I was at my local nail salon when the headlines on television caught everyone’s attention: Michael Jackson passed away. As I sat in my massage chair getting a pedicure, I automatically reached for my phone, but unfortunately had no Internet service in that area. I received texts and made a phone call to a friend, while looking up at the television screen to see the news unfold. Other women around me pulled out their phones to call and text the news at a frantic pace. While the shock was palpable in the salon, I started thinking about what was going on in cyberspace.  

While I was not in front of a computer when news of Michael Jackson’s death became public, I knew that the news hit the Internet like a tidal wave—it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out in today’s world.  According to CNET News, sites like YouTube, Amazon, Last.fm, Wikipedia , as well as numerous other sites are popular destinations for those wanting a trip down memory lane, access the latest information about the one of the most popular musicians of all time, and purchase his music in droves. It is a sobering and somewhat morbid fact that when a celebrity dies in this day and age, his or her popularity and product sales get significant boosts.   

Farrah Fawcett died earlier that day, which had already elicited widespread reactions from people who remember her iconic hairstyle, her brief stint on the famous TV show, “Charlie’s Angels,” and the overall impact she had on women and men in the 1970s and beyond. I when I checked Google News, I noticed a flood of retrospective articles covering both Michael Jackson’s and Farrah Fawcett’s lives and careers, the reasons for their deaths, and some unsavory reports of the “supposed” deaths of Harrison Ford and Jeff Goldblum, of all people.  These false reports remind me that the Internet is a haven for rampant gossip and exploitation; none of us should be surprised to hear that email spam exploiting Jackson’s and Fawcett’s deaths have already been sent out to unsuspecting Internet users.

I have never been a big fan of Jackson’s, but when I heard about his death, I remembered the song “Human Nature,” which is my favorite of his from the “Thriller” album. I loved that I could find it on Last.fm and post it on my Facebook profile in minutes. So while there are plenty of morbid curiosity-seekers, spammers, and your garden-variety jerks out there in cyberspace, some of us who are looking for some information and nostalgia, without being a hypocrite.  I consider myself one of them.

As one of millions who are chained to their computers, I sometimes lament the lack of “face time” I have with friends and family. Sure, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and all the social and professional networking sites out there are great when bridging the gaps between people and their organizations for various purposes, but I really do relish my interpersonal interactions with people for the first or one hundredth time. We need our computers to do all the “heavy lifting” when it comes to discovering, locating, and maintaining contacts. Looking someone in the eye and using our instincts are precious assets that we as human beings should encourage in ourselves and in others, no matter how many networking sites we join, or how many online chats we have.

At The Women’s Mosaic Book Club meeting on June 17, I realized how much I miss meeting people without the aid of the Internet. Yes, I was emailed about the event and it is posted on the non-profit organization’s web site, but once we came met at the designated location and introductions were made, we went right into the discussion of plot, characters, and themes with no difficulties or awkwardness. It was the first time I remember not noticing anyone constantly checking their phone for messages until our meeting was over. As a book club “newbie,” I was pleasantly reminded of how great it is to share thoughts and ideas with people in a comfortable setting. We were occasionally photographed and video taped for promotional purposes, but this never distracted us from our group conversation. I met people who share my interests, and I hope to meet them again in the future.

So while online book clubs (like Oprah’s Book Club, for example) are great because of the numbers of people that join through the Internet, I’ll take the monthly meetings in an Italian café this summer. Nothing beats meeting people in person…most of the time.

The 140 Characters Conference in NYC last week was focused on exploring the disruptive nature of Twitter and the “State of Now” and in the true twitter style, the sessions were short and to the point – limited to 10 to 20 minutes.

It was a gathering of the early adopters of Twitter and the goal was to share how Twitter is being used across the different industries including: News and Journalism, Politics, Marketing and PR, Music, Sports, Fashion, Publishing and more…

In True Twitter Fashion there were “Twearls of Wisdom” or “Twisdom” or “Twuggets” (twitter nuggets) …now I’m having too much fun ? … to be found in each of the presentations.

Jennifer Palmer said it best

Getting Twitter means being aware of being a part of a large interconnected flow made up of millions of smaller conversational streams and the garnering of this awareness is the real power of Twitter

Twitter and Monetization

Fred Wilson a technology venture capitalist of Union Square Ventures and one of the early investors in Twitter said that “links are the currency of the Internet” and that the value of Twitter is in “the power of the passed link”.  In comparing Twitter to Google “the King of the Internet” he said, “Twitter links convert better than search links because they are recommended by someone you follow and trust.”  Listen to Fred’s presentation.

“Twearls” of Wisdom

Here are more “Twearls” I picked up at the 140 character conference that I wanted to share with you. I am not always sure who said them but it is what I walked away with:

• When old media and new media work together you get NOW media.
• The secret of social media is adding value to the community NOT the number of followers you have.
• Social media allows you to scale your caring.
• Create more value than you capture for your community…and eventually that community will create value for you.
• Your experience on Twitter is only as high quality as the people who you follow and the information you share.
• My blog let’s me go deep. Twitter let’s me go wide…listen.
• The right way is the way that is right for each of us. We all have our “right” way.
• Trust Agents = The individuals that are humanizing the group
• Small businesses are often more used to being close to the conversation than the big companies
• 3 ways small businesses can use twitter: promotion, benchmarking against other businesses, & as a prediction tool.
• Make it fun, short, make someone proud to pass it on
• Never give up control of your product, your brand & your voice
• Twanker = someone who misuses Twitter
• Twitter is about: cluetrain, co-location, compressed context, community, clout

Rules to Tweet By

Short, concise, and to the point. Size does not matter.  You can convey your message in microblogging…be clear, be authentic, and share value…those are the rules to tweet by.

Jeff Pulver created a great event and pulled together some of the forward thinking minds in celebration of this revolutionary change in the way we all communicate and the micro ways we are all influencing and shaping the way we connect with each other across barriers of proximity and across cultural divides.

Sometimes when you need a marketing tool…you just have to build it yourself…I wanted to implement a way that our readers (who use twitter) could let their followers know when they were reading a great blog post on the Webgrrls International Blog…Webgrrls Wisdom.

So, I have recently created “Share on Twitter” functionality and link on the Webgrrls Wisdom blog and you can use this functionality too…for your blog and for extending your brand.

Here is how it works

When readers click on the “Share on Twitter” link after they are finished reading the post,  the following twitter entry automatically gets posted to their twitter account:

Currently reading on @Webgrrls: Title of Blog Post & Shortened url to the blog post (ie. Currently reading on @Webgrrls: Book Clubs for User Experience Professionals http://tinyurl.com/kmm9oy)

Now, when you do it, of course, it will have your blog name and branding information

Here is a step by step guide on how you can implement this feature on your blog:

1. Click the download button below to download the plug-in file to your computer.
   
   
   
2. Uncompress the downloaded .zip fil and Upload/FTP the tinyurl-functions.php file to your WordPress /wp-content/plugins directory
3. Activate the TinyURL Function plug-in in your WordPress Admin area.
4. Add the following link code to any of your theme files, where you want the “Share on Twitter” link to appear.

Share it on Twitter!