Forget the 30,000’ view of the marketplace, I am going into space for some cosmic observations. I invite you to debate a few of these ideas – one person’s perspective is never enough to really get a complete sense of things!

What is Brain Crack?

Watch the original Brain Crack episode from Ze Frank here.

I do not intend to discourage brainstorming and imagining though – it in itself has tremendous rewards, and often, the ideas in the mind are all that was necessary to have the glorious experience of the idea – the high if you will – and there is no need to execute. Your mind can indeed get the emotions flowing and a somewhat palpable experience of the concept. Plus, execution takes time and effort and sometimes other people too. This is all my way of saying don’t let anyone make you feel pressured. Instead, use the ubiquitous information and inspiration to find your own voice, have your own daydreams, and execute when you feel the irresistible pull.

I’d rather focus on what we do with the execution, more than what we do with ideas.

Twitter is an Innovator, But Not a Leader

Three years ago, when Twitter was a tight knit community of tech and communications early adopters, we literally begged them to charge for the service. We saw the intrinsic value of this real-time, widely distributed conversation and we wanted them to grow into a stable, successful business. As late as November, 2008, Guy Kawasaki ran a poll and over half still said they would be willing to pay – despite the usual snark attack common by internet communities.

Instead, they kept it free, getting more and more investment to cover server and development costs. Twitter has experienced crashes and growth issues throughout its entire history (including today – hence I was inspired to write this post.)

• If Twitter were truly a leader and not just an innovator, it would have seen that “free plus ads” is a very old and not too successful business model.
• If Twitter were truly a leader and not just an innovator, it would have seen that even a nominal fee would all but eliminate the huge waves of spam and bot attacks that cost it money to constantly track, clear out, manage and that irritate its users so much.
• If Twitter were truly a leader and not just an innovator, it would have realized that big numbers hold less and less true value and that the quality of the members, the quality of the conversations, and the quality of innovations being developed by the user community are far more valuable than a whole lot of bots.
• If Twitter investors were leaders, they too would have realized the unique opportunity that Twitter offered in the marketplace. It was truly a game changer – there was nothing like it even remotely. The impact it has had on the world is awe-inspiring to me. But it seems all they can think these days is “build your user base, sell ads around the content, hope Google buys you for an insane amount.”

Leadership is More Risky than Innovation

Although there are many “innovation” initiatives ongoing in this administration, they are not well coordinated or a top priority or championed by knowledgeable leadership. This administration is heavily staffed by academics, lawyers and political types. There is no senior person who has run a large company or built and sold globally a new innovative product. And that partly explains why this administration has been mostly interested in pushing taxes, social spending and regulation — not pushing trade expansion, competitiveness and new company formation.

I can only imagine what a rich and fertile and innovative community Twitter could be if they had listened to their core users and started charging two years ago. Meanwhile, Twitter just buys more servers, gets more investment, and encourages robots. Now it is going down the tired, worn road of embedding ads and extorting others to pay them for ads on the re-purposed user-generated content stream. That is not innovation nor is it leadership IMO. And certainly not as much fun as brain crack.

What’s your opinion? I will talk in a future post about practical ways to find leadership within. It’s an ongoing task I assign to myself.

Photo Credit: “Desert Leader” by Hamed Saber on Flickr.

Aloha,

Polly Kauahi, Development Director of the Hawaii Food Bank, has been a regular at our free Social Media Club Hawaii meetings for the past several months. She has taken social media by the horns! Polly created a community fundraising event that all of us can support with very little effort while generating a high return – in fact less than two (2!) minutes of your time. Go to www.pfpchallenge.com and pledge your weight loss goals. For every pound you pledge, General Mills and other partners will donate 14¢. I love this idea – lose weight while helping to feed others; there is a perfect balance in this equation.

I am posting Pollyʻs entire email to me, as she has generously provided several ways you can share this information with your social networks. Iʻve already pledged – will you? – Rox

About Hunger in Hawaii
The Hawaii Portion of Hunger in America was released last month. There has been a 39% increase in the number of people needing help to feed themselves and their families, right here in the islands.

Although analysts tell us the worst has happened, we know that’s not true in the islands. Just this week, every staffer at The Honolulu Advertiser received their pink slips. Most family budgets cannot survive the loss of a paycheck for very long. It was only a matter of weeks before we saw some former donors to Hawaii Foodbank standing in food lines when Aloha Airlines closed their doors.

The Pound for Pound Challenge lets anyone help feed Hawaii’s hungry. It only takes an online pledge and less than two minutes of your time.

We are competing to get into one of the top 10 spots and get a bonus $10,000! Currently we are in 80th place with 724 Pledges and 19,000 pounds pledged. The leading ten cities have between 2200 and 4100 pledges.

I know we can do this in the same manner Hawaii got the 50,000 books last year and Social Media is the way to get it done.

Below and the first attachment are templates with draft copy for tweets, blogs and facebook. I hope Foodbank supporters will use the copy or customize the copy to encourage others to pledge at pfpchallenge.com.

I appreciate your help and support!

First, we’d like you to know we’re not asking you for a donation. But right now, in the next 10 minutes, there is an easy and quick way you can help Hawaii Foodbank, a member of the Feeding America network, assist individuals, families and children struggling with hunger right here in the islands.

We are joining Feeding America’s Pound for Pound Challenge – a proven, effective program supported by NBC’s The Biggest Loser, General Mills, Subway, 24 Hour Fitness and Walgreens – in its second year of helping America “Lose Nationally, Feed Locally.” The program helps people gain support in their effort to lose weight as they, in turn, help local food banks like ours raise funds to provide food assistance to those in need.

All weʻre asking is that you visit www.pfpchallenge.com and join us in the Challenge. Your online pledge is all it takes to help feed island families in need.

How do I sign up to take the Challenge?
It’s easy. And the more people who sign up or pledge in our area, the more we can help fight hunger in our community. Now through June 30, 2010, simply sign up and pledge your weight loss goals. For every pound you pledge, General Mills and other partners will donate 14 cents to Feeding America with much of that donation coming directly to NIFB!!

Visit www.pfpchallenge.com.
Click on “Pledge Now”.
Enter your birth date.
Enter your zip code (choose Food Bank if more than one serves your community).
Enter your weight loss pledge.
Enter your registration information (name & email).

It’s that easy! We hope you’ll join us in show America that Hawaii is up to the Challenge!

Please email, tweet and Facebook everyone you know. By helping us get in the top 10 Food Banks, you are helping us get an extra $10,000!

Thank you and good luck with your personal goals!

I am joining Hawaii Foodbank, a member of the Feeding America network, and the Pound for Pound Challenge, in partnership with NBC’s The Biggest Loser and General Mills, to “Lose Nationally, Feed Locally”. The program helps people gain support in their effort to shed pounds as they, in turn, help local food banks like ours raise funds to assist individuals, families, and children struggling with hunger in our area. All I’m asking is that you visit www.pfpchallenge.com and team with me by signing up and becoming a Challenge participant.

Go to www.pfpchallenge.compledge your pounds in the Pound for Pound Challenge! For every pound you pledge to lose, General Mills will donate 14¢ to the Hawaii Foodbank!

Hawaii Foodbank Is Stepping Up To The Challenge!

Like every food bank across the country, Hawaii Foodbank, a member of the Feeding America network, is working harder every day to assist individuals and their families right here in the islands in these tough economic times. It’s a daily challenge, and we are always looking for new ways to meet it head on.

A proven fundraising program has partnered with NBCʻs The Biggest Loser, General Mills, Subway, 24 Hour Fitness and Walgreens to encourage people to “Lose Nationally, Feed Locally”. And the Foodbank needs your support to make our involvement a success!

Participating is easy and your impact can be huge.

Simply sign up and pledge your weight loss goals at www.pfpchallenge.com. For every pound you pledge, the Pound for Pound Challenge will donate 14 cents to Hawaii Foodbank. In addition, if you Tweet, Facebook and Blog this to everyone you know, you can propel the Hawaii Foodbank to one of the top 10 Food Banks that will get a $10,000 bonus. That’s 25,000 meals and you can make this happen. Sign-up at pfpchallenge.com and then pass it on, PLEASE!

It’s a great opportunity for our friends to do something good for themselves and do something good for our community.

To learn more about the Pound For Pound Challenge, you can visit the national website at pfpchallenge.com or e-mail megan@hawaiifoodbank.org.

I am speaking tomorrow on The Tools of Change Panel at Envision Hawaii 2009. It has me thinking about what changes are happening right before our very eyes and how we can proactively embrace them to move this party forward with more intention.

Barriers and Gate-Keepers Are Being Removed
One of the most exciting accomplishments for me professionally occurred 5 years ago when one of my clients had her blog added to Tom Peter’s blogroll. Mary Schmidt was a marketing consultant who had a common name in a crowded profession, along with the usual limited budget of a solo-preneur. She was also a risk-taker though and pursued the blog strategy we created for her with religious fervor! (Update: I forgot to mention this. Search for “Mary Schmidt” on Google – and see the results of all-organic SEO.)

She found the thought leader in her profession: Tom Peters – a well-respected, highly paid speaker and consultant who already had a blog himself. (That’s part of being a thought leader in this decade.) Due to the simplicity of being able to comment on his blog, she was able to have a barrier-free conversation with Tom.

That would have been impossible in the old days of “find his office, call in, encounter one or more levels of personal assistants whose job is to screen out callers, get frustrated, and probably fail” unless you were wanting to book him or quote him.

To me, this is a profound shift in the spiritual balance of power among humans. When she told me she had earned a place of respect due to her contributions to the conversation on Tom Peters’ blog, I literally felt the rumble of thousands of years of hierarchy crumbling. The gate-keepers are no longer essential and the ability to connect with each other across virtually every barrier – geographic, economic, social status, etc – is now unlimited. The White House has a blog and a Flickr account – we can comment directly.

Everyone Is a Publisher and a Therapist
The invention of the printing press changed the power structures of the time dramatically. We are seeing another round of that, as information continues to provide access to power. Yet as I realized in a talk I gave earlier this week to the Hawaii Insurance Advisory Board, information is also a tonic. People who share, literally are saving lives via chat rooms and Twitter, as well as providing a steady stream of inspiration.

This seemingly built-in desire to share how-to videos on YouTube and share links of useful information on Twitter and share honestly via Facebook when someone is having a bad day is changing how we think about ourselves and about each other. It is changing how we value things – and pricing becoming a smaller part of the equation in many instances.

It is also confusing us temporarily, as our financial systems are so out-dated. What is that tip you shared really worth to me? I could count hours of time it saved me, or pleasure that I reaped, or even products I created and then resold. Of course each metric will produce a different price. Then I must decide to decide, what it is worth, for me, for now.

Is Psychology Starting to Catch Up with Technology?
I have thought for a long time that we as a species seem to advance much more quickly in virtually every arena except human behavior. The most modern artists and programmers still fall prey to school room urges and antics of competition, of malicious behavior, or under-handed practices in personal and business relationships.

Yet on the social web, these behaviors are more transparent. And they are certainly more commented on! We are each faced with a choice every day: do I follow a herd and jump on the bandwagon of criticism or do I seek out alternate points of view? Do I cut someone some slack as I would have them do unto me or do I cast them aside permanently? Do I move my consciousness forward and not sweat the small stuff or do I pour gas on the flames?

I see people reaching across the aisle daily. I see people being willing to respect different points of view. I see people who seek out their opposites because mechanically speaking, that makes for a stronger platform. I see bloggers talking about art, I see spiritual teachers using tech, I see everyone creating in their own ways opportunities to each beyond our known worlds. Leaving aspects of our families or tribes to explore new frontiers.

To me, this is the real value of social media today: it is letting us share our worlds with each other that we may each become not just smarter, but also kinder and more collaborative when that is what is required. I think of myself these days as consciousness coach as much as anything else. Now that we can all be connected, what really is the point of our connectedness and conversation? That’s the juice that interests me! What interests you and how does the social web support you in that?

Aloha,

Even though we have these amazing, 24/7 ubiquitous connections taking place on the social web, IRL (in real life) conferences are still booming. I think that many of us still long for those face to face connections, even more so now that our networks have blown way past the indications of Dunbar’s number. He he.

This is an opinion piece about things I see happening in the social media space, in short Twitter-sized sound bytes. I am imposing that limit on myself as I am short on time today.

With #podcamphawaii & #socialmediaclub we have open tents, everybody’s welcome. (My preference) Attendance is great. Experiences are powerful. Learning is all over the map.

Other events, when “who is welcome” is changing weekly, when “must request an invite” is the rule? Not so cool. (Especially when no reply is then sent.) Ticket sales are s-l-o-w. Is there a connection?

If you want a private event, by all means have at it. You better have a killer list though and enough personal energy to draw in attendees. The Lobby understands this.

I don’t recommend teasing the public to try to get your buzz on when signups to your private event are not happening. Just open it up and the people will come!

When people are vying for attention and excluding peers, IMO that is so #highschool and #oldschool. We’re due for a major shift in thinking in this arena IMO.

Perfectly reasonable people disagree. That is the good news. When it’s your event, you can do what you want.

I hope these points help you figure out which strategy is more fun and less stress for planning your next event!

Aloha,

Vote for Rox to win the Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

I have entered the contest to win a 6-month blogging gig to write about “good moods” for Nature Made and their natural mood supplement, Sam-e. No product endorsements required. Seems like a perfect opportunity to share aloha with the world. Voting is open and I am off to a late start. Can you help me get ahead?

It’s easy! Just vote for me once a day until Oct 30. Please tell your networks too. I am offering you a daily inspiration and email reminder message to help me out. It will come from Bare Feet Studios.

This is a double-opt-in list – so you must click on the link in the email confirmation message you will receive instantly to receive the daily emails!

If you know me at all, you know I am a collaborator. Here’s how I think my winning this would extend to helping others:
Hawaii Tourism – I will be sharing Aloha and featuring videos and pictures of happy Hawaii and the Hawaiian people and attitudes. It will give considerable exposure to our beautiful islands.
Young and Old Alike – I am lucky in that I can easily connect with people of all ages. No need to target just young techies, seniors, or Facebook entrepreneurs as I have demonstrated via Beach Walks with Rox that they all pay attention to my sharings.

Vote here: http://www.sam-e.com/job/profile/219

FAQ here: http://www.sam-e.com/job/faq

Are you a little geeky? You can also embed this badge on your blog..

Aloha and mahalo for your kokua!

The social web has made it so easy for people to connect with each other and have a voice at the table like never before. Last night at a tweetup here in Honolulu, I met Larry Heim, CEO of HonBlue. This was a Tweetup Treat, as Larry and I do not normally travel in the same circles. Later back at home I could Google him. Then find his LinkedIn profile on the first page of Google’s results. Then click through to a known company here in Honolulu. “That was easy!”

Contrast that to a situation this past week. I was approached (via several urgent phone calls over the weekend), to become an affiliate of a new web site and to also have this company make a presentation at our upcoming Social Media Club meeting. Let’s just call him Sammy.

By coincidence, Seth Godin tackles this topic of the tacky techie on his blog today:

...you can see the danger anyone who introduces new technology faces. While you’ll attract Les Paul and the 37Signals guys, you’re more likely to attract spammers, scammers, opportunity seekers and others that will bring our culture down as easily as they’ll bring it up.

• Contacted me via phone rather than via email. I rarely answer the phone if I don’t know the caller. If you have your caller ID blocked, you will never have me pick up live. It’s just a function of how many incomings I get and that the phone is an interruption when I am working on someone else’s project. I reserve the same courtesy for you if I am working on your project.
• Left very urgent voice mails after normal business hours: Fri afternoon, Sat morning, Sat evening, then Mon morning. I know, the web is 24/7, but even though I might be web surfing for pleasure on Sat night does not mean I want your business problem at that time. The more you call me during non-business hours, the less likely I will respond at all.
• Made false and unsubstantiated claims. “We launched our Site 10 day’s ago and according to Alexa Rating we surpassed twitter in 3 days.” That is an actual quote! And it is patently false. I checked Alexa.
• Has no verifiable bio or resume to be found online, nor any links on reputable sites with biographical details. When all I can find about you on Google search are things like message board postings or a one-off weight loss blog offer, then you are not a serious business person IMO.
• Used a Hotmail address when he finally contacted me via email. You may not know this however Hotmail and AOL email addresses do not inspire confidence in savvy business professionals. Get an email address at your domain (the same domain that has your biographical info and references) or get a Gmail address. Because Hotmail and AOL are infiltrated by spammers and force you to wade through mountains of blinking ads to check your own email, no serious business person I know has the tolerance or time for that.
• Had numerous mis-spellings and grammatical errors in the email. The web is very informal in many ways. However, we business folk still get the “nails on chalkboard” feeling when an email comes in written by someone who appears to be using English as a second language while posing as a native speaker.

On the other hand, because it is easier than ever to connect, it makes strategic sense to list verified credentials and facts when you are reaching out to someone, versus dropping names and over-stating your case. It may work on the short term but over time you are hurting your credibility by trying to make your self, your brand, your idea, more than it actually is at this moment in time.

What tips do you use to make it easy for people to tell you apart from the blowhards and scammers who make a lot of noise on the social web? Contact me if you’d like to see an anonymous copy of the email response I sent “Sammy.” I don’t believe in being rude tho I do believe in calling out the facts.

Aloha,

The Social Media Club is an international organization with over 40 active chapters, whose goal is to develop and support best practices in the use of social media. Bare Feet Studios’ partner, Roxanne Darling, launched the Hawaii chapter in October 2008, in conjunction with Podcamp + Wordcamp Hawaii.

The Hawaii chapter meets on the second Friday of each month. Be sure to check the web site for details on the upcoming event.
www.smchawaii.org

Please join the mailing list if you would to receive meeting announcements. You can unsubscribe at any time and your email will not be sold or shared. Only email is required though we appreciate you adding your additional information.

Brian Solis, a truly forward thinking PR professional and co-founder of the Social Media Club, took the time and captured a lot of the same thoughts I had, yet was reluctant to post in detail when I discussed Google, the FTC, and paid links. I too am influenced by my friends and business colleagues, and am trying to influence the discussion of social media practices here in Hawaii as a long time practitioner and also a founding member of the Social Media Club. (Whose tag line is, “If you get it, share it.” sometimes people don’t want to get it though – they are more comfortable doing business in the old ways.)

Please read: This is Not a Sponsored Post by Brian Solis

My post now is in response to Brian and the discussion taking place over at WebProWorld.com – where the opinion of bloggers among web managers and SEO experts is not too positive.

On a blog you never know as there is no way to know. Google warned about this a long time ago, likely because they remember how the FTC reatced [sp] to sponsored links when Se’s tried to disguise they were paid advertising, It is the law… bloggers aren’t above it.

These new brand ambassadors are almost the perfect instruments for surreptitiously sparking and cultivating groundswell within desired and vital target markets.

Consumers look to experts and trusted peers for guidance and insight when making decisions.

Who’s to say that the information they’re receiving from their trusted sources is indeed truthful and honest, if they’re unaware that these authorities are actually directly or indirectly compensated for their opinions and insights.

To me, blogging has become a big enough industry that it now replicates behaviors that humanity has gravitated towards “naturally.” Some travel bloggers, like some travel writers for mainstream press, now receive paid fam trips. We all like to think we are free thinkers – but when we are being paid, that does change things. We are not as impartial. Nearly impossible for all but the crankiest among us.

When a beloved blogger gets laid off from her job and appears to serendipitously take a trip to Hawaii to get her life sorted out, her readers responded with support and compassion. How would they feel if they knew it was an all expenses paid trip, courtesy of the tourism industry?

The really good news is that all parties stand to gain more by tweaking this relationship a little bit, and doing business in a more transparent manner.

Problem:

• Advertiser pays blogger for specific reviews or specific trips, knowing that they will get better than blind coverage.


• Blogger hides said compensation to maintain appearance of independence and not taint the story with “pay per post” energy.


• Google is aware of this and is working diligently to find a way to ignore “advertorial” postings.


• Blogger has to hustle on a case by case basis to cover costs and receive just compensation fro the incredible work being done building a targeted and loyal audience.


• Advertiser has to jump from blogger to blogger in search of hidden paid endorsements.  


• Both run the risk of being outed with the ensuing backlash.


• Readers do not get the whole truth.


• The problem holds true even if there is a page hidden away somewhere on your blog that says you got paid for something.

• A statement of acknowledgement belongs on every post not just in the back of the blog.


• I’d like to see a generic icon developed that indicates some form of compensation was received for the item(s) mentioned in this post. It has become very popular to nuance the language these days, “no one was paid for their time” – yeah, but they did get an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii with access to countless not-so-obvious products, services, and people right? That dear readers, is compensation to me. Is it to you?


• Advertisers are better served by developing a relationship with bloggers who have an audience in their desired space. They should step up and provide ongoing paid support for that blogger, so s/he can continue to do the fine work and build the audience. This goes for the people developing social media campaigns too. There is a lot of effort that goes into creating these campaigns, effectively.


• This means not paying for specifics on a per trip or per product basis, but by being a proud sponsor of said blog. Create some distance. Get your banner ad, write the check, participate in the comments, and otherwise stay out of the way.


• Let the blogger pay for their own products and services unless each mention of said item is disclosed.


• Blogger can thank the sponsors at any time; it’s good etiquette. They can be transparent about the help and the money they are getting. There is nothing to hide here when it;s being handled ethically.


• The NPR model works so well. “This blog/this post is brought to you by ABC.” Then everyone knows the deal and can make their own decisions.


• I know the loyal viewers of our BeachWalks.tv internet show would be thrilled for us to get a sponsor who truly grokked the value we bring to people’s lives. They often even suggest sponsors they would like to hear from, who they think are a good fit for our show. How many instances do you know of that happening?

The agency should be proud to support aka sponsor bloggers and bloggers should stop pretending they are immune to editorial standards of disclosure. If a big company did this – like Walmart did with its fake videoblogger/RV across America tour a few years back – they would (and did!) get nailed for it in public.

There really is a win-win-win in here! But advertisers and bloggers have to remember one of the fundamental rules of the social web: TRANSPARENCY. We can move business ethics forward, support the companies and the bloggers and the audience. Really, it’s not that hard. I am confident it will get worked out sooner than later.

Aloha,

I read today in Business Week that Google is getting increasingly sophisticated about tracking blog content that is somehow linked to compensation, alongside a discussion of pending rules from the Federal Trade Commission to cover paid product/service reviews in blog posts. 

A couple of years ago this really hit the fan with one of the first “official” PayPerPost blogging services launched. Bloggers who had earned a decent or better Page Rank saw their status tank to zero once Google realized they were being being paid for certain posts by advertisers.

To its credit, Google also penalized its own Japan division who used the pay per post tactic in an attempt to compete against Yahoo.

Bloggers who are compensated can use the “nofollow” tag within their outbound links to keep those links from being tagged by Google as paid content. I wonder how many bloggers and paying advertisers address this detail specified in their contracts? I love the convenience of logging in to my blog and finding links bout us – so I can go and thank them! The nofollow may well make that harder, but then again, if you are under contract I think it’s the buyer’s responsibility to track the postings of the paid blogger.

With perfect timing, the Social Media Club Question of the Week  (#SMCQ10) has been about “Free Content.” This goes hand-in-hand with the problem of paying people to talk about you. 

The early citizens of the internet have been providing free content of varying value (some of incredible value to be sure) without compensation. “Bloggers” and “Coders” are actually penalized the more popular they become, as they still have to pay for the web servers who connect all those readers/listeners/viewers to their content. Web users have become increasingly more savvy to advertising, and banner ads rarely compensate for the costs much less the value on certain blogs.

I think we are at one of those very klunky places in the transition from an old system, an old ethic, an old set of practices (largely defined by what was mechanically possible) and all new ones. In any transition there are going to be those who hang on to the old, as old is somehow always better in their minds. And of course there are the early adopters who favor the new just as strongly. 

This is further complicated by all of the psycho-emotional issues around “value” and around “what does it cost me.” It’s well established that people do not make rational or logical decisions when in purchase mode. I have a hard time with that as I personally do not like a lot of the gamesmanship that makes up so much of the sales process. I love the social web as it celebrates truth and transparency, as compared to truthiness and manipulative tactics. I am also very supportive of people doing what works for them – the crowds be damned. That means of course if you are someone who likes to kink things, you have the right to do that.

As awkward as things are right now, I think we are moving toward a marketplace where buyers and sellers have more even footing and therefore more responsibility and options. Readers can vet the bloggers to find out if they are paid or not for their reviews – though it should be much easier IMO. There are bloggers who think they are so independent, that they are not influenced. But hello, the very fact someone gave you something, is what started this discussion, now isn’t it? That’s worth sharing too – it only enhances your independent reputation for people like me.

I would prefer that companies who want to get in front of a blogger’s hard-earned audience, consider a more neutral and background NPR-style of true support, ongoing support, rather than a short term “we’ll wine and dine you to talk nice about us then c ya later.” That is largely self-serving (which I know, is not a bad thing per se) but it does not promote the long term sustainability of that high quality blogger. We all benefit from the independent blogger being able to keep telling it like it is – serving up not just the truth but the wide range of stories and connections and insights to her/his readers.

If the truth is getting harder to hide (because so many are recording and tracking so much) then surely truth as a strategy is becoming more efficient, if not yet more appealing.

Aloha,

I sure hope so! Our new chapter has started off with incredible enthusiasm, and the word of mouth is really kicking in strong. Here’s the short scoop:

The meeting proper is 5:30 – 7:00 pm.
Feel free to come early/stay late and visit at the ING Cafe.

5:00 – 5:30 pm Optional networking and meeting setup
5:30 – 5:35 pm Welcome & Orientation – Kelly Mitchell
5:40 – 6:10 pm Presentation: Introductions & Your Online Identity by Tess Staadecker & Roxanne Darling
6:10 – 6:25 pm Break & Mingle
6:25 – 6:35 pm Burt Lum, Notes from SXSW Conference in Austin TX
6:35 – 6:45 pm Tess Staadecker, Notes from Social Media for Communicators in Las Vegas, NV
6:45 – 7:00 pm Non-profit pro bono contest discussion & Closing

Location:
ING Direct Cafe
1958 Kalakaua Ave. Honolulu, HI
Google Map

More details can be found here on the SMCHI web site.