Blah Blah Bleric

Calling People Is Rude

In the old movies, one phone hung on the wall in the foyer, and when it rang, the whole house bristled with excitement. A phone call! Who could it be?! What do they want to talk about?!

Fastforward to 2010.

Today when a phone rings, people brace themselves, take a deep breath and look to that caller ID. And they aren't looking just to see who it is--they are looking to see who wants a piece of them. They look to prepare for a quick 2-5 second decision.

To be there or not to be there, that is the question.

Well, I'm not here. Don't call me unless you want to hear my voicemail greeting. My voicemail greeting recommends not leaving a message but finding me on Twitter. Go ahead: call me, I won't answer. (Number's on Facebook.)

Calling people is rude. It's like saying, "I need to talk to you and even though I am not with you, I am going to get in your face via phone and demand that you talk to me." It's like driving your car right into my living room. Yeah, I don't think so. Not today. 

Here's a short list of tools to use to reach me that are WAY more effective than a phone:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Text Message
• Email
• Text Message
• Smoke Signal

To be clear, I use the phone everyday. I enjoy talking to people. But if you call me without some heads-up or an appointment, you better be my wife with some updates about my kids.

The new catch phrase: Tweet me to meet me.

Zen Diagrams Stop Social Media Gurus

Are you sick of social media experts? Are you sick of social media gurus? Send the gurus here!

It was that word, guru, that inspired me to transform the traditional Venn diagram into a Zen Diagram. Let me explain how a Zen Diagram can help you. Maybe even you have been twitting around hawking your social media guru-ness, and you are kind of sick of yourself. It happens. On to Zen!

Let's get visual about our lives. Keep in mind that a Zen Diagram can help even if social media is not part of your life. Using the same techniques as Venn diagrams (sorry John Venn, I am stealing your diagram), make a Zen Diagram by drawing circles that represent your main career interests. I have three passionate interests, and where I am most happy is in that intersecting area that I call the Lotus zone:

You might have more than three interests, which can make your Zen diagram complicated. In that case I have two suggestions:

1. Look deep and find only two or three burning interests, or combine two interests into one broad circle. Face it, we're going Zen here and complicated isn't invited.
   
2. Get creative with your visual. There are tips on how to draw four and five interest diagrams here. The mathemetician/artist in you will be challenged. Drink green tea to prepare.

My Zen Diagram shows equal parts of Writing, Elearning and Social Media. That is pretty accurate for me. You might need a more lopsided diagram if one interest dominates. Beware, though, that letting one interest dominate leads you out of the Lotus zone!

Since Social Media is one of my circles, I can explain how an interest can pull you out of your Lotus/Zen and explain why I think so many social media fans think they are social media gurus.

I love to indulge in social media. Mmm, Twitter. Mmm, Facebook. And for dessert? Connect Twitter and Facebook. By participating in and learning about social media sites and social media players, I have become more expert than most at social media. People come to me with questions about using social media for their brand, for marketing and for recruiting. Still, social media is not my focus in life and I do not live or die (or put food on the table) by it. So, I am not hawking myself as a guru. It is not authentic for me to do so.

When I get too into social media, I do imagine a fun and rewarding career kicking butt online and consulting for big bucks--I am tempted to pull out words like expert and guru and start throwing them around to see if they stick. Other people are doing so en masse. I think many, too many, are decieving themselves because they have lost their Zen. Back to the Lotus, people. Be a fan not a guru!

Make your Zen Diagram today and thank me tomorrow. Your Zen Diagram guru, Eric @tweric Matas.

Photo Credit: wasoxygen on flickr

The Only Prescription is More Twitter

If there was a field of wild flowers atop a grassy hill on which Twitter could run, in slow motion, with open arms toward a similarly open-armed, slow-motion running passionate lover, that lover would be me.

I've tried to do the middle school guy thing and play it cool. But this is officially my love note to Twitter (that I will have my best friend deliver for me). *Blush*

I sort of admitted in a recent tweet that steals a hysterical phrase from a Saturday Night Live skit--th one in which Christopher Walken wants more cow bell.

 

For all you new and emerging Twitter fans, here are three great tools to help you get the most of your Twitter experience.

TwiTip - a blog on all things Twitter, helping you know what to do and what NOT to do. TwiTip comes from Darren Rowse (@ProBlogger) from ProBlogger Blog Tips.

Tweet Adder - a "set it and forget it" tool that can do techy work for you, so you just have to write fun micro messages.

Featured Users - an easy way to get yourself out there in the Twitter community. Great idea for bloggers and website owners. Very ideal for anyone who is branding themselves (and who isn't?) or a business.

Even though there is advice out there, have fun with the trial-and-error nature of new tools like Twitter. Just call the first year your beta version. And remember to follow me @tweric!

Oh, and I've written about it here and here, but once again, the best book out about Twitter is Twitterville by Shel Israel. If you read one book about social media, global communities and Twitter, read Twitterville.

14 Bus Reflections v3

On the first night of class, Composition I, the unsuspecting students of @tweric (AKA @compscholar) discovered that they would have to sign-up on Twitter.

 I made it an assignment worth 100 points.

 The students had to create a Twitter account and follow @compscholar to get an A. Three of the 24 already were tweeters, and they fumbled for their devices and followed me immediately.

 A couple others signed up during class, and one even instinctively began to "live tweet" our comp class. Nothing juicy, but these kids these days...give them smart phones and laptops and show them Twitter...they just go at it like it's in our DNA.

 There were some skeptics. A few grumbles. The smart-assiest signed-up as @forced2join (my personal favorite). Expecting some reluctance, I led off class with the riveting story of James Buck, whose one word tweet "arrested" inspired Shel Israel's new book Twitterville.

 The James Buck story, arrested in Mahalla, Egypt, appears in the introduction to Twitterville, which just hit the shelves, and is the best book about Twitter and global communities to date.

 As I ride the 14 bus into downtown Minneapolis, and as I remote blog easily through Posterous, I'm giddy with curiosity about how my students will interact with Twitter. And I am amazed that connecting worldwide is seconds away, which means I have no idea what I might be doing today.

 Eric Matas
Contributing Editor, Kidundated!

Posted via email from Eric's Preposterous

I am the Mayor!

I wouldn't say that I'm an early adopter, but I am an earlier adopter than most.

I got going on foursquare, which is pretty fun because there is competition involved. The main competition is to visit the same place--restaurant, bar, coffee shop, store--so that you become the mayor of that location.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Eric's posterous

I've been battling with Kevin N to be the mayor of the Barnes & Noble in downtown Minneapolis. We've stolen the prestigious title from each other a few times now, and even exchanged smack-talking tweets about this esteemed mayorship. Even so, Kevin and I both agree that when we, as mayor, walk around our Barnes & Noble, we are surprisingly ignored.

The businesses of the world need to wake-up and pay attention. Mayors should get special chairs, elevated service and hearty discounts. At minimum!

Most techy, early adopter types would probably argue that the real news with foursquare these days is that they raised 1.3 million dollars, enough to navigate from playfoursquare.com to foursquare.com. But that's not the real news. Mayorship is.

I hereby announce that I am the mayor of my family room.

Yes, I earned the mayorship of my family room not by checking-in to foursquare from my incredibly smart phone but by kicking ass and taking names. Here are the names: Alex, Aiden, Brooklyn and Kyan. My kids.

It started simply enough. Identical twins Alex and Aiden started to wrestle with me, jumping on my back and drooling ferociously. When the big kids saw that I was man-handling the twins, they abandoned their precious TV to join the ruckus. But even with four kids, ranging from identical 26 pounds to as much as 51 pounds, draped all over me, I was able to emerge the champion and therefore mayor of the family room.

Foursquare might not acknowledge my title, but I welcome them any time (Dennis Crowley?) to visit me in the family room, after which time they will know, they will feel, that I am mayor. For now, I just need to order a decree to get the room cleaned up. Messy.

Eric Matas Minneapolis, MN	Mobile: 612-385-7510 ericmatas@hotmail.com
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