Dearest friends, family, colleagues, tweeters and loyal readers:
Wishing you and your family a safe and happy holiday season. Hope 2010 brings all the joy and love you deserve.
This has been a big year that brought about many changes and hopes for the future.
While the year started with Obama’s inauguration; to me, 2009 was considered the year of Susan Boyle, Balloon Boy, major celebrity deaths, the Michael Phelps weed scandal and …Imma let you finish but CNN had the best 2009 recap… dammit..
In technology, we welcomed Windows 7, saw Steve Jobs overcome cancer, and watched as social media created social change through politics and business… Time Magazine even named Twitter the word of the year. There were also changes in various industries, such as auto, finance and media. There has been a lot of talk about the so-called death of the media industry and while only time will tell, I see nothing but opportunity. Where do you see media in 2010?
On a personal level, this was the year that I came of age – living on my own in the *big city*and scoring the dream job in social media at the fantastic company called SoftCom.
Nothing annoys me on twitter as much as the auto DM (direct message)… It clogs my inbox, annoys the hell out of me, is incredibly impersonal, and usually communicates the “me, me, me” instead of “what can I do for you.”
Yesterday, I got to the point that I almost messaged each poorly constructed one back telling them where to stick the book/brand/product/blog they were trying to push.
Even worse are the auto DMs with a link – for two reasons: one, right off the bat you’re trying to sell me something (yourself, your brand, your book); and two, with all the phishing schemes, you seem like a spam bot. Safe to say, you send me one with a link, and you’re getting unfollowed.
This opinion, however, is met with varying degrees of agreement and lots of heated debates. With that in mind, I’ll alienate some tweople by listing the recent examples I’ve encountered of terrible and bearable auto DMs.
Terrible
“You’re cool! Facebook me: http://tr.im/vOlQ; CAUTION:10 Cardinal Sins of Twittering http://tr.im/mMMd” Nothing about me or why I’m supposedly cool.. what a poor mass-message.
“Thanks for connecting, I hope it is productive. Grow and Spread your dreams http://ow.ly/iDsK” Am I supposed to click on your ambiguous link? Eat it.
“Looking forward to your tweets. Please get to know me thru my intro video: http://www.ipodiums.com/qlcoach” Great example of the “me, me, me.” why should I care?
“How 2 Leverage Facebook in Google http://tinyurl.com/seotip How I gained So many Followers http://tinyurl.com/bftwitter” Its the last part about gaining followers that sounds so spammy!!
“Thanks for following me! My tweets are usually about technology, things may make you sit up and say HUH but always positive and outgoing…” Seriously? get over yourself.
Bearable “Thanks for the follow!!!” – @ufathom “Thanks for the follow. Look for tweets about major (and some minor) things going on around the winery and in the vineyard.” - @crushpad “Thanks for following me, I promise you update you with interesting Social Media news updates.” – @DeeptiAtrish
The DMs I really like are personalized, like this one from @cruzgary, “hey thanks for the follow! im going to check out myhosting as I am thinking of switching hosting companies..great tweets!.”
Another recent favorite of mine was this one from @djbhorner, “Thx for following! Definitely think that great conversation works well with great wine! Let me know if interested in video online research” because it mentions a bit about the info on my profile (conversation and wine) and allows me the opportunity to make a business connection – without being a hard sell.
Besides, isn’t the point of social media to connect with people and have real, 2-way conversations?
One of my many guilty pleasures is Lion’s Den University – an Ezine targeted towards university students and recent grads. If Maxim and College Humour had a FAS baby – this would be it. While this edgy wonder tends to pick on Western University, its hilarious no matter where you go/went to school.
I was a fan of it for a few months before I met the guy behind it, *drum roll please* Mr. Nate Black. As a Jedi Warrior and Master of The Universe, I asked his advice on taking over the world. See, he could keep the universe; I wanted the TwitterVerse.
Recently, Nate wrote an article Mind Control Mead Easy to offer tips and tricks on how to take over the TwitterVerse and Universe for that matter.
So, a big cheers and thank you is in order to you, Lion’s Den U and Mr. Nate Black. Is there anything you would add to the lesson? what are your tips and tricks on taking over the world? Let me know, I would love to hear from you.
There’s no doubt the music industry is changing as listeners are demanding what they want, where they want it, when they want it. The companies who pay attention to the listeners are reaping major rewards, and the ones who are putting up a power struggle are being visibly defeated. It has been a huge couple of weeks in online music, here are the highlights.
Live Nation and Itunes
Live Nation, producers/promoters of over 22,000 concerts and sporting events annually, have joined forces with iTunes to offer live music and video recordings. Available in a new section of iTunes, they will offer exclusive recorded concerts from Live Nation’s 50+ wired concert venues.
Last.fm and Xbox
Xbox is an example of one brand that “gets it.” It has just integrated Zune, Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm into its live gaming platform with serious success. Over one million users created their own radio stations on Last.fm its first week, which is the biggest growth spurt Last.fm has had since launching 2002. Another reason why this story makes me happy? This is huge for Microsoft – who seems to have been getting bullied in the blogosphere as of late.
Warner Music Group
On Tuesday, Warner Music Group reported an $18 million quarterly loss, the company’s stock had fallen 18% or $1.25 to $5.81. The Associated press reports, “But Warner, based in New York, said strong music releases were dampened by weak economic conditions and an industry shift from CD to digital music sales.” It was major label group’s biggest single day drop in more than two years. They just settled their dispute with Youtube and finally realized that if you can’t beat ‘em… I recommend they shift this slow transition into warp speed or we will be soon biding them farewell.
This past weekend, Toronto held one of my favorite shows of the year – The Gourmet Food and Wine Expo. Held at the south end of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, this bad-boy is a sure pleaser for any foodie.
At an objective level, this year was not as “gourmet” as the year prior – went from fine dining to packaged goods. The fine dining guys who did stick around were amazing, but *note to the coordinators* next year, be a little more selective… especially when you use the term “gourmet” in your event’s title.
On a subjective level, this year was better than ever as I was lucky enough to score tickets from One Eleven Yorkville and was able to attend with its head Chef, Christopher Scott, and soon-to-be head Chef, David Battcock. As flavour aficionados, they were able to teach me a world about what we were trying. As buyers for this exclusive champagne, oyster and caviar bar, we were treated with a little more love than the usual guest.
gourmet food and wine show
Can you say fun?
Some of the highlights
Glutton For Punishment
We pooled our cash for enough tickets to do this one of the seven deadly sins with honour. We started with our favourite supplier, Treamici Wines, who introduced me to my new favourite wine.
Vino Du Jour
The wine honourable mention was an ‘04 Barolo DOCG priced at a cool $100 per bottle. But the ‘04 Italian Vigna Dei Ciliegi Santome won my top marks as the best wine for the best price. At just under $40, it tastes like a $100. Needless to say I ordered a case of it for my fam and friends this holiday season.
Liquor Du Jour
Anyone who knows me knows I’m a tequila girl and I have been a HUGE fan of the Clase Azul Reposado Tequila since I first tried it two years ago during holidays in Mexico. It was the one-of-a-kind hand-painted bottles that got me to buy it, and it was the taste that kept me a loyal follower. Basically, it drinks like a sherry casked scotch, but sweeter and smoother. But at about $90 a bottle and with all its distribution exclusivities, its not exactly an easy bottle to come by.
Surprisingly, I found an amazing drinking liqueur that could please everyone – which I’ve never before encountered. Skinos from Mykonos: just shake it over ice. I’m not kidding, and its not a purely subjective view either. We were in awe of the potential profitability of this, as we could easily identify how everyone at a bar would love it. The women would like it because its just sweet and smooth enough; the men would like it because its not offensively sweet yet still strong; the bartender would love it because of its efficiency, serving by a simple shake over ice; and the owner would love the bottom line at under $40 per bottle. Needless to say, its smoother than any Greek man, sweet enough to please any woman, and at 30% its hard enough for any man.
Here’s one of the reps explaining the source – quite interesting.
Beer Du Jour
The honourable mention in this category goes to DogFish Head, as it was the overall group fave. The winner, however, was hands-down Black Oak Double Chocolate Cherry Stout, a cherry stout at 5.5% alcohol/vol. It tastes like an expensive 90% cacao chocolate bar: a bitter chocolate delight with a hint of cherry. Black Oak Brewing.
Food Du Jour
This one goes to a local favourite, Rodney’s Oyster House. As soon as their booth caught my peripheral, I began quizzing the wine reps about their best selections to pair with oysters. With the right white wine in hand, I headed to Rodney’s booth to sample. As always, the shucking drew a crowd. I looked at the line and pompously told Dave I could shuck them myself. Rodney overheard and invited me to prove it.
Shaking nervously from a staring crowd, they prepped me and put a cap on my head. With rag in one hand and oyster shucking knife in the other, I was passed what they called “an easy one.” I shucked it, smelled it (mmm… ocean fresh), cleaned the shell out (hardly), flipped it (not to reattach the tendon), and took it back sans garnish to enjoy the full flavours. The experience made my day, just as every Rodney’s visit had before (my fondest Rodneys’ memories being a tasting event of oysters paired with beer and their summer festival of shucking contests and lobster bakes).
Cheese Du Jour
I must admit, I dropped the ball on this as I found a few faves… but ate them, along with my roommates, before writing this post. opppsss.
Anyhow, thanks to my Food Cult boys, One Eleven and all the cool vendors for the great fun at the show.
So the muppets’ version is pretty funny, but we totally did it better. Here are the 2 versions – the viral muppets vid and my roommates’ drunken version.
I’ve been putting a lot of emphasis on video marketing initiatives at work with our brands myhosting.com and mail2web.com. So yesterday, I was researching what the experts have to say about enhancing them for increased search ability. My top links are as follows:
Gen-Yer approaching my Quarter Life Crisis while embracing the role of Social Media Specialist for a tech company called SoftCom. Join me as I learn and grow - sharing the good, bad and glamorous.
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