Photos from my CredLIVE trip to DC
I’m just finishing up a great trip to Washington DC where I came out to manage the production of a CredibiltyLIVE event with the President and CEO of the Better Business Bureau.
Since I mentioned how much I enjoy taking and editing photos with my iPhone 4S in my last blog post, I thought I’d share some of my favorites from this trip.
U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial
"In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the union the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever"
Lincoln
Lincoln Memorial
Behind the Scenes with the AP Video Production team
Hutch Hutchison & Steve Cox on CredLIVE
Washington Monument #1
Washington Monument #2
Smithsonian Castle
White House
Windows Phone Left Me Underexposed
Thanks to Microsoft, I recently had a chance to test out a Windows Phone (Samsung Focus) for about a month… and the timing couldn’t have been better since it arrived on the day I returned from a vacation to Paris where my iPhone 4s was stolen. 
The Sumsung Focus with Windows Mobile is a tight phone and 4 years ago when I was still using a BlackBerry, this would have been one hell of a great upgrade.
The interface was easy to figure out and I really like how the interface emphasized the people who were important to me. Most of the apps worked well enough and I was pleasantly surprised how many of my favorite iphone apps were represented in their windows app store (evernote, yammer, foursquare, etc.).
However, even with Microsoft paying all the bills, after a month of using the Windows Phone, I couldn’t continue without the 4s any more. Yesterday, I broke down and bought a new iPhone 4s.
Interestingly, the thing I missed the most about the 4s was the camera… and all the photography apps that make an iPhone so slick.
Despite the fact that my mother is a brilliant photographer, not much of that brilliance has ever rubbed off on me. And yet with a iPhone 4s, I started to feel like I could take some great shots, especially as Wendy and I got ourselves lost in Paris for 9 days last month. Going back to the Windows Phone where the camera was (only) decent, and the good photography apps were almost non-existant (no instagram, snapseed, diptic, photoshop express) was just too hard.
Whereas I probably took over 2000 photos in the month before my iphone was stolen, I think I took about 35 photos with the Windows Phone. The quality wasn’t there… and while I know that wasn’t all Microsoft’s fault (it was Samsung’s hardware afterall), it was part of the overall smart phone experience that made the windows phone unworkable for me.
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Curious aside.
What’s the proper etiquette for dealing with a phone that was given to me for free that I’m no longer going to use. Do I send it back? Is it okay to sell it? Is it okay to give it away? The phone works great (as a phone) including minutes/apps paid for by Microsoft, but it came with no instructions, so not sure how long it will last that way.
How do you pick a great Twitter name?
Not too long ago, Wendy and I were spending some time trying to figure out what she should choose for her Twitter handle. Her previous handle was associated with her company and she needed something that would do a better job representing her.
Not surprisingly, picking out a good Twitter handle is not easy… and I thought it might be helpful for others to hear about our process, especially since I really like where we ended up: @brandWendy.
Our first thoughts were to use her name, but her full name, @WendyForsythe was already taken by someone else. And variations like @WForsythe and @WendyF, were also already taken or just didn’t look good… I’m pretty sure that if her full name had been available, we would have quickly settled for that, but it wasn’t so we were forced to be a bit more creative.
So we started our creative process with some of the things she’s best known for: shoes & real estate.
We threw all kinds of ideas against the wall related to both of those (@WendyShoes @HighHeelWendy @WendysFashion @RealEstateWendy @REWendy and literally hundreds of other ideas), but nothing stuck.
After a few months… (literally)… of throwing out ideas, I think we were both starting to feel a bit hopeless and that a great Twitter name for her was just not available.
And then one day inspiration struck. Wendy and I were talking about one of her professional strengths (positions/branding) as part of another conversation when the back of my mind lit up with the idea of @brandWendy for her Twitter handle. We instantly looked it up and sure enough it was available!
There were so many reasons to love this name for Wendy. Just some of the highlights:
- Wendy is known for being a branding expert, so having it be part of her Twitter identity is a natural fit.
- It’s a great play on words in that you could also look at it as Wendy building up a “personal” brand (i.e. “Brand Wendy”). (which @tcar immediately picked up on!)
- The domain brandWendy.com was also available! (such a cool bonus!)
To be able to own a great twitter handle & the matching URL was too good to pass up… and well worth the months it took to find the inspiration!
To wrap up the story. If you’re having trouble figuring out an appropriate Twitter handle, don’t dispair. Just like in the good old days when many were sure all the good blog names were taken, there’s always room for another creative twitter handle.
And if you are really stuck, feel free to tell us your story in the comments. There’s some creative folks in the 4realz community who just might be able to provide some inspiration.
What to do BEFORE you make your Facebook Timeline Public
Earlier today, I gave a talk to DandB employees where I shared what they should know about Facebook Timeline.
I got some great questions (and feedback) from the folks who showed up and the talk inspired my latest blog post on the Credibility Insights: 5 Things to Check Before Making Your Facebook Timeline Public.
(and thanks to Jess for taking the photo!)
Can you safely jump off a moving freight train?
In college I had a friend who was very much into hopping freight trains. So much so that he wrote his thesis for his Cultural Anthropology major on the hobo lifestyle… (and if I remember it right, he was the editor of a popular ‘zine for hobos.)
I learned one really valuable lesson from this friend on my first “ride” down the California coast: He showed me how to get off a moving train. You have to wait until it slows down to about 20 mph or slower and then slowly navigate down one of the ladders on the side of a grainer (or any or freight car) until you can “run” along the ground flintstone-style. If you try to just jump off a moving freight train, bad things can happen! But if you first run along the train, then you can get some grip on the ground and run along the train until you can safely let go of the ladder.
I start my 2012 blogging off with this story because for much of 2011, I felt like I was on one hell of a fast moving freight train and there was no chance to safely jump off. Now that 2012 is here, I’m thinking it’s time to take a deep breath, climb down that ladder, get some grip on the ground and welcome in a new year.
With that said, some great things happened in 2011… I traveled more than any other time in my life, starting dating an amazing woman, moved into a new place only blocks from the beach in Santa Monica, started a full-time gig with the most interesting startup in Southern California, and created some crazy good memories with my kids.
Suffice to say 2011 will not be forgotten any time soon.
I also think I’m ready to get back into blogging regularly. Over the past few days, I’ve been helping Wendy set up her new blog (brandWendy) and watching her get excited about publishing, I can’t help but want to join in the fun. It reminds me of when blogging used to be so much fun. And while blogging has changed dramatically since I started writing back in 2005, I think I’m ready to dive back in… even if it’s just to share odd stories about hopping freight trains in college. 
[Also, thanks to thecoug for the great creative commons photo. It brought back some great memories of catching the trains up to Davenport!]
What does it mean to be influential online?
No doubt I’ve got all kinds of theories on how to measure online influence, and even went so far as to outline them a bit in this comment, but for now, I just thought I’d just share my excitement that Sarah Needleman of the Wall Street Journal wrote a great article about one of the theories I’ve been working on with the D&B Credibility team and the resulting list of the most influential twitter people in the small business community.
(and if you’re interested in lots of details from an earlier iteration of this concept, check out this post: 50 Most Influential Real Estate People on Twitter)
Update:
Just noticed the WSJ published an interview that the journalist, Sarah Needleman, did for the show “Digits” about the list:
The making of a Q&A video series: CredibilityLIVE
I may have been a bad blogger here at 4realz over the past few months, but have been working away on some projects with the Dun & Bradstreet Credibility team that are just now coming to fruition… and so I thought I’d share some of what’s been keeping me so busy. While working with D&B Credibility, I’ve hired a social media outreach team, created and updated numerous social media profiles (such as our Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and WordPress accounts), helped develop strategies with the business development team, played numerous ping-pong games, and spearheaded a project that’s near and dear to me: CredibilityLIVE.
Built based on my experience running Spinnio events, we designed CredibilityLIVE to be a series of monthly events where business owners will get a chance to learn from experts on issues around credit and credibility. I’ve had the chance to have extended discussions with our first three speakers: John Assaraf, Robert Berkman and Paul Chaney, and can positively say that they’re all fascinating people who will be sure to host informative and interesting conversations!
To take part in the first event with John Assaraf, you need only show up at CredibilityLIVE at 11am PST and use the Facebook chat widget to ask questions!
Interestingly, organizing this series has been a lot more time consuming than any Spinnio endeavor to date… and included rebuilding the platform from the ground up. The new platform has all the stuff you’d expect from a company like D&B Credibility, with an integrated registration system, white labeled video streaming, well thought out watermark design, and a top-notch marketing/PR campaign… (plus lots of testing!).
There are already over 600 people registered for the first (FREE) event with John Assaraf where he’s going to be talking about how business owners can use the latest in brain research to help reach their potential! Please, please consider joining us and if you know someone who would be interested, don’t hesitate to invite them! (It’s free, remember!)
By the way, for some interesting insight into what’s got me so excited to be working with the Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp team, check out this interview with CEO Jeff Stibel by Ben Kuo of SoCal Tech. In the interview, Jeff gives a nice overview of the process of raising $200M to buy and grow the small business unit of D&B and the crazy hiring going on out of our Malibu office.
10 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do with Your Smart Phone
Just walked out of the first Fusion event put on by the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate crew… So much fun!
I had a great time on stage yesterday with Jeff Turner, Gahlord Dewald and Wendy Forsythe talking internet marketing, building online influence, tracking and measuring results and the real value of conversations.
Also got a chance to hear some very inspiring speakers… I had never heard Tom Ferry speak, so that was a real treat… And the final keynote speaker, Keith Ferrazzi, gave an incredible talk on steps to improving business relationships. (Did I mentioned I also got to hang with so many cool people like Andy Kaufman and Herman of Hermanity! AND that my grandma came out to watch one of my presentations! Again, so much fun!)
My involvement was to give two presentations. The first on Building Online Influence and the second on 10 Things You didn’t Know You Could do with Your Smartphone. Both were a lot of fun to give and since I promised the audience I’d share linkes to each of the apps I mentioned in the latter presentation, I thought I’d share them in this post. Enjoy!
Evernote
1. Take voice notes while driving
2. Scan text out of photos
3. Find your parked car
Beluga
4. Use group chat to keep up with your team
CardMunch
5. Accurately scan business cards
Amazon Price Check
6. Comparison shop
Starbucks
7. Pay for coffee
Square
8. Get paid for coffee
BoxCar
9. Get push notification for important emails
MadMimi
10. Build your email list
And I’m always looking to deliver super-informative (and fun!) internet marketing presentations, so don’t hesitate to reach out if you hear of an interesting opportunity!
[updated] NAR Presentations on WordPress and Social Media Optimization
*** UPDATED ***
Even better than the slideshare presentations, NAR just published the video recording of my Getting Started with WordPress presentation. If you’re interested in learning about why and how to get involved in using WordPress for your business website, I did my best to explain here:
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It’s been a busy few weeks since returning from New Orleans and I’m just now getting around to posting my presentations on Slideshare.
I was pleasantly surprised at the interest in my talk on social media optimization… It was one of my simpler presentations as I focused on only two concepts:
- How you can get more value out of Facebook once you understand Networking Engine Optimization (NEO) and
- How you can get value out of tools like Gist by focusing on building and enhancing the relationships that are most important to your business.
Here’s the presentation in full:
The second presentation was the opening session for the Real Estate WordPress Camp that I helped organize with NAR… and what a great event that turned out to be. Some great speakers and I heard nothing but great feedback from the audience. My presentation for this event was really just meant to describe how professionals can use WordPress as their online marketing hub… and in particular how it can fit into the various elements of an agent’s business cycle. Here it is:
Interestingly, in the last few days, I’ve started to nail down more than a few speaking engagements for this upcoming spring. I’m always interested in educating professionals on how to get the most value out of their online marketing, so if you know of someone looking for a speaker, don’t hesitate to reach out!
[by the way, the header image is from Reggie and NikNik's great presentation during Real Estate WordCamp on Leveraging WordPress Plugins and Themes]
Social SEO Strategies
Check out the SEO article I just posted on socaltech: 21 Strategies for Generating Irresistible SEO Benefits (and add to the conversation!)
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