Jeffrey Dahmer to Social Media, WTH??

Time for some more every day social media in my little world.  I’ve got a kid who is briliant, actually have a pair, but I digress.  This particular kid recently took one of those college standardized tests as practice for the REAL THING.  Apparently he must have done well on it, because every major college and university in this country is emailing ME (wondering how they got my MY addy??!!) stating what an outstanding student the kid is and why he should choose ‘X’ university.  I kid you not, I am getting about 5 or 6 of these a day and they usually include slick marketing pieces that require confirmation of personal information in order to have access to links for great stuff.

Gotta love the direct marketing approach.  Here are a couple:

C***, I’ve selected you to receive two college search tools that are going to keep you on track to find the right school and gain admission. Both are courtesy of  XYZ University, and it’s my pleasure to share them with you!

Hi C***,

You’re a talented student, and I bet you’re spending time checking out schools on the Web. To help you know what to look for, I’ll mail you Surfing Secrets: An Insider’s Guide to College Web Sites.

All you have to do to receive this free guide from XYZ State is to click here — it’s that easy!

Hmmn reminds me of those yellow highlighter internet marketers.  Boy have things changed from when I was in high school and our initial information was found by hanging out in the Guidance Office pulling college pahmplets off the shelf and looking over them from the comfort of the carpeted floor.

I took one of the tests that was sent to the kid.  It promised to help choose a major;  am wondering if the majority of 35+ year olds in this country would be in a different profession today, if they had taken this handy-dandy test.  My results were as follows:

enjoy getting creative.
• like having your own individual style.
• prefer to branch out on your own.
• aren’t afraid to challenge norms.
• get satisfaction from self-expression.

So True!

Matching Majors:

• Fine Arts

• Performing Arts

• Radio, Television, Film

• English or Creative Writing

• Fine Arts Education

The real results:  I do like being creative and was a writer from way back when I could hold a pencil.  Have a history of success with writing from winning contests in grade school and high school to being selected to attend a summer program for gifted students at the University of Maryland when I was still in high school.  I have written hundreds of essays, poems, articles, short stories and one novel.  Did I major in English?  Hell no!  Even back then, I had the sense that I somehow couldn’t make money from this “hobby” of mine and besides my true love was messing with people’s minds.  My ultimate goal:  to be a psychiatrist and handle a couple of Sybils in my lifetime; maybe a Jeffrey Dahmer or two.  Human behavior fascinates the hell out of me.  Having a highly analytical mind just fuels the fire.  I used to create surveys and interview students at my all girls college prep school and tablulate the results.  Guess I was doing market research without even knowing it.

So yeah, I went on without the benefit of this little test to become a Pre-med major in school in order to later make Psychiatry my specialty in Med School.  Skip forward 3.5 years later and I found myself with a job offer senior year from Procter & Gamble in Sales Management.  So how did I get from Silence of the Lambs to Metamucil?  Well that my friends,  is a story for another time. Gotta love the Web 2.0  World!

Hanging out in the High School Guidance Office B.G. (Before Google)

Proud To Be Part of the Third Tribe

Chris Brogan & Michelle Beckham at SummitUp: A Social Media Confab

Gotta tell you I am truly psyched about being part of Chris Brogan’s Third Tribe Movement.  I had the opportunity to meet Chris last fall in Dayton at the SummitUp Social Media Confab in which he was one of  the key note speakers.  As part of the pre-conference marketing, Summit Up organizers launched a Twitter contest based on being prolific in conference mentions.  I happened to win and had the opportunity to sit at the Speakers’ table at the conference with Chris and the other speakers.

Not only did I love Chris’s talk, but found him to be an incredibly down-to-earth guy with a big heart and focus on giving back to the community.  I had been following him for a long time, as have most folks active in social media, and we had corresponded several times via DM tweets prior to the conference.  Anyway, I am an avid reader of his blog and am connected to him on Facebook as well as several other social media sites and I happened to see his post on the creation of  the Third Tribe.  You can read about it here.

Knowing that Chris puts out great content, I took a look and was incredibly impressed with the program.  The value is unbelievable, especially for the early adopters who got in prior to Friday evening (2/5/10).  The price has now doubled!  Haven’t had a chance to jump into it yet, but a cursory glance at the hashtag stream (#ThirdTribe) is showing that people are very happy with the program.  I keep hearing about the forums and how much great info is there- people are tweeting that it has been hard to break away from the great learning that is going on.

Once I get into it, I will report back on my findings.  I’m thinking with my penchant for immersing myself into the social media pond, this just may lead to me being AWOL from my daily life for a while…..Thanks Chris, so glad to have another tool to be passionate about!

Find some of the Third Tribe Conversations that Chris has captured in a recent post on his blog  HERE

Social Media Comes in Tiny Packages

Sitting here at my desk after a whirl wind two days and watching the falling shadows outside my window is giving me pause.  For a moment nothing electronic or web-related is competing for my attention.  It is completely quiet in my office.  It is 5:16 p.m.  This kind of deep quiet makes me realize that sometimes in the midst of flurry, we need to walk away and breathe: to be still and just “be”.

Since I am truly in the moment, this is a great time to share an interesting story that has to do with the SOCIAL in SOCIAL MEDIA.  For several weeks, probably as long as Cincinnati has been immersed in this cold snap, I have been hearing what sounds like a small person walking above the ceiling of my bedroom in a suburban house.  At first I thought it was a very large bird, but after it kept reoccurring night after night, I began to believe that no bird in the world would keep coming back to my roof in the dead of night, in the dead of winter.  I started to listen more intently and I noticed that the sounds were from some type of very heavy creature.  I began to think that some large animal was having a nightly party on my roof.  Finally last night the sounds were so strong and close that it felt like there was a fugitive walking around in  my atttic.  It dawned on me at that moment that I actually do have an attic (it’s a place that we go once or twice a  year and is quickly forgotten!).  If I am hearing heavy footsteps above my bedroom ceiling, then they probably are coming from within the attic!

I checked out the roof the next day from a safe spot across the street and could see a pattern of large footprints in the snow covering the full length of my roof.  I realized that this “something” was using the nearby trees to climb up and onto the roof and when I followed the tree line and it’s intersection with roof top, I saw to my horror a huge gaping hole in the soffett that looks as if a pack of beavers had gnawed it open.  Not good!  After some discussion, we determined that there is probably a 100 lb raccoon living up there during the daytime and crawling out at night, just as I’m going to bed.  Next up is to call the critter catcher to take care of the situation.  I for one am not even going to attempt to climb into the attic.  I just don’t want to see what might be there, especially after reading all about the damage raccoons can do here.

So. now I know that the social sounds I was hearing were not a figment of my imagination, but I’m guessing I have even greater problems with destruction and feces.  Lol, it’s always something…..

Several weeks later…………..No 100lb raccoon, but a family of squirrels.  I believe about 4 or 5 were captured humanely in traps and released into the woods (far, far away from my house!).  We used a company called Advantage Wildlife Removal. I am now sleeping quite well, unless of course I am awakened by my Droid!

HOPE……

Hope for Haiti Album Cover by iTunes

Monday mornings following a hectic week and equally busy weekend are a hard thing to face.  This is my time to reflect and to share my thoughts in a myriad of places.  My morning ritual consists of checking all of my “conversational” sites: email, Facebook and Twitter.  I write in a daily gratitude journal which holds lists of things I am incredibly grateful for and also serves as a journal of sorts detailing the flowing events of my life.  I am incredibly blessed and I strive to recognize these blessings and call them out.  Raising self-awareness helps me to keep myself in check.

This particular morning I’m haunted by the words and music from the Hope For Haiti Album that I purchased from iTunes on Saturday (all proceeds go to help Haiti).  I watched most of the special on t.v. last week and was incredibly touched by the power of the stories and the passionate music that emanated from the audience-less stage.  I’m sure a lot of people are wondering how such a horrible thing could happen to a country that has seen so many hard times over the centuries.  I am heartened to see the varous organizations across the world come together to help, but sadness for the Haitian people still fills my senses.

I have always told my children that they are extremely blessed to have been born into their particular circumstances.  They are bright kids with loads of leadership potential and the skill mix to set the world on fire one day.  My message has always been for them to take their gifts and talents and make a difference for those who have been born into different circumstances or who do not have a voice in the world.  As one of the 13 yr old girls in a Confirmation group I led over the weekend said, “God made all of us equal, it is only the circumstances of where we are born that affects the rest of our lives.”  Very thought provoking……

“Just call on me brother, when you need a hand.  We all need somebody to lean on.”

Lean On Me sung by Kid Rock, Cheryl Crow & Keith Urban on the Hope For Haiti Album

Check it out HERE

How do you share your gifts and talents with the world around you?

LIST POWER: FACT OR FICTION?

View of Twitter Lists that @michellebeckham has been placed on.

DISCLAIMER:

I am in no way, shape or form a Tech Geek, but I am a Data Freak.  My brain is highly analytical and is constantly evaluating and crunching out the statistics around me.  So for kicks this morning, I decided to take a look at my Twiter Lists to see if any interesting information could be gleaned there.  What are Twitter Lists you ask??

Twitter Lists debuted in the fall of 2009 and are a way to group tweeters into categories to make it easier to keep tabs on the stream of  information emanating from the particular subject matter.  The Mashable Blog states that: “Lists aren’t just static listings of users, but rather curated Twitter () streams of the latest tweets from a specified set of users.” Read the full post here.

Tweetdeck has given users the ability to group tweeters into columns for a while now, so Twitter Lists are just a move in that direction but with the public ability for others to see and follow the created list.  Makes sense to me.  The real power in a Twitter account has switched from the number of followers a tweeter has to the number of  lists the account has been added to AND how many people find the list itself important enough to follow.

What I find highly interesting from a behavioral stand point (you did know that I have a Psych degree, right??!!) is just who ends up on which list.  Let’s say you think you are one of the top bean counters in Cincinnati and a well known twittizen creates a “Bean Counters of Cincy” list and you are NOT on it.  What does that mean?  How do you feel?  What do you do about it, if anything?  Even generic lists like “Cincinnati Tweeters” are not even remotely all encompassing.  The list only exists within the mind and world of the person creating it. Kinda like that quote: “Cogito, ergo sum- I think, therefore I am.”  I am only going to create a list of people that are known to me.  Only the true researchers with lots of time on their hands are going to go the extra mile to determine a full list of tweeters for that category.  Even then, the list would be in a continual state of evolution.

So….here is what I found:

Personal Twitter Acct @michellebeckham has many more people following it than my biz account and shows up on more than double the lists.

Have to say that I started this one in 2/09 which was a couple of months prior to @C3CreateConnect; but the difference has a lot to do with the strategy for each account and the fact that I am much more personal and highly conversational on @michellebeckham. @C3CreateConnect focuses primarily on social media information.

Top Lists for @michellebeckham:

1. @jackbergstrom/writers 503 accounts listed, 69  following list

2. @levitanl/social-media-part-2 486 accounts listed. 32 following list

3. @CincyRecruiters/cincinnati-twitterati 434 accounts listed, 46 following list

Of 69  lists, the top list names for my account were:  Cincinnati, Social Media &  Mkt/PR/Adv

The Coolest list names: Peas-and-carrots & Women-to-follow

Are you into Lists?  Creating, following or just plain lurking and adding the individual tweeters to your following habits? Would love to know your usage strategy.

So, This Is Me…..

Passionate

Energetic

Invigorating

Inspiring

These are words that people use to describe me and I note them here, because they seem to be cropping up more and more often.  I have always been passionate about life and the things that stir my heart:  be they people, places or events.  When I am plugged into something or someone that I truly believe in, then I move heaven and hell to support them.  Highly analytical by nature, intrinsically intelligent, emotionally in tune with the feelings of others and just a bit psychic, I connect with people in a very deep and all encompassing way.

I love life.

I love people.

I love making a difference.

If you and I connect and I truly buy into your brand; what you stand for; who you are, then consider yourself deeply friended.  And for some, that means a life-time of difference…….

Some things people have said about me recently:

“Michelle is an amazing spirit who is completely service and consumer driven. Her passion for constant learning, her ability to adapt to change, and integrity are merely a few attributes that set her apart from her competition…..” -Brian S.

“Michelle is a wonderful speaker, very engaging and ebullient–and extremely knowledgeable about social media.” -Rick W.

“I see Michelle as a gregarious, energetic, intelligent, skilled, integrity-based, innovative marketing and social media consultant and business professional — and a truly genuine, warm person as well.” -Joane M.

“Michelle has passion for the topic of social media, and it shows!” -  Steve L.

“Her passion and enthusiasm for marketing and communications is obvious. I love working with her!” -Daniel J.

“Michelle is a creative, passionate, inspiring, and encouraging person who is a highly valued asset to any organization.” -Brent L.

“Recently I sat in on an outstanding program Michelle conducted introducing Social Media to Your Business Communications Strategy, and was very impressed with her thorough knowledge on the topic and her enthusiasm.” -Jim S.

A Pot & A Friend Gets You A Croc of ????

Michelle Beckham-Corbin Scheming.....Photo credit: Christiaan Todd Photography

I have said from the beginning that I truly believe in the power of people coming together in conversation.  Whether it is in-person or on-line, it is the start to the development of a relationship between the individuals.  A relationship that leads to a summation that is clearly greater than what can come from the individual parts. I have already written about a virtual friendship that went “live” with George Williams here.  Met on Twitter, moved to Facebook; and Skyped home tours all before meeting in person in trendy Northside.

Well, recently I came to be in possession of some frozen pounds of alligator meat.  I have had alligator a couple of times in my life, most recently in Sydney, Australia and at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland. What does that have to do with Northside George?  Well, George is a recent transplant from New Orleans and I recalled that he had spoken of a fondness for alligator when we had our first tete-a-tete, so I tweeted my desperation recipe request to him.  In true George fashion, he responded with an authentic Cajun recipe from Louisiana where both of our families originate.  Wanted to share that with you here,  just in case you find yourself with some lagniappe from a friend.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner??

Grilled Cajun Style Gator Tail Recipe

4 To 6 Lbs Gator Tail
Lemon wedges

Cajun Seasoning Mix:

12 T Paprika
6 T Garlic powder
3 T Salt
3 T White pepper
3 T Oregano, crushed
3 T Black pepper
2 1/2 T Thyme
1 T Cayenne pepper

To make seasoning mix, combine paprika, garlic powder, salt, white pepper, oregano, black pepper, thyme and cayenne pepper in jar with tight fitting lid. Shake well to combine. Mixture may be stored for up to 3 months. When ready to cook, cut gator tail meat into 1/2″ cubes. Roll each cube in 1 tablespoon of the mixture. Cook over high heat on an outdoor barbecue grill or under the oven broiler for 4 to 6 minutes, or until gator tail meat is white and firm to the touch. Serve warm with lemon wedges. The seasoning mixture will coat up to 24 (4 oz.) servings of gator tail.

This is from the CajunCooking.com Alligator recipes collection.

George Williams (holding coffee cup in the Pub) chatting it up with Roger Bora and friend. Pic credit: Beckham's Droid.

George is the genius behind the newest entree to our area:  CincyVoices.  Great stuff already in the works, and I have been invited to drop by and share some words with you there.  Be sure to check it out!  Also see Cincy Voices Photo Stream here.

Bonsoir!

UnFriending A World Away

When do we tend to take aspects of social media a bit too seriously?  How about when we think we have been “Unfriended”?  I used to ignore posts and rants about unfriending angst, thinking it was a bit too overly dramatic, but I have to say that the feeling that you get when  someone close to you has done the deed is not a pretty feeling.  I suppose it depends on what you have invested in said friend or friendship.  I’m sure that most people carry some “friends” on their Facebook list who they don’t ever interact with and the loss of this particular  friend in the night wouldn’t even be noticeable.  But I’m not talking about that sort of friend at all.

Over two years ago I became very good friends with someone an entire world away who was from a completely different culture and religious background than myself.  We spent many long conversations debating about world events, philosophy and life in general.  My eyes were open to seeing my own country and our sense of entitlements in a completely different way.  Something happened and the friendship was lost for nearly a year.  Recently we found each other again on-line and struck up our deep and meaningful conversations.  This time around our friendship included the evolution of social media tools and we used Facebook as a forum for our ideas and philosophies.  My friend mentioned that he was not getting the sort of community response from his posts on Facebook and was going to “quit” Facebook for a while.  My interpretation of that meant that he was going to stop posting and spending hours/week on Facebook and return to the rest of his world in Saudi Arabia for a while.  I guess this is where differences in meaning can occur.  He had just posted some thought-provoking (aka rebel-rousing) statements on his wall earlier today and I took the bait and responded.  I checked back several hours later to see if he had counter-responded, only to find that I could no longer click on his name as it lay on my wall; the hyperlink was dead.  I felt really bad, as if perhaps something I had said in response to his posts had caused him to delete me from his select list of intellectuals from around the world.  It felt as if my words had been ripped out in mid-sentence and he had disappeared without a trace,  just like before.

I finally caught up with him in another space and simply typed the message:

Why?

Why what? he replied

Why did you delete me?

I didn’t delete you, I deleted the whole account.  I told you that I was going to stop posting to Facebook.

Ugghhhh!

Guess I am either taking social media too seriously or the relationships that I have built up, but in the end does it matter which?  Rejection is rejection pure and simple.  I’m just glad this was a case of mistaken meaning.

And for what it’s worth, I heard that the term “unfriend” has been added to New Oxford American Dictionary and was THE Word of the Year in 2009.  Read about it here.

unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.

Taking Stock and Kicking B**t

Hmmmnn, it’s January 1st, 2010,   I should be sharing some of my resolutions here in this space.  I actually did the non-social media thing and wrote them down in my journal by hand with an actual pen earlier today.  I don’t really like to refer to my lists as resolutions, because those sound like things people resolve to do for a few months to satisfy their GUILT feelings and then they drop off from their behavior patterns.  I like to use the end of a calendar year to take stock in what worked and what didn’t and to re-tool my focus for the next year.  My year has never been focused on the calendar year anyway.  Spent 15 years living life in terms of P&G’s fiscal year of July-June and then later when I had kids who were of school age, I started tracking the year as a September-May deal- love those summer “vacations”!

2009 was a fantastic year for me personally and I find myself poised on the cusp of a new year with even greater opportunities.  I am incredibly thankful for the wonderful journey that began last January that put me on a path with the most incredible people I have met in a very long while.  I look forward to continued relationships with all of them and I see some great partnerships emerging in my work world.

Sometimes there is a feeling of loss and uncertainty when we raise our glass to toast the new year; afraid to let go of  the one that is ending.  I can tell you that I raised my glass with a smile and the knowledge that I am going to kick butt in 2010, won’t you join me?

Contact C3 For Your Social Media Needs in 2010

CONTEMPLATING FACEBOOK AS THE SNOW SOFTLY FALLS…..

Brrr…the temps have dropped and we finally received a little of the white stuff to grace our steeples and grounds.  The Christmas season has been a great time for me to unplug, unwind and re-connect in real space and time with family and friends.  I have managed to be on lock down for  Twitter for 48 hours+  now and even ignored the urge to check trending topics for the real deal on the  Christmas Day Terrorist Bombing Attempt. Instead, waited for the good old fashioned Cincinnati Enquirer to deliver the scoop to me.  I turned my Droid off at night and haven’t blogged on this site in a long while.  I have kept up with my poetry here and my personal Facebook Page in which livelyconversations have been playing out on my wall on the most obscure topics and minutia of my life.  For example this status update garnered 15 responses:

Really going retro and getting into watching classic movies and crocheting by the fire.

Or the post about what I was going to serve for Christmas Eve dinner- it saw over 20 responses:

Christmas Eve Tradition: Seafood Gumbo served over rice, Mixed Salad Greens with Craisens, Gorgonzola & pecans with Vinaigrette; home-made Brioche rolls & Rum Cake. Kids open one present- one more year and we start the midnight mass tradition. Gumbo has Andouille sausage, oysters, shrimp, chicken & of course, File.

What I like about Facebook is the community aspect that surrounds posts.  People jump in and comment and then have side conversations with each other on your wall- it become a free- for- all- word- fest.  I have friends from a wide walk of life, diverse in their backgrounds, experiences and decades in which we met and interacted in RL.  It is very cool to see how my friends who do not know each other, come together on my wall and end up FB friends themselves.

Oh, and just in case you were thinking of nosing around my page and being a voyeur of the conversations there, I gotta tell you that I am a strategic chick.  After all, my business is founded around the idea of Strategic Marketing Practices.  So, that being said I have a strategy for every piece of social media that I use.  I have two Facebook sites:  Personal FB Page for close friends and relatives and a C3 Business Page (otherwise known as a Fan Page) for professional friends and well, Fans of C3.  I keep my personal page pretty locked down, which sometimes proves difficult with the myriad of changes FB makes to their privacy policy, seemingly every couple of weeks!

Try searching me and you should only find my profile pic- no friends, no info, no albums of pics.  My groups were also blocked to search, but I think FB’s most recent changes make that an impossibility now as it is deemed public information.  So a warning to the wise- if you belong to a Voodoo Cult or something that your employer may wonder about, you might want to X it out.  Unless of course, you are steering your ship with complete transparency and authenticity.

Hmmn, didn’t mean to rant on about Facebook, but hey I go where my muse takes me!  Next post or so will be on my reflections of the past decade or maybe not…….

Seize the day, enjoy the outdoors, touch someone in real time!

Pics from my RL social experiences this holiday season:

Social Media Holiday Happy Hour

Christmas Eve

Old Friends Reuniting for Christmas!

Spending the Holidays With Friends Deep in the Woods of New Richmond, Oh.