Speaking at the Downtown Business Association

Speaking Gigs

One of the ways I take things offline in my business is by speaking to different business groups about social media. Turns out I’m pretty good at running my mouth.

And I always seem to make a new connection or two when I do.

Last week I spoke at the Savannah Downtown Business Association. I co-presented with April Groves. April’s a connection that went the other direction. I met her before she had much of an online presence. Since then she’s very successfully implemented social media marketing in her real estate business.

It’s About Networking

During the networking time I had a conversation with Cathy Rogers. I met Cathy on Twitter a while back. In fact I remember being embarrassed the first time I met her in person because my little pea brain didn’t connect the face-to-face conversation we were having to those earlier Twitter conversations.

In our conversation last week Cathy asked me how I knew Cheryl Smith.

It turns out I first met Cheryl on Twitter too. When I first followed her I saw that she lives in the same town as my parents. I mentioned it to her in a Twitter reply. A conversation ensued that quickly moved through Twitter DM’s to email.

When Gorgeous & I went home to see my folks this past Christmas time we spent an evening with Cheryl and her husband. I also connected Cheryl with HighCallingBlogs. Or more accurately, I recruited her to take some of my responsibilities there as my role with them shifted.

And now I find out two people that I’m connected with online are also know one another. The web’s a small world.

Business Impact

How does all this affect your business?

Well, most likely the people you actually meet face to face will end up being stronger connections than even your strongest online connections. There’s value in moving connections offline.

I can point to several profitable business connections that started on social media. But it wasn’t until they moved off line, either to the phone or in person, that the most profitable connections actually got to the money making point.

Social media is a great way to meet people. But don’t loose site of face to face interactions.

And as a note, this post was inspired by HighCallingBlogs’ new We are Real feature. I hope they’ll make that into an ongoing series!

As I write (from a coffee shop) we’re on day 3 without it. Yesterday the temperature reached 99 Degrees (that’s 37 Centigrade for those of you outside the US). Inside our house it got up to 89 (32 Centigrade). Oh, and the humidity is off the charts all summer here in Savannah too.

Normally I keep the thermostat set at 74 (23C) in the summer time so it’s been a bit uncomfortable to say the least.

When you get right down to it, the whole thing has been a bit of a learning experience. Here are some “hot lessons” I’ve learned the past couple days.

Temperature is Relative

I tend to be a numbers guy. Give me the raw data. 89 degrees is crazy hot when compared to 74. But on the other hand, when I came into the house yesterday after being outside for a bit in the 99 degree heat out there, those same 89 degrees felt cool.

Even though it wasn’t great, I quickly realized it was better than it could be. “Hot” is a matter of perspective!

Heat Drains Your Energy

Talk about not feeling like doing anything! When your brain is frying it’s hard to even read a book, much less do anything that requires a little focus or exertion.

Even our 2 cats have had no energy the last couple of days. They’ve just stretched out as thin as they can get like they’re trying to become part of the floor. It’s like they are in slow motion. About the only time they’d get up is to try to catch a breath of fresh air out of the window in the morning before we close up for the heat of the day.

Also Drains Patience

The first day into the heat I was surprised to find myself getting frustrated over little stuff. Like, say, spending half a day making a ton of phone calls trying to get our home warrantee folks to agree to send a technician out on a Saturday (we had out of town guests coming in that evening.)

We’re still waiting for someone to come out 2 days later. But I had to keep checking myself to keep from really loosing my cool on the phone. The heat in the house made that whole thing harder!

Don’t Need All Those Lights

When you’re doing everything you can to keep things cool you notice how much heat light bulbs throw off. You begin to weigh out whether your need that light is worth the extra heat it is going to give you.

Turns out I can operate with a whole lot less light that I thought because…

2 Degrees Matter

It seems silly to think that a couple degrees would make much of a difference. But they do.

I don’t know if it is psychological or physiological, but both Lisa & I would notice when it would get a couple degrees warmer.

Little things can make a big difference.

Any Airflow Helps

I rarely use ceiling fans. For the most part I could live without them. Fortunately our house has them in several rooms and we cranked them up!

Lisa also dug a box fan out of the attic. We’ve been dragging that all around the house so that it blows to maximum effect.

It’s amazing how much diference a little air flow makes!

You Can Cope with More Than You Think

When I was first told it would be Monday before someone could come out and fix our system I didn’t think I could make it that long. I did everything I could to get someone out on a Saturday, offered to pay whatever it would take.

And yet here we are, and I’m doing fine. Turns out I’m made of tougher stuff than I realized. Go figure.

The reality is, most of us are.

Hopefully we’ll be back up and running tonight so I can get back into productive mode.

The news is full of all kinds of horrible things going on in the world. In the headlines today is a terrible attack in India with over 100 tourists killed. Apparently a plan to bomb Penn Station in New York City was thwarted, thanks God.

And most of the news is about the struggling economy. Companies are going out of business. People are loosing their jobs. The government is passing out free money to major corporations to try and keep some of them afloat with the hope of preventing a full scale meltdown.

Even the tech sector has been affected. Just this week Technorati announced layoffs and pay cuts across the board.

Thankful

With all that mess going on in our world, Gorgeous and I are incredibly thankful that we are able to work for ourselves from home.

In the past year I’ve found out that being self employed can be a bit stressful. But on the good side I don’t have to worry about whether my employer is going to cut my job and leave me out on the street.

Been there. Done that.

Even when the economy is rolling loosing a job because a facility is closed or a company goes out of business (I’ve been through both) is tough. It is always easier to find a job when you already have one.

I feel for the folks who are struggling through that this holiday season.

My encouragement to them would be that I made it through so it can be done. The days won’t always look so dark. The sun will come out again come morning.

History of Thanksgiving

If you are interested in a little bit about the beginings of Thanksgiving, go check out my Thanksgiving history post from last year.

Those early early Americans were going through tougher economic times that any of us can imagine yet they were thankful just the same. We can learn something from that.

I hope you have a wonderful (and thankful) day today.

Two tons of potential stress just relaxing.

HighCallingBlogs.com and Robert Hruzek of MiddleZoneMusings.com are joining forces again to talk about what we’ve learned from stress. (The project is still open, just visit that link if you want to participate.)

The Reality of Stress

Stress is a core reality in this fallen world we live in. There is no such thing as a care free life, at least not one that’s firmly anchored in reality.

I think one key to happiness, or even survival then is to get a firm grasp of what really stresses you out. We’re all different and things affect us all differently.

An ordinary person spends his life avoiding tense situations. A repo man spends his life getting in to tense situations. — Bud in Repo Man

Throughout my career I’ve had what most folks would consider fairly stressful jobs. I prefer to think of them as high intensity jobs.

Stress from Physical Danger

I’ve worked in some physically dangerous environments. Whether it was the fight deck of an aircraft carrier or on the docks working cargo operations, I’ve seen a few men killed by work related accidents while I was on the job.

I’ve even been hurt myself. Loosing focus for even a fraction of a second can have disastrous consequences. My left index finger has a nice little scar to remind me how easily I could have lost a fingertip hooking up cargo to a ship’s crane one day.

And I watched in stunned horror one bright morning when a friend of mine ejected from his F/A-18 as it rolled over immediately after launching from the front of the carrier. He waited just a moment too long to pull the handle and ejected down into the water. His mistake was fatal.

But I boarded my plane just the same and rode down that same catapult into the sky, all kinds of questions swirling through my brain.

That stress of physical danger never seemed to bother me all that much. What it did was serve to keep me paying attention.

Unexpected Stress

It wasn’t until I became The Lonely Entrepreneur that I really had to deal with negative affects of stress. For me stress came from an unexpected direction.

Turns out I’m a little like Eddie, the dog from Frasier. The way the story goes, Moose, the Jack Russel Terrier that played Eddie was rescued. His original owners thought he was neurotic and unmanageable. However trainer, Matilde DeCagney, discovered that Moose just needed to work. When he was bored he got into trouble.

I guess I’m a little like Moose. I don’t do well when I’m bored.

No Stress More Stressful than Lots of Stress

It sounds weird, but I’ve got a medical bill, hundreds of dollars large, this year to prove that I get stressed out when my environment gets too low in intensity. Since my Lonely Entrepreneur experience earlier in the year I’ve learned how to manage the stress that lack of intensity gives me.

Working out has been a key factor in managing my stress. Exercise gives me an outlet to relieve the stress from too little stress in my life.

Ironically when I took my stress test a few months back the cardiologist ended up cutting it short. He gave up trying to get to my target heart rate after I’d been running on the treadmill twice as long as it usually takes to get people maxed out. Apparently there is nothing wrong with my cardio fitness!

So, to answer Robert’s original question of What I Learned From Stress – I learned that, for some of us, no stress can be more stressful than being in a high stress environment. I guess I’ve got a little repo man in me.

Here’s a little compilation video of Eddie stressing out Frasier I found. Enjoy!

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• Stressed Out? Read This.
• Beat the Clock – Please!
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Yet here I sit at forty-one years old fairly mediocre. I’ve only sometimes achieved what I’d call success. And then only very modest success at that.

I’m a pretty smart guy. I already know what I need to do to succeed. Yet I routinely fail to do what I know I should do, what I know I could do if I just would do it.

Over the past couple months I have become acutely aware of the fact that even though it feel like something is holding me back from doing the things I know I need to do, in reality I am my own worst enemy. I am my problem. I just couldn’t figure out why I was so thoroughly and effectively sabotaging my own success.

Until last night.

Ah-Ha Moment

Last night I read something in yet another self improvement book, The Slight Edge: Secret to a Successful Life, on page 28, that was like a light bulb going off in my brain. For me it was one of those powerful “Ah, ha!” moments that comes along and can change the course of your life.

I’d figured out the first half of the equation on my own, even before reading those powerful words last night.

Easy To Do

I already knew that the deep down, core truth is this: everything that we need to do to become successful is relatively easy to do. And, for the most part they aren’t secrets either.

Do you want to lose weight and be healthier?

We all know that the surest way to lose weight is to eat smaller portions and increase physical activity by exercising regularly. And eating healthier foods will make our bodies healthier. These are all relatively easy things for most all of us to do. It’s just going to take a little time.

Do you want to improve your financial situation?

The basic steps involve reducing expenditures, paying off debt, increasing savings, investments and ultimately increasing income. While there are a number of strategies for accomplishing this, it really isn’t rocket science. But even following a good plan financial success isn’t going to happen overnight.

The way to succeed at most anything we want to achieve has already been mapped out by someone. Someone out there has done it and left a record for us to follow.

Often we find that road map with the things we need to do to achieve our desired goals laid out in easy to follow step by step fashion. We know how to follow directions, especially when the individual steps are so easy.

And yet in the overwhelming majority of the time we fail to follow the steps laid out for us and the weight doesn’t come off, the debt mounts and the years flow by while we plod along in the very mediocrity that sucks the life out of our spirits.

It’s like there is a huge mountain barrier that keeps us from following the steps so clearly laid out for us.

The mountain of a barrier blocking our success.

Easy Not To Do

Last night I discovered the reason I don’t do those things that I already know I could, should, and really need to do to become successful is because, not only are they easy to do, but they are easy not to do.

What do I mean?

Success and failure are both made up of the sum of thousands of tiny decisions, do this thing or don’t do this thing, that when compounded over time lead in one direction or the other. But each individual decision taken by itself is small enough that it won’t make or break you.

Just as it is fairly easy to choose to eat smaller portions, it’s easy to choose not to as well. I mean really, it’s not like you eat one fast food meal or skip one work out and you’ll have a near fatal heart attack that same day.

Truth is, if we don’t make that deposit in savings from this paycheck we won’t end up in bankruptcy court tomorrow.

Because the consequences of any one decision are incredibly small it is very easy to loose sight of the fact that they string together into a series of decisions, most of which we make out of habit, that march us down an unwavering path.

It is just as easy to choose not to do the things we know will lead to success as it is to choose to do them. We won’t see the effects of either choice until some time later down the road. Whether you eat a healthy meal or nothing but junk food today, you probably won’t see a difference in your weight today. Both meals are easy to choose.

Charge that next purchase or make one extra principle payment won’t have a dramatic influence on your portfolio either way today.

Because doing the right thing and not doing the right thing are both easy choices to make, all too often we find ourselves choosing poorly because it is just as easy & feels a little more comfortable. Well it’s more comfortable today anyway.

Eventually we’ll see the cumulative results of our daily choices. What we may not realize is that those results were inevitable because they naturally resulted from all those little, easy, choices we made along the way.

How To Make Better Choices

So then the key getting choosing to do those things that we know we should be doing is to put each and every decision, every little choice, into the larger context of where it will take us. We’ve got change our habits.

Instead of making the easy choices to not do those things we know we should, we’ll start making the equally easy choices to do those things.

To help keep this new insight in front of me I’m printing out a sign and posting it on my desk right in my face. Here is what it says:

Easy to do… Easy not to do…
You Decide!

Now I am a fan of Damon’s work. If you ever get a chance to hear him talk about what he put himself through to get ready for his break through role in Courage Under Fire it’s hard to deny the guy is seriously committed to excellence in his profession. And there is no doubt Damon is one of the most bankable actors around.

I like watching his movies.

Fear of the Unknown

In the interview Damon expresses concern about Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin because he “doesn’t know anything about her.” And it kind of freaks him out.

Were that really the case (the lack of knowledge, not the freaking out) I suppose I could see where he’s coming from. But with the intense media scrutiny that Palin (and her whole family) has been under these last couple of weeks it seems a little strange for him to say he doesn’t know anything about her.

I suspect he really means something more along the lines of “I don’t know anyone like her or who values the things she does.”

Take a look for yourself.

People Different From Us

Now I’ll be the first to admit that there’s no one quite like Matt Damon in my current circle. Sure I’m taking some acting lessons. I even auditioned for a very tiny part in a movie staring Dean Cain that is going to be filming this fall. (No telling at this point whether I earned the part or not.)

But actors at Damon’s level aren’t folks I associate with right now. Nor do I really know what types of people Damon hangs out with.

That being said, I have a hunch that Damon doesn’t associate with many people who think like me. If he did he wouldn’t be quite so freaked out by the whole Palin thing.

Think about it. With my personal history of going to a state school, six years in Naval Aviation, a decade and a half working on the docks in the maritime industry, and a business owner, which of the two sets of candidates do you think I’m more like and might relate to better?

Expanding Our Horizons

There was a time when I only knew people who were pretty much like me. I joke that my own personal views are slightly right of Attila the Hun. Most everyone in my circle of friends were folks I worked with or went to chruch with. Back then I’d rather be right (as in correct) than have friends.

All that’s changed. Being in the tech field, most of the people I associate with see the world very differently than I do. I’m OK with that.

And now I’m dabbling with the whole acting thing. That’s another demographic that doesn’t see the world through the same lens that’s in front of my vision.

Actually I think it’s been very good for me. I’ve come to realize that there are merits to other points of view. I can disagree with people without thinking they are stupid or ignorant.

Associating with people who are vastly different than me has helped me gain respect for those I disagree with.

Bottom line is, when I only hung out with people who were like me I was a little weird. Well, really I was kind of a jerk to people who were different. I tended to be condescending and talked like everyone with a different view was unworthy of consideration.

Because I’ve been there I think I can give Matt Damon some advice. Expand your horizons a bit. Then you won’t find folks those folks who are so different to be so terrifying.

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Looking back through the lens of history over the 232 years since those 56 determined men chose to formally take a bold stand for the cause of liberty it is easy to loose sight of the fact that the outcome was far from determined. By defying the British crown they made themselves enemies of one of the most formidable military forces of the day.

In a land where nearly all the materials of war were of necessity imported via ship they were picking a fight with the world’s preeminent naval power controlled by a nation whose empire would continue to expand for another 160 years, right up to World War II.

To stand against this force they had an army which had been authorized less than three weeks before, effectively existing in name only, and a handful of smaller war ships, which were still largely under construction.

They knew the implications of the resolution they were adopting that sunny but cool July day in Philadelphia. A fleet of British ships transporting a sizable army with the express purpose of crushing the growing rebellion had landed in Boston just two days before. Years later one of the Declaration signers, Benjamin Rush recalled the seriousness of that occasion to his good friend, and fellow signer, John Adams.

Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants?

Overpowering Belief

What they did have in abundance was an overpowering belief in the rightness of their cause. You see
these great minds had long debated the merits and meanings of such lofty terms as loyalty, independence, tyranny, liberty, taxation, and representation.

And they held fast to understanding that they would have, as stated in the last line of the Declaration, “a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence“.

It was an idea that was perhaps best stated by that masterful orator Patrick Henry in his famed “give me liberty or give me death” speech in which he said

“Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.”

Morality the Key

History clearly reveals that these fine men were in fact right. Circumstances did maneuver themselves in favor of the rebellion. Friends did rise up to join the fight, eventually. It would take 8 long uncertain years of hard fought war to get there. But eventually these brave men were vindicated.

In order to establish a government that would uphold liberty over tyranny and despotism the founding fathers placed their trust in the people, though they knew that trust could be a tenuous thing. Even 200+ years ago these great minds knew that the citizens of our nation could only be trusted to guard liberty and freedom as long as they remained a moral society.

When expressing his somewhat reluctant approval of the US Constitution, the great thinker Benjamin Franklin said that the proposed government

can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.

Invariably the founders tied the morality needed with religion, which in their understanding was inexorably tied to the teachings of Jesus Christ found in that ubiquitous book found in nearly all American households, the Bible. Some examples are

George Washington

Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

John Adams

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Thomas Jefferson

Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good governance and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.

Our Responsibility

These statements give a person pause on this anniversary of the momentous chain of events that was formally set in motion that solemn July day. As Abraham Lincoln famously said we are still, “testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

The responsibility for safeguarding that very liberty these men were willing to fight to secure rests on each of us. Perhaps no one spelled this principle out as eloquently as that master of words Noah Webster.

Whether it is today or some other, the next time you see fireworks reflect on these words of his.

“When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty.

If the citizens neglect their duty, and place unprincipled men in office,

• the government will soon be corrupted;
• laws will be made, not for the public good, so much as for selfish and local purposes;
• corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws;
• the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men;
• and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded.

If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws. Intriguing men can never be safely trusted.”

Please have a wonderful holiday weekend.

Starting your own business can be a bit of a lonely affair, as I’m finding out. Sure Gorgeous also works out of our house. I go out to meetings, do outside local networking and I am a social media guy so there are people around most times.

Even so, when push comes to shove it all rests on me. Unlike a traditional job, when you work for yourself  there is no one to pick up the ball if you should fumble.

And that loneliness can be insidious. It can sneak up on you when you lest expect it.

At least it did with me.

A Hidden Trap

A few weeks ago I was trucking along and things were going well. The self-employment thing is working out for us. It sure feels a lot less stressful than the jobs I’ve had over the last several years.

But I started having these weird sensations in my chest. It wasn’t really pain, per se. More like the feeling you get when you have a rush of adrenalin by being scared by something. Sorta like the thrill of a roller coaster. Or bungee jumping. Or something.

Only there wasn’t anything scary or thrilling happening. Just that tightness in my chest.

At first I pretty much ignored it. It was only happening a couple times a day in the beginning. And it never lasted more than about 10 seconds or so. Just enough to make me notice but not enough to get in the way.

I didn’t tell Gorgeous about it because I didn’t want to worry her.

The only real precaution I did take was I stopped working out. Rowing is the one form of regular exercise that really fits me and I had visions of my mother-in-law collapsing on a rowing machine with a heart attack several years ago. I am over 40 after all.

Ignoring it didn’t seem to work as eventually it got so it was happening several times an hour. That was the point where I finally broke down and told Gorgeous what was going on. She rightly insisted I head to the Doc the next morning after I refused her suggestion that we head to the emergency room.

Strange Correlation

But before I got into see the Doc I noticed something a little odd. You see Gorgeous and I have some things we want to achieve, not just with SuccessCREEations, but in other areas of our life as well. And we know that part of growing often involves changing the way you think.

So to help correct some of our faulty thought patterns that we felt were holding us back we both committed regularly reviewing some affirmations that are in line with where we want to be long term. But those statements are very much at odds with where we are right now.

And pretty much every time I read my own affirmations I would have that weird feeling in my chest. Sure it happened other times too for no apparent reason. However the only way I could seem to “make” it happen was by reading those affirmations.

Weird.

The Possibilities

So the way I see it there were a few things that could be going on.

Physical Problem

Obviously there was something physical going on. Now whether the cause was physical or not is something that can be determined. I don’t think that’s the case, but it makes sense to make sure. So I went to the Doc. She ordered some tests and has me heading to a cardiologist to make sure there’s nothing going on with my ticker.

Stress Induced

It’s possible that the whole thing was stress induced. I am probably under a whole lot more stress than I realized working for myself. Perhaps I didn’t realize it because it involves different stressors than when you work for someone else. If so, stopping my workout routine likely added my problem rather than helping things.

Psychological

Perhaps the whole thing is in my head. Maybe the disconnect between the affirmations and our current reality caused some physical reaction while my brain wraps itself around what it will take to move from here to there. If my problem is a head game I’m confident I can overcome that.

Spiritual

I don’t know what your spiritual inclination is but the Bible teaches that we are faced with a real enemy that actively works to destroy us. That enemy wants to keep us from achieving things and will use all those weapons above (and more) to keep us from moving forward and achieving our dreams. Fortunately that’s a battle I know how to fight too. The big trick here usually is simply realizing that the fight is on in the first place.

Negative Effects

The down side of having this going on is that it tends to isolate us. I realized that I was withdrawing and not writing. Since I originally started blogging because I wanted to write, stopping writing altogether was not a healthy move for me.

Nor was my backing away from my social media interaction. Fixating on activities that produce income but involve minimal social interaction such as building web sites for clients to the exclusion of social media activity was not a healthy move either.

Another negative effect of all this stuff going on is that I fumbled a couple balls I should have been carrying. As a solo entrepreneur the consequences of fumbling are yours alone. It’s good and bad at the same time.

Pulling Out

One of the things that is burned in my brain from my flying days in the Navy is our Out of Control Flight Procedures. Even the best pilot might one day find himself in a situation where his plane is spinning out of control.

Step 1 in our aircraft was to neutralize the flight controls.

The biggest danger is loosing altitude and impacting the ground. Knowing that the natural thing for pilots to do is to try fight the spin and force the plane to fly again. The trouble is, when you’re out of control, fighting can often make it worse and ultimately guarantee you crash.

By neutralizing the controls, bringing them back to center, the pilot can quickly evaluate what is really going wrong and take effective corrective action, stabilize the aircraft. If the plane is still in a dive after the spin stops, then he can pull back on the stick and pull out of the dive before he hits the ground.

I’ve learned that the same thing applies in life. When you realize things are getting out of control often the best thing to do is to take a step back and look at what you are doing. We naturally want to take immediate corrective action, but doing so without first “neutralizing the controls” in our lives can things spin even further out of hand.

Take stock. Only then should you make adjustments.

In my case I went to the doctor so we can hopefully rule out any physical causes. On my doctors advice I started working out again to help manage my stress levels.

I’m also getting my head back in the game by writing and re-engaging on the social media front. I’m doing those things I know I should be doing and facing the consequences for the fumbles along the way.

Finally I’m paying attention to the spiritual challenges that are facing me. I am equipping myself to resist that enemy so that I can move forward toward those things I believe I am called to do.

Even so, it can be lonely sometimes.

I also had the pleasure of sitting at the same table as Christine at the conference. As speakers like Chris Brogan, Liz Strauss, and Terry Starbucker were talking about the people in the room who were using Twitter to communicate with one another (and with folks half a world away) during the conference, Christine would ask the rest of us questions on the side.

They ranged from the basic to the technical, for example…

• What’s the point? to interact with others
• Why would you bother? because I like people
• Can everyone see what I tweet @ someone? Oh, yeah
• How does the direct message thing work? “d your_friends_twittername” and they’ll get a private message

Prosteletizing

Now I’m a big fan of Twitter. But I don’t try “convince” people that they “have” to use it. Though I do confess to most folks that I was a Twitter skeptic for months. I only started using it after a heavy bout of peer pressure brought to a head by Jim Turner.

You know the kind I’m talking about. “All the cool kids are using it. There’s so much going on there. You’re missing out if you don’t join in.”

I caved over a year ago. It was as much to prove to myself that Jim and the others were wrong about Twitter as anything. Since then Twitter’s grown on me. I’m glad Jim persuaded me.

Pluses to Twitter

Yesterday Christine asked the question How do you use Twitter? It’s a good question which begs the follow on question, Is Twitter even useful?

One of the things I did this past weekend while I had some one on one time with so many prominent social media folks was ask them which social media sites they preferred. Twitter was one site that was mentioned every time.

Here are some of the advantages mentioned.

• Light Weight – works right in your web browser with a (most times) fast loading page
• Portable – Easy to use from your cell phone
• Broad Reach – With so many folks using Twitter you can reach a lot of people with it
• Diverse User Base – People with incredibly different backgrounds Twitter from all over the world
• Focused – With its 140 character limit Twitter forces people to get to the point
• Fast Response Time – People can get real time responses on Twitter

But is Twitter Useful?

Those are all good attributes, for sure. But do they translate into usefulness?

Or is Twitter just a colossal distraction and time waster?

I think the answer to these questions is different for everyone. Here are a few examples of how Twitter can be useful to individuals and businesses alike

Network Expansion

Twitter is an easy way to connect with a very large pool of people very quickly, many of whom would be unreachable through other means. For example I first met Joanna Young on Twitter and had the opportunity to meet her in person this past weekend when she flew to Chicago from Scottland.

Get Quick Answers

Some folks throw questions out on Twitter to get instant feedback. Sure the big names get tons of responses to their queries. But even those of us with more modest Twitter followings can get some light shed on a subject if they are willing to engage the community.

Insight Into Trends

There are so many thought leaders and influencers using Twitter that you can gain an insight into where various communities and technologies are heading just by following them on Twitter.

Increased Profile

With a steadily growing friends list on Twitter you can raise your own “brand awareness” by connecting with more people. The increased interaction can ead to increased visibility over time.

But What About Businesses?

Is there an possibility of a business seeing any value from a presence on Twitter? Absolutely!

Zappos

Just ask Zappos. Their CEO has a Twitter account where he’s actively engaging the Twitter community. But they’ve taken their community involvement a step further. They set up a Zappos Twitter page on their web site with it’s own RSS feed so anyone can track any mention of the name Zappos on Twitter. (Talk about your finger on the pulse of the conversation!)

But Twitter interaction isn’t just a top down thing with Zappos. They obviously encourage their employees to engage the Twitter community. There’s even a page on their site where they list every one of their 286 employees who have Twitter accounts. Note that only 20 of those accounts have more than 200 followers so we’re talking about many smaller circles of influence rather than a few massive ones. Seems like a sound strategy to me

JetBlue

Another corporate example is @JetBlue. JetBlue is an airline that has had customer service egg on its face in the past and has decided to address their issues head on in the effort to put those struggles behind them. Jonathan Fields has a great example of JetBlue’s Twitter Interaction that he posted the other day.

Suffice it to say the story Jonathan shares with us is a tremendous example of how a large corporation like Jet Blue can successfully engage the social media environment. Read his whole post and let us know what you think.

Bottom Line

In the end I have to say, “Yes, Christine. Twitter can be immensely useful, especially to businesses.”

Are their potential pitfalls? Of course.

But a sound social media strategy incorporating Twitter and executed well can be a very powerful force working in the favor of a business, regardless of size.

What are your thoughts on Twitter?

And if you want, go ahead and follow me while you’re at it.