Tonight

Southlake Chamber of Commerce is holding its Annual Awards Banquet tonight. I missed last year's event because I was at a Stars' game. (Hey, I had my priorities. And pre-paid tickets.)

If anyone wants to join us, be at the Hilton in Southlake Town Square tonight!

Quote of the Day

His mother had often said when you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it.

— Lois McMaster Bujold, writer (1949- )

Words to live (and work) by!

Twitter

Sometimes it's hard to explain why I find so much value in Twitter. Most people who don't participate (and some who do) think it's nothing but short messages about pointless things, like what you're eating for lunch or the exact task you're working on at that second. It isn't, and David Carr, in the 1/1/10 New York Times, explains it really well. A few highlights:

By carefully curating the people you follow, Twitter becomes an always-on data stream from really bright people in their respective fields, whose tweets are often full of links to incredibly vital, timely information.

The service has obvious utility for a journalist, but no matter what business you are in, imagine knowing what the thought leaders in your industry were reading and considering.

Nearly a year in, I’ve come to understand that the real value of the service is listening to a wired collective voice.

At first, Twitter can be overwhelming, but think of it as a river of data rushing past that I dip a cup into every once in a while.

The best people on Twitter communicate with economy and precision, with each element — links, hash tags and comments — freighted with meaning. Professional acquaintances whom I find insufferable on every other platform suddenly become interesting within the confines of Twitter.

Twitter helps define what is important by what Mr. Shirky has called “algorithmic authority,” meaning that if all kinds of people are pointing at the same thing at the same instant, it must be a pretty big deal.

There was some news event a few months back (I think it was the helicopter and small plane colliding over the Hudson River) that I read about on Twitter and I naively assumed that it had happened the day before, maybe, or at least a few hours earlier. In reality I had heard about it within minutes of it happening. That's the whole atmosphere of Twitter. It's immediate, and it's fast.

You understand, this is completely separate and distinct from the value of Facebook, which I've heard described quite accurately as 'talking to the neighbors over the back fence.' (Or—a little Facebook reference here—hearing about how the neighbors played Farmville or Mafia Wars, and refusing—over and over and over—invitations to join them.)

And just from the perspective of posting my own Tweets, Twitter does very good things for me. As Carr points out, every word has to do a lot. It forces me to keep copy tight, no empty rhetoric, no fluff. 140 characters to get the idea across, and that's it. It also helps keep ideas tight. Pick your slant and get it out there, no hedging, no waffling. And that's a good thing, too.

So a big 'thank you' to David Carr and the NY Times. Your article will help explain to Twitter muggles why I keep checking my phone.

Funny stories

Author Anita Brock will be speaking at the North Richland Hills Library this evening, telling stories from her two travel books, Out, About and Around, and Mileage, Memories and Mishaps, plus some never published.

There are many anecdotes in her books to which I can relate, especially one about losing her "good" tweezers in her car. In her steering column, to be exact, after using them at a stop light (I can also relate to that). She tried to jar them free by speeding up and slamming on the brakes. That is so something I would try.

I have to admit, though, that having experienced 'squatty potties' in China, one of my favorite sections is her commentary on toilets around the world. In particular, she describes a situation in a hotel in Ephesus, Turkey. The toilet in their room was obviously intended to have a seat, but it was missing. She had to explain to the desk clerk, who spoke no English:

"I stood at the desk flapping my arms imitating a toilet seat going up and down…and watched the clerk's eyes glaze over in incomprehension. I know what he was probably thinking.

"This woman is chattering ninety miles a minute and the only word I understand is 'toilet.' She is gesturing like the men in orange vests on an airport runway. Is she telling me she wants to fly away and take the toilet?"

He followed me to the room. I showed him the toilet sans seat. He sighs. The glaze leaves his eyes and he chatters. I only understood the word 'toilet.' I think, as it turned out, he was telling me, "You ladies need a toilet seat. While you are at dinner I will have one attached."

He may have been saying, "I will have someone escort you to the airport."

Seriously. Funny stories.

Tonight, 7 – 8:30, at the North Richland Hills Library, 9015 Grand Avenue, North Richland Hills, TX, 76180-7901. Free admission and refreshments.

I promise you'll laugh.

Jeff Klein and better 30-second commercials than you've ever imagined

Jeff Klein has spoken to a couple of networking groups that I belong to, and every single time I learn so much! His talk at the Southlake Chamber Friday morning Leads group was about 30-second commercials, and his suggestions are amazingly simple yet amazingly astute.

His advice: First, make it about the listener. Duh. Since that's what I do all day in everything I write (and what I gently suggest to everyone I work for or work with), you might think that would have occurred to me already. Not so much, actually. Simply construct your commercial to focus on the people who are hearing it, not on yourself.

Secondly, ask for something specific. My favorite quote from his talk:

If you tell me who you're looking for, specifically, I probably know someone I can introduce you to. If you say, "I want to meet everyone you know," I can't help you.

And, finally, ask for one thing. Let people know you want to meet school principals or small business owners who want to start blogs or plumbers who work in Watauga. Whatever. A bonus — a really great bonus if you attend a number of networking functions or attend the same ones regularly — is that your 30-second commercial isn't the same every time. Think about all the commercials you've heard over and over, to the point where you really don't have to listen any more to know what they're about. Having something different to say each time will keep people listening longer!

At our meeting, Jeff helped a couple of people with their commercials.






Jeff also had a couple of great offers for us. His tele-seminar, "Networking Your Way to Success," a six week course for up to ten people, begins again on 9/30. He guarantees exponential results within 90 days of implementing the system he teaches in the course. Sign up here.

He's also conducting a 90-minute "30 Seconds to Success" workshop, which will continue the work he started in this talk. Everyone in the workshop will get detailed one-on-one help with their commercial. He's been kind enough to offer a special price for those of us at the meeting (or any other Southlake Chamber members). The workshop is normally $97, but we can sign up for $75. The 30-Seconds to Success workshop is scheduled for 10/23, and we need two more people to register for it. I myself actually won this workshop, so I'm really anxious to get two more people signed up!

Get in touch with Jeff, or contact me if you have any questions about any of this. I highly recommend his workshops, and he's a great speaker!

Thanks again, Jeff!

Jeff was great!

Jeff Klein was great this morning! I've heard him speak before, on this same subject, and I still learned a lot. He's a very organized speaker, presenting a lot of information in a short period, in a way that's easy to understand. If you can get him to talk to your organization, do it!

I'll be posting some video clips and sound bites from both Jeff and Erin Steed. Stay tuned!

Comparative complaint

Okay, I try not to get on my soapbox too often. I'm not actually the grammar police. But I have to say something about this. Lately, for no apparent reason, English-speaking people seem to have forgotten that our language actually has two ways of creating comparative (and superlative) forms. You create a comparative by adding "-er" or put "more" before the word. Here's the problem: you don't get to just pick whichever way you feel like doing it. There is a correct form, and there is an incorrect form! There's a veritable epidemic of otherwise intelligent people — particularly on broadcast news shows — using the "more" form for everything.

It is not EVER

• more happy
• more easy
• more cool
• more old
• more tall.

And by the same token, it's never

• moderner
• effectiver
• beautifuler
• expensiver
• intelligenter.
  

The rule of thumb is that one-syllable words, and two-syllable words that end with 'y,' use "-er." Other two-syllable words, and words of three syllables or longer, get "more." Got that?

And while we're at it, keep your quotation marks on the outside of your punctuation. For heaven's sake, it makes you look Canadian!