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Common Sense is All You Speak About, Can You Talk About Something Different?

February 5, 2010

Gary Vaynerchuk at the NYC Vook Party
Creative Commons License photo credit: jasonkeath

Sometimes, in reference to someone’s writing or a speaking engagement or some sort of content, a reader might say “well, that’s common sense.” As if that’s a bad thing.

Common sense is a funny thing, for two reasons:

  • Nothing is common sense. Until it is.
  • Common sense for you may not be common sense for me. For every (virtually) universal common sense, there is a common sense more along the lines of “yeah, I agree with you.”

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Video From My Talk at SXSW Interactive 2009: “The Art of Responding to Feedback From Your Community”

February 2, 2010

sxsw-interactive-2009Last March, I spoke at South by Southwest Interactive (see my recap), presenting a solo presentation titled “The Art of Responding to Feedback From Your Community.” The basis of this talk was a blog post that I made on ManagingCommunities.com in January of 2009.

The presentation is based around my three steps for responding to feedback. In short, they are: appreciate, acknowledge and consider. Be appreciative that someone contacted you, acknowledge their perspective and what they are saying and then consider it and how applicable it may or may not be.

If you’d like to check it out, the full video has been posted at ManagingCommunities.com, along with slides.

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Cataloging the Baseball History of Charlie Brown

January 30, 2010

Here’s a gift: Larry Granillo of Wezen-Ball.com has taken up quite the cool task: he’s going through the long history of the Peanuts comic strip and cataloging the the various baseball related numbers associated with Charlie Brown or, to be more specific; the wins, losses and some other fun categories, like the number of times Brown is knocked down by a line drive.

Stats aren’t the only thing, though: the posts read as a treasure trove of information of the baseball played in the series.

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I’m on SlideShare

January 27, 2010

slideshare-logoAs part of my work on my new about and speaking pages, I wanted to create a profile on SlideShare and upload all of my past presentations, making it easier to share them and share the style of my slides.

Just in case anyone is interested, my username is iFroggy. Here is one of the presentations that I have uploaded, from the panel that I was on at Blog World & New Media Expo 2009:

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Music Video: “Angels (Remix)” by Diddy/Dirty Money featuring Rick Ross

January 24, 2010

About a week ago, the new video for “Angels (Remix)” by Dirty Money featuring Rick Ross premiered online. Dirty Money is the three person collective of Diddy, Dawn Richard and Kalenna. Diddy is also offering a free download of the track, which was produced by Rob Holladay. I love the record and I love the video, which you can check out below.

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Recap: Social Media Business Forum 2009

January 20, 2010

Social Media Business ForumDirectly following Blog World & New Media Expo in October, I was able to attend and speak at Social Media Business Forum in my home state of North Carolina.

I was on two panels: “Advertising and the Social Web: Can it Work?” with Gregory Ng, the Creative Director at Brooks Bell Interactive and David Millsaps, Senior Web Architect at VisionPoint Marketing; and “Building and Managing an Online Community” with Ryan Boyles, an Advisory Software Engineer for IBM and Laurie Smithwick, Founder and Creative Director of LEAP Design and Founder of Kirtsy.

It was the inaugural edition of the conference, organized by Jeff Cohen, Kipp Bodnar, Ryan Boyles and Wayne Sutton and it was a wonderful experience.

For more on my time at the event, please check out the full recap at ManagingCommunities.com.

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Support Haiti (24 Hour Haitian Assistance Relief Telethon (#HART) Begins Today)

January 17, 2010

haiti-flagMy prayers and thoughts are with the people of Haiti and everyone affected by this terrible disaster.

What is apparent in times like this is that everything counts, no matter how small. Can you afford to donate $5? $3? $1? If so, that’s great. It may be a small amount to you, all on it’s own, but coupled with other small amounts, it becomes a big, powerful amount. You can find a list of charities on WhatGives!?

Can’t afford to donate? You can still spread the word. The power of online community and social media has afforded everyone a voice if they choose to have one. If you’re on Twitter, Facebook, etc.; you have a community of people and connections. Share worthwhile initiatives with them and help bring awareness. It only takes a few moments to send a link or retweet something on Twitter, but it does help.

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I Speak at Conferences and Events

January 16, 2010


photo credit: BuzzShift

For what seems like forever, I’ve been working on my just launched about and speaking pages. Probably the biggest reason I did it was because I’m hoping to speak more. Since finishing “Managing Online Forums,” I’ve done 11 engagements at 7 different events.

While this doesn’t make me a veteran, it means I’m not just starting out, either. So, I’m hoping to get more serious about speaking and I would like it to become a slightly larger part of my life.

When I speak, I tend to focus on the value of social media and online community to individuals and businesses and how best to participate in these areas as a manager/owner, marketer or user/member.

I love speaking at social media, internet and technology focused conferences, but I also hope to branch out and talk about these things at events not for our industry, but for other industries who can benefit from what we know.

So, if you’re a conference or event organizer, please keep me in mind (I have a special speaking contact form). If you’re a speaker like me and you happen to have a panel or presentation you’d like me to be involved in, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Thank you for reading.

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My Top 25 Most Listened to Artists of 2009

January 10, 2010

diddy-dirty-moneyA few days ago, I shared my top 25 most played tracks of 2009 and now it’s time for my top 25 most played artists (see 2008).

This data, which comes from my Last.fm profile, takes into account only the top 500 artist combinations from my playlist in the past year, as that is all that Last.fm displays.

Here are the top 25 artists I listened to the most in 2009, along with the top 5 most played tracks by them or featuring them, if there are that many. If they were ranked last year, I’ll include that in a notation following their number of plays.

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My Top 25 Songs of 2009

January 6, 2010

cassie-lets-get-crazy-coverFor the second consecutive year (see 2008), I’ve culled my Last.fm listening data in order to map out the songs and artists I listened to most in 2009. Instead of sharing it all in one post, this time I am going to break it up into two and this first post will cover individual songs.

This data takes into account only the top 500 songs from my playlist in the past year, as that is all that Last.fm displays. With that said, here are my top 25 most played tracks of 2009 (if the song was ranked last year, I’ll include a mention of that at the end of the listing):

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