Organized over the Social Web

Last week I started the journey with many other Vayniacs to bring Gary Vaynerchuk to their town as part of his book signing tour. For those of you just coming up to speed on Wine Library TV, Gary opened the tour to the community to make what probably is the biggest decisions of the tour, the cities he is visiting. The whole process started with a simple tweet which then turned into an email and then spilled into the blogosphere and every other aspect of the social web. In a weeks time Des Moines responded in a big way and locked Gary into stopping at East Village Books on June 21st. 

To me this is amazing and speaks to the power of community driven actions. To make this Des Moines book signing happen it took just a few small actions and a lot of word of mouth. Over the last week, word of mouth allowed me to connect with more people than ever through my blog and from the response I know all of them are passionate as I am and wanted to help out any way possible to make the event successful.

For those of you looking for advice, help or nearly anything else the internet provides an endless wealth of knowledge and talent from infinite niches of people who are probably just as passionate as you.  To tap into this resource it just takes you being out there, open, polling and listening. A drill down into these steps is coming in the near future but before I begin I want your thoughts and feedback on the subject. How do you use the social web and how has it provided value back to you?

Chris Pirillo speaks about technology in Iowa

Last weekend Chris Pirillo was back in Des Moines, IA visiting family. A couple days before his flight from Seattle he organized a meet up over twitter. The dmtweetup crew was quick to respond to the call and the meetup was held on Sunday at East Village Books.

I, unfortunately, had to miss this outing, or more fittingly I should say I had chosen to skip this one at the last minute to have a day of family time, however being the tech savvy group they are the event was well documented.

Nathan Wright has a video clip on his site from his interview with Chris. Chris’s response to retaining a creative class in Iowa strikes the closest for me but overall I have mix emotions about his comments. I agree that Des Moines is still not a technology hipster town however I can without a doubt state that Des Moines is making improvements to that cultural change. Through Twitter I have found a strong network of like-minded technology and social media followers which has expanded my network to a collection of bloggers open to supporting each other and most recently a budding group entrepreneurs.

In today’s environment the city you live can no longer be an excuse for not launching your own project nor finding others to have a dialogue with. There are a wide variety of tools to find the network and the support. It takes a little digging to find but this is true for any city and I for one applaud Des Moines for its progress and the network it has created to support its developers, bloggers and other freelancers.

What does your blog say about you?

From the dmtweetup and conversations I have had this past week I have been rethinking what I am doing in terms of personal branding. My digg, delicious, flickr, blog and twitter account all say something about who I am and is easily discoverable by any future employer. So for me it is important that my online presence speaks to my interests, capabilities and provides a consistent message.

In blogging I have found this the hardest to do. I have always felt one of my strengths has been my organizational skills however I do not believe it shows through my blog. I also feel that I haven’t been able to convey my fields of expertise and interests, and I struggle the most with how do I balance posting about my personal life with my professional one.

To avoid deleting my past blog posts again and starting fresh I have decided to map out a plan and set new goals. I am currently thinking about what topics I want to contribute to the blogosphere and have a dialogue around. In short, if I want to be known for something what is it? Hopefully I will have the answer soon.

Before I end this post I have a few questions for who ever reads this. What are you doing around personal branding? If you blog, what does it say about you? What topics have you wanted to blog but have decided its in your best interest not to? And do you have multiple blogs and if so how are they different from each other?

My social network of choice

Myspace, Facebook and LinkedIn… just a few names often associated with social networking. After using all three services for over a year and more I can honestly say they have provided me very little to no value. My closest friends send me email or we talk over the phone/IM. The rest (sadly) are long lost friends from the olden days of high school. On these sites we find each with a quick search and “friend” each other but never does it really require us to interact. However I have found a much more powerful social network through Twitter. It has allowed me to meet dozens of other people within the area I live with similar interests. Through twitter, I have met real people that I would want to have a beer and know better.

“Facebook connects you to friends you knew many years ago. Twitter connects you to friends you should have known for years.” - Nathan T Wright

The process was simple, search for people in “Des Moines” and many popped up. After following them, they followed me and instantly we were exchanging messages and through our exchanged new names came into the mix. The environment in Twitter has always been welcoming and its users are always quick to drop a link or provide other valuable information.

The twitterers I have met in Des Moines are especially active and have formed a monthly meet up which continues to grow. So I should plug if you are in the area, come have a beer with us at the next meetup this Wednesday.

“#dmtweetup did more for me in one night than LinkedIn did in one year…” - Aaron Webb

If you are not on twitter yet you must sign up for an account. It has been invaluable to me and changed the impression of the town I live in by opening me to a network I could not have discovered before.

TSA Blogging - I think they got it right

At it has been blogged about in recent news however I think it is important to note because so many large companies get blogging so wrong. The Transportation Security Administration has started its own blog. The blog, Evolution of Security, launched in January of this year and even though it seemed out of place in the beginning after reading some of its posts and comments I think the blog has been extremely successful and dare I say it, TSA actually got it right! You can see this just from the dialogue they generate and through the fact that the blog is also getting a number of links back from various bloggers and news sources.

Some of the things I like to see and show that they get it include:

1. Allowing comments and commenting back to their readers! - The blogging team is monitoring the site and allowing its readers to engage in conversation about their posts. The comments still go under review but I noticed they allow anonymous posting… amazing. And even though this seems like the obvious decision I have talked to a number of companies who just didn’t want to take that risk and afraid of what may come from it

2. They respond quickly - Such as the macbook air issue they are monitoring the blogosphere buzz, responding quickly to it and continue to follow up. This on-going communication channel is what blogging is all about

3. They have multiple bloggers - Blogging is hard work and to stay fresh and responsive they have made the investment to make this a team. For any professional company serious about blogging this is a must do

4. They are seeding their posts - They are promoting and allowing others to promote their posts across social platforms like del.icio.us and digg. All of this makes their blog more accessible and that is good thing

The TSA blog is moving forward I am glad to see another large organization take this approach. I think they have done this rather successful and hope to see other established organizations open a channel for its customers to engage in dialogue about current issues.