Bloody Crafty

My Life on Twitter

A few years ago when people without an .edu email first started getting on Facebook, I remember someone saying "all my friends are on twitter."  I'm sure I responded with an air of disgust and said, "what's that?" when I meant "who cares?"  I can be an uninformed bitch that way.   But to be fair (to myself), two years ago it probably wasn't  much.   That clearly has all changed.

In my new job I spend all day on Twitter.  Not writing but reading and paying attention.  It is true that people use Twitter for really mundane things like "just ordered dominos".  I used to think who gives a crap?  But now, I DO - since I'm comparing how often people want to share their affiliation with one brand over another.  It's a really interesting study. I've also found that the fastest way to know ANYTHING is on Twitter - live blogging is delayed, regular blogging is really delayed, and news is tomorrow.  Based on last night's Twitter activity I'm pretty sure Danny Gokey will finally be eliminated from American Idol because he was nowhere to be found - just Kris and Adam and his tongue.  I've even found a few people that use Twitter to share useful information.  And I'm pretty sure in the marketing world, I'll never need to actually attend a conference I can just follow the important stuff via Twitter posts which is very convenient and lowers my carbon footprint.

To get a lot of these interesting things, I had to start following people who, oddly, in turn started following me.  How disappointing for them since I still don't know how I would use such a thing as Twitter.  I can't imagine people that know me really caring what i'm doing or where I'm at (plus that's totally what Facebook status is for) - much less those that don't know me. BUT if I were famous - I can see a point.  If people thought I knew a lot about anything and I provided up to the minute details of anything new - that might be useful.  But this blog alone pretty much cements my limited basic knowledge of unimportant things like sewing, so I don't anticipate that happening anytime soon.  Plus they call all these posts "Tweets" - and as we all know, I hate birds.

Make Meaning

So in my final few days of my current job, I find myself reflecting on all the loads of crap on my desk and perhaps what I have learned.  I think the most compelling thing I was exposed to was the Avenue-A/Razorfish Client Summit last May.  Now that I'm sort of going to a competitive company, I probably won't be able to praise Razorfish publicly much but I thought that was the best thing I've seen from any agency since my first agency retreat 12 years ago.  They had a ton of very compelling speakers including Sir George Martin, the Beatles producer for many years.  I had no idea who he was and could not have been less excited to see him speak for two hours - but have never been more engaged in a speaker.  It was like watching a live documentary - truly fascinating.

But my favorite speaker by far was Guy Kawasaki .  He was one of the first guys at Apple and has made a living out of giving the same speech 900 times - at least according to my youtube search.  But he's also a venture capitalist and started alltop.com.  Most importantly he's about the most entertaining speaker ever!  He turned his canned speech into a focus on Innovation - the theme of the summit - and I still remember some of the funny things he said.  He had a really funny thing about consultants coming in to help write mission statements.  I was able to find several videos online - but the more I watched them, the more I realized that these should be shown to children and then high school seniors and then college students and most of all anyone considering business school - before they enroll.  His first step about making meaning not money is a Lloyd Dobler goal.  Another step was about jumping the curve and understanding the huge mistake in doing the same thing instead of looking ahead - like why ice makers didn't create the refrigerator.  And another one about niche-ing your way out of the graph.  His case study was all about pets.com trying to connect a dead cow to your hungry dog and what they forgot was how heavy dead cows were.  And one of the most used is his 10/20/30 rule for presentations.  I have yet to follow this - but I'm not trying to get millions of dollars in venture capital.  I still think it's a good rule for most people to follow.

I highly recommend attending the Razorfish client summit if you can - and I thank them and my team there for all their help over the past year.  And if you need a speaker - call Kawasaki.  He's no bozo.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Yes, Tom Petty, I agree.  Waiting is hard.  I had yet another interview today with my employer of choice (EOC), and although it went well I haven't heard anything yet.  And by well, I mean really good actually.  So, as I wait, for what could be weeks based on past performance by EOC, what else is there to do but watch American Idol and shoe shop online.

I have been obsessed with yellow shoes for years but last November I swear I found some very simple slingbacks that I remember would look fantastic with this brown and yellow dress from Anthropologie that I never got.  Now that yellow is as prevalent at the mall as red was at the Oscars (also note - I look like ass in yellow - an unfortunate truth), one would think that the yellow shoe would be easier to come by.  I should say something other than the plastic Jessica Simpson variety at Nordstrom.  I found two that might work - one more practical and less expensive than the other (so you probably know which way I'll go). Also, it's probably important to note that I have nothing to wear these with.  Sigh.  More waiting.