Guest Blog Post by @lesliecarbone

To paraphrase Tom Lehrer, twitter is like a sewer: What you get out of it depends on what you put in to it. I’m truly grateful for the many tweeps who help keep the solitary life of this freelance consultant from becoming too lonesome. Many thanks to @markdavidson for this opportunity to guest post and for being one of my favorite tweeps!

I first learned about twitter from @newmediajim last year at a Direct Marketing Association of Washington meeting; I started tweeting soon after and was genuinely surprised when people started following me pretty quickly.

Perhaps the best unforeseen benefit of twitter has been the opportunity to connect with so many tweeps from the greater Boston area, especially over Red Sox games. Though I’ve been living in Virginia for nearly 20 years, I grew up in Massachusetts, and it’s so nice to build relationships with people from my native commonwealth, even as I feel pangs of homesick envy when they tweet about going to Fenway Park.

Besides Red Sox games, my favorite thing to tweet is political events. The primary debates were especially fun, and I can’t wait to tweet and argue and laugh over the upcoming conventions and general debates with my fellow poli-tweeps.

Through @jptrenn, twitter brought me the great opportunity to participate in My ooVoo Day-Political Edition. I hosted a chat on whether conservatives should support John McCain—imo NO! The following night, I held a session on how conservatives should improve our use of social media, with tweeps @jennsierra, @ccubedblogger, and @morningbrewva.

Little did any of us on the latter chat know that twitter would really prove its mettle less than a day later with the start of the #dontgo movement. When Speaker Nancy Pelosi adjourned the House without action to lower gas prices, House Republicans staged a protest, staying in the House chamber and giving speeches on the importance of increasing domestic oil production. But the Democrats, who control Congress, shut off the cameras and even the lights. So word of the Republican Revolt spread through twitter!

But that’s half the fun of twitter. You just never know what’ll happen next.

 

Leslie Carbone is the author of Slaying Leviathan: The Moral Case for Tax Reform (Potomac, 2009). Her work has appeared in magazines including The Weekly Standard and The American Enterprise, in newspapers from The Philadelphia Inquirer to The San Francisco Chronicle, and on Web sites like BreakPoint and National Review Online.

She has appeared on more than 200 radio and television talk shows, been quoted in national newspapers including The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and lectured at more than 100 campuses across the United States and in Canada, including Northwestern University, UCLA, and Cornell University.

Ms. Carbone has served as Chief-of-Staff to the late Assemblyman Gil Ferguson of California, Director of Family Tax Policy at Family Research Council, Senior Writer at Koch Industries, Inc., and Speechwriter for U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao.

If you’ve enjoyed Leslies’s guest post on digital culture, please consider reading some of the other articles she’s written or has appeared in on the web.

Leslie Carbone on Writers Net.

Leslie Carbone on Roots Wire.

Leslie Carbone on Union Leader.

Leslie Carbone on Righty Blogs.

Leslie Carbone on Town Hall.

Guest Blog Post by @pprlisa

Lisa’s guest post was originally written on August 14, 2008.

I am having a very bad day that has topped off a very bad week and it doesn’t seem to want to end.

9:30 AM

Doctor’s tests that scared me. I don’t have the right paper work, I have to scramble.

11:00 AM

Got into work way too late for all of the things I have to get done.

11:30 AM-4:30 PM

Almost unending phone calls with progressively more work to do.

4:30 PM

Like a punch in the gut, I get an email that means the rest of my night, the next day and beyond, is going to be awful.

4:45 PM

Damage-control planning and painful phone calls.

5:00 PM

I tweet this:

pprlisa Dear this week, Its me again. Perhaps you missed my last tweet. You have to end. Have. To. Please. Pretty Please. Thank you. -Lisa

I am waiting on some return phone calls, so I peek at Summize. (Yeah I know, it’s Twitter Search now, whatever.) I see @jayhmt as a cartoon talking to @FabGirl.

Kimber Schmahl

Knowing my “avatar rules” and likely seeing my bad mood tweets, they start taunting me with their new avatars as they maliciously break my rules and flaunt it in my face! I’m really in no mood to play—much less fane the umbrage I usually do—they’ve broken the rules! So I just respond with a minor insult. Then they point out that @wendym was their ring leader!

WendyM

I start looking around and I see that my avatar-switching-old folk home-future-roommate-pal @JuliaGoolia has also transformed. No surprise there! Although aware of my rules and the first to point them out; Jules changes avatars like Sybil changes personalities! (Wow, how badly did I just date myself?)

Julia Goolia

Looking further—is that @PopDaddy showing his love for Fabs!? He will do anything to get her to leave Canada so he can be her cabana boy again!

Rob

Oh no, they’ve talked @lizwebpage into it haven’t they? Her eyes look kinda shifty though. It’s as if perhaps she’s looking off toward the root cellar where maybe she has put @thronkus… Who, come to think of it, none of us have really heard from in over a week!

lizwebpage

While I am waiting for the return call that I am dreading, I decide I might as well play along. But of course in line with my week, day, and night, the mangatar site wouldn’t work for me and I pout about it to Fabs on IM.

What does she do? She makes me one so I can play! Slowly my spirits are rising a little. My girl Gools sees my avatar and knows something’s missing. So she does what any good army seamstress would do; she adds my beret!

When your Twitter friends are all cartoons, they are begging for you to play along and you now look like this, how can your mood not start improving:

Lisa Dilg

After that, it was a rapid fire transformation. About every ten tweets there was someone else asking how to get in the game. I was asked this on IM, DM, email and on tweets and the answer was: Faceyourmanga.com.

My favorite transformation of all however, was the reluctant but always hysterical @akamonty who summed up exactly how I was feeling and made me laugh out loud:

Shannon

My point of all this is, some people say you can’t have real conversations on Twitter—Hi @BethHarte ;)) Twitter has been absolutely amazing for me, both personally and professionally. I can say that Twitter has really changed things for me.

On another day, I might have called a couple of friends, grabbed a wine bottle, and then turned on the TV. However, because of the incredible connections I’ve been fortunate to have made on Twitter, I was able to talk to over 50 people that night! They made me laugh, made me feel better, and made me forget, even if just briefly, the kind of day/week I was having.

I think its crazy how people can develop friendships—real friendships—140 characters at a time. We find ourselves caring about what happens to each other; illness, tragedy, problems with the kids, and vacations. We even miss each other when someone “goes off the grid” for a little while. (Yeah, I’m talking to you @JamiMiami).

Yesterday, I got DMs from people whom I barely know that were so wonderfully supportive! Without Twitter, they wouldn’t have ever known I existed, much less known that I was having such a bad night!

So the Fail Whale, crazy pictures of robots, and wrenches be dammed—Twitter has been the best thing to have happened to me in a long time! I’ve gotten to know people from all over the country. (And yes @giggey and @FabGirl, from Canadia too). I’ve even met several of these crazy people—I’m on a quest to meet them all actually—and I’ve stayed in my pal @lizwebpage’s root cellar more times than I can count.

Also, thanks to you Mark, for giving me a forum for this today. I really want to thank all of the crazy cartoons for helping me out yesterday and making me remember not to take life so seriously.

Mark Davidson

Here are some of the cartoons people that I played around with yesterday. YES, @eeUS, I know there are more, but for the love, please stop DM’ing them to me

VickiH

Extra special shout out to @JuliaGoolia and @Fabgirl once again for making sure I could play along, not letting me pout, and for their emails and IMs throughout the evening that made me smile.

Oh, and this just in: I got a DM from one of my favorite social media gurus when I woke up this morning—looks like he wanted to play along too—can anyone guess who this is:

(HINT: It’s Chris Brogan)

This was supposed to be an image of @chrisbrogan’s mangatar but he changed it back before we could publish it! The Twitter Stars art department did its best to faithfully re-create Chris Brogan’s mangatar in Microsoft Paint. (Our apologies to Chris who will hopefully have a sense of humor about our disastrous art skills.)

Thanks again everyone and let Crazy Twitter Friday begin (revolution members—it’s a berets optional weekend as these cartoons are soooo funny :-)). And don’t forget @akamonty’s crazy radio show at 10:00 PM EDT/9:00 PM CDT tonight. Check out her page for details tonight, it’s the best part of my week!

Some other Twitter followers who joined us in the mangatar fun:

Adam Snider: http://twitter.com/ink_slinger

Adena Bailey: http://twitter.com/adena

Amber Watson Tardiff: http://twitter.com/jerseymomma

Anna: http://twitter.com/ShoeSmitten

Astacia: http://twitter.com/mamikaze

BethHarte: http://twitter.com/BethHarte

CalamityJen: http://twitter.com/CalamityJen

Dara Rochlin: http://twitter.com/darar

donthorp: http://twitter.com/donthorp

Erin Noel: http://twitter.com/ErinNoelG

Helen ThompsonMosher: http://twitter.com/helenmosher

Jay Huber: http://twitter.com/jayhmt

Jeff Crites: http://twitter.com/JCrites

Jeremy Herbel: http://twitter.com/JeremyHerbel

Jessica Rosenberg: http://twitter.com/kikarose

Jessica Smith: http://twitter.com/JessicaKnows

Julia Goolia: http://twitter.com/JuliaGoolia

Kimber Schmahl: http://twitter.com/FabGirl

Lisa Dilg: http://twitter.com/pprlisa

lizwebpage: http://twitter.com/lizwebpage

Marc Kevin Hall: http://twitter.com/mkhall

Mark Davidson: http://twitter.com/markdavidson

Matt: http://twitter.com/mmWine

Mike Doe: http://twitter.com/mikedoe

Minjae Ormes: http://twitter.com/thebaggageclaim

Mykl Roventine: http://twitter.com/myklroventine

Natalie: http://twitter.com/Natallini

Nick: http://twitter.com/kionee

nuthinfancy: http://twitter.com/nuthinfancy

Paisano: http://twitter.com/Paisano

Rob: http://twitter.com/PopDaddy

Shannon M Davis: http://twitter.com/sdavis

Shannon: http://twitter.com/akaMonty

ShannonNelson: http://twitter.com/ShannonNelson

Tamar Wallace: http://twitter.com/justTamar

Tracy Lee: http://twitter.com/StarrGazr

True Jersey Girl: http://twitter.com/truejerseygirl

VickyH: http://twitter.com/eeUS

WendyM: http://twitter.com/WendyM

YatPundit: http://twitter.com/YatPundit

Twitter Stars Interview with @Dayngr

markdavidson: I want to feature on Twitterstars.com how you are using Twitter to support American troops. I’d like for our interview to serve as a guide to what can be accomplished with a single account on Twitter.

Dayngr: Bless your heart. Thanks!

markdavidson: I read a blurb in your timeline about how you are now at 30% of your goal for Operation Soldier Care. My purpose for Twitterstars.com is to inspire people to use Twitter as a tool to do great things. Let’s just chat like we would if we were on Twitter. Please feel free to give me any background information about how you are using Twitter to support our troops abroad.

Dayngr: Well, let me tell you a little about eMOM. Our website is eMailOurMilitary.com. Basically, we support the troops via email, postal mail, and care packages.

markdavidson: Which is awesome!

Dayngr: I thought it was pretty cool. I wanted to do something after 9/11 but I couldn’t just drop everything and run to NY to volunteer. Through Twitter we’ve teamed up with companies like Qipit, Utterz, and BabbleSoft to help support our troops.

markdavidson: Ah see, that’s the story I’m looking for! That’s perfect!

Dayngr: Guy Kawasaki has donated his books to our troops along with Matthew Ebel donating his music. All this made possible through Twitter.

markdavidson: Yeah, that’s the exact kind of thing I’m looking for. I want Twitter Stars to be about community. Also, I like the idea that Twitter is being used to affect social change for the betterment of other people.

Dayngr: That has been my experience.

markdavidson: Social Media is a great tool, I’m hoping we are using it right and it looks like you are!

Dayngr: Last year we raised over 1000 for care packages to the troops, mostly using Twitter! Podcasters have volunteered to create promos for us and we also have podcasters that use those promos during their shows.

markdavidson: So tell me about how you use Twitter.

Dayngr: To raise awareness, build a support community, raise funds, and partner with great companies, people, and organizations. Take a little peek at this: Serving Our Country Through Social Media.

I’m not afraid to market myself or my organization to others. I ask for exactly what I’d like. If I want to work with them to get their music to the troops I ask, etc.

markdavidson: Trish, this is great! You are doing something really important and special here.

Dayngr: Flattery will get you everywhere! *Wink*

markdavidson: lol. So, I’m told! But it’s also the truth! And you started this in 2001? By yourself?

Dayngr: Yes!

markdavidson: How many people do you have now? Is it still just you?

Dayngr: We have 7 key volunteers who work with us to get the behind the scenes stuff done. Me and one volunteer in the office and thousands of civilian and military members. Oh and one virtual assistant we found on Twitter.

Dayngr: Before I forget too, here’s a great example. We had some issues with a web team we’d hired. I send out a tweet and asked if there were any designers out there. We got tons of responses and @illig offered his services through his company Brainstormbrand.com at no cost to us! He and his team are redesigning our site right now. Here’s a link to all the folks who’ve featured us, most are from Twitter:

http://emailourmilitary.blogspot.com/search/label/Featured

markdavidson: What’s the process from start to finish? How does it all work?

Dayngr: So you ask, how does it all work? The site/service you mean? But of course Darling!

Service members register for support and are matched with civilians who have registered to support them. When a service member registers they include some basic info like hobbies and interests and age, etc. We try to match them with someone close in age or region or with the same likes, etc. Then they communicate on their own as often or as little as they like. We have a wide range of activities for everyone to support our troops regardless of age or how much time they have.

markdavidson: That’s great. What press have you been featured in and do you have links?

Dayngr: Here is most but I don’t think we have everything up yet:

http://www.emailourmilitary.com/media-popup.html

markdavidson: It’s amazing what someone can accomplish with a Twitter account! I’m going to embed your ChipIn widget and re-post the details of your August drive to raise funds for skin care packages on behalf of our troops.

I know a lot of people are skeptical about what can be accomplished by using social media. Trish is actively demonstrating a highly effective use of social media to affect a positive change in people’s lives. I encourage others to model what Trish is doing with her Twitter account and add their own flavor to the mix.

I’ve always felt that conversational media sites are no different than using a telephone or email as a communication tool except for one key difference. A telephone is useless without a list of numbers to call. An email account is useless without a database of email addresses. With a social media site like Twitter, there’s an entire network of people built right into the system.

Having spent a number of years in phone sales, I’m no stranger to call reluctance. Social media tools like Twitter help to remove the psychological barriers that exist with other forms of communication. Anyone with an idea like Trish’s can immediately begin changing people’s lives, developing relationships, and enjoy the process while doing so.

I’ve embedded a ChipIn widget for eMOM below. Please feel free to ask @Dayngr questions about how she’s used Twitter to raise funds to buy care packages for our troops or about eMOM. If you have a charity and you are using Twitter to raise funds, I encourage you to leave a link in the comments section. I will not consider it to be spam and I may even consider interviewing you for Twitterstars.com.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/emom/

Thank you @Dayngr for leading by example. I appreciate your time and giving me the opportunity to interview you.

Operation Soldier Care - August 18th Deadline

We’re in the final week of our Operation Soldier Care project. Operation Soldier Care is a collaborative summer project between eMail Our Military (eMOM) and Mary Kay Sales Director, Nancy Sutherland to get sun care and skin care packages to our troops dealing with the desert heat in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. You can read more about this project on the eMail Our Military Blog or add your dollars toward purchasing care packages for our troops!

A few weeks ago while looking to create content for Twitter Stars, I interviewed some of my favorite people from Twitter. I’m a big fan of Terry Gross and Ira Glass from NPR but I’m afraid that I fall a bit short.

This entire blog is dedicated to the possibilities that one can create with a simple Twitter account. It’s a pretty simple focus. I hope by reading my blog, people will become inspired to use Twitter to do great things.

I’ve posted an article by @junkdnafiction, who uses Twitter to write serialized fiction. I posted a video of a Twitter meet up to donate blood. I posted how @guykawasaki inspired me as a young man and how I later met him on Twitter. @leahjones posted about how Twitter drew a global community of friends into her life. @shannonpaul wrote an article about how Twitter improved the quality of her personal and professional life. @christyxcore reported on Comic-Con. @markdavidgerson wrote about the professional connections he’s made and how he’s used Twitter to promote his books. @lauralovesart wrote about the people she’s met from Twitter. @pprlisa has written about organizing and uniting the Twitter community.

Each guest post has focused on a different aspect of Twitter use and yet each post has a common thread: The people. Twitter is all about people and social interaction. Twitter is a fluid and dynamic form of communication. It can either be a giant chat room or an intimate one-on-one conversation. There is no one way to use Twitter.

There’s two pieces to the Twitter magic. One is that we as users can define how we use Twitter. The other is that the quality of the community at Twitter is exceptional. Twitter seldom steps in to regulate its users. Twitter users hold each other accountable and enforce social boundaries. Seemingly, such social anarchy would be destined to fail and yet, this freedom is what makes Twitter so great.

I’m hoping that the stories here and the interviews I will be posting over the next few weeks will become models of possibility for all of us. Social Media provides a set of wonderful tools but comes with very little instruction.

I think in many ways, we are all still finding our way. My intention is for this blog to serve as an inspiration and a guide for what can be accomplished with a single account on Twitter.

“Twitter break is over. Back to slaving in the hot, dark, social-media mine that’s hidden 5 miles beneath the surface of the earth’s crust.”

04:13 PM August 05, 2008

Guest Blog Post by @junkdnafiction

The late autumn evening air filled the monk’s lungs with a chill the fire around which he sat was unable to dissipate. The heavy-handed presence of evil he had experienced since entering the woods surrounding this mountain village had not bothered to conceal itself from him.

“The hellspawn has devoured four of the village’s young women in the past two weeks, leaving their desiccated bodies to drip from trees. It feasted on their innards, rend the meat from their bones…”

The village elder lost himself in his recollection, revisiting the horror through his mind’s eye. Trapped by what he had seen. Not wishing to relive it, yet unable to let it go. Horrified and fascinated simultaneously. A vision beyond all imagined nightmares so horrible one must look upon for the brain to comprehend the reality of the situation.

There was no doubt in the monk’s mind of the demon’s origin. It was a Rasetsu. A devourer of human beings. A powerful demon that reveled in the kill. The flesh of humans was as sweet as any fruit to it.

The old man returned from his unspeakable vision and spoke once more to his guest the monk, a holy man called from a revered temple in the next province. “We turned to you for two reasons-you are a holy man and a samurai.”

“I was a samurai,” corrected the monk. “I left the path of the samurai when I joined the temple.”

“But you will forever retain your skills. You have the strength and cunning of samurai, and the wisdom and ways of a monk. We are doubly blessed by your decision to come.”

While there was truth in the words, the grim shadow of hallowed expectation darkened the room a shade. It was not his place to argue with the village elder. Furthermore, one way or another, the village would need taking care of. He could not allow this demon Rasetsu to continue to devour the flesh of innocents. Who knew what vile violations it visited upon their souls once they tried to escape its power for the safety of Heaven.

The last of the elder’s words rang in his ears before he slept that evening… “We wish you to save us from this monster.”

He had, of course, agreed.

The next morning the monk began rigorous rituals that included incantations, meditation, the studying of script scrolls, and collecting a tiny memento from each villager-of which there were nearly forty. The job they were asking would take every ounce of power he held in both the heavenly and earthly realms to defeat this eater of men and violator of souls.

For two nights and days he prepared himself for the single most taxing task of his career as either warrior or holy man. When it was through, he spoke once more with the village elder.

“I am ready.”

“Is there anything we can do to aide you?”

The monk’s face went grim with determination, “There is.”

The old man was immediately attentive.

“No matter what hellish screams are heard. No matter what horrors might be imagined. No villager must leave his or her home. In fact, I insist every villager bed early to get the best rest possible.”

“This is all?”

The monk’s voice was deeply earnest, “This is the path to salvation for the village. If I should be disturbed at any point during my task, then you are all doomed to a hell of Rasetsu tortures for eternity.”

Nodding his understanding, the elder quickly rounded up the heads of each household, and relayed the instructions of the monk. They all agreed to obey without question.

That evening, as the deep night held the village in its cold embrace, the once-samurai now-monk said a final prayer before he entered the home of each village family to send them directly to Heaven by slitting their throats as they slept.

© 2008, Made in DNA

Made in DNA is an American short story author living in Japan and writes serial fiction on Twitter. Made in DNA has been recognized by comic book author @warrenellis on WarrenEllis.com and on Warren Ellis’ LiveJournal.

If you’ve enjoyed Made in DNA’s guest post on Twitter Stars, his ebook, Media Whores is available at lulu.com as a download for $1.00.

A man, a woman, the yakuza, and zombie sex, all part of an original bizarro microfiction short story first serialized on Twitter and then touted across the blogosphere.

Serialized and short fiction blog of Made in DNA. Feel free to tumble my work.

“I channel my muse in a little known, yet up and coming, genre called BIZARRO (twisted fiction). It is heavily poisoned with cyberpunk, hardboiled, noir elements, and Japanese culture. I like it like that.”

I recently started toying around with Ping.fm. I belong to a lot of social networking sites and I have a pretty strong understanding of each. Understanding how social bookmarking, social networking, and social conversational sites can be used effectively is my job. I only actively use a very few social networking sites for my own personal use. The rest I have so that I can advise my clients on how they might use them to their benefit.

To die with one`s sword still sheathed is most regrettable—Miyamoto Musashi, circa 1645

I held off on exploring Ping.fm for a bit—until last night when I found myself in that new tool, what can we make it do, kind of mood. So on a whim, I spent the time setting it up with the various sites I have accounts with.

I use Ping.fm with:

• Bebo
• Facebook
• FriendFeed
• hi5
• Identi.ca
• kwippy
• MySpace
• Plurk
• Pownce
• Twitter

The first thing that I discovered with Ping.fm is that it’s a very lonely place. Sure, I was sending out messages but unlike other social network aggregation sites such as FriendFeed or MyBlogLog, I couldn’t see if anyone was replying back to me.

This caused me to leap back onto Twitter just to see what was going on over there. Were people responding to my insipid blurbs? In order to make effective use of Ping.fm, I still had to return to my social networking sites. In the end, how much benefit did Ping.fm create for me?

To use social media and conversational media sites effectively, we have to interact with our followers. To simply broadcast messages to people defeats the purpose of social networking. If I was simply broadcasting my message all day long, who would be listening? Would I have any followers to broadcast to?

Because I teach people how to effectively use social networking, it’s important that I understand the benefits and the limitations of as many sites as possible. My first foray into Ping.fm taught me that it’s a tool of limited value. Part of a good SMM practice is to monitor the result or effect you’re having on your audience. In the case of Ping.fm, I found that really, it’s only effective as a tool for announcements and therefore has limited use. The benefit of social media is the bi-directional communication on sites such as Twitter.

In the future, I will only recommend to my clients that they use of Ping.fm to make brief and a limited number of announcements. A good example of how I will use Ping.fm, is to announce new blog posts on Twitter Stars.

What are your opinions on Ping.fm?

• Can Ping.fm be used successfully to market?
• Does Ping.fm promote social interaction or does it impede it?
• Does Ping.fm serve a purpose beyond updating your Facebook Status?
• How do you use Ping.fm?

From Twitter

markdavidson I think using Ping.fm sorta defeats the whole point of conversational networking.

markdavidson I feel like the tree that fell in the forest with nobody around to hear it… Ping.fm makes the sound.

tmatzner @markdavidson indeed. Therefore I only use it for to post interesting links but not for standard conversation. #ping.fm

scifirantergirl @markdavidson agrees about Ping.fm. I like that it posts to several places. Dont like that it’s more for announcements than conversation.

tofu916 @markdavidson well, you may be right, but its a good traffic tool if you can make good use of it.

DaveWares @markdavidson That’s why I gave up on it.

dedlam @markdavidson Pings like the bullhorn that goes with your soap box. Great way to start a conversation, then choose another svcs to continue

markdavidson @tofu916 I’m not sure how to make good use of it. I’m not as much of a fan of broadcasting as I am of bi-directional communication.

markdavidson @dedlam It’s like a Facebook Status update.

tofu916 @markdavidson i gotcha. you are truly a webmaster. im happy to get traffic peanuts! LOL

LEMills @markdavidson - amen re ping.fm. When I see the 2nd (and 3rd and 4th) echo, I wonder if I have to chase around to reply everywhere…no!

markdavidson I’m trying to see just how obnoxious I can be with Ping.fm. This is not how conversational media is supposed to work! lol!

markdavidson Dear Friend, I am interested in importation of goods into our country with funds which are presently trapped in Nigeria…

DevilBlueDress @markdavidson Glad to hear someone is causing some trouble

sheilas @markdavidson Wow, I wish I could get a sincere email like that from some nice banker in Nigeria….

OutlanderUSA @markdavidson LOL!! You too, huh? Have you won the 2010 South African Lottery yet? I have. Twice!

Tojosan @markdavidson down with Ping.FM. It’s one way.

markdavidson Do women laugh hysterically at you before running out of the bedroom? Markzyte Natural male enhancement for only $1.99. Buy now in bulk!

urbanbohemian @markdavidson Pretty darn obnoxious, I assure you. It’s almost like it’s turned US into the spammers. -)

RickWolff @markdavidson Do they have an affiliate program? How about the Nigerian guy?

markdavidson Hehehe! Ping.fm is FUN! I wonder what else I can make it do? lol. Okay, bored with it again. Back to having conversations…

czarphanguye @markdavidson Lmao! I’m positive you can rate yourself a 10 (out of 10) on the obnoxious scale when using Pingfm improperly.

markdavidson @czarphanguye Thanks! I normally try to use my social media skills for purposes of good rather than evil. The temptation is just too much!

markdavidson @RickWolff lol. Yes, the Nigerian consulate has a great affiliate program but oddly I’ve never received a single check from them…

markdavidson @Tojosan Definitely! The whole point of conversational media is bi-directional communication. This one-way broadcasting thing… *yawn*

markdavidson Are you into hot one-on-one bi-directional social communication? Call now! Wayward college girls want to talk to you! 976-TWITTER!

markdavidson @OutlanderUSA No! I have not won that one yet! Some people seem to have all the luck!

Tojosan @markdavidson what, were you tweeting to me? Ha. Yeah, I’m bored with one way comms. I’ll read a blog post or magazine for that.

RobertFischer @markdavidson That’s why I don’t follow a lot of the “social media superstars”. They throw stuff at me, but never engage in conversation!

markdavidson Dear Sir/Madam. My Alexa ranking is trapped at 100,001. I am currently living in exile from Google for abuse. I desperately need your help.

markdavidson @SheilaS Hahaha! There seems to be an unlimited supply of Nigerian bankers! Perhaps we can set up some kind of social networking site!

markdavidson @DevilBlueDress Yeah, it’s been a while! Hehehe! Got a cause a ruckus every now and again just to keep things lively in social media. Echo?

Many years ago, back in 1990, I was at a local book store and purchased a copy of Guy Kawasaki’s The Macintosh Way—The Art of Guerrilla Management. Many books have influenced me over the years, however, The Macintosh Way is one of only a handful of books that has changed me.

To this day, I’m not sure why the secondary title is The Art of Guerrilla Management when clearly it’s a book on product marketing. The Macintosh Way introduced a number of key concepts that I still carry with me and are now so integrated into my thinking, they’ve become a part of who I am.

• Doing the right thing, the right way
• Ask for forgiveness, not permission
• Having a passion for what you are marketing
• Identify and cater to “the cult” users or buyers in your market
• Establish and support your core group
• Empower your employees and customers to do the right thing

In 1990, I was promoting events of questionable legality—or the proper permitting—in Los Angeles. It was during this time when I met @unfreakable. He’s one of only a handful of people who I’ve been in consistent contact with since those days. @unfreakable is one of only a few close friends who remembers all the work we’d put into these events, how we’d promote them, and how we’d organize them with the help and support of our friends and followers.

Last Fall, I had mentioned to @unfreakable that I was excited to see Guy Kawasaki posting on Twitter and how Guy Kawasaki had unknowingly mentored me though his authorship of The Macintosh Way. I hadn’t known this but @unfreakable is also a big fan of Guy Kawasaki. A brief discussion about what Guy has written ensued. @unfreakable didn’t know that a lot of what I deployed in the course of producing and promoting those events—back when we were only 23 and 24—were influenced by my having read The Macintosh Way.

Last Saturday, I saw @guykawasaki pop up in my timeline and I took it as an opportunity to ask Guy if Twitter Stars could be on his Alltop site. Guy was kind enough to agree to add Twitter Stars to the social media category. On Thursday, I saw that Twitter Stars had been added to Alltop and I @’d Guy with a thank you.

I think it would have been strange had someone told me in 1990, that @unfreakable and I would still be friends, still working together promoting, and that I would have contact with Guy Kawaski on something called a “micro-blog”. (Even more strange would have been if someone told me that one day I’d be communicating with Guy Kawasaki from a PC instead of a Macintosh!)

My AIM is flashing. I have @lauralovesart telling me that I need to sign up for Kwippy in one window and @hellobethanne in the other letting me know she just got home from the gallery she works at. Ah, lauralovesart just emailed me a Kwippy invite!

I’ve been using Twitter for a year now. It’s so integrated into my life that I rarely stop and think about it anymore. On any given night, I’m connecting over IM with friends whom I’ve made on Twitter. I’m talking on the phone with friends from Twitter. I’m trading DM’s with friends over Twitter. These days, Twitter seems to be the hub of my social life.

So, when I’m on Twitter, I’m not thinking about where someone works, how much money they’ve made, what kind of car they drive, or the house they live in—They’re all just sorta people. I either connect with them or I don’t. I didn’t think twice about asking Guy Kawasaki if Twitter Stars could be on Alltop. Twitter it seems is a great equalizer. In many ways Twitter levels the playing field among us. We each get the same 140 characters with which to express ourselves.

Barriers that would exist between people in other situations don’t seem to exist on Twitter. We are all stripped down to our bare essentials; our written voice. In this way we each have an equal footing and are free to interact with anyone who chooses to respond to us. We are rejected or accepted based on who we are rather than what we have. This is what I like about Twitter. It’s a big melting pot of personalities, people, and professions.

I sent an email to @crystal a year ago letting her know that I felt Twitter would one day be as ubiquitous as the telephone, email, or IM. Even with The Great Twitter Follower Crash of 2008, I still feel that way.

I’d like to read your stories about the relationships you’ve developed on Twitter and how using Twitter has changed your life.

• Have you met anyone on Twitter who you never thought you’d ever have a conversation with?
• Has Twitter changed your social life? Have you made new business contacts? New friends?
• Have you met people on Twitter who you now talk with on the phone or meet with in real life?
• What have you learned about people by using Twitter?

From Twitter

markdavidson: @guykawasaki Does http://twitterstars.com qualify to be on AllTop.com? Thanks.

guykawasaki: @markdavidson We’ll add to socialmedia.alltop.com

markdavidson: @guykawasaki Awesome! Thanks! Now I get to add the “Confirmation that I kick ass!” badge! Alltop FTW!

markdavidson: @guykawasaki Thanks for putting http://twitterstars.com on Alltop!

guykawasaki: @markdavidson glad to help! Pls spread the word.

Guest Blog Post by @leahjones

I’m sitting at a bar in Chicago called Matilda’s. When I was here last week, I came with @amyguth and then @lisrock joined us. Hooray! @amyguth and I have known each other for years, but it was the first time I’d met @lisrock in person. We didn’t plan to hang out, but we know the areas we hang out in and were able to have a martini together.

This is what I call Enabled Serendipity.

It sounds like extreme web 2.0 jargon but it has become my favorite things about Twitter. Because of Twitter, I avoid stories that end with, “Oh man, I was there too. If I’d known you were there, we would have had such an awesome time!”

Enabled Serendipity is being able to turn an almost-coincidence into seeing someone face to face.

Last winter I was in the Jet Blue Terminal of JFK and saw that @chrisbrogan was waiting to board a Jet Blue flight as well. A direct message—and quick text message to his phone, after getting his number from mobile Facebook—and we were having a beer. Without Twitter, we would have each had our lonely airport meal. Hell, without Twitter, @chrisbrogan wouldn’t be in my life.

In June I went to Israel for two weeks. The night I got to Tel Aviv, I missed my hosts and didn’t have their cell phone number to find them. It was a holiday, so making a last minute hotel reservation wasn’t going to happen. I dragged all of my luggage to a cafe, got on Twitter and said, “hmmm… no plan b and can’t find hosts. i’m near ben gurion and hadassah st, any suggestions?”

Within moments my phone lit-up and @taltalk came to rescue me. After getting promises that I wasn’t a murderer over twitter from the States, @taltalk came to get me and I stayed with her. That my friends, is Israeli and Twitterati hospitality.

A few days later I tweeted that I was walking around Tel Aviv, if anyone wanted to join. By 5PM, I was joined at Cuppa Joe by one of Israel’s biggest pop stars Ivri Lider. Hint: On Twitter he’s a little more incognito as @arturmon.

And these are just the recent stories. Due to the Enabled Serendipity of Twitter, I now have a global community. I’ve met people around the country and abroad. I’ve fallen in and out of something close to love. I’ve been able to make introductions that turned into jobs. I have a new group of friends in Chicago that don’t roll their eyes when I talk about nerdy-nerdy things and I’ve even got most of my family on Twitter including my mom @lindajones, twin sister @devivo, and older brother @ryjones.

But the most fun remains those moments when I can avoid saying “Oh man, you were there too?” and replace it with, “Remember when we met at a cafe in Tel Aviv?”

Leah Jones is a writer, occasional talker, and the Digital-Culture Evangelist at Edelman Public Relations in Chicago.

More about Leah Jones can be found at:

http://www.edelmandigital.com/blog/authors.html

If you’ve enjoyed Leah’s guest post on digital culture, please consider reading some of the other articles she’s written or has appeared in on the web.

Leah Jones on Edelman’s Talkshop: Geeking Out in DC.

Leah Jones on Edelman Digital’s Authenticities.

Leah Jones on Chicago Tech Report.

Leah Jones on Liz Strauss’ Successful-blog.com.

Leah Jones on Twellow.com.

Leah Jones on Flickr.

I lean left politically, I’m a Zionist, I’m an observant, liberal Jew. I love Chicago, I love my friends. When I write about things I love, I probably wasn’t asked to write about it. Seriously, look at my stats, nobody really needs my help to sell their stuff. I write about Jewish stuff, dating stuff, writing stuff, friend stuff, weather stuff, event stuff, and weight stuff.