in quotes whenever they are written about in releases or press articles. Therefore, if I was writing a press release about Fox’s hit show “Glee,” I would have it written with the quotes as I did in this sentence.

Yesterday I was looking at my Twitter stream of some of my media colleagues and I noticed that they were not using hashtags properly and in fact, really not using them at all.  For you see, these reporters are tweeting about specific TV shows, but they are putting the titles in quotes when they should be putting a hashtag instead.

Do you know what a Twitter hashtag is and are you using them on a regular basis?

In case you are new to hashtags, here’s how Twitter defines them: The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

THE PROPER USE OF HASHTAGS

Corporate Media Strategist Darin R. McClure of Ready To Go Information Technologies is often overheard saying that search is not the problem with the Internet, its sorting the information which is the most difficult. He and his wife, Lisa, are advocates of Twitter and both have a in-depth knowledge about Twitter’s multiple uses for companies and users. If you follow their respective Twitter streams (@darinrmcclure, @lisamcclure) you will watch poetry in 140-character action. They are extremely gracious and informative and involved in organizing several high level Twitter chats (full blown regular conversations). I highly recommend you follow them.

I recently was able to catch up with both Darin and Lisa and interview them about the merits of using twitter hashtags.  That interview is below.

[youtube width="960" height="540"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eJkVPo-Cug[/youtube]

HOW HASHTAGS ARE HELPFUL

1. People on Twitter use hashtags before relevant keywords to categorize their tweets so that a particular topic shows up more easily in Twitter Search.

2. If you click on a hashtagged word in any message, you will see all other Tweets in that category.

3. The most popular hashtagged words often become trending topics and if your tweet is re-tweeted a lot, it can become the top tweet for that topic.

Can you Over Hashtag? As a general rule of thumb, Twitter.com recommends no more than three hashtags per tweet. Anything over that number is considered  over-tagging and yes, they even call it hashtag spam.

IN SUMMARY

  • When tweeting about topics, use a (#) and not (” “).
  • Don’t start your tweets with an @ symbol. Put some letter or words before it…Like “Hi” and then address the person in the tweet. That way your tweet is open to your entire twitter stream.
  • Check out Tweetchat.com when wanting to connect with others who are passionate about your same topics.
  • And follow me, Lisa and Darin too. We’d love to continue this hashtag conversation with you!

Special thanks to videographer @jasontucker and photographer @amykimesdesign. Follow them too.

Cindy often uses #PR to sort her tweets.

About the Author: Cindy Ronzoni loves conversations on any platform. As an experienced communicator, Cindy often writes about devices or methods to promote people, places and products. She also is an active member of Orange County, California’s social media endeavors and as such, gets the privilege of rubbing elbows with such astute practicioners as Darin and Lisa McClure. Cindy also frequently writes about small business matters on her company blog at: http://socialspreadmedia.com.

If you feel like giving her some +klout support, feel free to put it toward #pr.

 

 

Best Kept Secret about Osama bin Laden

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Isn’t it ironic that President Obama wasn’t able to keep the death of Osama bin Laden a secret last night yet the CIA’s secret mission that began in September never leaked? Thank goodness for that! I was beginning to wonder if secrets can ever be kept again now because of Twitter.

TWITTER IS SAVING THE WORLD

Yep, that crazy platform that only lets you communicate with 140 characters at a time is changing how we break news. CRAZY, huh!

According to Brian Stelter, a media reporter with The New York Times, the story of bin Laden’s death leaked on Twitter while President Obama was penning the speech he was going to give to the nation last night. It’s an interesting read and you can find it here.

But the gist of the article are these couple of key paragraphs.

At 10:25 p.m., while Mr. Obama was writing his speech, one particular tweet seemed to confirm it. Keith Urbahn, the chief of staff for the former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, wrote at that time, “So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn.”

Mr. Urbahn quickly added, “Don’t know if it’s true, but let’s pray it is.” He was credited by many on the Web with breaking the news, though he did not have first-hand confirmation.

This story just goes to show you that it’s time to take Twitter seriously. Reputable people use it as a news vehicle and as we saw in Japan’s earthquake, it enabled victims to communicate locations. It’s a viable communications platform and one that “smart” people are listening to.

Are you and if not how come?

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OLD GLORY IS GLORIOUS

Last night’s news of bin Laden’s death ranks up there in pivotal moments in history. It’s one of those instances when people will ask you where you were when you heard of his death.  Me, I was sitting in front of my computer writing a press release when I heard the surprising announcement.

I couldn’t believe how the news impacted me. I was stunned and then I started to realize its bearing on the world’s future. I also felt relieved for our military who persevered 10 years to capture that criminal.

Since the news was reported late in the evening,  I yearned to make a mark somehow to recognize the importance of this event.  The only thing I could think of doing was to hang out my flag in honor the troops, so that’s what I did.

You can see it here.

[youtube width="600" height="400"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmLlmhqD0Cg[/youtube]

How did you celebrate?

 

Networking in Foreign Lands

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Attending Agent Reboot with my RE friends

THE SOCIAL REALTY

Today I’ve embarked on a new experiment. I’m attending a social media convention called Agent Reboot OC. This gathering is geared toward realtors and although, I know virtually nothing about this industry, I was wise enough to examine their agenda to see that they were presenting informative topics. For a mere $49 admission price and $9 for parking, I’m learning about mobile tools, Facebook tips, lead conversion and meeting an entire new group of people.

For over 20 years I’ve attended conventions and workshops involving the entertainment, blogging or casual gaming industries. Here I’m totally networking out of my normal wheelhouse. It’s quite interesting walking through the hall and looking at sponsors – Lowe’s, Zillow, Better Homes and Gardens, Yahoo and even UPS.  Good thing I love learning about new things!

Yes, you may be scratching you head as to why I would be attending as a PR pro, but I wanted to learn more about local promotion and advertising and realtors are among the best at promoting local. So it was well worth my time.

I must say that I’m not walking into this conference cold. In addition to the interesting topics, I do have a few new social media friends who are here in attendance. That made my decision a bit more easier to attend.

Realtors Investing in the Latest Tools To Optimize Business

MOBILE IS KING

The main point of this blog is that the reason why I am here is greatly due to Robert “Bob” Watson, the founder of the social media club I attend, Social Media Mastermind of Orange County (SMMOC). SMMOC is just one of Bob’s side passions, he actually is an accomplished and well-known consultant at First Team Real Estate. By attending the SMMOC meetings I’ve been rubbing elbows with over 20 real estate professionals. And I must say most of the discussions are triggered by them for they truly are embracing new media in their professions. They video tape open houses, list new properties on foursquare and have thriving blogs.

What am I learning so far at Agent Reboot?

  • That iPads are a going to be a must for business.
  • That we should rethink our Facebook business pages
  • Mobile will be king in 2013.
  • Text is important.
  • And that we all need to produce more video.

That’s just after two hours and I’ll write more later.  Below is a photo of fellow SMMOC member Stacey Harmon addressing the group on Facebook Business Optimization tips. She runs a company called PixelCoaching. Visit her site today to learn the differences between personal and business profiles/pages on Facebook.

Share photos on twitter with Twitpic

An Investment You Can Afford – Empire Avenue

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Here's Another Site that Will Consume Your Time!

While lunching yesterday with fellow social media strategist/blogger Tim Tyrell-Smith he told me about this social media adventure called Empire Avenue. According to its website,“Empire Avenue is the Social Media Exchange, where you can buy and sell shares in any social media profile, meet new people, unlock Achievement badges, and earn boatloads of virtual cash by being active and social online! Buy shares in your friends, your followers, people with similar interests, brands you love, celebrities – anyone! All using a virtual currency and all for free!”

Tim was really excited about this social ranking website, mostly because it has a game-like component to it.  He wrote an in-depth blog post about it here and you should definitely take time to read it.

So, I had a few minutes yesterday and decided to check it out for myself.  And it’s really quite fun and I could see that for some social media types – Empire Avenue could be addicting. That is if you are one of those who is concerned about how you rank as a social media influencer. I don’t know about you, but for some reason I am concerned about my scores on Empire Avenue and on other such social media measuring sites like Klout and Peer Index. And I’m not too proud of that fact and would like to send this warning. Don’t let these sites trip you up so that you consume too much time or cause you to change your communication plans.

There are ways that you can increase your scores through little tricks like posting more on Facebook and sending more tweets to ratchet up your scores. I would like to forewarn you not to get caught up in all that. But in the end, does it really matter? These are not official rankings and not a true measurement of one’s success.

JOLLY GOOD FUN

There some things about this site which are impressive. The site exudes quality in every sense and presents numerous options to keep one interested.  It resembles the stock market and as such, it fun to buy and sell and evaluate stock in other humans, places and things. And the best part is that it’s not real money. You’ve got nothing to lose. It’s like a Monte Carlo event for online. And if you’re feeling really generous I’d love you to invest in me…the ticker symbol is THE RONZ.

Even though I’m not making money, Empire Avenue is. Empire Avenue has cleverly integrated advertising onto its site by allowing “investors” to earn more shares by engaging with products on its Shop Section.  Empire Avenue’s currency is called “Eaves.” You can earn additional Eaves by twittering and posting on Facebook and by shopping through its store.  Eaves can be acquired free or through real money.  You can watch videos, buy magazines, take surveys and purchase some through PayPal.

What I also like about Empire Avenue is that it allows me another opportunity to network online and become better acquainted with others I know.  I was really excited to invest in TRADERBECK, an advertising reporter friend of mine, and a few others fellow bloggers.

I was pleased as to how effortlessly Empire Avenue connected all of my social media activities into my profile. I was able to add in my blogs in the profile too and others are able to endorse them. As a blogger, I love that it helps spread my efforts to a new network of social media friends.

So the connections are good. The site is polished. And if I consider my time on Empire Avenue to be used as break from work, then its worthwhile.  If I think of it as a game, then I don’t feel as guilty investing my time.

But…there are some things on the other side of the coin that I have to look at like…

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT

Finance is not my strong suit.  When it comes to the stock market and portfolio management I have a pro who looks after mine. So, I wanted to check this out with a friend of mine who’s a financial wizard of sorts. He loves the thrill of buying and selling and does a great job of it so I wanted him to tell me his opinion. When I called him to ask him about Empire Avenue he said that he doesn’t participate in such activities that resemble the stock market for fun. He said that there are other sites that represent this area and those sites are chock full of ads from investment firms and funds.  He said the main reason these sites exist is to help others start to understand the stock market and become more comfortable enough with it so that they start real online accounts. I do see his point. I don’t think this is the case for Empire Avenue – but, clearly this site is about earning a profit. If you dig a bit deeper in the “Shop” area, you will see that’s an integral part of the site…to buy sponsored products.

We all need to make money and that’s how Empire Avenue collects their paycheck through its Shop section.  They hope that a participant gets so excited about buying and trading that they will want to earn or buy more Eaves. And if a user engages with a advertiser they probably get a take of it as well.  And although, I’ve noticed this…I do appreciate that our home pages on Empire Avenue are commercial free.  The advertisers are only seen when you visit the Shop Section.

Empire Avenue also has a foursquare component to it where the user earns badges.  On foursquare it is quite difficult to earn badges, but not so on Empire Avenue. In 24 hours I’ve earned 55 badges. That’s a bit too much don’t you think?

A Partial List of My Achievement Badges Earned in Less Than 24 Hours

Also, every time you earn one of their achievement badges, they want you to tweet it out. If you do, you get three more Eaves.  Because of  this, Empire Avenue can become the Farmville of Twitter.  I tweeted a bit too much about this stuff wanting to earn Eaves before I realized how I was cluttering up my brand on Twitter and potentially infuriating my followers.

I did not intend for this post to be a downer about Empire Avenue. I really think you should check it out. But, in doing so, just be careful not to get too carried away by your personal score or by over-messaging to increase your “unofficial” social media ranking.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about such social media measurement sites. While they are fun…are they really not anything more than a waste of time? What’s your thoughts?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The #1 Reason You Should Be on Twitter-It Could Save Your Life

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Sign up for a Twitter Account Today!

Last week’s devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan proved how valuable the micro-blogging platform Twitter has become.  Japan’s catastrophe proved that Twitter can literally save your life. No kidding.

If you have people in your life that you hold dear, you need to make sure that they are on Twitter. They don’t need to tweet regularly or often or ever. They just need to know how to use it on their mobile phones in case of an emergency when phone lines and cell towers and the Internet are failing around them.

Although this is an utter travesty, good is coming out of this crisis in Japan.  From it, we are learning a great deal about how to communicate effectively in emergencies and how to build structures that will withstand large scale earthquakes.

The good that I am taking out of this is the fact that moments after the giant temblor hit, Twitter was the first means of communication that broke through. When cell phones were not able to connect and when the Internet was down…those on Twitter were able to send out messages that they were alive and/or trapped and needed assistance.  Twitter is the new cry for help! It’s absolutely amazing.

VALUABLE HASHTAGS

I previously mentioned that Twitter is the new customer service, but now, it is the new life-saving service.  To see for yourself type this in your browser:  search.twitter.com and search  #Fukushima to find out the status of the nuclear explosions there. Or this hashtag # J_j_helpme to see tweets from survivors requiring help. Or # Jishin for general information.  You will have trouble reading these tweets for they are in Japanese, but thanks to Google Translate you can read their messages. It’s like having your own news service at your finger tips.

CLOSE TO HOME

I live in Southern California and as a life-long resident I am well aware of our famous nuclear power plant in San Onfre. Thanks to the swift thinking of a fellow Corporate Media Strategist  @darinrmcclure we now have a means to receive updates via twitter regarding that particular plant.  Darin advised them to start using its twitter account to update residents on information they are receiving about Japan’s nuclear power facility and also to use to send residents news associated with that facility. And thanks to Darin’s suggestion, Southern California Edison is doing just that on the twitter handle SCE_SONGS (Songs stands for San Onfre Nuclear Generating Station). I highly suggest you follow @SCE_Songs and @darinrmcclure.

SCE's San Onfre Power Plant Now is Offering Twitter Updates @SCE_SONGS

TWITTER IS SIMPLE

Some of you may think that Twitter is a marvelous tool, but you just can’t see yourself ever using it.  There are probably two reasons you are thinking this way – the first being you think it’s too difficult to learn and secondly, you might not have a mobile phone that is Twitter-ready.

My blog is called Honestly and therefore, I make a point of it to never lie, so believe me when I say to you that Twitter is super easy to learn. And I promise to show you how in a later post this week. I’m hoping I can use my Mom as my example for I need to teach her how to tweet. If she can learn it, so can you.

Regarding not having a smart phone that can tweet, I do understand that point. However, if you have access to the Internet via a desktop or laptop or iPad…then I want you to start on Twitter that way.  You don’t have to have a mobile phone to tweet, you can do it for free over the Internet.

I highly recommend you set up a Twitter account now and that you should use your real name. Your name may be taken so you might have to add a middle name or something like that.  But, let’s say you have a loved one who is on Twitter and they were in Japan near the earthquake.  You would be able to see what their last tweets were and even message them that way by using Twitter on your computer.  It’s just good common sense for you to be on Twitter.

I am really passionate about this cause because I care about you too much. I don’t want one of your relatives ever to worry about you if a flood comes into your town, or a hurricane, or a tornado, or an earthquake or mine explosion.  I promise I’ll teach you how to use Twitter, so please stay tuned for help is on the way.

You can follow me on twitter @cindyronzoni and my PR company @socialspread.

My heart and prayers go out to those affected by the devastation in Japan.

Cindy

Sorry Corporate Apologies

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Why Are These The Hardest Words to Write and Say? Flickr Credit: ezzan yusop

Why does sorry seem to be the hardest word for corporations to say in statements?

I have to say I got schooled by Jason Fried’s Inc. magazine article on “How to Turn a Diaster Into Gold.” Mr. Fried’s article is an excellent case study of what to do when your business under-performs and you have to fess up to your customers through social media.  Mr. Fried is the co-founder of the software firm 37signals and as such, his company recently had some problems associated with its Campfire product, which is a real-time chat tool for small businesses.  Unfortunately, this product which has been stable and reliable, recently experienced some service issues bouncing between being online and offline. This wreaked havoc with some of their customers and boy, did they hear about it.

NON- PR’APOLOGY

Mr. Fried provided some great insight in the article as to how he handled the complaints and in doing so, he embarrassed me as well for he pointed out that the worst apology that any person or company could ever provide are these nine words – “We apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused.” He caught me red-handed for I’ve used that numerous times in certain situations.  Here’s what he had to say about it.

If ever there was a non-apology apology, this is it. And just about every company uses it. I Googled the phrase We apologize for any inconvenience. It came up 41 million times.

Let’s break this statement down. We apologize… Come on—when you really mean it, you say, “I’m sorry.” You don’t say, “I apologize.” If you spill hot coffee on someone, you say, “I am so, so sorry.” “I apologize” is renting the problem. “I’m sorry” is owning it. Now, to the second part of the non-apology: …for any inconvenience we may have caused . What a cop-out. For any? How about for all of it? May have caused? Don’t say maybe—say yes. Own it.

In my defense of using that dry apology, I have to say that I was at the mercy of the legal departments.  For you see in corporate America, whenever there is a crisis, the PR departments cannot work on their own…they have to work in tandem with the company’s lawyers on an approved statement. Rarely, can a corp comm department go “rogue” and write what they would like to. Every word has to be scanned and filtered and scrubbed by the legal team.  I understand why this is necessary for its the legal team that has to defend the company in court and every statement and comment will be examined in that process. (Someone should tell Charlie Sheen that!)

BE HONEST FROM THE GET GO

I agree with Mr. Fried wholeheartedly and greatly appreciate that he wrote about this subject for its given me new freedom to be more transparent with dealing with corporate guffaws.  I also agreed with his further statements.  Mr. Fried went on to say…”we’ve discovered that the more honest we are, the better our customers feel.” I have always felt honesty is the best policy – heck that’s why I named my blog that!

Here’s my tip to all those who provide messages to the public –

-When writing an apology make sure that you are being as transparent as legally possible and see if it passes this test.  Think of yourself as one of the affected customers and see how your statement would sound to you. If it sounds too much like a cover up…delete it and start over.  Use words that are appropriate to the situation and if you’re stuck the best way to always start out is to simply say “I’m Sorry.”

May I never inconvenience you again.

Cindy

 

 

 

A Randy Smith Experience – Linchpin Series

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Randy Smith Experienced Life to its Fullest

(This post is the fourth in a series I have produced under the Linchpin title. The Linchpin philosophy is based on Seth Godin’s best-selling book, Linchpin. Linchpins are those people who make a difference in your life.  It is my hope that we all are Linchpins to others during our lifetime.)

Throughout my career I have produced numerous events – some global like the Prime Time Emmys and others local like food drives at my church. Each had strategy attached, but not once did I ever ask myself what the experience of the event should be. I guess I planned around that by asking myself what kind of tone the event should have, what type of services are needed and what personality the event was going to convey. But I never thought about the experience until now.

Last weekend I attended a celebration of a friend’s life. This celebration service was for my friend Randy Smith who managed the IT department at my church, Whittier Area Community Church. Since my expertise is in communication, it wasn’t long before I started working with Randy when I volunteered on projects. From the first day I met him, we hit it right off away and he quickly became one of my few “tech” friends. As a another dear friend Amy Kimes mentioned at his service, Randy was one of a kind.

Randy was a rare person for he was highly skilled in technology. But, he also was extremely creative and loved organizing events.  As such, one thing that he always emphasized in event planning was “It was  about the experience.” I learned about this important statement at his funeral on Saturday and thought I needed to remember that in every aspect of my life.  Then on Sunday, marketing guru Chris Brogan wrote about the importance of the experience.  It was just like Randy to be ahead of the curve.  He beat Chris Brogan to the punch.  And since these two early adopters mentioned the importance of experience, I knew it was a message for me as well and one that I should heed and not forget.

This post is about the experience of knowing Randy Smith.  I am honored to have known him and to have called him a friend.  He impacted so many lives during his short time here on earth and the tools that he taught all of us “his students” will stay with us as a lasting memorial.  He lived a large life by how he lived it for he lived for others. He was a master at finding solutions to problems and he was a true visionary. Because of how he “lived” and “carried” himself  I truly believe he was the definition of social media before it was even penned. For Randy always listened before he spoke. He loved connecting people and received such joy when he was able to spread content to others whether it was through Constant Contact, websites, video seminars, The Tournament of Roses telecasts or retreats.  He believed in “open source” and shared his knowledge with anyone that asked. He never held back his wisdom. He was always behind the scenes and happy to do so.  He loved gadgets, music, food, helping others and his dear precious daughters and family.

Randy Smith Loved Providing Solutions

He was a strong believer and so I know when he entered those pearly gates God probably asked him about “the experience.” Knowing Randy I’m sure he said he did his best and tried to be helpful whenever possible and that “his experience on earth” was fun.  And then I know he heard the words we all yearn to hear from God when it’s our time “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Randy – thank you for all the help you provided me through the years. You opened up the Internet for me and made it become a “fun” playground and less scary.  It is largely due to your influence that I am able to dream about the many possibilities that are available to us to use our voices and time to make a difference in the world. You made a difference in mine.

For yes, life is about the experience.  How would you rate your’s? That’s a great question we all should ponder.

Foursquare Needs Some PR and PC Cleaning

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Foursquare is getting a potty mouth

How were you punished when your mom caught you saying a “not so nice” word? Did she make you wash your mouth out with soap? Did you get sent to your room or were you grounded for a week?

FOURSQUARE’S BLUE-NESS

As I was using the geo-tagging, hyper-local service Foursquare today, my eyes stumbled upon names and words that I normally do not like to read – and I was offended.

I know some peeps will call me old-fashioned with this post – and I do understand freedom of speech – but I never expected to see what I read today and the volume.  For you see, I simply wanted to check into my local grocery store this afternoon on Foursquare and in doing so I had to scroll through so many crazy dumb names before I landed on Vons.  Such places were listed like “Whore House,” “Sexy room,” or the “Sex Cave,” etc., etc., etc. I even noticed that someone in my vicinity listed her home as “the town drunk lives here!” What’s wrong with people?

I’ve noticed this happening for some time, but it wasn’t as prevalent as it is now.  Try searching the word “whore” on Foursquare and you’ll be astonished what comes up! You will see what I mean.

There's Always Some Rotten Apples that Taint A Good Thing

With potty mouth taking over this platform, I would like to recommend Foursquare start to enforce some policies where certain terms (i.e., whore) are not appropriate and thus are banned from the service.  Other services do watch what’s posted, like Facebook and myspace. Sometimes we have to police people for themselves.

I do like Foursquare and have enjoyed it, but if it continues to get more and more vulgar, I will stop and recommend others do so as well.  It’s getting quite the potty mouth lately.  Have you noticed it too?

FOURSQUARE MAY NOT BE GOOD FOR BUSINESS

I have a been a giant fan of the application and think it is a tremendous service for businesses. I would hate for it to become a place where childish blue humor hangs out.  I’m all for creativity…but seeing ho and drunk and sex all over the place isn’t good for business. For what business wants to be listed being near “the town drunk?”

Note to Parents: In addition to checking in on your kids Facebook comments, also check about how they have listed your crib on Foursquare.  You may be surprised what they’ve labeled your lovely home as and more specifically, their bedroom.

I wish Foursquare would issue a badge for good behavior on Foursquare! Now that’s an idea I would endorse.

Cindy

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