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Found Tweet Friday

Found Tweet Friday!

July 13 (Friday the 13th *duh duh duuuuuuuuh*) But also, National French Fries day!

Welcome to the Redlight District of Twitter

I spend a good part of my day using Twitter to find potential customers for my clients. I use the Twitter search function and locate people talking about relevant things that could translate to needs my clients’ products or services could fulfill. During this digging through the nonsense, the marketing messages, the slang and abbreviated hashtags, I find some pretty ridiculous tweets. Many that make my jaw drop. It never ceases to amaze me how many people forget that their tweets are completely public while they treat their Twitter conversations as if they were private. Some of those are simply too offensive or gross (not to mention misogynistic and lewd) for me to bother posting, but below are a collection of this week’s gems that I just had to share. My occasional commentary will be the parenthetical portions. Enjoy!

****Warning: Some content may be inappropriate for young or easily offended readers****

Found tweets:

At the dermatologist and this chick on the reception tv says, “I have an overgrowth of anal hair…” (Wow. It’s almost like over-sharing in a public space…isn’t it?)

shaking like a dog shitting razorblades (what? That’s the worst thing I’ve heard in a long time! Who even thinks of that as an analogy??)

Seriously though, I have no idea why Turkey Creek is currently infested with exercise sketchers wearing, perky butted, tyrannosaurus walkers (This, actually, provides a pretty accurate visual)

Has anyone seen the the new HBO Show Girls? They should change the name to Entitled Occupy Hipster Yeast Infection Hour. #stupid #JITW (So…are you a fan? It’s not quite clear.)

I pity the speculum that has to dare your cavern and pray your ob-gyn has an understanding spouse (I really want to know the conversation that sparked this statement. Vagina Dentata?)

Alex thinks I burped his eyebrows off.. xD (I used to date a girl who nearly could)

If your networks O2 I feel bad for you..you’ve got 99 contacts and you can’t txt one! (During an outage, you might as well rap about it. It’s really the best way to cope.)

If you want to find me at Comic Con this week, look for the overweight guy with glasses. (Needle in a hay stack)

I just saw an ad for car insurance where a rep dressed like a scientist opened two crates full of puppies. I’m sold. Where do I sign? (Who said advertising is dead?)

Omg. How did you know “cool beans” is a phrase that makes my skin crawl? LITERALLY (Although I agree with the cool beans being a relatively gross phrase, I am more off-put by the improper usage of literally. *Sigh*)

Two more things:

There exists a website that does kind of what this blog post does, but specializes in tweets from privileged kids complaining about their maids. It may make you hate people, just a bit.

On a more serious note: How would you like to be responsible for helping a father be able to cheer his son on at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London? That’s exactly what we’re trying to do. My friend Jeff is trying to get to the Olympics to cheer on his swimmer son Tyler McGill. Donate or share. Anything is appreciated to help this great cause.

There you are folks! Obviously, some weeks will be less interesting than others, but I hope you enjoy it. Also, if you ever see any great tweets worth pointing out, send them to me at robzaleski1@gmail.com and they might make the list!

Now go get your social on!

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Achieving Olympic Gold – Helping the Family of Tyler McGill

Clipped from: www.gofundme.com (share this clip)

The above picture is of my friend Jeff McGill and his son Tyler. Jeff is a friend, a fellow thespian, and an all-around good guy. He works hard, stays in shape, does volunteer work and has raised an amazing family. His son Tyler is a swimmer. I don’t mean one of those guys that just hangs around the pool. I mean the real deal, blazing through the water, leaving you in his bubbles, swimmer. So much, that he’s actually qualified to swim in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, which is beyond exciting. His times are so close to Michael Phelps’s times, that Olympic gold is truly a possibility this year. There’s only one problem. For Jeff and his family to travel out to London, stay for the entire time necessary and get all the necessary registration done, is expensive. Like, CRAZY expensive. Here’s where we come in. This is an honest to goodness opportunity to help make a real Olympic dream come true. This is a chance to make an impact in one the most amazing opportunities in a young man’s life. An opportunity to make sure his family is right there to celebrate with him, should he obtain an Olympic medal. So we’ve started a donation page on GoFundMe.com. If you’re interested, you can donate as much or as little as you want, anonymously or with your name and a message. I’d really like to see this family watch their son compete for the gold, and I hope you’ll help them get there.

Check out a great interview with Tyler McGill talking about Olympic hopes and encouraging young swimmers:

Thanks for reading.

Now go get your social on!

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What Would You Do If…? Lessons On My Birthday

By 7:45, the early risers are on the ball!

I’m currently typing this blog post on Sunday, July 8, 2012. The day before my birthday. Already, I’ve received a couple notifications of people wishing me a happy birthday. By the time you read this, I will likely have received numerous wall posts from friends, family, acquaintances, and people I forgot I was Facebook friends with. I’ll likely get birthday wishes from people who’s “Happy Birthday” post will be the only interaction I’ve had with them on Facebook (or in any other form) in months. No one really remembers birthdays anymore. Why should we? Facebook does it for us. That got me thinking. With so much time and dependence that we all put into Facebook, will we really be ready to handle it’s potential and eventual decline? How will we go back to actually remembering people’s birthdays, peer into their lives, and creep on people if Facebook’s revenue model and waning coolness sends them crashing and burning like so many other internet fads, memes and viral superstars? Younger crowds are already growing weary of the advertising and familial presences on Facebook, according to this article from All Facebook.

Abandoned Playground — MySpace has been referred to the abandoned playground of the Internet. Is Facebook next?

This also got me thinking in terms of business. Sure, right now you must have a presence on Facebook to be where everyone is. Will that be true for the next generation of those with purchasing power? If your business is geared toward a younger audience, do you have a back up plan to be ready to go where they are? Probably not. Many small businesses are still just starting to fully adopt social media into their marketing and business plans. They’ve been told for the last few years that Facebook is the place to be, and now they may start hearing that it’s on the downward slide.

Now I’m not saying that you should be scrambling to figure out what to do and prepare for ‘life after Facebook.’ It’s like the zombie apocalypse. Is it going to happen tomorrow? Not likely, but you should maybe have a plan just in case it does. I think that might be a future blog post.

What do you think? How long does Facebook have to hold the crown of King of Social Media? Who is likely next in line to usurp the crown? Do you have kids or target a younger audience, and have you seen a shift in their focus for networking online and with mobile devices?

Let me know below with your comments. Thanks for reading. Now go get your social on!

Follow this blog on Google Currents! Download the app in your app store or marketplace and click here to subscribe.

Found Tweet Friday

Found Tweet Friday!

July 7th, 2012 (National Confectioner’s Association-recognized “Chocolate Day!”)

Welcome to the Redlight District of Twitter

****Warning: Some content may be inappropriate for young or easily offended readers****

Found tweets:

i want to be a milf when im older (We all have to have aspirations, right?)

I just had a dream there were ninjas dancing on my car while I was driving

Just saw a mother and daughter both reading “50 Shades of Grey” at Starbucks. #uncomfortableconversations (Not the ideal family reading material. But I guess some just have that kind of relationship with their parents…)

I’m growing a beard! Not a Katie Holmes or Kelly Preston – I’m talking facial hair. #FB

Some days you think you are pretty hot shit and then the dog throws up on you (I feel the same way about my cat’s hairballs. There’s just no way to be cool and clean that up)

ZZ Top turned down offer to shave beards for $1 million for Gillette advertisement http://t.co/jkyyWDLL (Now THAT is dedication that few have)

Nothing like a giant summer hair chop that you didn’t ask for @XXXXsalon! Oh, the things I will Yelp (yeah, your business doesn’t need to pay attention to social media? I submit that it does. Name XXXXed out for obvious reasons)

Every sphincter can relax through conscious connection in anal breathing (Is this just a fancy way to say “Relax and pass gas”?)

You know its July when your sandal tan lines are just as bad as your bikini tan lines… #SorryImFromCali (This one is specifically for my girlfriend, who the the most noticeable flip-flop tan lines I’ve ever seen ;D )

There will also never be a time when it’s acceptable to wear jean capris w/lime green neon socks & black sparkly wedges. #badfashionchoices (I have many friends who would likely call those good fashion choices…)

Now go get your social on!

Follow this blog on Google Currents! Download the app in your app store or marketplace and click here to subscribe.

The Social Gnome’s Hoard

Welcome to the Social Gnome’s Hoard, a collection of this week’s most interesting finds from the Social Gnome’s internet travels.

Week of July 2, 2012 (Did you know July is National Cell Phone Courtesy month? Also, the best month of the year!)

Clipped from: bits.blogs.nytimes.com (share this clip)

Last week I had an article about Google+ coming to Flipboard, and this week it’s all about the New York Times. I’m very happy to see Flipboard getting the attention it deserves. It’s a really slick app with a great interface, and I was concerned about its well-being when I wrote my post about Google Currents and the threat it posed. This deal with the NY Times should really drive more traffic to Flipboard, and get those who potentially never used the app to check it out and fall in love with it, as many of us have. Flipboard is available for iOS devices, Kindle, and Android devices.

Clipped from: techcrunch.com (share this clip)

Gojee, an up and coming recipe sharing platform, looks to be getting funded up to attract some of the food-loving Pinterest crowd. Any Pinterest user will tell you that that their feed is full of boards from kitchen queens, culinary kings, expert foodies and wish lists of the less experienced (mine is simply titled Food I Want In My Face). Gojee is described as the “Twitter for food” and could potentially couple well with the multitude of recipe sharing buzz that Pinterest has created in the last year or so.

Clipped from: www.entrepreneur.com (share this clip)

The plight of the small business owner is a constant struggle to stay relevant and visible in the shadow of the big guys. Although a strong online presence helps, sometimes it can feel like a hopeless battle, especially trying to keep up with all the changes that Google is doing. Here is a great article from Entrepreneur.com discussing some things to do to try to make yourself visible in Google’s eyes (and therefore everyone else’s).

Clipped from: techland.time.com (share this clip)

In what will likely be a pretty important decision, a court judge ruled that Tweets are public (same as if they were shouted out in the street) and therefore should not be accompanied with any expectation of privacy. The court has ordered Twitter to turn over months worth of tweets by an Occupy Wall Street protester in order to prove that he was aware of the police orders that he was blatantly disregarding. Check out the whole article.

Clipped from: www.entrepreneur.com (share this clip)

Finally, summertime is now in full swing. The fireworks really make it feel official (along with the sweltering heat, depending on where you are in the country or the world). Entrepreneur columnist Teri Evans provides some summer reading picks from multimillionaire entrepreneurs. There’s a few I’ve already heard of (and a couple standby classics), as well as a couple I might have to add to my list.

So there you are. Another weeks’ worth of noteworthy, interesting or just funny content to keep you in the know. Did I miss anything great that you came across? How do YOU feel about the ruling on privacy of tweets on Twitter? Do you use Flipboard, and if not, will you use it to keep up on New York Times articles? Weigh in below with your comments.

Now go get your social on!

Follow this blog on your mobile device with Google Currents! Go to the app store and download Google Currents for your iPhone or Android and subscribe to Robzie Social HERE!

Found Tweet Friday

Found Tweet Friday!

June 29th (Waffle Iron Day! YES!)

Welcome to the Redlight District of Twitter

****Warning: Some content may be inappropriate for young or easily offended readers****

Found tweets:

I bought some Icy Hot for my sore shoulder, and now I smell … old. (Could be worse. Could be Ben Gay)
I need a @ShinerBeer redbird so bad. Best beer ever! (I strongly contest this statement. Strongly.)
I think Grover just got raped by an elephant in the bathtub. (Wait, what? Oh, my childhood)
Let’s eat Grandma: http://t.co/gq8DvAsQ (Yay punctuation jokes!)
“No, Crocs are not running shoes,” I cried out to the wave of running Crocs lovers as they trampled any hope I had for humanity. (How? HOW do people run in Crocs? It just ain’t right.)
These double d’s are so happy Saucony makes a great running bra!!! (Yet another reason I’m happy to be a dude)
My aunt came over for dinner and she looks like a fucking hooker. Omg. (Just gotta love family bonding – or is that bondage?)
I got so much swag I could sell in a store swag for sale sushi (This started off making sense, and then went off the deep end…)
yeah..um were over..sorry monica. just didn’t work out. okbye (And you thought breaking up over the phone was bad)
my friend smears vaseline all over her face every night. She says it’s cheap moisterizer. is that right? #beauty #makeup (Ew. Really. People do that. Doesn’t that, like, grease up your pillow? Or your everything?)
the guy who ate the other guy’s face off in Miami wasn’t on bath salts, they only found weed in his system.. good luck legalizing it now (It does build a pretty strong case, even if that’s not the cause of his face eating dementia.)

Now go get your social on!

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In the Company of You – Having a Personal Brand

Personal brand: The Not-So Secret Identity?

This topic has been sitting in my Evernote folder for a while now. I recently listened to a podcast on Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation: The Twist Image Podcast, and he had a guest by the name of Ben Casnocha. Ben is the coauthor of a book called The Startup of You (along with Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn). The podcast was very interesting and I may have to check out the book too. One topic that they touched on while discussing The Startup of You was personal branding. The internet has allowed for anyone to be an author, anyone to be a content creator, and as such, many have ‘branded’ themselves. People are no longer necessarily identifying themselves as merely an employee of a company, but as brand of their own, leasing their talent to a company for however long they are there (as Mitch and Ben put it in the podcast). It is also discussed in the podcast as to whether this is actually a good thing for businesses or not.

I can honestly say that I have my own personal brand, which occasionally collides with what I do at Main Street Hub. I have my personal blog, which I treat more as a blog discussing small business and social media, because those are the things that interest me. There’s also occasionally funny things (Found Tweet Friday) I find and interesting music or apps that I come across. I also come equipped with my presence on just about all social networks (and the many connections that come from them). At the end of the day, all of that belongs to me and not the company. Ask any social media expert, however, and they’ll tell you that companies should encourage their employees to blog and have a presence on social media. Could this hurt your company? Will it cause your employees to focus more on themselves than your company’s image? Personally, I don’t think that’s the case in most instances.

If you’re hiring the right kind of people, then their personal brand is an extension of them that can be leveraged for the business, as long as they’re interested and invested in the business themselves. Do my blog and social media presence get occasionally leveraged for use with my company? Sure. I tweet about things going on at work (we even have our own hashtag). I ‘Like’ and share things my company posts. I post Instagram pictures from crazy things happening at my group’s desk. I even link to my company and let readers know what we do. Not because the company asks me to, but because it’s relevant to what I’m interested in. As a matter of fact, I got Main Street Hub’s attention initially by tweeting articles about social media and small business and @tagging them on Twitter. Like “Hey guys, I read this and its relevant to your business. I found it interesting and you might too!” With a little perseverance, I landed the job and now my extracurricular social media activities occasionally merge with what I do for Main Street Hub.

Personal brand is only going to become more prevalent as this generation, which already use Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger, Instagram and Twitter to amass numerous followers and fans, grows into the next workforce. They are going to come fully equipped with a social standing and personal brand, and companies will have to know how to reconcile that. Simply put, embrace it, treat your employees with respect, and perhaps their personal brand will mesh with your company’s professional presence.

What are your thoughts? Do you feel you have a personal brand outside of your company? Have you used or leveraged your presence to procure a job? Or, as a business owner, did you take social media presence into account when finding or hiring an employee? I’d love to hear some comments below, and perhaps later I can gather the responses and do a follow up post. Thanks for reading.

Now go get your social on!

Found Tweet Friday

Found Tweet Friday!

June 22, 2012 (Is your dog by your side? It’s National Take Your Dog to Work Day!)

Welcome to the Redlight District of Twitter

I spend a good part of my day using Twitter to find potential customers for my clients. I use the Twitter search function and locate people talking about relevant things that could translate to needs my clients’ products or services could fulfill. During this digging through the nonsense, the marketing messages, the slang and abbreviated hashtags, I find some pretty ridiculous tweets. This week, however, Twitter was pretty boring (not to mention alternating between functioning and completely crashed)! So I’ve collected a few below, and added a couple other things that should make you chuckle, because I know you still need a laugh to finish off the week. Enjoy, and give your dog a treat if you brought it to work (or if you work from home).

****Warning: Some content may be inappropriate for young or easily offended readers****

Found tweets:

anon paid for 6 active duty soldier’s drinks at orlando airport bar. Unexpected: 2 ritas, 4 cosmos 😉 (Sometimes, the world doesn’t suck.)

running from the law (Please tell me this guy is literally tweeting while jumping fences and running from the police. Please.)

I’m so breaded you can call my money fish sticks.

T-Rex Trying is a hilarious Tumblr full of pictures by Hugh Murphy depicting the many things a poor T-Rex simply cannot do. Great for a laugh any time, these are usually very clever.

The Oatmeal informs and entertains (as it does so well) by telling how Nikola Tesla is responsible for pretty much every luxury we enjoy today. Really interesting, and completely hilarious.

There you are folks! I will try to keep this going on a weekly basis. Obviously, some weeks will be less interesting than others, but I hope you enjoy it. Also, if you ever see any great ones worth pointing out, send them to me at robzaleski1@gmail.com

Now go get your social on!

Follow this blog on Google Currents! Download the app in your app store or marketplace and click here to subscribe.

The Social Gnome’s Hoard

Welcome to the Social Gnome’s Hoard, a collection of this week’s most interesting finds from the Social Gnome’s internet travels.

Week of June 20, 2012 (American Eagle Day, so do your country proud):

Usage and demographics info for Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest

Clipped from: socialtimes.com (share this clip)

For those of you who love those infographs, Social Times has put together some interesting demographic information on who is using the various social networks. Some of the data may come as no surprise if you follow this kind of data, but some of the data is still pretty staggering. I especially like the section that outlines how much a user is supposedly worth to the networks. I’ll take my check now, Mr. Zuckerberg.

Clipped from: www.copyblogger.com (share this clip)

As a blogger, I’m always looking for something to inspire me, something to keep me furiously clicking away at the keys and trying to get that next blog post out (and on time, to boot). Copyblogger provides some words of wisdom, as usual. This time, in an easily printable format that you can put right above your desk. No more excuses. Print it. Live it. Do it. Be a better writer. Just as easily said as done, right?

30 Best Content Curation Resources for Marketers and Business Pros — Clipped from: http://www.b2bmarketinginsider.com (share this clip)

Speaking of blogging tips, if you’re having a tough time figuring out what exactly it is that you want to write about, here is a list of 30 Curation Sources from B2B Marketing Insider to help you get started. Some are big news reporting names you’re already familiar with, but there are a few gems in here that I was unfamiliar with, but am definitely checking out. The article provides links and links to Twitter profiles for all 30, so you can jump right in and follow these sources to keep your content fresh and interesting.

Animated GIFs hilariously explaining sentiments of social media workers

Clipped from: whatshouldwecallsocialmedia.tumblr.com (share this clip)

Anyone who works in social media, or works digitally with clients, will appreciate the humor in this Tumblr blog “What Should We Call Social Media.” If you haven’t checked it out yet, it is a must. Using animated GIFs, this blog expresses exactly what you and I are feeling when clients or their customers do things that drive us up a wall. It also approaches other great themes like “When Klout tells me it believes I’m influential in something I’ve literally NEVER talked about.” It’s a fantastic Tumblr, but be careful it doesn’t drain your day away. You’ve got clients to think about.

Google announces opening API to integrate with Flipboard

Clipped from: redOrbit (share this clip)

Great news to all of you Flipboard lovers (like me!). Google+ announced this week that it would finally be opening up its API to allow your Google+ stream to be viewable from your Flipboard dashboard. It was already possible to view your Google+ stream on Google Currents, which was one pull for me, but I’ve been wildly awaiting this announcement. This hopefully means we’ll see many more availabilities opening up (like Hootsuite and maybe Buffer!). Google previous closed-off nature with their API was one thing hurting them in the battle against Facebook. This could be a pretty major turning point for Google+ usage and integration.

Music recommendation and player platform. Also allows purchasing of music

Clipped from: bandofthedayapp.com (share this clip)

And finally, for all you music lovers out there, this FREE app is a must-have. Band of the Day is an app for iPad and iPhone that provides a new band or artist recommendation for every day of the year. You can even go back a handful of weeks to see what you may have missed. The app allows you to preview numerous (if not all) songs by the band or artist, reviews, bios, videos and links to purchase the songs as well. It does obviously require an internet or WiFi connection. The user interface is really slick and moves smoothly through all the various screens. There may be a few artists you’re already pretty familiar with, but unless you’re a major indie music aficionado, you’re likely to find tons of music you’ve never heard before. I highly recommend this app, especially on the iPad, to anyone who thirsts for more music in their life.

So there you are. Another weeks’ worth of noteworthy, interesting or just funny content to keep you in the know. Did I miss anything great that you came across? Do you know of any other great music recommending apps out there? Do you use Flipboard, Google Currents, or some other dashboard for all your news gathering? Weigh in below with your comments.

Now go get your social on!

Follow this blog on your mobile device with Google Currents! Go to the app store and download Google Currents for your iPhone or Android and subscribe to Robzie Social HERE!

Klout Perks – Does the bribery work?

Me, when I received Klout perks in the mail…

Ask most accomplished digital marketers about Klout and the vast majority of them will scoff. “Klout scores don’t mean anything.” “The scoring system is flawed and ridiculous.” These are the kind of responses you’ll likely hear. And they’re right. Once you’ve received your first “Klout thinks you’re influential in [something you’ve never, ever talked about],” you’ll know that there isn’t a whole lot of deep science behind the ranking system. So the question remains: Why is Klout still around? The answer is twofold.

My Klout score…

One, we are a culture that loves an easily identifiable number, whether it actually holds any real validity or not. We love ratings, star systems, and any easy way to rank people, things, or anything we can assign a value. Especially in these times of overbearing multitasking in our business and personal lives, the easier we can dismiss that which isn’t important, the quicker we can get on to our next task at hand.

This is about how I look when I hear FREE

Two, we are a culture that loves free stuff, regardless of whether we need it or not. I’m most guilty of this myself. I’ll admit that the real and only reason I continue to monitor Klout is that I love to get free stuff and revel in the possibility of gaining early access to beta testing apps and networks. The only fuel behind why I’d ever fret over my score is the concern that I’d fall under some unknown threshold and miss out on some Perk not yet known to me.

I received my first physical perk in the mail a few weeks ago. It was some iced tea samples for a big brand. They gave me a pretty ridiculous amount of samples, which is kind of nice, but it’s going to take me so long to get through them I’m not sure if and when I’ll ever have to buy any of it. The tea was alright, a little too sweet for me, but I’ll drink it throughout the summer. I received my second physical perk this week. It was a sneak peek at the new season of a TV show. Here’s the thing. I don’t have cable, so I won’t be able to watch it once it airs anyway. I also misread the Perk, not realizing that it was season 2, so I’d be lost to start with. Did the fact that I received these two items turn me into a brand advocate? No. If the right thing came along, however, it just might, and I think that’s what brands are banking on. For example, in a post a couple weeks ago, I talked about a Klout Perk for Learni.st, a Pinterest style network that allows you the share and learn things within your community, which I received early access to. I dug the network and the idea behind it, and I actually have even invited a few people to sign up for it while they’re in live beta testing. The creators of Learni.st answered and acknowledged all of my questions, checked out my blog post when I wrote about it, and were excited to have me participating. In this instance, I became an advocate for their product because I liked it and actually felt like I was part of an exclusive group. I didn’t feel so exclusive drinking a glass of tea from a brand I was already well familiar with and I knew was quite established. That’s where I think the power in these Klout Perks really lies. Creating loyalties with brands you may have never heard of, or up-and-coming startups and apps where the feedback of a real and invested community can take a company and its designers to the next level of innovation and creativity.

So, what do you think? Does ‘rewarding’ those with Klout scores above a certain threshold really get a brand anywhere? Do you feel that being rewarded with a freebie would get you behind a brand, or does it take something a little more for you to become an advocate?

Let me know below with your comments. Thanks for reading. Now go get your social on!

Follow this blog on Google Currents! Download the app in your app store or marketplace and click here to subscribe.

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