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236 Reasons to buy ‘Age of Conversation 2′ from tomorrow. And because I say so. October 28, 2008

I’m one of 237 authors who have contributed to the publication ‘Age of Conversation 2 - Why don’t they get it?‘ and I’m very happy to announce that you can buy the book from 08:00 US EST tomorrow, 29th October 2008 here at http://www.lulu.com/ageofconversation. For those of you in the UK, that’s on sale from 12 Noon tomorrow, 13:00 in Netherlands, France and Spain. The publication is a series of themed short essays, involving 237 marketing professionals who blog from 29 states throughout the USA, and from 14 other nations from Australia to the Ukraine. All contributed one page — 400 words — on the topic of “conversation”.

My contribution to ‘AOC2′ was a chapter entitled “You’re a facilitator, not a creative…” in the section of the book called ‘A New Brand of Creative’.

“I can think at about 1250 words per minute, but can only speak at about 250wpm. So I am five times more clever when I keep my mouth shut…” - David Petherick, writing in Age of Conversation 2

There are two important things to note: 1) You can get Age of Conversation 2 in hardback, or in paperback or in e-book format and 2) All the proceeds go to Variety charity. Not one of the authors receives a complimentary copy - we have to buy ours. So if you’d like an autographed or personalised copy - then buy it, ship it to me, and I’ll send it on. It would be quite a feat to get all 237 authors to sign it - what do you think?

So please order your copy now, and benefit yourself, say hi to all of these wonderful authors, and do something to help children who could use a little help from you. You’ll find more information at the Age of Conversation Blog, but for now, go buy that book. You’ll love at least 236 parts of it…

Thanks. Alphabetically, thanks also to the authors.

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick (Hey that’s me), David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

“What is Social Media Marketing anyway?”, ask those Marketing people. “Read this.” I reply. October 17, 2008

“Ads that went to people who wanted them outperformed (50:1) ads aimed at strangers. Suddenly, respect becomes profitable” Seth Godin sums this up brilliantly.

That is all.

Blog08 Amsterdam: A-List Bloggers line-up expands, early bird discount ends tomorrow. October 7, 2008

Blog08, Amsterdam, on the 24th October 2008, has added some great bloggers to its line-up, and tomorrow is your last chance to get an early bird discount to save €45 on the entry fee,

I’d recommend you get your name on the list today, as the early bird discount, means it’s only €150 to attend, rather than €195. With a mention in Parool.nl, and being all over the Dutch media today, and online in the likes of AD, Metro, and Trouw, the reduced price allocation may be gone very soon. You also have the chance to win a free seat at the Speaker’s Dinner on the night before the conference if you buy before Thursday.

Use this special discount promo code to save €45: digitalbio

This will be the rock’n'roll blogging event of the year in Europe, with a great host in Patrick de Laive, a great venue, and an amazing program that, of course, includes performances from a rock band… and an after-party at Odeon, Amsterdam.

And of course, it takes place on a Friday… leaving you free to enjoy an extra day or two in Amsterdam. Assuming you survive that after-party, of course.

Speakers list…

Twellow adds more features to increase your online visibility October 1, 2008

Twellow, the ‘yellow pages for Twitter‘, has improved its utility with the ability to create your own biography entry.

As well as being able to claim your twitter profile, and classify yourself in up to 10 categories (although I’m in 14 for some reason), you can also add your own social media links to your profiles on Pownce, LinkedIn, Flickr, FriendFeed, etcetera - as well as creating a brief summary and what’s termed a ‘bio’ or biography entry.

The search facility in Twellow includes the data in your summary and pick ups keywords and links used there, and your biography information can also include basic HTML, so links and visual formatting can be added. The summary is indexed in search - the biography does not appear to be indexed yet.

Apart from being a great way to find people using Twitter with similar interests, and pinpointing interesting people to follow, categorized Twellow profiles are also becoming visible in Google and Yahoo searches. So I’d recommend making sure you claim your profile at Twellow and add your details and social links to ensure your online visibility and credibility stay high. It’s free, and there are over half a million people listed there, so it’s worth spending a few minutes to make sure you’re visible, coherent, and linked up here.

One in ten US College Admissions Officers checks social networks in admissions process. September 23, 2008

A Kaplan survey of 320 admissions officers from the United States’ “top colleges and universities” revealed that one out of ten admissions officers has visited an applicant’s social networking Web site as part of the admissions decision-making process.

It’s not all bad news, of course - 25% of those surveyed said that viewing social network content had a positive impact on their evaluation. However, a greater percentage (38 percent) report that applicants’ social networking sites have generally had a negative impact on their admissions evaluation.

“The social networking frontier is a bit like the Wild West for colleges and universities — everyone is trying to figure out how to navigate it,” said Jeff Olson, Executive Director of Research for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. “The vast majority of schools we surveyed said they have no official policies or guidelines in place regarding visiting applicants’ social networking web sites — nor are they considering plans to develop them.” For schools who reported having a policy, generally the policy is not to look at or factor these sites into the evaluation. One admissions officer reported, “Staff can visit them for narrowly defined reasons, but can’t go on a fishing expedition.”

Kaplan conducted similar surveys at business (9%), law (15%) and medical schools (14%), and it is interesting to note that there have been a whole series of ‘clean’ online-profile-building services appearing, which of course, are specifically designed for the college admissions process, and significantly, over a quarter of survey respondents (26 percent) say their schools subscribe to one or more of these sites.

Examples of these sites include Admish.com, Cappex.com, EdSoup.com and Zinch.com.

So it looks like college kids don’t have to worry too much about what material they place on Facebook or MySpace (yet) but they should certainly throw together a profile on a college admissions profile site to boost their chances of admission to their preferred schools. At the same time , it seems that there are a lot of institutions out there who need to draw up a policy of some sort (even if it’s a blanket ‘no online screening from social media’), otherwise they may lay themselves open to claims of bias or discrimination.

More than one in five employers will screen your social media profiles before they decide on hiring you. September 16, 2008

Twenty-two percent of hiring managers said they use social networking sites to research job candidates, up from 11 percent in 2006, according to a nationwide survey of more than 3,100 employers from CareerBuilder.com. An additional 9 per cent said they don’t currently use social networking sites to screen potential employees, but plan to start.

Of those hiring managers who have screened job candidates via social networking profiles, one-third (34 percent) reported they found content that caused them to dismiss the candidate from consideration. THAT IS MORE THAN ONE IN THREE.

Top areas for concern among these hiring managers included:

• 41% - information about them drinking or using drugs
• 40% - provocative or inappropriate photographs or information
• 29% - poor communication skills
• 22% - screen name was unprofessional
• 19% - shared confidential information from previous employers

On the other hand, social networking profiles also can give job seekers an edge over the competition. Twenty-four percent of hiring managers who researched job candidates via social networking sites said they “found content that helped to solidify their decision to hire the candidate“.

Top factors that influenced their hiring decision included:

• 48% - candidate’s background supported their qualifications for the job
• 43% - candidate had great communication skills
• 36% - candidate’s site conveyed a professional image
• 31% - candidate had great references posted about them by others
• 24% - candidate’s profile was creative

So, if you’re aiming to be hired, you need to make sure your online profiles match the picture you want a potential employer to see, because there’s a greater than one in five chance that they will check out your profile online, and an even greater chance that if they see something they like there, that fact will help you to get the job you have applied for.

The careerbuilder site gives a number of fairly obvious tips to ensure you are viewed favourably, but I have a few more:

1. Use online profiles to create positive information about yourself, and ask for recommendations or testimonials from others that can be placed on these profiles. LinkedIn is probably the best example where you can receive testimonials from work colleagues, associates and employers.
2. Monitor your own name with a service such as Google Alerts - or if you are really serious about managing your reputation online, try Trackur - it has a 14-day free trial.
3. invest in your own name as a domain name, especially if you have a common name. I own both davidpetherick.name and davidpetherick.com, for example. And add content and commentary there - preferably right in the heart of your area of expertise - but also as a place where you can show diverse aspects of your personality or interests.

The survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 3,169 hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time; not self-employed; with at least significant involvement in hiring decisions) and 8,785 employees (employed full-time; not self-employed) ages 18 and over between May 22 and June 13, 2008, respectively.

Social Media Management Fees, Authority Blogging and Calling yourself Names… September 10, 2008

Two terms have come to my attention in the last 24 hours. One was “Social Media Management Fees“, the other “Authority Blogging“.

Social Media Management Fees

Yes. The term makes sense, now that I’ve heard it.Mike Coulter of Digital Agency coined the term today, in a thoughtful blog exploring why what should be an invoice item adding significantly to the bottom line of numerous ad agencies, pr companies, digital agencies and general ‘new media’ outfits, isn’t.

I realise I’ve been charging customers Social Media Management Fees (SMMF) since 2006, but only now realised there was such a concise term to describe what I’m charging money for. I always hated ‘online reputation management’ because it always suggested spin and PR, and glossing over things - something I don’t, and won’t do for customers.

Blog Authority / Authority Blogging

I added the term ‘Authority’ to the list of functions for my company Clarocada in 2005. Clarocada Russia, Clarocada Emedia, which is now termed Clarocada Interactive, Clarocada Barcelona, and Clarocada Authority. I initially was aiming to help authors (those with authority, if you follow) to create a voice online, through blogs and social media, and to help them to promote their work to readers, and to perhaps gain other writing assignments.

I’d forgotten, of course, that authors are, in general, a complete pain in the butt to work with. (There are exceptions, but I am not one of them). So I moved more towards offering my services to those in business, who were idea-rich, but time-poor, in order to let them gain ‘Authority’. The term ‘Digital Biographer‘, which I was tentative about using up until it became the headline in a story on the BBC, has always been one that’s not entirely described ‘the full story’. If it’s good enough for BBC News, it’s certainly good enough for me.

I was also interested to note that in May 2007, Technorati coined the term ‘Authority’ to refer to the number of blogs linking to a site in their ‘Technorati Authority’ - so if 193 sites link to you, you have ‘higher authority’ than if, say, 6 sites link to you.

But it was when I read an article referred to by Chris Brogan yesterday, in his Google Reader Share List, where the term “Authority Blogger” was used to describe a service ‘to learn how to use a blog as a way for growing their profile, credibility and influence’. As I looked at the term, I realised this was what I should have called ‘Clarocada Authority’ three years back.

Never mind. A similar phrase did still appear in the description of the service for writers as ‘Blog Authority’.

Calling Names and Bad Language

It’s natural that as a new set of terms and services evolve, language evolves and new terms are created to describe them - some of which dates and is irrelevant very rapidly, and other elements of which becomes common usage. The term ‘new media’ is already looking a bit tired, but it was all the buzz around 2001. By the same token, the term ‘blog’ is far from universally understood even now, in September 2008. And don’t let’s get started on what ‘Web 2.0′ really means…

However, it’s nice to see that a term I’ve used in the past has come to roost in a niche it describes fairly precisely, and that others use the term with essentially the same meaning. As Mike Coulter put it - “I might be on to something.” An accurate way to describe the service I’m asking people to pay for is most definitely an example of good language!

Sorry, I don’t do meetings. I do tweetings. September 5, 2008

“Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other large organizations habitually engage in only because they cannot masturbate” - Dave Barry

I don’t do meetings any more. I used to do a lot of meetings. But not any more.

The change from meeting to tweeting - where a series of brief exchanges (each a maximum of 140 characters) can make up the content - has been brought about by a variety of factors over the past 15 years or so - but here are the ten factors that I think are critical.

1. IN GOOGLE TIME
   I no longer have a phone book, business directories or yellow pages. Those were essential when I started my first corporation in 1993. But now, I use Google. As a result, I have less patience for slow ways of doing things - I am impatient. I demand speed, efficiency, and immediate results.
2. HOLA FONEROS 
   I have a laptop computer and a mobile phone, I can work from a cafe terrace in Banyalbufar just as easily as anywhere else. As a result, I don’t have the need to restrict myself to doing business with those who are within easy reach of where I live or work most of the time.
3. HOME OFFICE DRESS CODE
   I don’t need to have an office in the city centre to get my work done - I can do it from my home office. As a result, I don’t need to spend time travelling, and so I use that saved time productively. I also find wearing a suit in my own kitchen a bit pointless, so feel there has to be a very good reason to dress up to go somewhere - and my carbon footprint’s lower.
4. MY ONLINE VISIBILITY
   Whereas I used to have to push information out to people in brochures, newspaper interviews, in meetings, at trade shows, I now have online profiles at LinkedIn, Xing, Ecademy, Facebook, Hyves, Flickr, Friendfeed, MyBloglog etc, and I have blogs and web sites that I can update easily in seconds. As a result, I don’t have to spend so much time introducing myself, and explaining what it is that I, or any of my enterprises provide - people find out about me before they meet me, or get to know me through following my activities online. People can meet me at airports because my photo is online. They can also decide whether they need to waste their time meeting me.
5. I HATE COFFEE 
   I don’t really like coffee any more. And I especially never liked paying £3 for a cup of it unless it was refilled all day and came with free wi-fi. As a result, when someone says - let’s have a chat over a coffee, I say “No. Let’s save the time and money, and spend five minutes now working out if we need to meet - and if so, what items on the agenda we can dispense with before we need to have a meeting”.
6. MEETINGS ARE GETTING SHORTER
   I arranged a meeting in London (yes, I do still sometimes meet people) with guys coming from Amsterdam and from the USA without ever using a phone - and although  we’d not met before, we have already shared dozens of pieces of information that made the business of the meeting last about ten minutes - and then we ordered some food and drinks. We then talked about other interesting stuff and new possibilities - not just ‘the business we need to discuss’.
7. CUT THE CHIT-CHAT 
   I can get to know people online by following their updates - or by looking at what they’ve said, or who they’ve been talking with, or who’s been talking about them - and so with this background, a lot of ‘chit-chat’ becomes unnecessary. As a result, I can filter out people, or filter them in.
8. YOU CAN DO THIS TOO
   You are reading this blog. You can send me emails, you can send me stuff without a courier, you can clarify things in Skitch, you can speak on Skype for free, you can send an instant message or a twitter. But you can do this as suits your agenda - and not be dragged into it by another party with an unknown agenda who wants 100% of your attention - NOW.
9. I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU
   I can now have customers who I never meet. That used to be very difficult. But now, I can see people, talk to them in real time, swap messages and files, send them sound files and presentations, have a video-conference with them… whether they are half a world away or live around the corner. 
10. LIFE’S TOO SHORT
    A friend of mine died suddenly this year. David was 42. He did not suffer fools gladly, and could summarise biblical volumes of information in a pithy, witty phrase. But he ran out of time. We all will.

“I prefer email and tweets and other online communications over telephone and face to face meetings because it allows me to manage my own time. When I’m meeting face to face the other person will automatically assume they have an hour of my time, which seems to be the standard meeting length, and will take all of that time to talk TO me.

In an email I might grasp their concept within 2 minutes and be ready with a reply. Other times I need to think about their message overnight. All of this is impossible in face to face meetings where an immediate reaction and 100% dedication is demanded.” 

- Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten 

So if you want to have a meeting with me here’s how to start the conversation:- Let’s tweet.

But what about you - what’s changed the way you handle meetings over the past few years?

A-list Bloggers head to Amsterdam this October September 4, 2008

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