These problems with online friending have captured my imagination and so I put up a post called "Are you really my friend" a week ago on my personal blog julians.name. In my attempts to be spontaneous and unedited (my vlogging policy) I misrepresented some of my true thinking on this topic. Perhaps a better way of saying this is that my current thinking is in flux. I'm feeling my way through this stuff just like many of you.
I intended that post and a follow up (this one) to be published on our business blog exceler8ion. Here it is.
Here's a summary of the content and some show notes.
First, a correction 'You can't teach an OLD dog new tricks." Just had to get that out of the way.
The video is 18 minutes but HOLD on!
Ouch.
That's better.
The good news is that I've made a significant number of my points in the first 6-7 minutes which isn't too terrible. You'll have to watch the whole piece if you want to hear my personal example of attempting to friend a colleague of mine - Shel Israel, co-author (along with Robert Scoble) of Naked Conversations who sent me to his blog to read his Facebook friend policy after I tried to connect with him on Facebook.
Here's the top 5 for people who don't have time to watch:
TOP 5 FRIENDING TECHNIQUES
How to deepen relationships through social networking tools and social media.
Be active not passive
Make one-to-one contact
Respond to questions
Play is central
Pay attention to people (visibly) Thanks to my lovely bride Shannon!
The rest of my video discusses these points in more detail and recounts my experience to date with friending Shel.
“ Scrybe™ is a groundbreaking online organizer that caters to today´s lifestyle in a cohesive and intuitive way.” -Scrybe home page.
The much anticipated Scrybe online personal organizer has launched their beta today. I’m writing about it here for two reasons. First, who isn’t interested in ways to be more productive? As far as tools go, the quality of the axe you swing does make a difference, even if the skill of the operator is more important. Second, it’s a great example of how you might use savvy online marketing techniques to promote your effort (be it a recruitment campaign, local, national, or even international, hello world, launch) as Scrybe is going for.
Scrybe made all the cool watcher lists due to a knock-your-socks-off video that they circulated on video sharing sites like YouTube. The video has been described as a savvy use of modern online marketing. Take a look at their home page and all the ‘A list’ blogger testimonials and it’s pretty obvious that Scrybe made the blogging digerati a key part of their social media marketing plan as well. Call it what you want: guerrilla marketing, word-of-mouth-marketing, buzz marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization. Whatever! I’m calling it a great example of how to make a ton of people aware of your stuff so that they’ll want to someday buy your stuff when you’ve got a budget of…well, pretty much nothing. Judge for yourself.
Remember folks, this is only the launch of Scrybe’s beta - not the final product. If you’ve watched the video, you’ll get an idea of how their use of the latest web technologies (like Ajax) are used to create what would appear to be, highly functional and useful tools.
Useful tools eh?
OK, here are a couple that make my list. Offline sync, once the Achilles’ heel of web based programs, is handled with aplomb, as are paper output modes designed to appeal to the luddite or PDA Hipster in all of us. And it all looks easy to use - dare I say it - even enjoyable to use.
So here’s the thing. I’m always on the hunt for better ways to organize my life (I use David Allen’s framework) . Yes, sometimes my lust for new tools even outweighs my desire for productivity itself. But, never for long, and I’m quick to apply a .22 to the head of any self described productivity tool if it gets in my way. For now, I’ve signed up to be part of the beta with about four different e-mails in hopes of getting in on the action. So far, I haven’t heard a peep from Scrybe. I imagine this blog post might help. At least it will if Scrybe is as up on their social media marketing as they appear to be. Because if they are, they’re monitoring the blog buzz on their launch right now and they’ll see this. So, what are you waiting for Scrybe? I can’t write my review until you give me the keys.
Although far less known, the second video (Crash Different by Hunter Cressall) is good enough to make you snort your drink through your nose. This can be spectacular when you’re drinking Red Bull while wearing a white shirt (makes a mess of that beautiful Apple polished aluminum as well). The Crash Different video plays off the look-and-feel of the Apple ‘Think different’ campaign. Hey, even if you have seen this video you could watch it twenty times and still laugh out loud (note: this second video has some profanity).
What happens when a married couple who are deeply in love (awwwww), work in the same field, and share many of the same professional and personal interests? Do they fight all the time? Shannon and I have many similar interests like technology, computers, golf, music, internet marketing, motorcycles, and many others. Yes, that’s right. Shannon not only LOVES to play golf, she even LOVES to watch it on TV (I am not making this up!!!). While the thought for some of having no separation between work, home, and hobbies (but mostly watching golf) might send some couples screaming from their home I’d say it is as close to heaven on earth as you can get!
Shannon and I are hard-pressed to have a conversation where we don’t have a mutual interest so work discussions are just as cool as a good convo on our mutual passion for motorbikes. OK, I don’t mean to make you queasy with all these personal comments on our business blog about interactive recruitment marketing BUT we like to have fun too and today we thought we’d share some recent barbs that we’ve been trading on the subject of the Mac vs. PC platform.
It’s not fair to label either of us a ‘PC person’ or a ‘Mac person’ because we love and use both systems…WHEN they’re working. Not as much when we’re the family tech support department. I did make the switch one year ago to a Mac. Shannon quite enjoys making fun of me for buying a Mac, but the jokes are tongue-in-cheek and a play on the seemingly age old schism that exists between Mac and WinTel PC elitists that centers on the shortcomings of each platform. In my own experience I have found that Mac’s have plenty of shortcomings, just like WinTel machines, they’re just different shortcomings and I currently happen to prefer Apple’s shortcoming to that of Microsoft’s.
So you can imagine our delight when we find a couple of wonderful parodies that poke fun at both sides.
The first video is a spoof of what would happen if Microsoft re-designed the product packaging for Apple’s iPod. Yeah, we know you’ve probably seen this one ten times already given its hugely successful viral run over the last two weeks, but just in case you haven’t stumbled on it go ahead and watch the video now.
!vb:gv,4313772690011721857,1! Now, head on over to our next video post that has the Hunter Cressall, Crash Different spoof (you won’t be dissappointed).
OK, here are a couple that make my list. Offline sync, once the Achilles’ heel of web based programs, is handled with aplomb, as are paper output modes designed to appeal to the luddite or 
What happens when a married couple who are deeply in love (awwwww), work in the same field, and share many of the same professional and personal interests? Do they fight all the time? Shannon and I have many similar interests like technology, computers, golf, music, internet marketing, motorcycles, and many others. Yes, that’s right. Shannon not only LOVES to play golf, she even LOVES to watch it on TV (I am not making this up!!!). While the thought for some of having no separation between work, home, and hobbies (but mostly watching golf) might send some couples screaming from their home I’d say it is as close to heaven on earth as you can get!
EXCELER8ion is where Julian and Shannon Seery Gude write on Social Media, Interactive Marketing, Technology and Internet Business Topics. 