Social Media Stupid Metaphor Exercise (bel Grande)

December 9, 2008 By 2 Comments
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I’m prone to random ideas, and last week it struck me that just about any danged crazy thing could (or has) been used as metaphor for Social Media, Web 2.0, or whatever you want to call this stuff. I had some time waiting for a program to install, so I threw out onto Twitter for people to “send me a noun” that I would then attempt to form into some faux profundity about Social Media.

Well, leave it to Twitter. The nouns flew fast and furious, and I had to cut them off quickly or I would have been at it all day. Below is the list of people, the words they gave me, and my replies. I won’t vouch for the quality of the replies, but it was definitely fun. Sometimes the best creativity flows when you’re really under the gun.

  • The rutabaga is a vegetable similiar to the turnip. The Root O’ Social Media is building communities. (@JeffReidAZ)
  • Getting old corporations to adopt new media is like curing a giraffe of a cough. It takes a while and you’re gonna get kicked. (@TSDivaDani)
  • Like a noun is the crux of every good sentence, honesty is the crux of every good blog. (@c_reed (nice one!))
  • Travelling snake-oil salesmen used to sell from their suitcase, now they just use twitter and my InBox! (@snakecharmers)
  • A good blogger needs a good pair of overalls, because like a farmer at some point you’ll be covered in ****. (@maniactive)
  • Like parsnip cowers in the shadow of the mighty carrot, spammers will never quite measure up to the honest blogger (@smlacy)
  • Even the mighty blue whale knows the difference between the soggy plankton and the nourishing krill of the internet. (@memestorm)
  • Like the mighty aardvark, you must plunge your moist snout of curiousity into the anthill of social media! (@jeffmann)
  • L is for the layers of conversation social media brings to discussions, from the meaningful to the totally contrived. (@deanouellette) (ed: Not sure L was a noun, but what the heck)
  • Many enter the social media vestibule, but they’re not entering the main hall without purchasing a Ticket of Sincerity. (@timedalkat)
  • Social Media is the soup of the internet. You have to stir through lots of broth and peas to find the tasty bits of meat. (@spellwight)

I’ll definitely give it another try someday. Maybe make a whole book of these things.

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Filed Under: Humor, Social Media Tagged With: , , ,

Halloween Post: Poe’s The Raven… twitter version

October 31, 2008 By 7 Comments
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Once upon a Tweetdeck dreary, while I Twittered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious snurl of meme-passed lore,
While I groaned, nearly bailing, suddenly there came a failing,
As of something poorly scaling, scaling on some maxed out cores.
”Tis some n00b,’ I muttered, ‘scaling on a single core -
Only this, and nothing more.’

Thusly here I clicked to Send, when, with what became a great portend,
In there appeared a smirking whale of whose sight I’d soon abhor.
Not the least apology made he; not any helpful info gave me;
But, with mien of poor design, loaded into my screen’s d?©cor -
Loaded into the browser of Mozilla in the focus of my screen’s d?©cor -
Loaded, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this cyan mammal floating my sad patience was eroding,
By the silly and flighty decorum of the struggling birds it bore,
‘Though the image be used and stale, thou,’ I said, ‘art sure of small detail.
Ghastly smug and bloated whale flitting from thy server’s shore -
Tell me what thy pixeled name is on the Net’s Spamtonian shore!’
Quoth the Whale, ‘Nevermore.’

And the Whale, always gloating, still is loading, still is loading,
On the browser of Mozilla just above my apps galore;
And his teeth have all the gnashing of an application’s that is crashing,
And the back-lash o’er him washing throws his funding to the floor;
And my tweets from out that leviathan that is my screen’s d?©cor
Shall be loading – nevermore!

(with profound apologies to E.A.P.)

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Filed Under: Humor, Social Media Tagged With: ,

Do you have the skills for Social Media?

September 17, 2008 By 2 Comments
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A long time back I set up some job alerts at different career sites like Dice and Monster.com for Social Media positions.¬† I hadn’t received an email alert from Monster.com in a while, and I’d almost entirely forgotten I had it still active.

Until this week.

Monster.com is either drunk out of their minds, or there is a deep change coming in the Social Media landscape.¬† The same alert that once returned positions like “Community Manager” and “Wiki Administrator” in just Arizona have now returned:

  • Emergency Medical Science Instructor in Kinston, NC
  • 911 Dispatcher in Yuma, AZ
  • Lawn Tech in Ocala, FL
  • Triad Associate Dentist in Winston/Salem
  • Assistant Thai Cook in Destin, FL
  • Special Ops Personnel (Military Combat) in (No location given)
  • Manager at House of China Restaurant in (No location given)

The message is clear. Social Media has moved beyond trying to drive authentic, dynamic conversations and is now a critical component of every facet of our lives.  Where once you needed to just know how to set up WordPress, now you must know CPR. Where once you just had to know how to use Friendfeed, now you have to be able to carve shrubbery into funny animal shapes.  Where once you just had to know how to filter Scoble out from every damned Internet tool on Earth, you now must be able to infiltrate enemy governments while cooking Asian gourmet food AT THE SAME TIME.

I, for one, welcome the challenge.  And if you happen to be looking for a job yourself, I think there may be a Web Developer position opening up really soon over at Monster.com

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Filed Under: Humor, Social Media Tagged With: , , ,

Indiana Jeff and The Quest Of The Tiny Avatar

June 8, 2008 By 2 Comments
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It’s been a sad state of affairs that someone who perpetrates to be in as many social media tools, toys, and sites as I do had no decent picture of myself, or “avatar” to use. Partly because most pictures of me look ridiculous (in my opinion), and partly because I never got around to correcting the situation, the end result was that on most sites I was represented by whatever silly default icon they used.

So when some cohorts in the Arizona Twitterverse started focusing on their avatars, I got curious. A local photographer, Tyson Crosbie, shot a session with Ms. Herr and posted the top 15 pictures online for people to view and vote which three they liked the best. I was curious, intrigued even, and set up my own shoot with Tyson.

The shoot was a blast, as was seeing the resulting pictures. It confirmed my belief that there is an innate screwball inside my skin that shows up crystal clear on film. We still found 15 good shots, which Tyson put on Flickr, and the voting began.

What a bizarre few days it was as people commented. I just do NOT like looking at pictures of myself, and here was a whole herd of them! I was like a ornithophobe at Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. Not good. The comments ended up being insightful, supportive, and quite funny. Aside from a few pictures picking up nicknames like “the fart one”, it was far less painful than I feared.

End result – I have three good pictures of myself to use online, although they weren’t the ones I would have chosen for myself. To me, that was one of the best parts of the process because I had an image that appealed to others and not to my own view of myself.

Jeff Moriarty - Thumbs avatar This picture is definitely the most animated of the bunch, and though it is perhaps a bit “Fonzie” it has some energy and fun in it that I was hoping to capture in at least one of the avatars,
Jeff Moriarty - Smiling avatar I was told this was both the “best smile” in the bunch, and also it “looked like I just let a fart.” Oddly (perhaps sadly) both of those do seem to apply, so I went with it. This one will likely be used for most of my corporate avatars, as I see no reason why business can’t have a smile in it once in a while.
Jeff Moriarty - Glare avatar My wife laughed for a good five minutes at this one, as did a lot of others. I don’t quite see it, but that’s part of the point. This was the overall winner and is my new avatar on Twitter, Flickr, and elsewhere.

It was a fun and educational process, and Tyson was great to work with. You may want to read Tyson’s thoughts on your avatar being part of your online brand, and you definitely should check out his other pictures on Flickr. Ms Herr also posted her final thoughts about the process.

Thanks to everyone who helped me select this pictures, because we’re both stuck looking at them for a long time to come!

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Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: , , , , ,

Blogaholism… a dangerous disease

June 8, 2008 By Leave a Comment
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I think I’ve finally started enough blogs to fill my drunken, insatiable need for the things.

This blog was morphing into a writing blog, but now I’ve spun up Writing Is Cake with some folks from my writing group, so all my writing nonsense is now over there.

I’m also in the process of kicking off Ignite Phoenix with Halfacat, and that’s coming along at a reasonable clip.

Between all that and work (and my actual writing for myself!) my fingers are wearing down to nubs.  That should cover me for a bit, so if either of those categories interest you, please check out the sites.  If you just want info on me being me, that should start up again here.

If anyone sees me starting another blog, please shoot me.

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Filed Under: Cake, Social Media, Writing Tagged With: , ,
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