Social Media Discussion

This blog is dead!

That's right, I'm killing this blog. We're getting ready to launch a new website for Spreenkler, LLC so all of the updates on our community, meetups, ideas, etc. will be located on our new site. 

If you'd like to keep up with my thoughts around social technology, design and innovation, you can do so at my NEW blog, 111Words.com.

Thanks,

Steve

The Real Gary Vaynerchuk

Earlier this week, Actions Talk co-founder Ryan Graves (Twitter/Blog) posted the following tweet:

who are good examples of a strong personal brand? other than @garyvee 

@GaryVee is Gary Vaynerchuk (Twitter/Bio) is someone who has launched into Internet celebrity stardom because of his savvy use of traditional and new media communication tools. He did so to grow awareness and word-of-mouth passion and loyalty for the family business he took over, a liquor store in New Jersey. Today he uses these same tools to convey his experiences, first-hand, to the masses.

Ok, so when Ryan posted his tweet I responded like this:

@ryangraves I'm beginning to think @garyvee has watered down his personal brand. Not sure what he stands for beyond self promo in any arena.

Fair or not, this was my perception of the Gary Vaynerchuk brand at that moment. And even though we all know customer or audience perception isn’t always true, it does drive behavior.

In only a few hours, Gary responded directly to me via Twitter with this:

dude really? would love 2 grab a beer one day and chat about it, I think wine and biz/branding is what I like to talk about respect ur thgts

This really had an impact on me. I suspect Gary receives hundreds or thousands of emails, texts, Twitter replies and DMs and more every day. Yet somewhere between midnight and 7am he replied. I was super impressed, but it’s no surprise given his perspective on responding to people (video).

I decided to update my perception of Gary Vaynerchuk, the brand. After all, when his book came out earlier this year he was gracious enough to send me a few copies for wine lovers in the Spreenkler community.

Gary is the real deal. Does he get a little boisterous for me sometimes? Sure. But he is what he says, all about wine and biz/branding. He breaks it down - what he knows and what he’s learned - every day for you, me and everyone else to benefit.

So, Gary, I officially apologize for the comment.

I’m going to email and DM my apology to him (I know he says he doesn’t check DMs but I don’t believe him) as well. Plus, I’m going to take him up on his offer to have a beer and offer to fly wherever is most convenient for him to have a conversation on biz, branding, and the Jets. I'll let you know if he accepts.

Until then, I strongly encourage you to check Gary out if you’re at all interested in wine, business, branding or the power of the web to build word-of-mouth loyalty.

Coolest Interface I've Ever Seen

We Feel Fine is a site from Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar, two brilliantly creative people. The site continuously searches the web to compile what people are saying about how they feel. It also grabs context like weather, location and photos in an attempt to make connections to how all of this may or may not impact how people are feeling. What's most impressive is the interface and how you can interact with the data.

I've seen (and you can learn more) other projects from this Jonathan on Ted.com and they are all just as compelling and amazing as this.

More: http://www.wefeelfine.org

Web 2.0 Expo In New York

The Web 2.0 Expo series hits the East Coast this fall. Earlier this year they held the Expo in San Francisco. It's sure to be an exciting, informative, cutting edge event. But if you can't make it, you can get A LOT out of the Expo anyway, simply by registering for and participating in the interactive pre-conference community. In April, I was able to connect to many people attending the Expo in San Francisco. They were willing to meet at the conference or have a conversation via phone or email to add their expertise to the Spreenkler community. Very unique pre-conference experience.

Here's more on how the hosts describe the Expo:
Web 2.0 Expo was launched to connect the builders of the web with the brightest minds, hottest ideas, and most valuable tools - and with each other. New York has long been where the world's biggest industries go online, and as Web 2.0 grows up and gets serious, the time is right to convene the East Coast web communities under the umbrella of the next generation web. It's time to come together to learn, share and network. And it's time to celebrate the size, power, and innovation of the East Coast web industry.

3 Blogs You NEED To Read If...

My top 3 recommended daily blog reads...for now.

1. If you want to continually fuel your creativity check out Accidental Creative. Plenty of tools and strategies (even things like Podcasts For The Creative Mind to help you stay creative on demand.

2. If you want to learn how to integrate social media into your life, business, career, education - whatever, check out and follow Chris Brogan. He'll introduce you to terms such as "twebinar" and help you get more from your social media effort with posts like 50 Steps to Establishing a Consistent Social Media Practice.

3. If you want authentic news and reviews on what's impacting life in urban Milwaukee delivered concisely and artistically you need to get closer to UrbanMilwaukee.com. They cover neighborhoods, people, transit issues and more through text and wonderful photos (you HAVE to check out their Friday Photos!

**BONUS**
4. Each month we share, learn and highlight innovative people, ideas and places in the Milwaukee region. The things we are doing and the things we aspire to do are exemplified by an extremely talented woman in nearby Chicago, Blagica (pronounced Blah-Gee-Sha). Blagica is an entrepreneur with broad online experience (part of the original Orbitz crew) and is a leader in the Chicago social media and startup communities. You can check out what she does here . I highly recommend her Chicago Tech Report where she covers what's happening in the Chicago Web 2.0 and startup scenes.

Here's a secret. I'm working on convincing Blagica to visit Spreenkler in Milwaukee as a featured speaker in October or November! She's very excited and enthusiastic about reaching out to others in the Midwest. More details to come...

Steve

Milwaukee’s Forward-Acting Creative and Technology Advocates — Web414, Spreenkler and Bucketworks — to host Joint Meeting Featuring Harper Reed, Chief Technical Officer of Chicago’s skinnyCorp for a Talk Session on Aug. 6th.

Reed to Discuss New Business and Technology Innovation, Social Communities and Creativity

MILWAUKEE (JULY 22, 2008) — It’s an exciting time in Milwaukee. Our town is in the midst of a market evolution that will enable a growing number of the area’s professionals and entrepreneurs to draw salaries from creative- and technology- related businesses in the coming years. This shift will change Milwaukee in many positive ways. Three street-level groups dedicated to helping build tomorrow’s Milwaukee by bringing together creative, marketing, technical, entrepreneurial and innovative people to connect, get inspired, learn about the latest businesses and technology trends and work together are Spreenkler, Web414 and Bucketworks.

On August 6, at 5:30 p.m. these groups will come together for their first joint meeting by hosting, at Bucketworks (1340 N. 6th St.), a nationally prominent social network and open source engineer/architect, Harper Reed.

Harper Reed is the Chief Technical Officer of skinnyCorp, an umbrella corporation dedicated to the creation of “interesting web communities.” The company’s most notable business is Threadless, an online social network and creative outlet for designers. The site runs regular design contests that lets the community select the best designs for production on shirts and posters that are then, sold.

Threadless awards thousands of dollars in cash and prizes each week, and has awarded over $1M to artists around the world, as well as generating significant notoriety for winners. Threadless has gained significant national attention and has grown to be a $30M business without professional designers, marketing or brick and mortar retail. Threadless has received extensive media coverage in publications like Inc. magazine, which quoted MIT’s Eric von Hippel, calling the company a "’perfect example’ of a new way of thinking about innovation.”

The ways Reed and his colleagues think about innovation and act upon those thoughts will be well received by the people who make up the Spreenkler, Web414 and Bucketworks groups, who, themselves, drive to engage in, create and launch progressive technologies, businesses and ideas. Other skinnyCorp businesses include: NakedandAngry, YayHooray, and ExtraTasty, as well as their “day dream” projects: I Park Like an Idiot, PoopFace, MeEveryday and Lunchtime Photo Safari.

- - - - - - - -
Web414 consists of amateurs and professionals interested in building and improving the web today and in the future.

Spreenkler is a fast-growing, influential group of creative, innovative professionals dedicated to creating a better Milwaukee. Spreenkler helps startups bring ideas to life, provides growing businesses with guidance to keep ideas on track and connects resources, information and people in organizations of all types and sizes.

Bucketworks, located at 1340 N. 6th St. in Milwaukee, Wis., is the world’s first health club for the brain, its mission is to provide a supportive and empowering environment for people to share and explore their passions for art, theatre, dance, business, technology and leadership.

Special thanks to Moander Law Firm, which is dedicated to working directly with small businesses, for bringing Harper Reed to Milwaukee.
- - - - - - - -

Interested Media, please contact Al Krueger @ 414.331.8987 or al@cometbranding.com.

ActionsTalk Launches With First Video Interview

Ryan Graves and Blake Samic officially launched their first video interview on ActionsTalk last night! The interview marks the official active launch of ActionsTalk, a video/blog site that is dedicated to showcasing startups/entrepreneurs in the Milwaukee region as a way of promoting and connecting them to larger audiences and resources to help them grow their idea.

They interviewed local blogger Brandon Henak of NewlyCorporate.com, a blog that provides tips and tricks to new members of corporate America. NewlyCorporate.com has been rated in the top 10 of GenY blogs.

ActionsTalk #2 - NewlyCorporate.com from ActionsTalk on Vimeo.

Ryan and Blake are utilizing social media tools like Twitter (Ryan / Blake) and Seesmic to spread their ActionsTalk concept with great success. They've also reached out to Spreenkler and other similar groups in Milwaukee who bring together the ideas, people and organizations that ActionsTalk looks to profile. I think they are on to something big!

Steve

Mind Mapping Collaboration and Community

Wikipedia defines mind mapping as this:
A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.

Mind Meister takes the power of mind mapping online so that you can collaborate with your group, or find a group that you can tap into. With Mind Meister you can "create, manage and share mind maps online and access them anytime, from anywhere."

This is an extremely effective tool for seamlessly organizing AND sharing the evolution of an idea. Great way to manage brainstorming. Plus, the way that it's set up allows you to conduct one session, multiple sessions, or ongoing sessions to easily build on the idea over time.

Check it out at www.mindmeister.com.

Steve

TED: Pangea Day on Saturday May 10

TED has announced a world-wide film-watching event. An attempt to unite people around the world at the same time, watching the same thing.

At the very least you should watch. But you can get more involved by hosting friends and family at your place. Or make it a group event.

Films that will be broadcast were submitted or suggested by people from around the world.

The concept is fantastic.

I've set up a Meetup for this for anyone in the Milwaukee area (http://indiefilm.meetup.com/228/).

Join the Meetup and the discussion at spreenkler.ning.com to stay up to date.

Spreenkler Blog Author: Steve Glynn

Ning.com Get's The Spot Light In Next Issue Of Fast Company

Thanks to some very bright people in my Spreenkler group I was turned on to Ning.com. It's one of the latest social media companies driving the Web 2.0 era.

Ning.com is a free service that let's you create your very own social network (think MySpace, LinedIn, et al) on any topic you can imagine (here are some examples).

Ning is great! It's super easy to get started and even easier to use. I've found that what you can do, even at the free account level, is limited only by your imagination. I've added feeds from multiple blogs, my Twitter page and more. It's gone from being a social network to a connected resource site for topics of interest to my audience.

Ok, here's the real reason for this post. Fast Company is featuring Ning in their upcoming issue. As a subscriber, I got a sneak peak. But you can find it here.

Wait, this is the real reason for this post. I've talked a lot about social media at Spreenkler. This story is another sign of what is coming. Actually, it's here. However, there are a lot of people out there that need to be educated on these tools. Not only what they are, but how to best use them in THEIR situation. That's ok. That's what makes this fun for me!

Spreenkler Blog Author: Steve Glynn