So, I got to try out Google Buzz this morning, like thousands of other people today. I can see how it can become useful, perhaps. Not 100% sold on it yet, but I’ll play for a little while longer.

I like how it kinda takes the good things about commenting, Twitter, Facebook and instant messaging and puts it all together. We shall see… we shall see…

At any rate, within only a few hours of creating my first “buzz” I saw that it was “liked” – it was my brother. How sweet ;). But then, it was “liked” again… and I thought Hmmmm… was it really *that* interesting? It really was kind of mundane. I looked at who it was that was liking what I said and it was a gaming company, as in video games etc. I don’t do video games… I mean, sure, we have a Wii and I (*cough* used to *cough*) do a fair amount of DDR, and, well, I might play Mahjong a little too much on my computer, but I don’t recall any of my contacts being gaming companies. So, out of curiosity, I clicked to look at their profile. Sure enough, they were following people left, right and centre – they had followed well over 1000 people already and only had maybe 50 following back. (As of this writing, they were following over 6000 people and 115 following back).

They then “liked” another random, mundane buzz of mine. This is when I clued in; they found a way to get eyes onto their profile – put your business URL as your profile name and go around and “like” as many people’s buzzes (buzz’s? buzzi? er… whatever the plural is…) as you can. It’s not actual SPAM spam, but in this Web 2.0, relationship-driven, contact-enhancing roll we are on, it seems counter-productive.

Randomly liking people’s statuses/updates/whatevers doesn’t make me want to do business with you, my friend. I’m sorry. If you want to engage me, well, then engage me: add to the conversation, ask me questions, ask my opinion… be *authentic* (sorry… over-used current social-media buzzword there… but it fits).

Essentially: don’t walk in to the club double-gunning everyone you see in the hopes people will see you as cool and want to come sit at your table. Because they won’t.

Let’s not even TALK about your popped collar…

Read this, and had to share:

“…there has probably never been a better time to be in a creative business. So, stop the fear and negativity. The more fearful we become, the more we will fall back on tried and tested formulas for what we do – and that would be the kiss of death. It’s a brave new world – and it requires courage to move beyond our comfort zone.”

Full post by Terri Rogers.

I started poking about Steven Seppinni’s site today and saw some things that I liked, specifically this article: Economy Down-Entrepreneurship Up. It is very true; there is risk in everything, including having a job. However, we do need to remember that running a business is not an easy way out. Believe me. I have been doing this for 11 years (well, minus the break wearing a hard hat in the middle). When it’s good, it’s fantastic. It’s like nothing else in the world. It means picking up the kids from school and attending every play or ceremony. It means no commute (sometimes). It’s the joy of walking into your high-school reunion and when people ask “So, what do you do now?” you can answer “I own an international company.”

In the bad times, however… yeesh. It can mean going a week surviving on 3 hours of sleep a night just to get done what you think will bring you money. It can mean not having cash to buy groceries, so you end up using your Large Chain Store credit card to feed your children (who think it’s the best thing ever to eat macaroni and cheese, and Ichiban all the time, but you worry about fresh vegetables…). It can mean scrambling at the 11th hour to try and find just one. more. thing. to sell so that you can make rent. It can mean not making it to one of those school activities because you can’t afford the gas to make the trip. It also means no sick pay, nor benefits, nor unemployment benefits… so if you run out of work or if you’re sick for too long… tough. No corporation there to bail you out.

But oh… those up times. That insidious Hope that keeps us going; that sweet, sweet taste of triumph when you sell your first book/hour/course. The Dance of I Am Awesome when you land that new contract. The look on your little boy’s face when he looks back at you from the stage, holding his newly-earned Certificate For Being Awesome in Math… That is so worth a couple of weeks of Ichiban.

I am an Entrepreneur.

Rawr.

About an hour ago, Tweeter @yukarip asked where to go for the “best Wordpress themes” and @funkyplates said she should talk to me. Oh, no pressure at all ;) (but thanks!)

The short answer is “there is no best place.”

I can hear some people now: “Ya, but…”

Ya but nothing… It’s kind of like asking “Where’s the best place to eat out?” You know that people will follow it up with “What kind of food do you like?” and “How much do you want to pay?’ or “What time of day are you going?” even “How many people are going?” as well as “What part of town?”.

Truth is, you sometimes need to go to a dozen restaurants before you find your own, personal Cheers.

Before you can go searching for your own “best place to find Wordpress themes” you need to know many, many things about your site – and yourself – like:

• What colours do you want to use?
• Will you be having a lot of pages?
• Are you comfortable installing plug-ins or widgets if the theme requires it?
• Are you able to recognize an “almost what I want” theme and either tweak it yourself or get someone to fix it?
• Who is the audience?

The honest truth is, it’s probably best to spend an hour or five going through many, many, many different themes (and you’ll start to see duplicates on different sites). Download lots, install lots and go through all the previews using your own site. Most of them look really sexy before you download, but once you have your own things up, you either find it doesn’t fit well or you’re going to have to install 5 plug-ins or widgets to make it look like it did “on the box.”

What do I do? I simply go to Google and start my search with “free wordpress themes” or “free wordpress templates” and spend some time poking about there. Then I move on to places like Theme Forest or something quite robust like Headway (which I’m still playing with…).

To start, I’d go up and down the aisles, find a lot of free ones and do a lot of taste testing; how do you know you’re going like something until you nibble?

What is Twitter?

Think of what we did at this meeting; we shared, we asked questions… we INTERACTED and ENGAGED. We ASKED QUESTIONS and OFFERED ANSWERS. It’s real-time, it’s schmoozing; like a meeting or dinner party. It’s not archival like blogs, newsletters or email.

Why would you want to use Twitter?

• Find out what – or if – people are talking about you/your brand/your service/your business.
• Increase customer loyalty
• Get real-time help/answers
• Opportunities to connect F2F
• Connect with markets you never knew you had
• Position yourself as an expert
• Help other businesses promote
• Create communities
• Offer real-time specials
• etc, etc, etc.

How do you use Twitter?

React first, promote later and seldom. If you were at a networking meeting, would you like it if someone were to go to each person in the room, only say “Hi, my name is George. Come down to my store and buy my stuff!”, handed you a card, then went on to the next person? Probably not, and George probably didn’t leave a good impression on you either, so the likelihood of you buying from him is close to nil. Nor would you feel like sending anyone his way.

People like it when you are curious about them. If George had shown a genuine interest in what you were saying and asked questions about you, chances are you’d want to know more about him too. You’d have the opportunity – and probably even the desire – to continue with this new “acquaintance relationship” and eventually you might want to buy some of George’s stuff – and he might want to buy yours. Or you’d both know people who could use each other’s things.

It’s all about the schmooze and engagement – THAT is “Web 2.0″

The logistics… sign up for an account, fill out your bio line, enter a URL and start looking for interesting people to “follow.” How do you find them? Start with people you know, like me, or the ever-growing list of people in Victoria who tweet. Then look at who THEY follow, talk about and “re-tweet”.

Have you heard yet “but twitter doesn’t work – I tweeted something and no one bought anything.” What if you had a store tucked away at the edge of town, went to one networking meeting then sat back and waited for people to come. They wouldn’t, would they? Potential customers would have had to have been at that meeting, at that exact moment to have seen it. Trust wasn’t built. Social currency wasn’t amassed. Twitter is a great add-on to your Top-Of-Mind Marketing strategy.

Patience is key: sometimes a lot of interaction doesn’t start until you reach around 50 people – both you following and them following you. Twitter is built for the long-term.

Many thanks to Cathy Stucker (site, twitter) for passing on this article about why you need to have your own (as in, own it) site/blog if you plan on being around for a while:

How Confident are you With Your Blogging Service Provider?

I love things that are innovative. My poor boyfriend has to put up with my info-junkie ways; far too many times during the day, while he is steadfastily working away I interject and inturrupt his thoughts with a very uncivilized “OMG! You need to see this! This is awesome! Brilliant!”

Now, my criteria for “brilliant” is probably akin to “amusing” or “possibly of note” to some people, but I like to give kudos where I believe kudos are due.

Mass mailing or “tree spam” isn’t something normally seen with glee; however, when I checked my mailbox this morning, there was this lovely die-cut brochure from Cobs Bread.

It has a scratch-’n-sniff square inside. How brilliant is that!! Our connection to fresh-baked goods is very much based in the olfactory realm. Good for you guys for doing this.

Also; damn you. Now I want cinnamon buns.

(Update, Jun 24, 2009: if you are in Victoria, BC, you may be interested in the list of Victoria, BC Twitterers.)

OK. So we have heard the words “Twitter” and “tweeting” and “tweets” etc bantered about. What is this Twitter thing anyway? Some call it micro-blogging. A really smart friend of mine has called it “one to many Instant Messaging”.

I see Twitter as more of an office water cooler.

It sits over in the corner down the row from your cubicle (which, of course, is outfitted with cool gadgets from ThinkGeek.com and troll dolls). People gather there as they need a drink of water and start up random conversations, or join in existing ones. You see that Sally is there; you don’t necessarily agree with or see value in what Sally has to say, so you mentally filter her out. However, Brad is over there, and he has some good insights, so you perk up your ears and take note of what he is saying. Mary strides on over and starts talking; you like her too, she always finds cool stuff to do. You get to eavesdrop in on their thoughts and conversations, but they know this; this is the rule of the Watercooler. They want you to hear it.

Sometimes Scott gets too loud and starts bragging about his weekend exploits. Sometimes Sally does nothing but whine. But, sometimes you overhear a great nugget of information that sparks an A-HA! moment, then wander over there yourself to join in and get feedback.

Some people hang around all day, but somehow things still get done. You can’t see how Theresa does it because… wow…. 10 tweets an hour AND 3 blog posts??? Others just breeze by on their way to the copy machine, take stock of what’s being said, then toodle on off again. Curtis really is in tune with the project you’re working on, so you invite him back to your cubicle to brainstorm.

This is twitter for me. Nothing formal, one central place to go get a refreshing drink and it’s never the same group so the dynamics are fascinating to watch.

As long as they don’t start putting booze in what we’re drinking, it’s all gonna be just fine ;)

A sentient, talking naked mole rat that does everything Ron’s does.

Oh, and actually looks like Rufus, not like a real naked mole rat.

Just read this article about “why skinny sells“. Um… well duh. Pretty much the purpose of advertising is to make you feel like you’re missing or lacking something, so you need to buy (whatever product/service here) to make yourself and your life peachy-keen.
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So yes, when we see the skinny girl hawking the beauty product, all at once our minds go “OMG, I suck. But Look! I can be better, just like her! I want it. Now.” We are instantaneously shown how we don’t measure up, yet given hope that we can – almost empowered with the “tool” we can purchase – so we’re left feeling almost OK.
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Sneaky, n’est ce pas?