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

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.