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My lovely wife, Sheila Dee, spent a number of years in the travel industry. A good portion of Arizona’s economy comes from travel & tourism, as we are a vacation destination. I spent six years running an interactive advertising agency. And I do dabble in social media. Yep. I guess I qualify.

As you might imagine, attendees to this event and panel will be looking for recipes. They want easy-to-implement answers that will bring in an immediate return. The troubled economy has lead to a reduction in personal travel, and that hurts here at home. And while I don’t think that a well planned (if that is even possible) social media campaign will get people to start spending more on travel. I also don’t think that social media is a quick fix to cause revenues to jump up to previous levels.

My role (self-appointed) on the panel will be to carry the flag of reality. I do think that there are some valuable lessons and best practices that can be applied to hotels, resorts and other destinations. If adopted, they will have a positive influence for the companies that implement and execute them properly. But it takes a LOT of work. It takes dedication. It takes a clear vision and strategy. And it takes a willingness to be flexible in tactics.

Should be a lot of fun. Thanks to Fionn from Elixir Interactive for inviting me to participate.

Do you have any insight on this topic? Leave me a comment. I’ll try and work in as many relevant comments into my answers as possible.

Image by sheiladeeisme via Flickr

So what am I waiting for?

On the plane back from NAR2008, I sketched out an outline for 5 MORE Reasons Your Podcast SUCKS, and 5 Reasons You Suck on Twitter. My first two talks in this vein (Podcast & iTunes suckage) met with rave reviews when I presented them at Podcamp AZ. I just need a venue to give the talks.

But I already have one. I don’t need to wait for a “live” event, attract 100 or so folks to show up at a specific time and place, and hope someone catches it on video. I can produce the talks as new media files and use the Four Corners of New Media (I’ll define that in a future presentation/post) to give even more people a chance to see it.

(Of course, I’ll not turn down a live speaking invitation. If you’re looking for a dynamic speaker, give me a call!)

I am cognizant of diminishing value. You should be, too. That’s why when I give a live talk, I try my best to make it interactive. Interactivity is difficult to do with new media. At least, it’s not as seamless and efficient as it is when you are live with a crowd. And I think that’s the key difference. Yes, you may contract with me to come speak at your event. Yes, there may be an archived media file of me speaking on that topic right on my website, if not all over the webbernets. And yes, you could project said media file up on the Jumbo-Tron rather than fly me in. But people could only shout questions at the screen… and I doubt they’d get a response.

Props to Podcasting News for posting the article that got me thinking about this. It looks like I have some work to do.

Image via CrunchBase

Thanks to TweetDeck, I’m changing behaviors once again. Previously, I was very selective of who I followed. That strategy fit me well, as I couldn’t abide the constant stream of tweets from people who either A) tweeted too much for my tastes, or B) I had no idea really who they were. Neither Twitterific or Twhirl helped stem that tide (though I still use Twhirl since it allows you to be logged into multiple accounts), and obviously neither did the web-interface for Twitter itself. But TweetDeck changes things.

The trouble is this: Now that I’m taking a much more liberal approach¹ to who I chose to follow, I’m not following many of the people who currently follow me. And as I’ve learned from my recent “growth spurts” of followers at Podcamp AZ and the NAR 2008 National conference, not following people hinders their ability to communicate with me via direct message (DM). Instead, they have to use the @ reply feature, cluttering up the Twitter stream with context-less updates. I hate that, and want to work to change it.

So if I’m not following you and you’d like to be able to DM me, follow these simple steps:

1. Make sure your profile is complete. I still want to know who I’m following. Having a name I recognize, a bio that tells me who you are and a URL where I can get additional information helps when your recent Tweets don’t give me much of a clue.
2. Stop following me. By the way, the command is “leave” to stop following, not “unfollow”. Or you can just visit my profile and uncheck “following” under my image.
3. Follow me again. That will send me a new notification, so I can take a second look at your profile. I still have some standards¹, but I’d like to consider you again.

Let’s try that again!

^{1 - I don’t auto-follow. Something has to look interesting, and I’ll never follow bots or those who don’t understand the toolset. It’s about a conversation, not about selling. Updates are fine, but post something of value. Look for a “5 Reasons You Suck on Twitter” post soon.}

Mad props to Steve Belt, Jay Thompson, D. Patrick Lewis, Nick Bastian & Justin McHood for their sage advice on the kinds of things the audience would be interested in. I think it was a rousing success!

No, this isn’t the same as the previously posted slidshow. Pay close attention to the title. This one is all about things you are (probably) doing wrong on iTunes.

I make plenty of examples out of plenty of my friends here. I hope none of them take it personally. Just pointing out errors. Might as well use friends, right?

There’s also some video that Queen Geek captured. If you can find a way to sync them together, have at it!

I know not everyone could watch me present this topic in person at Podcamp AZ over the weekend. So I’m posting it here. There isn’t any audio, so you may have to struggle to grasp the concept of some of the slides. Someone with more time would have recorded an audio track to go along with it. in fact, you may find such a recording of me giving this talk online. Search for it. If you find it, let me know and I’ll link to it.

UPDATE: Dani recorded the session and has made it available, so now you can listen while you watch!

Note The Law of Two Feet applies to viewing this presentation. If it’s not for you — as in you aren’t looking to increase your audience size or to improve it’s attractiveness to sponsors, advertisers, critics or whoever — then don’t watch. I’m happy to have you tell me why I’m incorrect on some assumptions, but also remember that you’re only watching. You don’t have my words to back up these slides.

With that, enjoy!

Image by mrsonion42 via Flickr

I posit to you that a great travesty of justice occurred when those few hundred errant copies captured the attention of a nation. For that event overshadowed something far more important to me.

My mom was born.

Happy birthday, Mom. Sixty years. Seven hundred twenty months. Twenty one thousand, nine hundred fourteen days. Well over half of a million hours. But who’s counting?

I love you, Mom. Here’s to another 60 more.

I’ve discovered the joy of slideshare this morning. I’ve been watching them for a while now, but finally decided to do one on my own.

I threw this together in a matter of minutes because the mood took me. I’ll eventually make it more “official” and include it as part of my “Big” offerings. Or maybe I’ll change the name of those all to “Perspective”, since that’s what they are all about.

For now, here it is. Subject to change as I dink around. But it’s nice to see how fast you can do something when an idea strikes.

Image by evo_terra via Flickr

But there won’t be much to this year’s Halloween. My entire family has been packed with things to do recently, and none of us bothered to think too much about the holiday this year. Or last year… or the year before that.

Hrm. Guess I don’t really celebrate this one, either. I need new holidays.

See you at PodcampAZ tomorrow, RIGHT?

If you are serious about new media, I highly recommend this book, The Indie Band Survival Guide.

No, you don’t have to be a musician in an independent band. Yes, it was written with them in mind, but there are a huge numbers of takeaways.

Props to the boys at Beatnik Turtle for craning out an enlightening and enjoyable book that cuts through the bullshit and tells you — specifically — what it takes to navigate the waters of independent media production.

The section on copyright is fascinating. This book gives it all the weight the topic deserves, but explains it simple enough to allow anyone to grok the concepts. Kudos to them for carrying the conversation over to Creative Commons licensing as well.

Podcasters: you need this book.

Video producers: you need this book.

Vloggers and Bloggers: you need this book, too.

Get it.

Image via Wikipedia

Part of it is the coffee I had this afternoon. I shoulda known better.

But a larger part of it is fear and uncertainty. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it sucks out there right now. No, not a lot of fun to be had.

So… I’m nervous. I own no parachute. I’ve not planned for the worst. And so far — luckily — I’m OK. I have paying clients for some long-term (months, not years) projects. I’ve accumulated plenty of debt, but it’s a manageable issue. As long as the paychecks keep coming. I think Sheila’s job is stable, though I have no idea if NJ will be able to get financial aid next year when he starts school.

Yeah yeah… things are tough all over. I’m nothing special. In fact, I’m better off than many I know personally.

So I’m not whining. I’m just up, have plowed through all of my RSS feeds, even knocking out some of the articles I’d saved for later. And I’m not getting any more tired. Which… sucks. Because I have to get up at in less than five hours and do it all over again.

Image by dullhunk via Flickr

• Strands - Thanks, Paul
• Twine

I don’t know enough about either to give any opinion yet. But I do know these things work best when many of us connect. If you’re a reader of my blog and a user of either of these systems, please add me as a contact.

Also, I’m using something new called Zemanta when I make blog posts. I’m keenly interested in the semantic web and I hope this tool can increase the value of the posts I make here — and other places.

No?

Remember that funny parody someone did by mixing the audio of that dumb-ass commercial with visuals cut together from the Superfriends?

Yeah, I thought you would. Geek.

Here’s a modern version done to cover all the shitty things that have happened/are happening in 2008. There’s a serious political slant at the end, but it’s funny regardless of who you are voting for.

You are voting, right?

My son NJ recently did a photo shoot with the incomparable Tyson Crosbie. NJ is a senior in high school this year (yikes). Because he’s my offspring, he doesn’t like to do things the normal way. So sitting with Olan Mills didn’t set too high on his priority list.

Enter Tyson, creator of the soft edit experience. His soft edits were already a big hit with the social media scene in Phoenix. Would it work as well for high school students? Maybe. Probably.

There were challenges. Tyson has a process he takes his clients through as he tries to match how they see themselves with how the world will see them through his lens. As you might imagine, the younger set finds it hard to pick three words that describe themselves. Though I think mine did an admirable job.

What do you think? Tyson’s soft edits are all about getting the at-large world to come and comment on the photos, as everyone has their own unique perspective on each shot. Join in on the fun!

And yes, I’m cross-posting this on Podiobooks.com. DRM is teh suck.

Originally brought to my attention by Phil Plait. Because if I don’t say that, he apparently cries like a titty-baby.

But did you see the key word in that phrase? Voter.

But hey, maybe you shouldn’t vote.

Passing on from Matt Selznick.

No.

No.

No.

Just practicing.

PODCAMP AZ 2.0 IS COMING!

Yeah, I’m pretty stoked about this. I’m a lot more involved in the planning than I was last year. Heck, we all are a lot more involved. Last year’s event was a huge success that just sort of fell together, likely at the energy and expense of Brent & Michelle. This time there are more of us putting in serious sweat equity. And we very much know what we want — and how to get there. In short: it’s going to be hella cool.

If you are within reasonable driving distance (I’m looking at you, southern California & Albuquerque) you really need to make the drive. Or if you are a bit further, see what sort of specials Soutwest has on airfare. I’m serious. This is going to be a very special event and you’ll kick yourself for not being here.

Oh, and it’s not all about podcasting. Yeah, I know the name is Podcamp AZ and we’ll talk plenty about podcasting, but it’s much larger. We’re billing this as the Relevant Media Unconference and are planning on covering a lot of ground over two days.

Great hotels have been picked out within walking distance to the venue and fantastic rates secured for our attendees. For those unfamiliar, Phoenix is a (pun not intended) hot-spot destination in Novemeber. Why? It’ll be in the 80s. How’s THAT for incentive, Michiganders? Heck, most of your parents will already be here. Ah, snowbirds.

So… you coming? Register now. It’s worth it. And if nothing else, you get to see ME!