Connie Reece and and I joined the Blog Talk Radio program Tech in Twenty to talk about how we are using social media tools….

• for good, like the Frozen Pea Fund for cancer research and
• for business, like our client’s HomeAway Getaway contest for bloggers, photographers and video bloggers.

Here’s the link if you’d like to listen on Blog Talk Radio, or download the podcast:  Tech in Twenty – Using Social Media

There’s further discussion on Daily Slackr as well.

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I’ve mentioned my favorite political blogger here several times. She’s smart, she’s funny, she’s extremely knowledgable on politics, and I give her much of the credit for getting me interested in social media. Now I get to be on some high powered panels with her as part of My ooVoo Day Political Edition this Sunday and Monday.

My political blogging hero is Eileen Smith, creator of In The Pink Texas and editor of TexasMonthly.com the online edition of Texas Monthly magazine. OK, I tricked her into doing this with flattery and small bribes. That’s not really true, but if you read her blog posts regularly, you’ll get the spirit.

The Pink Lady and I don’t always agree and when we don’t, she’s always right. Well, except on a few issues and I won’t mention what they are. If you watch the replay of our panel here on Every Dot Connects, or on one of Eileen’s blogs, you’ll probably figure out what those very, very few issues are. Here’s a hint, I supported Barack Obama and she still wants Hillary to take it to the convention. Other than that, we agree on everything.

Politics can get really boring for normal people. Eileen gets that and makes the issues of the day fun. She isn’t Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert…she’s better. Recently, she posted about our upcoming panel, which just happens to be on Obama’s birthday (I thought you’d like that Eileen) and, once again, she cracked me up.

Here’s her take…

When my blog friend and yours, The Other Guy, started telling me about some new, exciting platform for online communications and digital media, I quickly said “unsubscribe” and hung up the phone. But then he told me it had something to do with a live video chat and I’m like, sign me up. Who am I to pass up yet another opportunity to embarrass myself and the entire staff of Texas Monthly?

God knows I’ve had plenty of practice, appearing on panels I have no business being on, where I nod my head thoughtfully and continuously blink so as to appear awake. No matter. I’ve already coerced the lovely Karen Brooks and the lovely Andy Brown to appear on the virtual panel so they can save my virtual ass.

ooVoo is the hot new video chat and conferencing tool (and I say it’s “hot” and “new” because I just found out about it). They’re hosting several virtual political panels over the next week. You can sign up to be a participant if slots are available (especially if you have a mac and a built-in web cam). Live streaming is not an option yet, but you can watch the recorded sessions once they’re uploaded. I’ll be posting them here once they’re online so you all can make fun of me while I get all defensive and then burst into tears. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?! Who’s the Other Guy?

Here’s the full line-up:

Adriana Maestas, Marisa Trevino & Edmundo Rocha / Latino Politics Blog, Latina Lista & XicanoPwr
Albert Maruggi / Provident Partners
Arlene Fenton / Black Women Vote
Baratunde Thurston / goodCRIMETHINK
Eric Roston / Carbon Nation
Eileen Smith & Mike Chapman / In The Pink Texas & Every Dot Connects
Erin Kotecki Vest / Queen of Spain
Jason Rosenbaum / The Seminal
Joanne Bamberger, Glennia Campbell & Stefania Pomponi Butler / PunditMom, The Silent I & City Mama
L.N. Rock / African American Political Pundit
Leslie Carbone
Liza Sabater / Liza Sabater, culturekitchen, Daily Gotham
Mary Katherine Ham / HamBlog
Matt Parker / Political Buzz
Morra Aarons / Women and Work
Nicco Mele / EchoDitto
Robert Millis & Will Coghlan / Hudson Street Media
Todd Zeigler / The Bivings Report

Join us or one of the many others who are participating in the ooVoo Day Political Edition. Tune in.

~Mike Chapman

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In this interview Connie Reece speaks with Gene Smith, creator of the Tweeterboard, a tool for “conversation analytics” on Twitter. Gene goes on the record about the Tweeterboard algorithm; his intent to measure engagement, not popularity; and how he recommends people use the data provided.

• the number of Twitter users tracked as of today is 3,883
• Tweeterboard continues to add about 10 users per day
• the algorithm used is the same as the one used for Google Page Rank
• Halo 3 was the inspiration for the Box Score spread
• Chris Brogan is #1 on the Tweeterboard today

About Gene Smith
Gene is a consultant specializing in information architecture strategy, social classification like tagging and folksonomies, emergent information architecture and interaction design. He is a principal at nForm User Experience and is also author of Tagging: People-Powered Metadata for the Social Web.

NOTE: RSS readers may need to click through to Blog Talk Radio to listen to the audio file.

Thanks to Twitter friends who suggested questions: @adelemcalear, @chelpixie, @conniecrosby and @digitalmaverick.

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A couple of weeks ago I spent a delightful hour on the phone with Anna Farmery, a business coach, speaker and blogger from the U.K., who interviewed me for her podcast. We got so carried away, she had to split the interview into two parts, each about 25 minutes long.

Anna writes The Engaging Brand, a Top 25 Marketing Blog and #93 on the Ad Age Power 150.

Here are the links to the podcast, hosted on the Blubrry network, along with the show descriptions:

Conversational Marketing: Part 1
Connie talks about how she built a distinctive personal brand and also what is conversational marketing and how we start to think about measuring the effectiveness.

Conversational Marketing: Part 2
Connie talks us through how people are using conversational marketing to engage with consumers and employees, tells us her thoughts on the echo chamber and provides tips on how to write with a conversational style.

I’d love to hear your thoughts — please leave a comment here or on Blubrry or The Engaging Brand blog.

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I have accepted Jennifer Navarette’s challenge to podcast every day for the month of November. If you want to know more about National Podcast Post Month, visit the official NaPodPoMo group site.

Rather than create a new blog post here for each podbit, I’ve added the utterz widget to the sidebar. Click the blue box on the right to listen. Or, you can visit my page and subscribe there. Click the orange RSS icon next to CONNIE’S UTTERZ. And leave a reply while you’re there, okay?

Also, if you’re a Twitter follower of conniereece, each day’s offering will be automatically posted there with a link.

Thanks for listening.

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A new new media friend, Connie Bensen, tagged me on a meme started by one of my favorite bloggers, Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang.

Jeremiah posed the original question: Do you respect media snackers? And he defined them as “folks who consume small bits of information, data or entertainment when, where, and how they want. If you want to be part of their lives you’ve got to respect them.”

Here’s my response, in the form of … a media snack.

(Note: RSS readers may need to click through to the blog to listen to the audio file.)

As mentioned in the audio, I am tagging the following bloggers: Jim Long and Geoff Livingston from Washington, D.C.; Lee Hopkins and John Johnston from “down under” in Australia; and two of the younger generation of PR practitioners, Paull Young and Kait Swanson.

Watch for their responses. And here’s your chance to answer the question — in the comments. Are you a consumer of media snacks? Do you cater to media snackers on your blog or podcast?

UPDATE 10-27-07 I am tagging Drew McLellan after the fact. I’m behind on feed reading (even with my RSS diet) and just discovered his recent post about providing a steady stream of snack-sized messages.

Kelley Burrus and I have embarked on a new adventure: we’re creating a podcast, called Podversation. Because we’re novices, we’re still in the learning stages of audio production, figuring out how to edit various recorded pieces together, then add podsafe music and voiceovers to make an enjoyable listening experience.

In the meantime, we will release individual audio files. Podversations will be longer interviews and discussions; Podbits are “audio appetizers” — tantalizing, bite-size snacks of opinion or observation to whet your appetite for conversation.

In this first podbit, I describe how my Twitter pal Jim Long influenced me to change my news-viewing habits. Click to listen, and let me know what you think in the comments.

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